French cruiser Algérie
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Algérie was the last treaty cruiser constructed for the French Navy. Designed and built in response to the Italian's Zara class of 8-inch gun cruisers, she was a totally new design and not based on the previous ships. The armoured caisson system used in Foch and Dupleix was abandoned in favour of a full armoured belt enclosing both the magazines and machinery spaces. She abandoned the unit propulsion system used previously and grouped her boilers forward leading to the reduction to a single funnel. She was one of the first vessels to utilize super heating boilers. Welding was used primarily in place of the normal rivetting in previous vessels. She maintained the same main armament but her secondary guns were increased to 100 mm guns. She served in the Mediterranean Sea after entering service then searched for German surface raiders at the beginning of the war. She was at Toulon, France, at the time of the Armistice and remained there until scuttled in November 1942.
Algérie in May 1937 | |
Class overview | |
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Operators | French Navy |
Preceded by | Suffren class |
Succeeded by | Saint-Louis class (planned) |
Completed | 1 |
Lost | 1 |
History | |
France | |
Name | Algérie |
Namesake | Algeria |
Ordered | 15 May 1930 |
Builder | Arsenal de Brest, Brest |
Laid down | 19 March 1931 |
Launched | 21 May 1932 |
Completed | 5 September 1934 |
Commissioned | 15 June 1934 |
Fate | Scuttled at Toulon, 27 November 1942. Scrapped 1951 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Heavy cruiser |
Displacement | |
Length |
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Beam | 20 m (65 ft 7 in) |
Draught | 6.3 m (20 ft 8 in) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph) |
Range |
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Complement | 746 |
Armament |
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Armour |
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Aircraft carried | 2 GL-810 then Loire-Nieuport 130 |
Aviation facilities | 1 catapults |
Normally major ships of the Marine Nationale were named after famous people or statesmen but instead she was named to honour the 100 years of French colonial rule of Algeria.[3]