French aviso Dumont d'Urville

Dumont d'Urville was a Bougainville-class aviso of the French Navy, designed to operate from French colonies in Asia and Africa. She was built by Ateliers et Chantiers Maritime Sud-Ouest of Bordeaux and launched on 21 March 1931.^[1]

Dumont d'Urville

Dumont d'Urville arrives at the wharf.
History
France
Name	Dumont d'Urville
Namesake	Dumont d'Urville
Builder	At. et Ch. Maritime Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux
Launched	21 March 1931[1]
Fate	Scrapped 26 March 1958[1]
General characteristics
Type	Bougainville-class aviso
Displacement	1,969 t (1,938 long tons) (standard) 2,600 t (2,600 long tons) (full load)
Length	103.7 m (340 ft 3 in) (o/a)
Beam	12.7 m (41 ft 8 in)
Draught	4.15 m (13 ft 7 in)
Installed power	2,100 PS (1,500 kW; 2,100 bhp)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 diesel engines
Speed	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)
Range	9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	14 officers and 121 crewmen in peacetime; 166 or 183 men in wartime
Armament	3 × single 138.6 mm (5.5 in) guns 4 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 3 × twin 13.2 mm (0.52 in) machine guns 50 × mines
Armour	Hull: 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) Deck: 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) Gun shields: 3 mm (0.1 in)
Aircraft carried	1 × Gourdou-Leseurre GL-832 HY floatplane

Service history

Model of sister ship D'Entrecasteaux at the Musée de la Marine de Paris

After the Fall of France Dumont d'Urville remained under Vichy French control and in September 1940 she was in New Caledonia as a part the Vichy government's attempt to gain control of the French colony. However, the Royal Australian Navy cruiser Adelaide arrived carrying a Free French temporary governor, Henri Sautot, which led the Vichy governor to depart aboard Dumont d'Urville on 25 September.^[2][3]

On the night of 16–17 January 1941 Dumont d'Urville took part in the Battle of Koh Chang.^[4]

In September 1942 Dumont d'Urville took part in rescuing survivors from RMS Laconia which the U-156 had torpedoed and sunk, known as the Laconia incident.

By 1944 Dumont d'Urville's armament had been augmented with the addition of four single-mounted 40 mm anti-aircraft (AA) guns, 11 single-mounted 20 mm AA guns, four anti-submarine mortars and two racks for 66 depth charges.^[1]

Dumont d'Urville remained in French Navy service after the war until 26 March 1958 when she was scrapped.^[1]

References

1. Le Masson 1969, p. 12.
2. Cassells 2000, p. 7.
3. Fisher, Denise (2010). "Supporting the Free French in New Caledonia: First Steps in Australian Diplomacy" (PDF). Explorations: A Journal of French-Australian Connections. 49 (1): 18–37.
4. "La bataille de Koh Chang (janvier 1941)". Croiseur Lamotte-Picquet. Net-Marine.

Sources

• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• Cassells, Vic (2000). The Capital Ships: Their Battles and Their Badges. East Roseville, NSW: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7318-0941-6. OCLC 48761594.
• Jordan, John (2016). "The Colonial Sloops of the Bougainville Class". Warship 2016. London: Conway. pp. 8–29. ISBN 978-1-84486-326-6.
• Le Masson, Henri (1969). The French Navy. Navies of the Second World War. Vol. 2. London: MacDonald & Co. ISBN 0-356-02385-0.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.