All the funnels...ALL THE GUNS! _o/ The Marine National's Edgar Quinet Class.

[sharlin648]

Background

 

From the late 1800s up until 1906 the French Navy was a bit of a mess, whilst ranked second in the worlds navies behind their long time rival the English, the French fleet was externally strong, but internally weak.  Constant changes in government and naval ministers lead to poor leadership and decision making at a political level, for many years the poisonous influence of the 'Young School' a doctrine that espoused the use of small ships and merchant warfare instead of expensive battleship construction led to a decrease in French naval strength whilst introducing new ideas that did work like the worlds first Armoured Cruisers, all be it brutally ugly ones.

 

The influence of the 'Young School' was finally shaken off in the late 1800's but its effects were long felt.  Battleships that were laid down took far too long to complete and were obsolete when launched because they took too long to build and their designs were generally inferior to other nations but they did do well in other areas.  The French produced many different cruisers, mostly for long range commerce raiding and patrols as well as a series of ever larger armoured cruisers.  Some designs were failures like the Bruix class that was so un-seaworthy that they stayed in port more time than going to sea because of their top heavy design but others were successes, with firepower and speed enough to be a threat to any opponent.

 

http://www.cityofart..._quinet_top.jpg

The Edgar Quinet as complete.

 

Design

 

The French saved their very best armoured cruiser til last with the Armoured cruiser equivalents of the brand new Danton class battleships, the Edgar Quinet and her sistership the Waldeck-Rousseau.  Both ships were huge and expensive their stats are as follows:

 

Displacement:  13,650 tonnes (13,434 long tons)

Length:  158.2 m (519 ft)

Beam:  21.5 m (70 ft 6 in)

Draught:  8.3 m (27 ft 3 in)

 

Compair this to a British Battleship of the time the King Edward the VII Class the British ship is heavier, but physically its 20 meters shorter as well as sitting lower in the water with the big cruiser taller in the water than the English battleship.

 

A progression from the previous Ernest Renan class the Quinet's were bigger, better armed and better protected and boasted a uniform armament.

 

http://www.cityofart...quinet-line.gif

The impressive if cluttered profile of the Quinet

 

Armament

 

Where as previous French cruisers featured mixed armaments of 6.4 and 7.6 inch guns the Quinet's carried a staggering 14 x 7.6 inch guns in two dual turrets, six single turrets and four casemate mounted rifles in the hull, two forwards, two aft with the ships being able to bring 9 guns to bare on a broadside.  In addition to this was a strong anti-torpedo boat armament of 20 x 65mm guns that fired a 9lb round.  The 7.6 inch weapons were smaller caliber than German 8.2's or British 9.2's but what they sacrificed in shell weight they made up for with rate of fire, the 7.6 inch guns also were high velocity guns with good penetration against targets at all ranges.

 

http://www.navweaps....02_Aube_pic.jpg

Although on a different ship this turret is almost identical to those on the sides of the Quinet and her sistership, mounting the 50cal 7.6 inch gun.

 

Armour

 

The designers didn't skimp on protection for the new cruisers either, with a belt 6.3/4 inches thick amidships thinning to three inches fore and aft, her many turrets were sheilded by 6 inches of armour, her decks were 2.5 inches thick and her bridge an impressive 10 inches.  The armour was also Krupp's cemented steel which offered extra resistance against gunfire and than earlier armour that would need to be thicker to offer the same level of resistance.  The Quinet's armour was comparable to other nations armoured cruisers with most of her hull sheilded by armour plate.

 

http://www.cityofart...usseau_plan.gif

The cruisers armour scheme although the guns are incorrect the dual turrets along her sides were altered to single mounts for 7.6 inch guns before she was completed.

 

Engineering

 

With six funnels venting the smoke produced by her fourty coal fired boilers the Quinet's three engines produced a massive 36,000 HP that could push the ships through the waves at 23knots, over 24knots when forced which was again a standard for ships of this type and period, faster than battleships by 5 to 6 knots and capable of running down any mechant ship afloat apart from the brand new RMS Lusitania and her sistership.

 

History

 

Unfortunately for the French these magnificent ships came along at the wrong time.  Behind the times until the early 1900's the French finally started to lay down modern battleships in 1903 with the Republique class.  But by the time they were complete and the new Danton's ordered along with the Quinet and her sistership in early 1906 the Dreadnought revolution had begun and France's newest ships were obsolete before they were even completed, but because the money had been spent for them and the resources ready to build them the French HAD to build the Danton's otherwise it would have been wasted.  When she was launched in 1907 the British had already completed the first Battlecruisers, massive ships that were faster and better armed with battleship caliber weapons and Battlecruisers were designed to run down and destroy ships like the Quinet's and their massive 12 inch guns would easily allow that.

Still the big armoured cruisers gave good service, operating together throughout the First World War in the Mediterranean but never getting the chance to prove themselves in combat against the Austro-Hungarian fleet that was all but crippled by coal shortages.

 

http://brickmuppet.m...nvincible08.jpg

HMS Invincible the ship that doomed armoued cruisers like the Edgar Quinet to obsolescence.

 

Curiously both ships survived the Washington Naval Treaty and recived slight modernisations including conversion to oil firing.  In 1930 whilst acting as a training ship the Quinet ran aground off Algeria and broke up after four days although no one lost their lives in this accident. Her sister ship the Waldeck-Rosusseau also survived the war, becoming a training ship and then hulk after being moved to French Indo-china in 1936. The old ship was scuttled in 1942 before the Japanese could claim her and she was then salvaged and partially altered to act as a decoy for the brand new Battleship Musashi  before being sunk in an American air attack in 1943.

[Wunderwaffen1945]

nice +1

[Capcon]

I wonder what a full modernization in the early 30's could have done for this ship.

 

Thanks for taking the time.

[sharlin648]

Capcon, on 31 December 2012 - 03:22 PM, said:

I wonder what a full modernization in the early 30's could have done for this ship.

Thanks for taking the time.

A full modernisation would have been darn expensive but I'd replace their engines with modern turbines, make 'em oil firing, beef up the deck armour and increase the elevation of the guns, replace the old bridge structure with a modern one as well as a modern FC system.

[Capcon]

sharlin648, on 02 January 2013 - 05:39 PM, said:

A full modernisation would have been darn expensive but I'd replace their engines with modern turbines, make 'em oil firing, beef up the deck armour and increase the elevation of the guns, replace the old bridge structure with a modern one as well as a modern FC system.

Even just an oil from coal conversion with the less radical machinery for the Algerie as a pattern and a fire control redo results in a ship that no Washington treaty tin-clad cruisier can ignore.

[JeeWeeJ]

Capcon, on 02 January 2013 - 06:30 PM, said:

Even just an oil from coal conversion with the less radical machinery for the Algerie as a pattern and a fire control redo results in a ship that no Washington treaty tin-clad cruisier can ignore.

True...even though she'd most likely be scrapped due to that very same treaty. :Smile_sad:

[Capcon]

JeeWeeJ, on 02 January 2013 - 06:51 PM, said:

True...even though she'd most likely be scrapped due to that very same treaty. :Smile_sad:

True, for this tonnage you can very nearly get two La Galissonnière and those are very nice light cruisers.