As far as I understand, the Jeune Ecole was already badly weakened during the 1900's and the latest pre-deard ship to be commissionned was the "Vergniaud"... in december 1911! The French navy was quite late in the dread race (later than the A-H navy, and that means something!).Dang. 9000 sailors is some numbers. As for pre-dreads - still eighteen of them ? So there were 24 of them I thought the Jeune Ecole had resulted in smaller numbers.
The Dantons weren't too bad, but the Dreadnought...
Probably to south american navies. Chile seems a good choice. Greece would be nice but the French pre-war foreign policy was not that anti-ottoman so that seems unlikely.Who will they sell the decommisioned ships to?
Fear not, dear lad, I have no problem with the A-H. And TBH, I find that the Tegetthoff ships were beautiful ones. That's just that the first Austrian dread was commissioned in december 1912. It's late but not late when you compare it to the French Navy policy about dreads. In fact, the A-H navy would be more than a match for the French Navy in 1914.The French adopting a reasonable uniform before the war would be nigh-ASB France-wank, after all.
I'm surprised to see that the French experimented with helmets that early, though. Even if they look as useful as the pickelhaube.
And- oi! Be careful abou talking shit about the A-H navy in my presence. I will defend it harder than I bore people with other A-H stuff!
Ugh... My eyes ?!! Where are my eyes ?!! One thing is certain, the Massena is going to be scrapped whatever happens because that one was one hell of a ugly beast.LOL Vergniaud was the name of my son first nanny. Such a typical French name. 1911 is pretty late indeed, the French navy had some inertia back then.
I wonder what navy in his right mind would want to buy early French pre-dread. As I said in another post, every battleship before République / Liberté / Dantons were piece of junk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne-class_battleship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblehome
LOL Vergniaud was the name of my son first nanny. Such a typical French name. 1911 is pretty late indeed, the French navy had some inertia back then.
I wonder what navy in his right mind would want to buy early French pre-dread. As I said in another post, every battleship before République / Liberté / Dantons were piece of junk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne-class_battleship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumblehome
They had oddly eventful peacetime careers as they were involved in four accidental collisions between them, one of which sank a French submarine with all hands
As for the Charlemagne-class, their careers were jokes. They should have been called the "Benny hill class".
They rammed a couple of (French) destroyers and a submarine, then a German submarine sunk one of them.
Basically, all three Charlemagne, plus the five different prototypes before them, were lost causes right from the shipyard.
Jauréguiberry was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy , launched in 1893. She was one of the class of five roughly similar battleships built in the 1890s, including Masséna, Bouvet, Carnot, and Charles Martel
(don't click or be warned, these things were ugly)
(Makes horrified noises)
My god, those are the ugliest things I've seen for quite some time. The word 'bulbous' comes to mind.
Ugh... My eyes ?!! Where are my eyes ?!! One thing is certain, the Massena is going to be scrapped whatever happens because that one was one hell of a ugly beast.
(Makes horrified noises)
My god, those are the ugliest things I've seen for quite some time. The word 'bulbous' comes to mind.
k ton design was not and is not a good design. As I've shown above (and as in mentioned in Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History), the 28k ton 10" design was just a thought experiment. It was a literal example of running the numbers again with smaller armament.
I've always thought they looked quite "steampunk" in their own way. Like something out of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or something.
Quite useless as real-world military machines, mind.
Indeed on both accounts.
But you missed the real "Da fuq.." of the French navy during the Junne Ecole period.
Behold. MN Hoche.
She was not a good sea boat
Thats her in the Med on a calm sea and look how bad the waves are going over her bow.
Thats her in the Med on a calm sea and look how bad the waves are going over her bow.
Indeed on both accounts.
But you missed the real "Da fuq.." of the French navy during the Junne Ecole period.
Behold. MN Hoche.