 A postcard of hersister shipVergniaud | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Mirabeau |
| Namesake | Honoré Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau |
| Builder | Arsenal de Lorient |
| Laid down | 4 May 1908 |
| Launched | 28 October 1909 |
| Completed | 1 August 1911 |
| Stricken | 22 August 1919 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 28 April 1922 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Danton-classsemi-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement | 18,754 t (18,458long tons) (normal) |
| Length | 146.6 m (481 ft) (o/a) |
| Beam | 25.8 m (84 ft 8 in) |
| Draft | 8.44 m (27 ft 8 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 4shafts; 4steam turbines |
| Speed | 19.25knots (35.7 km/h; 22.2 mph) |
| Complement | 25 officers and 831 enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
Mirabeau was one of the sixDanton-classsemi-dreadnought battleships built for theMarine Nationale (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed in 1911, the ship often served as aflagship before the beginning ofWorld War I three years later.Mirabeau spent the war in the Mediterranean Sea and spent most of her timeblockading theStraits of Otranto and theDardanelles to preventGerman,Austro-Hungarian andOttoman warships from breaking out into the Mediterranean. She also participated in theattempt to ensure Greek acquiescence toAllied operations in Macedonia in late 1916.Mirabeau briefly participated in theoccupation of Constantinople after the end of the war in late 1918 and was deployed in theBlack Sea in early 1919 during theAllied intervention in the Russian Civil War. She ran aground in February 1919 off the coast of theCrimea and could not berefloated until some of her guns, armor andboilers were removed. After returning to France later that year, the ship was stricken from theNavy List.Mirabeau was given to a salvage company as payment for salvaging another battleship andbroken up in 1922.
Although theDanton-class battleships were a significant improvement from the precedingLiberté class, they were outclassed by the advent of thedreadnought well before they were completed.[1]Mirabeau was 146.6 meters (481 ft)long overall and had abeam of 25.8 meters (84 ft 8 in) and adeep-loaddraft of 8.44 meters (27 ft 8 in). She displaced 18,754metric tons (18,458long tons) at normal load and had a crew of 25 officers and 831 enlisted men. While serving as a flagship, her crew numbered 31 officers and 886 enlisted men. The ship was powered by fourParsonssteam turbines, each driving onepropeller shaft using steam generated by twenty-sixBelleville boilers. The turbines were rated at 22,500shaft horsepower (16,800 kW) and were designed to provide a top speed of 19.25knots (35.65 km/h; 22.15 mph).[2]Mirabeau slightly exceeded this figure when she reached a top speed of 19.7 knots (36.5 km/h; 22.7 mph) on hersea trials.[3] The ship carried enough coal to give her a range of 3,500nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).[2]
Themain battery of theDantons consisted of fourCanon de 305 mm (12 in) modèle 1906 mounted in two twingun turrets, one forward and one aft of thesuperstructure. Theirsecondary armament consisted of a dozenCanon de 240 mm (9.4 in) modèle 1902 guns in twin turrets, three on each side of the ship. A number of smaller guns were carried for defense againsttorpedo boats. These included sixteenCanon de 75 mm (3 in) modèle 1908 guns incasemates in the sides of the hull and eight 47-millimeter (1.9 in)Hotchkiss guns mounted on the superstructure. She was also armed with two submerged 450-millimeter (17.7 in)torpedo tubes, one on eachbroadside. The ship'swaterlinearmor belt ranged in thickness from 180 to 250 millimeters (7.1 to 9.8 in) and the main gun turrets were protected by armor 260–340 millimeters (10.2–13.4 in) thick. The sides of theconning tower consisted of 266-millimeter (10.5 in) armor plates.[2]
The four aft 75-millimeter gun positions were very prone to flooding in anything other than calm weather and were removed from theDantons in 1915–1917; their embrasures were plated over to stop the flooding. The four 47-millimeter guns on the aft superstructure were transferred to other ships at some point during the war. Those on the forward superstructure received high-angle mounts and were repositioned to better serve asanti-aircraft guns.[4]
Ordered as part of the second tranche of the 1900 naval law that authorized a total of 19 battleships by 1919,[5]Mirabeau was named afterHonoré Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, an early leader of theFrench Revolution.[6] Construction of the ship began on 8 May 1906[3] at theArsenal de Lorient and she waslaid down on 4 May 1908.Mirabeau waslaunched on 28 October 1909 and was completed (armement définitif) on 1 August 1911. Upon reachingToulon on 15 August, the ship became the flagship ofRear Admiral (Contre amiral)Dominique-Marie Gauchet, commander of the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée's) Second Division (2e Division de cuirasée) of the First Battle Squadron (1re Escadre de ligne).[7] Together with four of hersisters, she participated in a largenaval review by thePresident of France,Armand Fallières, offCap Brun on 4 September[8] and then the visit by theNavy Minister,Théophile Delcassé on the 8th.[9]
In mid-April 1912, the First Battle Squadron hosted three Britisharmored cruisers atGolfe-Juan as their commander,Rear-AdmiralEdward Gamble unveiled monuments to KingEdward VII and his mother,Queen Victoria, atCannes.Mirabeau participated in the July maneuvers in the Western Mediterranean and the exercise simulating a blockade ofAjaccio,Corsica, in November. On 3 March 1913 the First Battle Squadron conducted gunnery training off theÎles d'Hyères with theFirst Lord of the Admiralty,Winston Churchill, observing.[10] The ship participated in combined fleet maneuvers betweenProvence andFrench Tunisia in May–June[11] and the subsequent naval review conducted by thePresident of the Council,Raymond Poincaré, on 7 June.[12] Rear AdmiralMarie-Jean-Lucien Lacaze relieved Gauchet on 16 August[13] andMirabeau joined her squadron in its tour of the Eastern Mediterranean in October–December, making port visits in Egypt, Syria, and Greece.[11]
Lacaze shifted his flag to her sisterVoltaire on 12 March 1914 and the ship had to briefly withdraw from the grand fleet exercises on 13 May due to engine troubles. As tensions rose during theJuly Crisis,Mirabeau and the other ships of the First Battle Squadron downloaded their practice ammunition and exchanged suspect lots ofpropellant for new ones beginning on 27 July. They recoaled four days later and theMarine Nationale mobilized on 2 August.[14]
Before the French declared war on theGerman Empire on the morning of 4 August,Vice Admiral (Vice-amiral)Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, commander of the1st Naval Army (1re Armée Navale), as the Mediterranean Squadron had been renamed in 1913, ordered most of his ships to concentrate off theAlgerian coast to escort troop convoys toMetropolitan France and to blockade German shipping in the Mediterranean. Despite this deployment the GermanbattlecruiserSMS Goeben andlight cruiserSMS Breslau were able to bombardBône andPhilippeville on 4 August. DespiteMirabeau's machinery problems which limited the 1st Battle Squadron to a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), the squadron probably would have intercepted the German ships later that morning if its commander, Vice AdmiralPaul Chocheprat, had not ordered a turn to the west.[15]Mirabeau spent the rest of the month under repair.[11] Aside from several uneventful sorties into theAdriatic, the Frenchcapital ships spent most of their time cruising between the neutral Greek and Italian coasts[16] to prevent the Austro-Hungarian fleet from attempting to break out of the Adriatic.[17] The torpedoing of the dreadnought battleshipJean Bart on 21 December by the Austro-Hungarian submarineU-12 showed that the battleships were vulnerable to this threat, and they were withdrawn to spend the rest of the month further south at an anchorage inNavarino Bay.[18]
On 11 January 1915, the French were alerted that the Austro-Hungarian fleet was going to sortie from its base atPola, so the Naval Army sailed north to the Albanian coast. It proved to be a false alarm, and they were back at theirmoorings three days later. In the meantime, the ships patrolled theIonian Sea. The declaration of war on Austria-Hungary by Italy on 23 May, and the Italian decision to assume responsibility for naval operations in the Adriatic, allowed the French Navy to withdraw to eitherMalta orBizerte, Tunisia, to cover theOtranto Barrage.Mirabeau was in Malta on 30 June when a torpedo exploded in a nearby warehouse. The ship was only lightly damaged, but two men of her crew were killed and eleven wounded.[19]
In November 1916, she transported landing parties from the other ships of her division toAthens. On 1 December, those landing parties participated in the Allied attempt to ensure Greek acquiescence to Allied operations in Macedonia. Greek resistance to the Allied action ended afterMirabeau fired four rounds from her main armament into the city, one of which landed near the Royal Palace. Afterwards, she spent 1917 based at Corfu or atMudros to preventGoeben, by this time transferred to the Ottoman Empire and renamedYavuz Sultan Selim, from breaking out into the Mediterranean.[20] In August the ship tested atethered balloon, but it was destroyed by a lightning strike on 31 October.[21] In April 1918,Mirabeau accompanied her sistersDiderot andVergniaud to Mudros, where they remained for the rest of the war.[20] The 1st Naval Army was reorganized on 1 July and most of theDanton-class ships were assigned to the Second Squadron (2e Escadre) withMirabeau part of the First Division of the squadron.[22]
After theArmistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October between theAllies and the Ottoman Empire, the ship participated in the early stage of the occupation ofConstantinople beginning on 12 November. By 8 DecemberMirabeau was already deployed to the Black Sea to supportWhite Russian forces inSevastopol and deterSoviet forces who were advancing on the city during theRussian Civil War.[23]Mirabeau ran aground during a snowstorm on 18 February 1919 off the Crimean coast.[20] She could not be refloated until 6,000 metric tons (5,900 long tons) of weight were removed. To this end, her guns, turret armour, most of her boilers, coal, ammunition and the upper strake of belt armor was disembarked. After several weeks of effort, the ship was refloated on 6 April and she was towed by theKagul and thetugboatThernomore to adrydock in Sevastopol to repair any damage and to have her equipment reinstalled. This process began on 12 April, butMirabeau was refloated three days later as news was received of theRed Army's advance on the city. Only her guns, ammunition and part of her armor had been replaced by the time the city was evacuated by the Allies on 5 May. She was towed to Constantinople by the battleshipJustice and five tugs where she remained from 7–15 May.Justice then resumed the tow and they reached Toulon on the 24th. After an inspection of the ship in a drydock,Mirabeau was stricken on 22 August and turned over as compensation to the company that salvaged thepre-dreadnought battleshipLiberté. Herhulk was towed toSavona, Italy, to be scrapped on 28 April 1922.[24]
