 Protet | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Protet |
| Ordered | 14 August 1895 |
| Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde |
| Laid down | 5 November 1895 |
| Launched | 6 July 1898 |
| Commissioned | 6 August 1898 |
| Decommissioned | 1 March 1909 |
| Stricken | 9 March 1910 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1910 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Catinat-class cruiser |
| Displacement | 4,183.55 t (4,117.48long tons; 4,611.57short tons) |
| Length | 101.52 m (333 ft 1 in)loa |
| Beam | 13.6 m (44 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 6.07 m (19 ft 11 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 399 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
Protet was aprotected cruiser of theFrench Navy built in the 1890s, the second and final member of theCatinat class. TheCatinat-class cruisers were ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force at a time when the country was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets. The new cruisers were intended to serve with the main fleet and overseas in theFrench colonial empire.Protet was armed with amain battery of four164 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armordeck that was 25 to 60 mm (0.98 to 2.36 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of up to 20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).
After entering service in 1899,Protet was sent to the Pacific Ocean for a lengthy deployment; she was to spend the majority of her active career in the region. While there, she helped suppress a fire in the United States in 1900 and protected French interests in Colombia during a conflict in the country in 1901. The ship was eventually recalled to France in 1905. She was later assigned to the Gunnery School as atraining ship in 1908 before being struck from thenaval register in 1910 and thereafterbroken up.
In response to a war scare with Italy in the late 1880s, the French Navy embarked on a major construction program in 1890 to counter the threat of the Italian fleet and that of Italy's ally Germany. The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in theFrench colonial empire. TheCatinatclass was ordered as part of the program,[1][2] and they were based on the earlierFriant class.Protet andCAtinat were poorly ventilated for vessels that were intended on lengthy voyages in the overseas empire.[3]
Protet was 101.52 m (333 ft 1 in)long overall, with abeam of 13.6 m (44 ft 7 in) and adraft of 6.07 m (19 ft 11 in). Shedisplaced 4,183.55 t (4,117.48long tons; 4,611.57short tons). Her crew numbered 399 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair oftriple-expansion steam engines driving twoscrew propellers. Steam was provided by sixteen coal-burningBelleville-typewater-tube boilers that were ducted into twofunnels. Her machinery was rated to produce 9,500indicated horsepower (7,100 kW) for a top speed of 19.5 to 20knots (36.1 to 37.0 km/h; 22.4 to 23.0 mph), though she exceeded this speed onsea trials.[4][5] She had a cruising range of 6,000nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph); at maximum speed, this fell to 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi).[6]
The ship was armed with amain battery of four164 mm (6.5 in) guns. They were placed in individualsponsons clusteredamidships, two guns perbroadside. These were supported by asecondary battery of ten100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons,casemates, andpivot mounts. For close-range defense againsttorpedo boats, she carried ten47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and four37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder guns. She was also armed with two 356 mm (14 in)torpedo tubes in herhull above thewaterline. Armor protection consisted of a curved armordeck that was 25 to 40 mm (0.98 to 1.57 in) thick, along with 72 mm (2.8 in) plating on theconning tower.[4]
Protet was built at theForges et Chantiers de la Gironde shipyard nearBordeaux; she was ordered on 14 August 1895 and herkeel waslaid down on 5 November. While the ship was still on theslipway, her propulsion machinery was installed; mostfitting out was completed while she was still on the stocks unlike the normal practice. The ship waslaunched on 6 July 1898 and only minimal work had to be carried out before she wascommissioned to begin sea trials. She was moved toRochefort on 3 August and was commissioned there three days later.[7] During her trials, she reached a speed of 20.22 knots (37.45 km/h; 23.27 mph) from 9,300 ihp (6,900 kW) usingforced draft.[8] She was placed in full commission on 20 April to be sent to theFar East; according to the contemporaryJournal of the Royal United Service Institution, she was being sent to replace the oldunprotected cruiserDuguay-Trouin,[9] but the modern historian Stephen Roberts indicates she was sent to relieve the oldironcladDuguesclin.Protet got underway on 27 May, bound for the Pacific.[7]
The following year, she was joined there by the protected cruiserInfernet and the transport vesselAube.[10]Protet was inSan Francisco in the United States in 1900 when a fire broke out in the harbor;Protet sent men ashore to help suppress the blaze, prompting the city's mayor to send a note of thanks to the French government.[11] While she was in that city in April and May, she received four electric ventilators to improve the habitability of the ship during its long voyages in the tropics.[3]Protet was still serving in the Naval Division of the Eastern Pacific by January 1901, which also included thegunboatZélée and four transport vessels.[12] In October that year, she went toPanama City, then still part of Colombia, to protect French interests during theThousand Days' War; she met vessels from other navies, including the United Statespre-dreadnought battleshipUSS Iowa and the BritishsloopHMS Icarus. On the Caribbean side of theisthmus of Panama, atColón, the French cruiserSuchet and the United States gunboatUSS Machias also awaited developments in the conflict.[13] In December,Protet steamed north to the United States'Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California to replenish coal and supplies.[14]
The ship remained on the Pacific station in 1902.[15] In January, she returned to Panama City, where she met the British cruiserHMS Amphion and the United States cruiserUSS Philadelphia.Protet andAmphion remained there through June.[14] By 1903, the station had been reduced toProtet and a gunboat.[16]Protet remained on station in the Pacific in 1904, along with the gunboatZélée and one transportaviso.[17]Protet continued to operate in the Pacific in 1905, and in January, she stopped in San Francisco to take on coal.[18] Later that year,Protet was recalled to France, and by late May, she had reachedDakar inFrench West Africa, where she was relieved by hersister shipCatinat.Protet arrived back in Rochefort on 7 June and was placed in special reserve ten days later. By that time, the ship's boilers were badly worn out. The naval command decided that the cost of repairs was too high, given her weakness compared to foreign contemporaries, and she was accordingly left idle until 1 March 1909, when she was decommissioned at Rochefort.[7] During that period, in 1908,Protet was attached to the Gunnery Training School, along with thearmored cruiserLatouche-Tréville.[19]Protet was struck from thenaval register on 3 August 1910 and she was thereafter sold toship breakers on 25 October. She was taken under tow on 12 November, to be taken to the breakers' yard inHamburg, Germany, but severe storms forcedProtet and her tug to seek shelter offÎle-d'Aix until early December, at which point they were able to proceed to Hamburg.[7]
