French battleship Iéna

French battleship Iéna

Iéna was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in 1902. She was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and remained there for the duration of her career. The ship’s main armament consisted of four 40-calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

About French battleship Iéna in brief

Summary French battleship IénaIéna was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in 1902. She was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron and remained there for the duration of her career, frequently serving as a flagship. In 1907, while Iéna was docked for a refit, there was a magazine explosion that was probably caused by the decomposition of old Poudre B propellant. The ensuing scandal forced the Navy Minister to resign. Her salvaged hulk was used as a gunnery target in 1909, then sold for scrap in 1912. The ship’s main armament consisted of four 40-calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The guns fired 340-kilograms, capped at the rate of one round per minute at a muzzle velocity of 8 15ms. This gave a range of 12,000 metres at the maximum elevation of +15°, and an elevation of 45° in each turret, which gave a maximum speed of 18 knots. She had a crew of 48 officers and 731 ratings; as a private ship, her crew numbered 33 officers and 668 ratings. She displaced 11,688 tonnes at normal and 12,105 tonnes at deep load. She carried a maximum of 1,165 tonnes of coal; this allowed her to steam for 4,400 nautical miles at a speed of 10.3 knots. The ship was fitted with large bilge keels, but, according to naval historian N.

M. Campbell, was reported to roll considerably and pitch heavily, although this is contradicted by Captain Bouxin’s report of November 1905: Pitching and rolling movements are gentle and the ship rides the waves well. Like the Charlemagne-class ships, IéNA carried her main armaments of eight guns in four twin turrets, which were normally loaded at an angle of +5° and +15%. The guns manually power the traverse and the ammunition hoist, however, were elevated between their limits of −5° and +15 °, with a maximum angle of -5° +15.5°. The ships were fitted with a trio of four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a three-bladed propeller that was 4. 5 metres in diameter on the outer shafts and 4. 4 metres on the centre shaft. The engines were powered by 20 Belleville boilers at a working pressure of 18 kgcm2 and were rated at a total of 16,500 metric horsepower to give the ship a speed of 18 knots. During her sea trials on 16 July 1901, the ship barely exceeded her designed speed, reaching 18. 1 knots from 16,590 metric horsepower. IÉna carried amaximum of 1,.165 tonnes of coal, and could steam for 4,400 nautical miles at a speed of 10. 3 knots.