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''Gaulois'' was a ''Charlemagne''-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the mid-1890s. She spent most of her career assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron (''Escadre de la Méditerranée''). The ship accidentally rammed two other French warships early in her career, although neither was seriously damaged, nor was the ship herself. When World War I began, she escorted troop convoys from French North Africa to France for a month and a half. ''Gaulois'' was ordered to the Dardanelles in November 1914 to guard against a sortie into the Mediterranean by the German battlecruiser . In 1915, she joined British ships in bombarding Turkish fortifications. She was badly damaged during one such bombardment in March and had to beach herself to avoid sinking. She was refloated and sent to Toulon for permanent repairs. ''Gaulois'' returned to the Dardanelles and covered the Allied evacuation in January 1916. On 27 December 1916, she was en route for the Dardanelles after a refit in France when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine ''UB-47''. ==Design and description== ''Gaulois'' was long overall and had a beam of . At deep load, she had a draught of forward and aft. She displaced normally, and at deep load.〔Caresse, p. 117〕 The ship used three 4-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines, one engine per shaft. They produced during the ship's sea trials using steam generated by 20 Belleville water-tube boilers. ''Gaulois'' reached a top speed of on her trials. She carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of .〔 ''Gaulois'' carried her main armament of four 40-calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft. The ship's secondary armament consisted of ten 45-calibre Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1893 guns, eight of which were mounted in individual casemates and the remaining pair in shielded mounts on the forecastle deck amidships. She also carried eight 45-calibre Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1893 guns in shielded mounts on the superstructure. The ship's anti-torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty 40-calibre Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns, fitted in platforms on both masts, on the superstructure, and in casemates in the hull. ''Gaulois'' mounted four torpedo tubes, two on each broadside. Two of these were submerged, angled 20° from the ship's axis, and the other two were above the waterline. They were provided with twelve Modèle 1892 torpedoes. As was common with ships of her generation, she was built with a plough-shaped ram.〔Caresse, pp. 114, 116–17〕 The ''Charlemagne''-class ships carried a total of 〔 of Harvey armour.〔Chesneau and Kolesnik, p. 117〕 They had a complete waterline armour belt that was high. It tapered from its maximum thickness of to a thickness of at its lower edge. The armoured deck was thick on the flat and was reinforced with an additional plate where it angled downwards to meet the armoured belt. The main turrets were protected by of armour and their roofs were thick. Their barbettes were thick. The outer walls of the casemates for the guns were 55 mm thick and they were protected by transverse bulkheads thick. The conning tower walls were thick and its roof consisted of 50 mm armour plates. Its communications tube was protected by armour plates thick.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French battleship Gaulois」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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