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''Vergniaud'' was one of the six semi-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the late 1900s. When World War I began in August 1914, she unsuccessfully searched for the German battlecruiser and the light cruiser in the Western Mediterranean and escorted convoys. Later that month, the ship participated in the Battle of Antivari in the Adriatic Sea and helped to sink an Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser. ''Vergniaud'' spent most of the rest of the war blockading the Straits of Otranto and the Dardanelles to prevent German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish warships from breaking out into the Mediterranean. She briefly participated in the occupation of Constantinople after the end of the war and was deployed in the Black Sea in early 1919 during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's crew mutinied after one of its members was killed when a protest against intervention against the Bolsheviks was bloodily suppressed. ''Vergniaud'' returned to France and was later placed in reserve after a brief deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was condemned in 1921 and used as a target ship until 1926. The ship was sold for scrap two years later. ==Design and description== Although the s were a significant improvement from the preceding , they were outclassed by the advent of the dreadnought well before they were completed. This, combined with other poor traits, including the great weight in coal they had to carry, made them rather unsuccessful ships, though their numerous rapid-firing guns were of some use in the Mediterranean.〔Gardiner & Gray, p. 196〕 ''Vergniaud'' was long overall and had a beam of and a full-load draft of . She displaced at deep load and had a crew of 681 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines using steam generated by twenty-six Niclausse boilers. The turbines were rated at and provided a top speed of around .〔 ''Vergniaud'' reached a top speed of on her sea trials.〔 She carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of .〔 ''Vergniaud''s main battery consisted of four 305mm/45 Modèle 1906 guns mounted in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The secondary battery consisted of twelve 240mm/50 Modèle 1902 guns in twin turrets, three on each side of the ship. A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats. These included sixteen L/65 guns and ten Hotchkiss guns. The ship was also armed with two submerged torpedo tubes. The ship's waterline armor belt was thick and the main battery was protected by up to of armor. The conning tower also had 300 mm thick sides.〔 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 Vergniaud」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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