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Bouvet

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Bouvet			Arsenal de Lorient	16.1.1893	27.4.1896	6/1898	sunk 18.3.1915

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	12007
Displacement full, t
Length, m	117.8 pp 122.6 oa
Breadth, m	21.4
Draught, m	8.38 max
No of shafts	3
Machinery	3 VTE, 32 Belleville boilers
Power, h. p.	15000
Max speed, kts	18
Fuel, t	coal 980
Endurance, nm(kts)	4000(10)
Armour, mm	Harvey Nickel steel; belt: 400 - 200, upper belt: 100, main turrets: 380, turret bases: 200, secondary turrets: 120, CT: 300, decks: 70
Armament	2 x 1 - 305/40 M1893, 2 x 1 - 274/45 M1893, 8 x 1 - 139/45 M1891-93, 8 x 1 - 100/45 M1891, 12 x 1 - 47/40 M1885, 5 x 1 - 37/20 M1885, 2 x 5 - 37/20 M1885, 4 - 450 TT (beam, 2 aw, 2 sub)
Complement	666

Standard scale images

Graphics

Project history

The last ship of the Charles Martel type, Bouvet differed in the hull not being cut down to the main deck at the stem and in having a moderate superstructure with two relatively small military masts. The main and secondary guns were disposed as in Charles Martel, with the 100mm on the superstructure. Owing to her face-hardened armour the Bouvet was the best of the five ships of her type.

Ship protection

The armour belt was complete from 0.6m above water to 1.5m below and was 400mm amidships with a 250mm lower edge and reduced to 300mm forward and aft and to 200mm at the stem. The upper belt was also complete and 1.2m wide, increased to 2.5m forward and 1.8m aft. The upper armour deck is given as 45mm located at the top of the main belt, and the lower as nearly flat at the belt lower edge and 25mm thick. There was the usual cellular layer with a cofferdam inboard of the upper belt.

Modernizations

early 1900s: - 2 - 450 TT (aw).

Naval service

She took part in the Dardanelles operations in 1915 and on 18 March was hit about 8 times above the water-line by the forts and had her fore turret put out of action from failure of the propellant gas extraction apparatus. She then struck a mine with a 80kg TNT charge which exploded deep below the starboard 274mm turret, and the Bouvet capsized and sank in under two minutes. About 660 of her complement were lost. The Bouvet is known to have been in poor condition at the time and it does not appear necessary to postulate a magazine explosion to account for her rapid sinking.





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