NAVYPEDIA

Ships

Name	No	Yard No	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Comp	Fate
Comandante Aguirre (ex-Dupuy de Lôme)			Arsenal de Brest, France	4.7.1888	27.10.1890	15.5.1895 // ---	never commissioned

Technical data

Displacement normal, t	6676
Displacement full, t
Length, m	111.0 pp 114.0 oa
Breadth, m	15.7
Draught, m	7.49 max
No of shafts	3
Machinery	1 VTE, 2 HTE, 20 Normand boilers
Power, h. p.	13000
Max speed, kts	19.7
Fuel, t	coal 1080
Endurance, nm(kts)	7000(10)
Armour, mm	steel; belt: 100, deck: 20 with 70mm slopes, main turrets: 200, secondary turrets: 100, CT: 130
Armament	2 x 1 - 194/45 M1887, 6 x 1 - 165/45 M1887, 4 x 1 - 65/50 M1891, 8 x 1 - 47/40 M1885, 8 x 5 - 37/20 M1885, 2 - 450 TT (beam, aw)
Complement	526

Standard scale images

Project history

This ship was entirely different from previous French cruisers. The 194mm guns were in turrets on either beam rising from the tumblehome, and the 165mm turrets were in close groups of three forward and aft, one turret in each group being on the centreline. The after group were all on the upper deck but the centre forward turret was on the forecastle deck which was much recessed to make space for the other two turrets. The ammunition tubes were not armoured. In appearance the Dupuy de Lôme was remarkable with a very marked snout or plough bow and a sloping stem. There were two funnels and two heavy military masts. Her completion was delayed by an accident to her boilers, which had to be changed, and in 1905 she was reconstructed to some extent, having 20 Normand boilers with three funnels installed and the military mainmast removed.

The Dupuy de Lôme was sold to Peru in September 1912 as the Commandant Aguirre but was never delivered and remained in France.

This armoured cruiser was to be Transferred to the Peruvian Navy. However, many in Peru became critical of the wisdom of acquiring an old warship that did not influence the balance of power vis & vis Peru's primary rival Chile. Also a deepening financial crisis in Peru influenced the decision not to conclude the arrangement. In fact, the cruiser Lima had taken a Peruvian crew to France in 1912 for her before the arrangement fell through, and the ship had been photographed flying the Peruvian flag. Between 1912 and 1920 she remained in France in this state of limbo. In 1914 she was again renamed Dupuy de Lôme but not used during the WWI because of her poor condition. She was finally resold to Belgium in 1920 and converted to a cargo ship under the name Péruvier.

Ship protection

The side was completely armoured from 1.4m below water to the upper deck and there was a 20mm curved protective deck rising from the belt lower edge to the waterline. Below this was a splinter deck and over the engines and boilers the space between these decks, which was about 1.5m high on the centreline, was filled with coal. Above the protective deck there was a cellulose-filled cofferdam 0.8m wide to a height of 1m above water.