Jauréguiberry was perhaps the most picturesque battleship built for the Marine Nationale Française, laid down in 1891 and completed 1897. She embodied all the principal characteristics of French battleship design in the period: an exaggerated tumble-home (well seen in the shot above), prominent ram bow, narrow upper deck, a unique boat crane arrangement resembling an amusement park ride on the afterdeck, and armored masts with internal elevators and round fighting tops reminiscent of 1930s sci-fi space ship illustrations. However her masts and upperworks were not so heavy as some of the very ugliest French battleships of the time, and her overall look was more engaging than the lumbering Neptunes or hideous Hoches.
Like all French battleships of the 1890s, Jauréguiberry had a lozenge or diamond armament layout with four single-gun turrets: one each far forward and at the stern, and one on each beam, popping out of the bulging flanks created by the generous tumble-home on either side. The class followed the peculiar usage of the French in using 2 calibres of main gun: the bow and stern turrets each wielded a 12-incher, while the beam guns were 10.8-inch. Shorter and beamier than her near-sisters of the Charles Martel class, she was just a bit slower than her 18-knot designed speed. The 12" turrets were brought very close to the ends of the ship, making the bow gun subject to interference from spray and weather. The masts were more rounded and futuristic than in her sisters and contemporaries, and the funnels shorter, making for less extreme and more harmonious proportions.
Named for an admiral who had been a prominent astronomer and philosophe, Jauréguiberry also differed from her sisters in mounting her 5.5" guns in twin turrets rather than singles (the wing turrets visibly paired with the forward and aft 12" mounts), while the 10.8" single turrets were positioned far out on the beam to allow a wider arc of fire. This strategem worked for the 10.8" guns, but the close spacing with the main battery created blast interference problems for the 5.5s. The armor protection included a narrow waterline belt extending to a point halfway up the middle deck, and a 4" armored box battery amidships; barbettes and turrets were well protected as was the conning tower.
Statistics for the Jauréguiberry: 112.6 m x 20.2 m x 8.8 m (377'4" x 72' x 27'7"). Displacement: 11,637 tons. Armament: (2) 12"/30 cal, (2) 10.8"/45 cal, (8) 5.5", (8) 3.9", (12) 3-pdr, (4) 18" torpedo tubes. 5.5" guns carried in twin turrets; all others in singles. Nickel-steel armor: 18" belt; 2.76" deck; 14" turret; 14" conning tower. Fuel capacity: 980 tons coal. Propulsion: 24 water-tube boilers; 14,900-HP triple-expansion engines, shafted to twin screw; 17.7 knots. Cruising radius: 3,520 nm. Crew: 644.
Jauréguiberry was one of a quartet of ships announcing France's return to true battleship religion after a 10-year apostasy during the reign of the jeune école, which brought French battleship production to a screeching halt during the 1880s. Following the lead of the Brennus of 1889 but with moderately enlarged hulls came the Charles Martel, Carnot, and Jauréguiberry, laid down in 1891 but not completed until 1897. Thus a ship laid down before the Royal Sovereigns came into service came into a world where the trend-setters were ships like the Retvizan and Iowa. Their common derivation from the Marceau is obvious, but these were elongated Marceaus with a longer midsection, accommodating two funnels, with a reduced-size beam gun, and triple-screw machinery. The unfortunate hull shape was reproduced in several intriguing variations in this, the high period of French tumble-home battleship lunacy, lending a high degree of individuality to the specific ships. The different ways the architects resolved the stern curves and tapering of inward-sloped sides makes an instructive comparison.
As before, these vessels were all built at separate yards. Although the builders were expected to meet general specifications, the French Navy tolerated considerable differences in detail; Jauréguiberry and Charles Martel had completely different systems for storing and launching small boats, for example. These differences kept the French squadrons from being quite so coherent a force as the well-matched British classes of vessel. The strange preoccupation with tumble-home, the curious inattention to watertight subdivision, and the relatively lightweight firepower made the French fleet qualitatively inferior to the British and, increasingly, to the Germans and Italians. The towering and unprotected upper works would have made them firetraps and big targets in any fleet engagement, as shown in the Russo-Japanese War battles.
The French ships were, nonetheless, powerful units displaying considerable technological finesse. The gun mountings were electrically operated and featured all-round loading capability. Beneath the curved armored deck above Jauréguiberry's waterline, there was an additional protected deck to arrest splinters, although the 2-foot space between the two did not provide maximum effectiveness. Years ahead of British adoption, they had water-tube boilers, of the sometimes troublesome Belleville design. It must have been like a perennial head-banging adding quality components to such a flawed platform. To the unfortunate generation of sailors who manned them, the overstated curves of their ships' hulls were not their most plainly nauseating quality.
It should be mentioned that none of these vessels was expected to do extended fleet duty away from base; their intended duty was to protect ports and resist blockade (presumably by the British), and to maintain control and communications with France's North African colonies, a day's cruise from Toulon. This allowed designers to downgrade concerns about crew accommodation, bunker capacity, and machinery endurance, as it did later when the Germans constructed their WWI High Seas Fleet. Aside from ceremonial duties in the Med and the Empire, French battleships were expected to stay close to home most of the time. Typically, the French admiralty produced several generations of cruiser to handle France's far-flung colonial affairs, and the 1880s-1890s generation were notoriously poor sea-boats. This was no coincidence, for they were all based on the jeune école's pet ship, the extreme tumble-home cruiser Dupuy de Lôme, which applied 1890s naval architectural doctrine with a far smaller hull having barely half the gravitas of a Masséna or Jauréguiberry.
Jauréguiberry provided nearly 50 years of service to France, being disarmed after WWI, hulked, and finally scrapped in 1934. She had always been a popular favorite during her years in commission, as attested by the numerous photo postcards and souvenirs that have survived to speak to us from the Belle Époque, some of which are reproduced here.
A JAURÉGUIBERRY PICTURE GALLERY
Jauréguiberry making speed in the Med. Click here to enlarge.
A postcard view of Jauréguiberry, heavily retouched -- in fact, the entire sponson supporting the beam 10.8" gun has been airbrushed away. The bizarre battleship was clearly an object of patriotic pride.
The base photo used for the colourised card above. Click here for enlargement.
Jauréguiberry -- quarter view.
A lowering Riviera sun illuminates a warship on siesta. Click here for a dandy enlarged view.
