French ironclad Caïman

Caïman was an ironclad barbette ship built for the French Navy in the late 1870s and early 1880s. She was the third of four ships of the Terrible class, built as part of a fleet plan started in 1872, which by the late 1870s had been directed against a strengthening Italian fleet. The ships were intended for coastal operations, and as such had a shallow draft and a low freeboard, which greatly hampered their seakeeping and thus reduced their ability to be usefully employed after entering service. Armament consisted of a pair of 420 mm (16.5 in) guns in individual barbettes, the largest gun ever mounted on a French capital ship. Caïman was laid down in 1878 and was completed in 1887.

Illustration of Caïman
History
France
Name: Caïman
Namesake: Caiman
Laid down: December 1878
Launched: 21 May 1885
Commissioned: 1888
Fate: Broken up, 1927
General characteristics
Displacement: 7,530 long tons (7,650 t)
Length: 82.75 m (271 ft 6 in) pp
Beam: 17.98 m (59 ft)
Draft: 7.98 m (26 ft 2 in)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 14.5 to 15 kn (26.9 to 27.8 km/h; 16.7 to 17.3 mph)
Complement: 373
Armament:
  • 2 × 420 mm (16.5 in) guns
  • 4 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
  • 2 or 4 × 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon
  • 16 × 37 mm (1.5 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon
  • 4 × 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes
Armor:
General characteristics (1900 modernization)
Complement: 332
Armament:

Due to their handling problems, Caïman and her sister ships saw little active service with the French fleet, instead spending most of their careers in the Reserve Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet. During this period, the ship spent most of the year out of service with reduced crews, only being reactivated for the fleet maneuvers each year. She was modernized in 1900 with new guns, but by the early 1900s, numerous, more effective pre-dreadnought battleships had been built. These ships displaced Caïman and her sisters in the Reserve Squadron, and she was reduced to a guard ship in Toulon in 1902. She was ultimately broken up in 1927.

Design
Main article: Terrible-class ironclad
Sketch showing the side and top views of the class

The Terrible class of barbette ships was designed in the late 1870s as part of a naval construction program that began under the post-Franco-Prussian War fleet plan of 1872. By 1877, the Italian fleet under Benedetto Brin had begun building powerful new ironclads of the Caio Duilio and Italia classes, which demanded a French response, beginning with the ironclad Amiral Duperré of 1877. In addition, the oldest generation of French ironclads, built in the early-to-mid 1860s, were in poor condition and necessitated replacement. The Terrible class was intended to replace old monitors that had been built for coastal defense. The Terribles were based on the Amiral Baudin-class ironclads, but were reduced in size to allow them to operate in shallower waters.[1]

Caïman was 82.75 m (271 ft 6 in) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 17.98 m (59 ft) and a draft of 7.98 m (26 ft 2 in). She displaced 7,530 long tons (7,650 t) and had a relatively low freeboard. She was fitted with a pair of pole masts equipped with spotting tops for her main battery guns. The crew consisted of 373 officers and enlisted men. Her propulsion machinery consisted of two compound steam engines with steam provided by twelve coal-burning fire-tube boilers. Her engines were rated to produce 6,500 indicated horsepower (4,800 kW) for a top speed of 14.5 to 15 knots (26.9 to 27.8 km/h; 16.7 to 17.3 mph).[2]

Her main armament consisted of two 420 mm (16.5 in), 22-caliber guns mounted in individual barbette mounts, one forward and one aft on the centerline.[2] They were the largest guns ever carried by a French capital ship.[3] These guns were supported by a secondary battery of four 100 mm (3.9 in) guns carried in individual pivot mounts with gun shields. For defense against torpedo boats, she carried two or four 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss revolver cannon and sixteen 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder Hotchkiss revolvers, all in individual mounts. Her armament was rounded out with four 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes.[2]

The ship was protected with compound armor; her belt was 203 to 508 mm (8 to 20 in) thick and extended for the entire length of the hull. At even normal loading, the belt was nearly submerged entirely, reducing its effectiveness significantly. The barbettes for the main battery were 457 mm (18 in) thick and the supporting tubes that connected them to the ammunition magazines were 203 mm. Her conning tower was 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, as were the shields for the 100 mm guns.[2]

Modifications

Caïman was modernized in 1900, having her old 420 mm guns replaced with a pair of 274 mm (10.8 in) Modèle 1893/1896 guns; these were 40-caliber guns. Her secondary battery was replaced with quick-firing versions of 100 mm guns, with an additional pair being installed. The light battery was also revised to fourteen 47 mm guns. Two of her torpedo tubes were also removed. As a result of these changes, her crew was reduced to 332 officers and men.[2]

Service history

Caïman was laid down in Toulon in December 1878 and was launched on 21 May 1885. Work on the ship was completed in the first half of 1888.[2][4] The ship was activated on 23 August 1888 for the annual fleet maneuvers, and she departed the next day to join the rest of the fleet at Hyères. The fleet had assembled by 30 August and the maneuvers ended on 4 September, with the fleet returning to Toulon by the 10th.[5] After they entered service, the Terrible-class ships were found to have very poor seakeeping as a result of their shallow draft and insufficient freeboard, even in the relatively sheltered waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Navy had little use for the ships, and through the 1880s and 1890s, a series of French naval ministers sought to find a role for the vessels, along with another ten coastal-defense type ironclads built during that period. The ships frequently alternated between the Mediterranean Squadron and the Northern Squadron, the latter stationed in the English Channel, but neither location suited their poor handling.[6]

Line-drawing of the Terrible class after refit

By the early 1890s, Caïman and her sister ships had been reduced to the Reserve Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet, which was based in Toulon. During this period, the ships were maintained in a state of inactivity with half or two-thirds of their normal crews, only being mobilized for the annual training maneuvers with the rest of the fleet.[7] During the fleet maneuvers of 1891, which began on 23 June, Caïman was mobilized along with her sisters Indomptable and Terrible and five other ironclads. The reserve ships took several days to ready themselves for the exercises before they were able to join the rest of the fleet by 6 July; the maneuvers lasted another five days thereafter.[8]

Caïman served with the Reserve Squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1893; at that time, the squadron also included her sisters Terrible and Indomptable and the ironclads Colbert, Friedland, Richelieu, Redoutable, and Trident.[9] In 1894, Caïman was assigned to the 1st Division, Reserve Squadron, along with Terrible and Richelieu. She served in the fleet maneuvers in the Mediterranean that year, which included an initial period of exercises from 1 to 10 July and then larger-scale maneuvers from 17 to 28 July.[10] She remained in the unit the following year, by which time Indomptable and the ironclad Amiral Duperré had joined it.[11] In 1896, the Reserve Squadron consisted of Amiral Duperré, the flagship, Caïman, Terrible, and Trident.[7]

By 1897, the unit was again revised, now consisting of Caïman, Terrible, Amiral Duperré, and the ironclads Friedland and Dévastation.[12] Caïman remained in the Reserve Squadron in 1899, along with the ironclads Amiral-Tréhouart, Bouvines, Jemmapes, and Valmy. Terrible joined the ships there later that year after completing her reconstruction.[13] The ship was modernized in 1900 with new main and secondary guns and two of her torpedo tubes were removed.[2] Work was completed by 1901,[14] though Caïman remained out of service through 1902.[15] By 1903, all four of the Terrible-class ironclads had been removed from service, their place in the Reserve Squadron having been taken by the pre-dreadnought battleships that had been built in the 1890s.[16] By 1906, she returned to the Reserve Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet for the annual maneuvers, along with Indomptable, Requin, the ironclad Hoche, and the pre-dreadnought battleship Charles Martel.[17] Caïman was eventually broken up in 1927.[2]

Notes
  1. Ropp, pp. 92, 97–98.
  2. Gardiner, p. 291.
  3. Ropp, p. 99.
  4. Brassey 1886, p. 230.
  5. Brassey 1889, pp. 450–451.
  6. Ropp, p. 180.
  7. Weyl, p. 95.
  8. Thursfield 1892, pp. 61–67.
  9. Brassey 1893, p. 70.
  10. Thursfield 1894, pp. 72–77.
  11. Brassey 1895, p. 50.
  12. Brassey 1897, p. 57.
  13. Brassey 1899, p. 70.
  14. Leyland 1901, p. 41.
  15. Brassey 1902, p. 48.
  16. Jordan & Caresse, p. 223.
  17. Leyland 1907, p. 103.
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References
  • Brassey, Thomas (1886). "Caiman". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 230. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas, ed. (1889). "French Naval Manoeuvres, 1888". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 230. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas A. (1893). "Chapter IV: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 66–73. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas A. (1895). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 49–59. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas A. (1897). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 56–77. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas A. (1899). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 70–80. OCLC 496786828.
  • Brassey, Thomas A. (1902). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 47–55. OCLC 496786828.
  • Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
  • Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
  • Leyland, John (1901). "Chapter III: The Progress of Foreign Navies". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 33–70land. OCLC 496786828.
  • Leyland, John (1907). Brassey, Thomas A. (ed.). "Chapter IV: The French and Italian Manoeuvres". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 102–111. OCLC 496786828.
  • Ropp, Theodore (1987). Roberts, Stephen S. (ed.). The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy, 1871–1904. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6.
  • Thursfield, J. R. (1892). "Foreign Naval Manoeuvres". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 61–88. OCLC 496786828.
  • Thursfield, J. R. (1894). Brassey, Thomas A. (ed.). "Foreign Maneouvres: I—France". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 71–102. OCLC 496786828.
  • Weyl, E. (1896). Brassey, Thomas A. (ed.). "Chapter IV: The French Navy". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 61–72. OCLC 496786828.
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