The French battleship Suffren

The French battleship Suffren was a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the French Navy named after French admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, launched in July 1899 and torpedoed off Lisbon on 26 November 1916, going down with all hands.

In 1915, Suffren was the flagship of the squadron of four French battleships, commanded by Rear-Admiral Émile Guépratte, which took part in the naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign. During the attack on the Narrows of the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915, Suffren suffered heavy damage from Turkish shore-based artillery which flooded compartments and disabled a number of guns. Suffren underwent repairs at Malta.

Having supported operations at Gallipoli and Salonika, Suffren was returning to Lorient for a refit when, on 26 November 1916, off the Portuguese coast near Lisbon, she was torpedoed by U-52. Accumulated damage meant she could only manage 10 knots but heavy seas meant she was only travelling at 9 knots, and without an escort, when attacked. The torpedo detonated a magazine and Suffren sank within seconds, taking the crew of 648 with her.

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/suffren.htm

 

The French Battleship Suffren.

 

What else do you know about her Cally ??

 

Not an awful lot more Annie - just the usual stuff about her construction.

She weighed in at around 12,750T and was slightly over 128 metres in length with a beam of around 21 metres. Her total crew compliment was about 730 men although at the time of her sinking because of heavy casualties received previously there were less than 650 aboard.
Sadly there were no survivors.

It was partly down to the previous damage she had received [as you rightly mentioned] that led to her eventual downfall at the hands of U52. Whereas she would have been able to manage around 18-19 knots maximum before at the time of being torpedoed she could barely manage half of that. As she was also unescorted at the time of the attack she was very much the epitome of being a "sitting duck".

Despite the fact that she was en route for a badly needed refit - as a pre-dreadnought she was to all extent and purpose obsolete.

 

Well, interested here to share with something new and further interesting facts, the Suffren .... !
http://gcaptain.com/maritime-monday-may-22-2017/
Thanks viewing ..