French battleship Suffren

Suffren off Toulon on 23 October 1911
Class overview
Operators	French Navy
Preceded by	Iéna
Succeeded by	République-class battleship
Built	1898–1904
In service	1904–1916
Completed	1
Lost	1
History
France
Name	Suffren
Namesake	Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez
Ordered	21 April 1898
Builder	Arsenal de Brest
Laid down	5 January 1899
Launched	25 July 1899
Commissioned	3 February 1904
Fate	Torpedoed by SM U-52, 26 November 1916
General characteristics
Type	Predreadnought battleship
Displacement	12,432 t (12,236 long tons) (normal) 12,892 t (12,688 long tons) (full load)
Length	125.91 m (413 ft 1 in)
Beam	21.42 m (70 ft 3 in)
Draught	8.22 m (27 ft)
Installed power	24 Niclausse boilers 16,200 ihp (12,100 kW)
Propulsion	3 shafts, 3 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Range	3,086 nmi (5,715 km; 3,551 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	668 (normal), 742 (flagship)
Armament	2 × twin 305 mm (12 in) guns 10 × single 164.7 mm (6.5 in) guns 8 × single 100 mm (3.9 in) guns 22 × single 47 mm (1.9 in) guns 2 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) guns 4 × 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes
Armour	Belt: 300 mm (11.8 in) Decks: 60 mm (2.4 in) Barbettes: 250 mm (9.8 in) Main Turrets: 290 mm (11.4 in) Bulkheads: 110 mm (4.3 in) Conning tower: 224–274 mm (8.8–10.8 in)

Suffren was a predreadnought battleship built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century. Completed in 1902, the ship was assigned to the Escadre de la Méditerranée (Mediterranean Squadron) for most of her career and often served as a flagship. She had an eventful career as she twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break before the start of World War I in 1914. Suffren was assigned to join the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a series of attacks on the Ottoman fortifications guarding the straits.

She was moderately damaged during the fighting on 18 March 1915 and had to be sent to Toulon for repairs. Upon their completion the ship returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli Campaign. Suffren provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. After repairs the ship was assigned to the French squadron tasked to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front. While en route to Lorient for a refit, Suffren was torpedoed off Lisbon by an Imperial German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sank with all hands.