Jules Ferry was the second of three Léon Gambetta-class armored cruisers built for the French Navy () during the first decade of the 20th century. Armed with four guns, the ships were much larger and more powerfully armed than their predecessors. Completed in 1907, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron () where she served as a flagship.
During World War I, Jules Ferry escorted convoys as well as the capital ships of the French fleet. The ship participated in the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic Sea until 1917 when she began serving as a transport. She was reduced to reserve shortly before the end of the war in late 1918. Three years later, the cruiser was reactivated; she served in the Far East in 1923–1925 and returned to reserve upon her return. Jules Ferry was sold for scrap in 1928.
Description
The Léon Gambetta-class ships were designed as enlarged and more powerful versions of the armored cruisers. The first two ships ( and Jules Ferry) measured overall, with a beam of and a draft of . All three sister ships were designed to displace at normal load. Their crew normally numbered 26 officers and 708 enlisted men, or 30 officers and 749 men when serving as a flagship.
The ships had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft. Each of the sisters used a different model of water-tube boiler and Jules Ferry was fitted with 20 Guyot-du Temple boilers. Their engines were rated at a total of to reach their designed speed of . During her sea trials on 7 December 1906, Jules Ferry reached from . The cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of at a speed of .
The main battery of the Léon Gambetta class consisted of four 194-millimeter Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised sixteen Modèle 1893–1896M guns. Twelve of these were in three twin-gun turrets on each broadside and the remaining four guns were in casemates in the hull. For defense against torpedo boats, they carried twenty-four Hotchkiss guns. Jules Ferry was also armed with two submerged torpedo tubes, one on each broadside, and could carry 10 naval mines.
The cruisers' waterline armor belt ranged in thickness from and the main-gun turrets were protected by armor thick. Their deck armor was thick. The front and sides of the conning tower consisted of armor plates.
Construction and career
The ship was named after Jules Ferry, the former Prime Minister of France, and Jean Marie Antoine de Lanessan, Minister of the Navy, ordered the Arsenal de Cherbourg to begin work on the ship on 28 June 1900 in compliance with the recently passed Naval Law (). She was laid down on 19 August 1901, launched on 23 August 1903 and began her preliminary sea trials on 23 June 1905. Her propulsion machinery was plagued by troubles and her full-power steam trials did not begin until December 1906. The ship was commissioned () on 1 June 1907. Her construction cost 28,897,875 francs.
Jules Ferry was assigned to the Light Squadron () of the Mediterranean Squadron upon her completion and she became the flagship of Vice Admiral () Jules François Joseph Krantz, the squadron commander. He remained in command until mid-1909 when he was relieved by Vice Admiral Louis-Joseph Pivet. On 5 October 1909, the French Navy reorganized its forces and redesignated the Mediterranean Squadron as the 1st Squadron () and the Light Squadron became the 1st Light Division ( (DL)). Jules Ferry was replaced as the 1st DL's flagship by Léon Gambetta by 4 April 1911 She had been transferred to the 2nd DL of the newly formed 2nd Squadron by 4 September when she temporarily served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Horace Jauréguiberry during the fleet review by Armand Fallières, President of France, and the Navy Minister, Théophile Delcassé, that day off Toulon.
After the Agadir Crisis of 1911, the French and British governments agreed in 1912 that the Royal Navy would defend the northern French coast and France would concentrate her fleet in the Mediterranean and defend British interests there. The French designated the consolidated fleet the 1st Naval Army () and grouped its two DLs into the 1st Light Squadron.