French cruiser Dupleix (1900)

Sister ship Kléber at anchor at the Jamestown Exposition, June 1907
History
France
NameDupleix
NamesakeJoseph François Dupleix
Ordered18 December 1897
BuilderArsenal de Rochefort
CostFF16,308,850
Laid down18 January 1899
Launched28 April 1900
Commissioned15 September 1903
Decommissioned1 May 1919
Stricken27 September 1919
FateSold for scrap, 1922
General characteristics
Class and typeDupleix-class armored cruiser
Displacement7,700 t (7,578 long tons)
Length132.1 m (433 ft 5 in) (o/a)
Beam17.8 m (58 ft 5 in)
Draft7.46 m (24 ft 6 in)
Installed power
Propulsion3 shafts; 3 triple-expansion steam engines
Speed20.9 knots (38.7 km/h; 24.1 mph)
Range6,450 nmi (11,950 km; 7,420 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement
  • 569
  • 607 as flagship
Armament
Armor

The French cruiser Dupleix was the lead ship of her class of three armored cruisers built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Designed for overseas service and armed with eight 164.7-millimeter (6.5 in) guns, the ships were smaller and less powerfully armed than their predecessors. Completed in 1903, Dupleix was initially assigned to the Atlantic Division (Division de l'Atlantique) as its flagship. The ship spent 1906 to 1909 in reserve before she was sent to the Far East in 1910, again serving as a flagship.

When World War I began in August 1914, the cruiser was still in the Far East. Before she was transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean in May 1915, Dupleix spent most of her time on escort duty in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Over the next year, she was tasked to blockade the Aegean coast of Ottoman Turkey. To help protect Allied shipping from German commerce raiders, the ship was transferred to French West Africa in mid-1916 and remained there until October 1917 when she returned to France to be placed in reserve. Dupleix was decommissioned in 1919 and was sold for scrap in 1922.