 Alger
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Alger class |
| Operators |  French Navy |
| Preceded by | Jean Bart class |
| Succeeded by | Friant class |
| History | |
 France | |
| Name | Alger |
| Ordered | 14 February 1887 |
| Builder | Arsenal de Cherbourg |
| Laid down | November 1887 |
| Launched | 24 November 1889 |
| Commissioned | 1892 |
| Decommissioned | 12 October 1910 |
| In service | June 1892 |
| Stricken | 23 November 1910 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 109 m (357 ft 7 in) loa |
| Beam | 13.8 m (45 ft 3 in) (waterline) |
| Draft | 5.75 m (18 ft 10 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 6,440 nmi (11,930 km; 7,410 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 387–405 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
Alger was the sole member of her class of protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Alger was ordered during the tenure of Admiral Théophile Aube as Minister of Marine according to the theories of the Jeune École doctrine. The ship was intended as a long-range commerce raider, and she was armed with a main battery of four 164 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 50 to 100 mm (2 to 4 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph).
Alger served with the Northern Squadron early in her career, where she took part in routine peacetime training exercises. In 1895, she was deployed to French Indochina, returning to France in 1897 for a stint with the Mediterranean Squadron. Placed in reserve by 1901, she remained out of service for several years. Reports conflict over her activities in the mid-1900s, with contemporary reports placing her in the Mediterranean for fleet maneuvers, while later historians state the ship was on a second tour in East Asia from 1905. Both agree that Alger served in Asian waters as late as 1908. The ship was reduced to a storage hulk in 1911 and remained in the fleet's inventory until 1939, when she was broken up.