 Sketch of D'Entrecasteaux, c. 1899
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators | |
| Preceded by | Catinat class |
| Succeeded by | Guichen |
| History | |
 France | |
| Name | D'Entrecasteaux |
| Namesake | Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux |
| Builder | Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée |
| Laid down | September 1894 |
| Launched | 13 June 1896 |
| Completed | 1899 |
| Commissioned | 15 February 1899 |
| Decommissioned | 1 June 1921 |
| Stricken | 27 October 1922 |
| Fate | Loaned to Belgium, 1923 |
 Belgium | |
| Acquired | 1923 |
| Fate | Returned to France, 1926 |
| France | |
| Acquired | 1926 |
| Fate | Sold to Poland, 7 March 1927 |
 Second Polish Republic | |
| Name | Król Władysław IV |
| Namesake | |
| Acquired | 7 March 1927 |
| Renamed | Bałtyk |
| Fate | Broken up, c. 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 7,995 long tons (8,123 t) |
| Length | 120.92 m (396 ft 9 in) (loa) |
| Beam | 17.85 m (58 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 7.52 m (24 ft 8 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 19.2 knots (35.6 km/h; 22.1 mph) |
| Range | 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 559 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
D'Entrecasteaux [dɑ̃.tʁə.kas.to] was a large protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The only vessel of her class, D'Entrecasteaux was intended to serve as a flagship of the cruiser squadron that defended French Indochina and other possessions in the Far East. Her construction came during a period of conflict in the French naval command between factions that favored different cruiser types; D'Entrecasteaux represented the ideas of the Jeune École, who favored large cruisers for long-range operations overseas. She was armed with a main battery of two 240 mm (9.4 in) guns, the largest guns ever carried aboard a French cruiser, though their great weight, coupled with her pronounced ram bow degraded her seaworthiness. She nevertheless provided the basis for later armored cruisers.
D'Entrecasteaux was initially deployed to Indochina, where she took part in Eight-Nation Alliance operations during the Boxer Uprising, including the Battle of the Taku Forts in June 1900. Problems with her guns forced her to return to France for repairs in 1903, though she returned to Indochina for another tour from 1905 to 1909. She was modernized in 1909–1912 and served as the flagship of the Training Squadron until the start of World War I in July 1914. The ship spent much of the war in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where she assisted in the defense of the Suez Canal from Ottoman attacks and patrolled the coast of Ottoman Syria. She was transferred for operations elsewhere after 1916, including supporting Arab rebels in the Red Sea and escorting convoys in the Indian Ocean.
After the war, D'Entrecasteaux helped to carry French troops back from the Armée d'Orient (Army of the East) before being placed in reserve in June 1919. She was struck from the naval register in 1922 and transferred to the Belgian Navy in 1923, where she served as a depot ship for three years. After briefly returning to France in 1926, she was sold to the Polish Navy in 1927, which renamed the vessel Król Władysław IV and then Bałtyk. Employed as a stationary training ship, she remained in Polish service until the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, when she was damaged by German aircraft. She was captured by the Germans and used as a barracks ship before being broken up around 1942.