| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Descartes |
| Ordered | 17 August 1892 |
| Builder | Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire |
| Laid down | January 1893 |
| Launched | 27 September 1894 |
| Commissioned | 12 February 1896 |
| In service | 1 January 1897 |
| Decommissioned | 15 June 1917 |
| Stricken | 10 May 1920 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Descartes class |
| Displacement | 4,005 t (3,942 long tons; 4,415 short tons) |
| Length | 100.7 m (330 ft 5 in) loa |
| Beam | 12.95 m (42 ft 6 in) |
| Draft | 6.01 m (19 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement | 383–401 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Descartes was the lead ship of the Descartes class of protected cruisers built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The Descartes-class cruisers were ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force. At the time, France was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets, and the new cruisers were intended to serve with the main fleet, and overseas in the French colonial empire. Descartes was armed with a main battery of four 164.7 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 20 to 40 mm (0.79 to 1.57 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).
Descartes served overseas in French Indochina for much of her career, being sent there immediately after entering service in 1897. She was present in the region during the Boxer Uprising in Qing China in 1900. After returning to France in 1902, she was assigned to the North Atlantic station with several other cruisers. The ship made a second deployment to East Asia in 1905, later being briefly stationed in Madagascar in 1907, before returning for a tour with the Mediterranean Squadron that year. Descartes was then transferred to the Northern Squadron. By 1914, the ship was operating with the Division de l'Atlantique (Division of the Atlantic) and was in Central American waters when World War I started in July. She joined the unsuccessful search for the German cruiser SMS Karlsruhe in August, and spent the next three years patrolling the West Indies. She was decommissioned and disarmed in 1917, her guns being used as field artillery and to arm patrol vessels. She was struck from the naval register in 1920 and sold to ship breakers the following year.