 Waldeck-Rousseau off Constantinople in 1922
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| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Waldeck-Rousseau |
| Namesake | Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau |
| Ordered | 31 July 1905 |
| Builder | Arsenal de Lorient |
| Laid down | 16 June 1906 |
| Launched | 4 March 1908 |
| Completed | August 1911 |
| Fate | Scrapped, 1941–1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Edgar Quinet-class cruiser |
| Displacement | 13,995 long tons (14,220 t) |
| Length | 158.9 m (521 ft) |
| Beam | 21.51 m (70 ft 7 in) |
| Draft | 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) |
| Crew | 859–892 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Waldeck-Rousseau was an armored cruiser built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the second and final member of the Edgar Quinet class, the last class of armored cruiser to be built by the French Navy. She was laid down at the Arsenal de Lorient in June 1906, launched in March 1908, and commissioned in August 1911. Armed with a main battery of fourteen 194-millimeter (7.6 in) guns, she was more powerful than most other armored cruisers, but she had entered service more than two years after the first battlecruiser—HMS Invincible—had rendered the armored cruiser obsolescent. Waldeck-Rousseau nevertheless proved to be a workhorse of the French Mediterranean Fleet.
After the outbreak of World War I, Waldeck-Rousseau joined the main French fleet that blockaded the southern end of the Adriatic to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Navy from operating in the Mediterranean. In October and November, Waldeck-Rousseau was twice attacked by Austro-Hungarian U-boats but she escaped unscathed in both engagements. She thereafter alternated between stints in the southern Adriatic and patrols in the eastern Mediterranean once the Ottoman Empire joined the war in November.
After the war, the British and French intervened in the Russian Civil War; this included a major naval deployment to the Baltic Sea, which included Waldeck-Rousseau. Shortly after arriving, her crew mutinied due to poor living conditions and a desire to return to France. The unrest was quickly suppressed, and Waldeck-Rousseau joined the effort to support the Whites against the Red Bolsheviks. In May 1929, the ship was sent to French Indochina to serve as the flagship of the Far East squadron. She remained there until May 1932, when she returned to France, where she was decommissioned and hulked. Waldeck-Rousseau was ultimately scrapped in 1941–44.