 Sister ship Le Hardi at anchor
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Le Flibustier |
| Namesake | Filibuster |
| Ordered | 24 May 1937 |
| Builder | Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer |
| Laid down | 11 March 1938 |
| Launched | 19 December 1939 |
| Commissioned | 1 June 1940 |
| Renamed | Bison, 1 April 1941 |
| Captured | 27 November 1942 |
| Fate | Sunk, 1944, and scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Le Hardi-class destroyer |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 117.2 m (384 ft 6 in) (o/a) |
| Beam | 11.1 m (36 ft 5 in) |
| Draft | 3.8 m (12 ft 6 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph) |
| Range | 3,100 nautical miles (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement | 187 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
The French destroyer Le Flibustier was one of a dozen Le Hardi-class destroyers built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. Still incomplete when the French signed an armistice to end the Battle of France, material shortages prevented her completion and she was placed in reserve. The ship was renamed Bison in early 1941. When the Germans occupied Vichy France after the Allies landed in French North Africa in November 1942 and tried to seize the French fleet intact, the destroyer was one of the few ships not scuttled to prevent their capture. She was turned over to the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) in 1943, but was seized by the Germans after the Italian armistice in September. The ship was salvaged in 1945 and later scrapped.