French cruiser Montcalm (1900)

Montcalm was a Gueydon-class cruiser armoured cruiser built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The ship saw service during World War I in the Pacific. Following the war, Montcalm was used as an accommodation ship. In 1934, the vessel was renamed Trémintin and was sunk during World War II by British aircraft.

Design and description
Designed by the naval architect Emile Bertin, the Gueydon-class ships were intended to fill the commerce-raiding strategy of the Jeune École. They measured 137.97 m long overall with a beam of 19.38 m and had a draught of 7.67 m. Montcalm displaced 9177 t. The ship had a crew of 566 officers and enlisted men.

The Gueydon class had three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. Steam for Montcalm's engines was provided by 20 Normand Sigaudy boilers and they were rated at a total of 20000 PS that gave them a speed of 21 kn. The ships carried up to 1575 t of coal and could steam for 8500 nmi at a speed of 10 kn.

The ships of the Gueydon class had a main armament that consisted of two 40-caliber 194 mm guns that were mounted in single gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised eight 45-caliber quick-firing (QF) 164 mm guns in casemates. For anti-torpedo boat defense, they carried four 45-caliber QF 100 mm guns on the forecastle deck, as well as ten QF 47 mm and four QF 37 mm Hotchkiss guns. They were also armed with two submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes.

The Harvey armor belt of the Gueydon-class cruisers covered most of the ships' hull. The lower strake of armor was generally 150 mm thick, although it reduced to 3.6 in forward, 3.2 in aft, and thinned to 2 in at its lower edge. The upper strake of armor had thicknesses of 3.8 - 3.2 in and 2.2 - 1.6 in between the main and upper decks. The curved lower protective deck ranged in thickness from 51 to 56 millimetres. In addition there was a light armor deck 0.8 in thick at the top of the lower armor strake. A watertight internal cofferdam, filled with cellulose, stretched between these two decks. The gun turrets were protected by 160 - 176 mm armor and had roofs 0.9 in thick. The 100-millimetre guns were protected by gun shields and the sides of the conning tower were 160 millimetres thick.

Construction and career
Laid down by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at their La Seyne-sur-Mer shipyard on 27 September 1898, she was launched on 27 March 1900 and was commissioned on 24 March 1902, before completing her trials, to ferry the President of the Republic, Émile Loubet, to Russia. Later that year she was commissioned for service in China. After the outbreak of World War I, Montcalm supported in the Australian capture of Rabaul in September 1914. She was decommissioned and hulked as an accommodation ship on 28 October 1926. The ship was renamed Trémintin on 26 September 1934. She was at Brest in 1940 and was there sunk by the Royal Air Force on 16 August 1944.