French cruiser Naïade

Naïade was an unprotected cruiser of the French Navy that was built in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The ship was laid down in 1878 and completed in 1883. Intended to serve as a long-range commerce raider, the ship was fitted with a sailing rig to supplement its steam engine on long voyages, and she carried an armament of four 165 mm and twenty-two 140 mm guns. She was among the final French unprotected cruisers, thereafter being replaced by more durable protected cruisers.

After entering service in 1883, Naïade was sent to French Madagascar to serve as the flagship of the squadron based there. She returned to France in 1886 and spent the next several years as a training ship. She visited the United States in 1893 before being placed in reserve in 1895. She remained out of service for the next four years, ultimately being struck from the naval register in 1899 and sold to ship breakers the following year.

Design
In 1878, the French Navy embarked on a program of cruiser construction authorized by the Conseil des Travaux (Council of Works) for a strategy aimed at attacking British merchant shipping in the event of war. The program called for ships of around 3000 LT with a speed of 16 kn. Four vessels were ordered, including Naïade; the vessels were dated designs more similar to the first screw frigates that had been built in the 1850s than the latest protected cruisers being designed abroad. Naïade and the other three vessels were the final generation of unprotected cruisers built in France, that type thereafter being replaced by protected cruisers beginning with FRENCH CRUISER Sfax in the early 1880s.

The design for Naïade was prepared in 1877 by Romain Leopold Eynaud, which was selected by the Conseil des Travaux on 10 July. Eynaud's work incorporated features of the British corvette HMS Boadicea (1875), the plans for which had been given to France by Britain. Albert Gicquel des Touches, the Minister of the Navy, and Vice Admiral Albert Roussin made several alterations to Eynaud's design, including improvements to the machinery, more modern guns, substitution of iron for wood in the hull construction, and the addition of watertight compartments. The updated plan was approved on 4 February 1878.

Characteristics
Naïade was 72.53 m long at the waterline and 74.86 m long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 14.15 m and an average draft of 6.69 m. She displaced 3527 t. Her hull was constructed with wood; she had a clipper bow and an overhanging stern. She had a forecastle and sterncastle. The ship had no armor protection. Her crew consisted of 496 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was propelled by a single horizontal, 3-cylinder compound steam engine that drove a screw propeller. Steam was provided by eight coal-burning fire-tube boilers that were ducted into a single funnel located amidships. Coal storage amounted to 450 LT. The power plant was rated to produce 3300 ihp, but during her initial speed testing, they only reached 2412 ihp for a top speed of 13.87 kn. The ship carried 503 t of coal, and at a cruising speed of 10 kn, Naïade could steam for 5810 nmi. To supplement her steam engines, she was fitted with a three-masted full ship rig.

As originally built, the ship was armed with a main battery of four 164.7 mm M1870 21-caliber (cal.) guns; two were placed in embrasures in the bow as chase guns, and the other pair were at the stern. These were supported by a secondary battery of sixteen 138.6 mm M1870 21.3-cal. guns in a broadside battery, eight guns per side. In addition, she carried a pair of 350 mm torpedo tubes above the waterline; these were on moveable carriages that were typically placed in broadside ports just ahead of the battery, but could be moved to launching ports in the bow or stern.

The ship's armament underwent several alterations over the course of her career. As completed in 1883, the two stern 165 mm guns were replaced with 138.6 M1870M 21.3-cal. guns, and ten of the battery guns were replaced with the updated M1870M variants. Ten 37 mm guns were added to provide close-range defense against torpedo boats. In 1886, the remaining 164.7 mm guns were replaced with M1881 guns of the same caliber, but they were moved down a deck level. A pair of 65 mm guns and a single 47 mm gun were added in 1890, and three 37 mm M1885 quick-firing guns were installed in 1894.

Service history
The new ship was ordered on 24 January 1878 and the keel for Naïade was laid down on 25 February at the Arsenal de Brest. She was launched on 6 January 1881 and was commissioned to begin sea trials in June 1882. The initial testing revealed significant problems with her engines. She was placed in reserve for modifications on 9 August, before being recommissioned on 20 February 1883. She carried out further trials, which lasted until 11 May. The ship was pronounced complete and then reduced to reserve status on 1 June.

On 10 August 1883, Naïade was recommissioned for an overseas deployment. She was sent to French Madagascar to replace the old cruiser FRENCH CRUISER Flore. Naïade remained there for the next three years, patrolling the region and protecting French interests in the Indian Ocean. By 1886, she served as the flagship of a squadron that also included the cruisers FRENCH CRUISER Forfait, FRENCH CRUISER Lapérouse, and FRENCH CRUISER Limier, the gunboats FRENCH GUNBOAT Pique, FRENCH GUNBOAT Chacal, and FRENCH GUNBOAT Capricorne, and the aviso FRENCH AVISO Labourdonnais. The ships were supported by a pair of transport vessels. Later that year, she was relieved by the cruiser FRENCH CRUISER Nielly.

After Naïade returned to France, she was modernized slightly and thereafter used for training. The navy considered replacing the ship's M1870 guns with improved M1870M guns during another refit in 1892, but the proposal came to nothing. Instead, she received eight new Belleville boilers. In 1893, while serving as the flagship of the Division navale volante et d'instruction (Flying and Training Naval Division), she visited New York, United States. She remained with the unit the following year, which also included the unprotected cruisers FRENCH CRUISER Nielly and FRENCH CRUISER Rigault de Genouilly. In February 1895, the unit returned to Brest, where it was temporarily deactivated; Naïade and the other two cruisers were placed in the 2nd category of reserve. She was struck from the naval register on 1 December 1899 and was then sold on 29 March 1900 to a M. Pitel of Brest, France, where she was subsequently broken up.