French destroyer Baliste

Baliste was a Arquebuse-class destroyer contre-torpilleur d'escadre built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed in 1904, the ship was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (Escadre du Nord).

Design and description
The Arquebuse class was designed as a faster version of the preceding Durandal-class destroyer. The ships had an overall length of 56.58 m, a beam of 6.3 m, and a maximum draft of 3.2 m. They normally displaced 307 t and 357 t at deep load. The two vertical triple-expansion steam engines each drove one propeller shaft using steam provided by two du Temple Guyot or Normand boilers. The engines were designed to produce a total of 6300 ihp for a designed speed of 28 kn, all the ships exceeded their contracted speed during their sea trials with Baliste reaching a speed of 29.9 kn. They carried enough coal to give them a range of 2300 nmi at 10 kn. Their crew consisted of four officers and fifty-eight enlisted men.

The main armament of the Arquebuse-class ships consisted of a single 65 mm gun forward of the bridge and six 47 mm Hotchkiss guns in single mounts, three on each broadside. They were fitted with two single rotating mounts for 381 mm torpedo tubes on the centerline, one between the funnels and the other on the stern.

Construction and career
Baliste (Ballista) was ordered from Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët on 29 May 1901 and the ship was laid down on 20 November 1902 at its shipyard in Rouen-Grand Quévilly. She was launched on 22 October 1903 and conducted her sea trials from December to June 1904. The ship was commissioned (armement définitif) after their completion and was assigned to the Northern Squadron.

By 1908, Baliste was serving in the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Northern Squadron.

In October 1914, Baliste was employed on patrols off the western end of the English Channel. Later in the war she was based at Bizerte and then Salonika. She was stricken and sold for scrap on 30 October 1919.