French destroyer Catapulte


Catapulte was a contre-torpilleur d'escadre built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed in 1903, the ship was assigned to the Northern Squadron.

Design and description

The Arquebuse class was designed as a faster version of the preceding. The ships had an overall length of, a beam of, and a maximum draft of. They normally displaced and 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 for a designed speed of, all the ships exceeded their contracted speed during their sea trials with Catapulte reaching a speed of. They carried enough coal to give them a range of at. Their crew consisted of four officers and fifty-eight enlisted men.
The main armament of the Arquebuse-class ships consisted of a single gun forward of the bridge and six [QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss|] Hotchkiss guns in single mounts, three on each broadside. They were fitted with two single rotating mounts for torpedo tubes on the centerline, one between the funnels and the other on the stern.

Construction and career

Catapulte was ordered from Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée on 29 May 1901 and the ship was laid down later that year at its shipyard in Le Havre-Graville. She was launched on 1 April 1903 and conducted her sea trials during May–September 1903. The ship was commissioned the following month after their completion and was assigned to the Northern Squadron.
When the First World War began in August 1914, Catapulte was assigned to the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla of the 2nd Light Squadron based at Cherbourg.
On 11 May 1918, Catapulte assisted several other ships in rescuing the survivors of the French troopship, which was carrying 2,025 troops when she was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 605 lives by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-54 26 nautical miles east of Cape Bon, French Tunisia.
On 18 May 1918, Catapulte was escorting a convoy carrying troops from Bizerte to Marseille. Off Bône, French Algeria, the destroyer collided with the British steamer, some of Catapultes depth charges broke loose, fell into the sea and detonated, sinking both ships. 58 of Catapultes crew and one person aboard Warrimoo were killed.