French destroyer Harpon


Harpon 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 initially 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 Harpon 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

Harpon was ordered from Ateliers et Chantiers de la Gironde on 14 November 1900 and the ship was laid down later that month at its shipyard in Bordeaux-Lormont. She was launched on 20 October 1902 and conducted her sea trials from November 1902 to March 1903. The ship was commissioned after their completion and was assigned to the Northern Squadron.
In July 1909 Harpon was tasked with escorting Hubert Latham's attempt at crossing the pas-de-Calais with his Antoinette monoplane aircraft. The antoinette motor, a state of the art but temperamental V8 fuel injected engine failed in mid air and Latham had to ditch some ten miles west of Calais. Newspapers reported that Latham, who couldn't swim and had no lifejacket calmly climbed the tail of his slowly sinking aircraft and lit a cigarette waiting for his escorting destroyer to ome along and fish him out. His aircraft was salvaged by naval tug Calaisien and bought back to Calais
When the First World War began in August 1914, Harpon was in the reserve of the 2nd Light Squadron based at Cherbourg. The ship was not mobilized until later in the year and was assigned to the Dunkirk Flotilla.