French destroyer Hussard
Hussard was one of seven s built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century.
Design and description
The Spahi-class was over 50 percent larger than the preceding to match the increase in size of foreign destroyers. Hussard had a length between perpendiculars of, a beam of, and a draft of. The ships displaced at deep load. Their crew numbered 77–79 officers and men.
Hussard was powered by two triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by four du Temple boilers. The engines were designed to produce which was intended to give the Spahi class a speed of. During her sea trials, Hussard reached a speed of. The ships carried enough coal to give them a range of at a cruising speed of.
The primary armament of the Spahi-class ships consisted of six Modèle 1902 guns in single mounts, one each fore and aft of the superstructure and the others were distributed amidships. They were also fitted with three torpedo tubes. One of these was in a fixed mount in the bow and the other two were on single rotating mounts amidships.
Construction and career
Hussard was ordered from Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire and was launched at their shipyard in Nantes on 12 September 1908. She was completed in September 1911. When the First World War began in August 1914, Hussard was assigned to the 4th Destroyer Flotilla of the 1st Naval Army. During the preliminary stages of the Battle of Antivari, Montenegro, on 16 August, the 1st, 4th and 5th Destroyer Flotillas were tasked to escort the core of the 1st Naval Army while the 2nd, 3rd and 6th Flotillas escorted the armored cruisers of the 2nd Light Squadron and two British cruisers. After reuniting both groups and spotting the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser and the destroyer, the French destroyers played no role in sinking the cruiser, although the 4th Flotilla was sent on an unsuccessful pursuit of Ulan. Having broken the Austro-Hungarian blockade of Antivari, Vice-Admiral Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, commander of the 1st Naval Army, decided to ferry troops and supplies to the port, escorted by the 2nd Light Squadron and the 1st and 6th Destroyer Flotillas while the rest of the 1st Naval Army bombarded the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro, Montenegro, on 1 September. Four days later, the fleet covered the evacuation of Danilo, Crown Prince of Montenegro to the Greek island of Corfu. The flotilla escorted multiple small convoys loaded with supplies and equipment to Antivari, beginning in October and lasting for the rest of the year, always covered by the larger ships of the Naval Army in futile attempts to lure the Austro-Hungarian fleet into battle.