French destroyer Mousqueton

Mousqueton was a 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 Mediterranean 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, although Mousqueton was the slowest ship of her class at. 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

Mosqueton was ordered from Schneider et Cie on 29 May 1901 and the ship was laid down later that year at its shipyard in Chalons-sur-Saône. She was launched on 4 November 1902 and conducted her sea trials from September 1903 to May 1904. The ship was commissioned after their completion and was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron.
On 7 July 1914, Mousqueton collided with and sank the in the Mediterranean Sea off Toulon, France. Calypsos entire crew of 26 was rescued.
When the First World War began in August 1914, Mousqueton was a leader in the 2nd Submarine and Destroyer Flotilla of the 1st Naval Army, based at Bizerte, French Tunisia.
According to a British report of 5 June, Mousqueton and the destroyers and were assigned to patrol the area around Cape Matapan, Greece.