French sloop Gazelle
Gazelle was a minesweeper built for the French Navy during the late 1930s. Completed in 1939, she participated in the Second World War, playing a minor role in the Battle of Dakar in 1940 and was there when French West Africa joined the Free French two years later. During the Cold War she served in the First Indochina War and the Algerian War before she was scrapped in 1961.
Description
The Chamois class had a standard displacement of and displaced at deep load when serving as a minesweeper. The vessels were long overall and between perpendiculars with a beam of and a draught of at deep load. They were powered by two Sulzer diesel engines rated at a total of, each driving one propeller shaft which gave them a speed of. The ships had storage for of fuel oil which provided a maximum range of at, at and at. They were fitted with an auxiliary rudder built into the bow. The Chamois-class ships had a complement of 90 in their minesweeper role, 101 as a colonial minesweeper and 117 as a navigation training ship.The main battery of the Chamois class was intended to consist of two 45-calibre guns, in a single twin-gun mounting on the aft superstructure, but the mount was not yet available and a single elderly 100 mm gun was installed in its place. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by eight Hotchkiss Mle 1929 machineguns. One quadruple mount was positioned forward of the bridge and two twin mounts were located on the forward superstructure between the bridge and the funnel, one on each broadside. The ships were fitted with a depth charge rack at the stern and some ships, including Gazelle, had four throwers located amidships, two on each side, rather than the pair that most ships were equipped with. All of the ships carried 20 depth charges weighing apiece.