French cruiser Amiral Cécille
Amiral Cécille was a protected cruiser of the French Navy, named in honour of Jean-Baptiste Cécille. The third vessel of that type built in France, her design was derived from her two predecessors, Sfax and Tage. Like those vessels, Amiral Cécille was intended to be used as a commerce raider to attack merchant shipping. As such, she carried a barque sailing rig to supplement her steam engines for long voyages overseas. Amiral Cécille was armed with a main battery of eight 164 mm (6.5 in) guns and had a curved armor deck that was 56 to 102 mm (2.2 to 4 in) thick.
Amiral Cécille at anchor | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Preceded by | Tage |
| Succeeded by | Davout |
| History | |
| France | |
| Name | Amiral Cécille |
| Namesake | Jean-Baptiste Cécille |
| Ordered | 23 November 1885 |
| Laid down | 1 September 1886 |
| Launched | 3 May 1888 |
| Commissioned | 26 January 1889 |
| Decommissioned | 24 September 1906 |
| Stricken | 27 August 1907 |
| Fate | Broken up, 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Displacement | 5,790.3 t (5,698.9 long tons; 6,382.7 short tons) |
| Length | 122.4 m (401 ft 7 in) loa |
| Beam | 15.03 m (49 ft 4 in) |
| Draft | 6.03 m (19 ft 9 in) |
| Installed power |
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| Propulsion |
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| Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 2,850 nmi (5,280 km; 3,280 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Crew | 486 |
| Armament |
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| Armor |
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Amiral Cécille had a relatively uneventful career. She spent the early 1890s with the main fleet in the Mediterranean Squadron, where she was primarily occupied with training exercises. After being overhauled in the mid-1890s, she was transferred to the Reserve Squadron in the Mediterranean, where she continued to participate in training maneuvers. The ship detached to join the Naval Division of the Atlantic Ocean in 1899, where she served for the next three years. Recalled home in 1902, she saw no further active service and she was hulked in 1907, before being broken up in 1919.