French cruiser Chasseloup-Laubat

Chasseloup-Laubat was a protected cruiser of the Friant class built in the 1890s for the French Navy, the last of three ships of the class. The Friant-class cruisers were ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force. At the time, France was concerned with the growing naval threat of the Italian and German fleets, and the new cruisers were intended to serve with the main fleet, and overseas in the French colonial empire. Chasseloup-Laubat and her two sister ships were armed with a main battery of six 164 mm (6.5 in) guns, were protected by an armor deck that was 30 to 80 mm (1.2 to 3.1 in) thick, and were capable of steaming at a top speed of 18.7 knots (34.6 km/h; 21.5 mph).

Chasseloup-Laubat spent her early career in the Northern Squadron, which was based in the English Channel. During this period, her time was primarily occupied conducting training exercises. She was sent to East Asia in response to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China by 1901, and she remained there through 1902. Chasseloup-Laubat had returned to France at some point before 1907, and she participated in a visit to the United States that year for the Jamestown Exposition. She served with the Northern Squadron in 1908, was hulked in 1911, and disarmed in 1913. After the start of World War I in 1914, Chasseloup-Laubat was converted into a distilling ship to support the main French fleet at Corfu. She was eventually sunk in 1926 in the bay of Nouadhibou, Mauritania.