French cruiser D'Assas

	D'Assas; note her yards tilted in opposite directions, a sign of mourning
History
France
Name	D'Assas
Ordered	15 November 1893
Builder	Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire
Laid down	1 April 1894
Launched	28 March 1896
Completed	23 April 1898
Commissioned	24 March 1897
Decommissioned	1 January 1908
Stricken	9 September 1910
Fate	Broken up
General characteristics
Class and type	D'Assas-class cruiser
Displacement	3,944.6 t (3,882.3 long tons; 4,348.2 short tons)
Length	99.64 m (326 ft 11 in) loa
Beam	13.68 m (44 ft 11 in)
Draft	5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Installed power	20 × water-tube boilers; 10,000 ihp (7,500 kW);
Propulsion	2 × triple-expansion steam engines; 2 × screw propellers;
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	370–392
Armament	6 × 164.7 mm (6.5 in) guns; 4 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns; 10 × 47 mm (1.9 in) guns; 2 × 37 mm (1.5 in) guns; 3 × 37 mm Hotchkiss revolver cannon; 2 × 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes;
Armor	Deck: 30 to 80 mm (1.2 to 3.1 in); Conning tower:80 mm; Gun shields: 54 mm (2.1 in);

D'Assas was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers built for the French Navy in the 1890s. The D'Assas-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. D'Assas was armed with a main battery of six 164 mm (6.5 in) guns, was protected by an armor deck that was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick, and was capable of steaming at a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph).

D'Assas initially served with the Mediterranean Squadron after entering service in 1898, and by 1901, she had been transferred to the Northern Squadron. During this period, she was occupied with routine peacetime training exercises with the rest of the main French fleets in home waters. In 1904, she was assigned to France's cruiser squadron in East Asia, and the following year, she assisted with the unsuccessful attempt to re-float the armored cruiser Sully after it ran aground. D'Assas passed the next several years uneventfully and was struck from the naval register in 1910; she was then used as a storage hulk before being sold to ship breakers in 1914.

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