FRENCH NAVAL CONSTRUCTION FOR 1901.

Evening Star, Issue 11434, 29 December 1900, Page 8

FRENCH NAVAL CONSTRUCTION FOR 1901.

The French shipbuilding programme for the year 1901 has just been issued. The no less than 111 vessels are in-dnded^an,:tJm-rißtementj;--btit 13 of these are to be completed during the present year, including the lena, a 12,000-tori battleship, and the submarines Farfadet and Algerien. During the year 1901 the battleships Henry IV., 9,000 tons, and Suffren, 12,000 tons, •the armored cruisers Jeanne d'Arc and Montcabpa, and the first class cruiser Jnrien de la Graviere, will be added to the French Navy, as well as the three destroyers Pertuisane,. Escopette, and Flamberge. Five submarines—the Sirene, Triton, Korrigan, Gnome, and Lutin—will also be completed, besides seven sea-going torpedo boats and twelve smaller boats. The battleship Henry IV. is building at Cherbourg, and is to be finished by April 1; the Suffren, at Brest, is to be ready by May 1. Two new battleships, known at present as the A 8 and AlO, laid down under the Act for the development of the fleet, are to be of a new type. They will have a displacement of 14,865 tons, 14,475 horse-power, 18 knot speed, and 8,390 miles radius of action when steaming at 10 knots. Their armament will include four heavy guns, eighteen guns of medium calibre, and 28 smaller pieces, with five torpedo tubes. The estimated cost of each is 35,500,000fr. These ships, it will be noticed, correspond very much to our Formidable type. Of armored cruisers France has in all fourteen under construction, divided into five different types. Of these the Jeanne d'Arc, to be completed towards the end of 1901, is the only vessel of her class. She has a displacement of 11,270 tons, and will cost nearly 17,000,000fr. This vessel, it will be observed, is a little smaller than our Oressy class, but is to have two knots extra speed—23 knots—as compared with tie 21 knots of the English ships. Three armored cruisers—the Dupetit Thouars, Gueydon, and Montcalm—have a displacement of 9,517 tons. They are being constructed at Toulon, Lorient, and La Seyne respectively. The speed of this class is to be 21 knots. After these come five cruisers of 10,014 tons—the Conde, Gloire, La Marseillaise, Sully, and Amiral Aube. The two first are building at Lorient, the third at Brest, and the other two at Seyne and Saint Nazaire respectively.

Theie are also three armored cruisers of 7,700 tons, specially designed for service in foreign waters. ,Tno twelve cruisers above mentioned wera laid dtwn before the close of the year 1899. In 1900 two vessels of a new type were commenced, the Jules Ferry and the Leon Gambetta, the former at Cherbourg and the latter at Brest. They are to be of 12,550 tons displacement, of 27,500 horse-power, and 22 knot speed. Lastly, an armored cruiser, known as Cl 3, similar to ..the Jules Ferry, will be commenced at Toulon during the coming year. With regard to protected cruisers, since it has been decided to discontinue building this type of vessel, there is but one under construction, the Jurien de la.Graviere, now building at v Lorient. She is to be completed by October I*. A distinctive feature of the new French programme is the entire absence of torpedo boats, either of the seagoing or harbor type, these having been given up in favor of the destroyers, which it is said " can keep the sea better and act more advantageously as scouts." Thus there remain* under construction only tbe sevan seagoing torpedo boats previously mentioned, and these will be completed in 1901. On the other hand, the building of destroyers will be pushed on energetically, fourteen being in hand, while ten others are to be laid down. These will be divided between the Government and private yards. - Much interest naturally centres in the construction of submarines. Altogether 17 such vessels are provided for. Two of these, as has already-been mentioned, arc "to be completed in 1900. The Triton and Sirene, building at Cherbourg, which were delayed in' construction pending the completion of the trials of the Narval, have lately been pushed forward. Two new submarines of the submersible type, the Silurc and Espadon, have been commenced at Cherbourg during the current year. During 1901 eight others will be put in hand, six at Toulon and two at Cherbourg: The complete flotilla of submarines, as at present arranged, will therefore consist of 22 vessels, of which seven will be completed in 1900, tire same number in 1901, five in 1902, and three in 1903.—' United Service Gazette.'