Ateliers & Chantiers de France
The French destroyer Vauquelin sliding down the ways on 29 March 1931
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| Industry | Shipbuilding |
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| Founded | July 6, 1898 in Dunkirk, France |
| Defunct | 1987 |
| Headquarters | Dunkirk, France |
The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF, Workshops and Shipyards of France) was a major shipyard that was established in Dunkirk, France in 1898. The shipyard boomed in the period before World War I (1914–18), but struggled in the inter-war period. It was badly damaged during World War II (1939–45). In the first thirty years after the war the shipyard again experienced a boom and employed up to 3,000 workers making oil tankers, and then liquid natural gas tankers. Demand dropped off in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1972 the shipyard became Chantiers de France-Dunkerque, and in 1983 merged with others yards to become part of Chantiers du Nord et de la Mediterranee, or Normed. The shipyard closed in 1987.
The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF) company was officially founded on 6 July 1898 by a consortium of six shipping brokers, the Dunkirk chamber of commerce and the state. The state asked that the shipyard be able to build steamships and also four-masted barques and clippers with metal hulls. The state ceded the public land within the fortifications of Dunkirk to the east of the channel, and undertook levelling of the site and excavation of a launching basin. The work proceeded smoothly. Six slipways were built on a site of 11 hectares (27 acres) to the east of the city. The new facility was the first in France to power its machinery with electricity.
The ACF was highly successful in its first few years. One of the first directors was Florent Guillain. The first ship was the Adolphe III, launched on 22 March 1902. This was a four-master with a riveted hull intended for the Atlantic trade. By this time the shipyard had 800–900 workers, including some from Saint-Nazaire and some from across the border in Belgium. Apprentices were recruited for training at the age of 12. The shipyard was busy in the period before World War I (1914–18) building trawlers, cargo chips and cruise boats. The workforce rose to almost 1,900. The first of ten passenger liners was the luxurious Asie, launched on 10 February 1914.
The ACF was less active during World War I since over 60% of the workers had been mobilized in the armed forces. The shipyard concentrated on repair and renovation of warships and manufacture of weapons and ammunition. In 1914 the Forges at Chantiers de France fitted armor on three cars at the request of a Royal Naval Air Service squadron in Dunkirk. One of these, a 50 hp Rolls-Royce, was thus the first Rolls-Royce armored car. The armor was 6mm boiler plate, so could only protect against a rifle bullet from a distance of 600 yards (550 m) or more.
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