French battleship Liberté
Liberté in harbor
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| History | |
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 France
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| Name: | Liberté |
| Namesake: | Liberty |
| Builder: | Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire |
| Laid down: | December 1902 |
| Launched: | 19 April 1905 |
| Completed: | March 1908 |
| Fate: | Destroyed by accidental detonation of her magazines, 25 September 1911 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Liberté-class pre-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: | 14,860 t (14,630 long tons) |
| Length: | 133.81 m (439 ft 0 in) pp |
| Beam: | 24.26 m (79 ft 7 in) |
| Draft: | 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in) |
| Installed power: | 18,500 shp (13,800 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 3 Vertical triple-expansion steam engines |
| Speed: | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement: | 739–769 |
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Liberté was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. She was laid down in November 1902, launched in April 1905, and completed in March 1908, over a year after the revolutionary British battleship HMS Dreadnought made ships like Liberté obsolete. After her commissioning, Liberté was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. She served for only three and a half years; while moored in Toulon in September 1911, an explosion of badly degraded propellant charges detonated the forward ammunition magazines. Some 250 officers and men were killed, and the ship was totally destroyed. The wreck remained in the harbor until 1925, when it was raised and broken up for scrap.
Liberté was laid down at the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire shipyard in November 1902, launched on 19 April 1905, and completed in March 1908. This was over a year after the revolutionary British battleship HMS Dreadnought, which rendered the pre-dreadnoughts like Liberté outdated before they were completed. The ship was 133.81 meters (439 ft 0 in) long between perpendiculars and had a beam of 24.26 m (79 ft 7 in) and a full-load draft of 8.41 m (27 ft 7 in). She displaced up to 14,860 metric tons (14,630 long tons; 16,380 short tons) at full load. She had a crew of between 739 and 769 officers and enlisted men. The battleship was powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines with twenty-two Belleville boilers. They were rated at 18,500 indicated horsepower (13,800 kW) and provided a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). Coal storage amounted to 1,800 t (1,800 long tons; 2,000 short tons).
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