French battleship Suffren

Illustration of Suffren off the Dardanelles in 1915
Class overview
Operators:	French Navy
Preceded by:	Iéna
Succeeded by:	République-class battleship
Built:	1898–1904
In service:	1904–1916
Completed:	1
Lost:	1
History
France
Name:	Suffren
Namesake:	Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez
Ordered:	21 April 1898
Builder:	Arsenal de Brest
Laid down:	5 January 1899
Launched:	25 July 1899
Commissioned:	3 February 1904
Fate:	Torpedoed by U-52, 26 November 1916
General characteristics
Type:	Pre-dreadnought battleship
Displacement:	12,432 tonnes (12,236 long tons) (designed) 12,892 tonnes (12,688 long tons) (full load)
Length:	125.91 m (413 ft 1 in)
Beam:	21.42 m (70 ft 3 in)
Draught:	8.22 m (27 ft 0 in)
Installed power:	16,200 ihp (12,100 kW)
Propulsion:	3 shafts, 3 vertical triple expansion steam engines 24 Niclausse boilers
Speed:	17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Range:	4,086 nautical miles (7,570 km; 4,700 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	668 (normal), 742 (flagship)
Armament:	2 × 2 - 305 mm (12.0 in) Mle 1893/96 guns 10 × 1 - 164 mm (6.5 in) 1893/96 guns 8 × 1 - 100 mm (3.9 in) Mle 1893 guns 20 × 1 - 47 mm (1.9 in) Mle 1885 Hotchkiss guns 2 × 1 - 37 mm (1.5 in) Mle 1885 Hotchkiss guns 4 × 450-millimetre (18 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 300 mm (11.8 in) Decks: 60 mm (2.4 in) Barbettes: 250 mm (9.8 in) Main Turrets: 290 mm (11.4 in) Bulkheads: 110 mm (4.3 in)

Suffren was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy, launched in July 1899. She was named after French Vice Admiral Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez. The ship was originally intended to be a modified version of the Iéna design with more firepower and better armour. Before World War I Suffren had an eventful career as she twice collided with French ships and twice had propeller shafts break. She was quickly sent to the Dardanelles after the beginning of the war to reinforce British forces already there.

Suffren joined the British ships in multiple bombardments of the Ottoman fortifications at the mouth of the Dardanelles. She was moderately damaged during the major action of 18 March 1915 and had to be sent to Toulon for repairs. Upon their completion she returned to provide gunfire support for the Allied forces during the Gallipoli Campaign. The ship provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships. After repairs she was assigned to the French squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front. While en route to Lorient for a refit Suffren was torpedoed off Lisbon on 26 November 1916 and sunk with all hands.

To save time Suffren was only intended to be an updated version of Iéna with modest improvements in armament and armour, but the number of improvements grew as the project was discussed by the Naval Council (French: Conseil des travaux de la Marine) so that she was essentially a new design, only retaining some of Iéna's layout. The biggest changes were the mounting of the bulk of the secondary armament in turrets, rather than Iéna's casemates, and the constant thickness of the waterline belt armour compared to Iéna's belt which thinned towards the ends of the ship. Stowage of shells for the main armament also increased from 45 to 60 rounds per gun.