French seaplane carrier Commandant Teste

Commandant Teste
History
France
Name:	Commandant Teste
Namesake:	Paul Teste
Builder:	FC Gironde in Bordeaux
Laid down:	6 September 1927
Launched:	12 April 1929
In service:	18 April 1932
Reclassified:	As gunnery training ship June 1941
Fate:	Scuttled on 27 November 1942, raised February 1945, sold for scrap 15 May 1950
General characteristics
Type:	seaplane tender
Displacement:	10,000 long tons (10,000 t) (standard) 12,134 tonnes (11,942 long tons) (full load)
Length:	167 m (547 ft 11 in)
Beam:	27 m (88 ft 7 in)
Installed power:	23,230 shp (17,320 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × geared steam turbines 4 water-tube boilers 2 × shafts
Speed:	21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement:	644
Armament:	12 × 100 mm (3.9 in) Mle. 1927 guns 8 37 mm (1.5 in) Mle. 1925 anti-aircraft guns (8 × 1) 12 × 13.2 mm (0.520 in) Mle. 1929 anti-aircraft machine guns (6 × 2)
Armor:	Belt: 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) Deck: 2.4–3.6 cm (0.9–1.4 in) Conning tower: 8 cm (3.1 in)
Aircraft carried:	26 seaplanes
Aviation facilities:	4 × catapults 5 × recovery cranes

Commandant Teste was a large seaplane tender of the French Navy (French: Marine Nationale) built before World War II. She was designed to be as large as possible without counting against the Washington Treaty limits. During the Spanish Civil War, she protected neutral merchant shipping and played a limited role during World War II as she spent the early part of the war in North African waters or acting as an aviation transport between France and North Africa. She was slightly damaged during the British bombardment of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940. Commandant Teste was scuttled at Toulon when the Germans invaded Vichy France in November 1942, but was refloated after the war and considered for conversion to an escort or training carrier. Neither proposal was accepted and she was sold for scrap in 1950.

After the completion of aircraft carrier Béarn, the Marine Nationale desired another aviation vessel, but the lack of another hull that could cheaply be converted made another aircraft carrier too expensive. It settled for a seaplane carrier (French: transport d'aviation) that could act as a mobile aviation base and support seaplanes for a specific attack. The ship was restricted to a maximum size of 10,000 t (9,800 long tons) at standard displacement, which prevented her from counting against France's 60,000 long tons (61,000 t) Washington Treaty carrier allotment. This also served to keep her costs relatively low.

Commandant Teste was 167 m (547 ft 11 in) long overall. She had a maximum beam of 27 m (88 ft 7 in) and a draught of 6.7 m (22 ft 0 in). She displaced 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) at standard load, 11,500 t (11,300 long tons) at normal load and 12,134 t (11,942 long tons) at full load.

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