French destroyer Catapulte

Catapulte at anchor
History
France
Name	Catapulte
Namesake	Catapult
Ordered	1901
Builder	Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne-sur-Mer
Laid down	1901
Launched	1 April 1903
Fate	Sunk in collision 18 May 1918
General characteristics
Class and type	Arquebuse-class destroyer
Displacement	323 t (318 long tons)
Length	58.26 m (191 ft 2 in) (o/a)
Beam	6.38 m (20 ft 11 in)
Draft	3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
Installed power	6,300 ihp (4,698 kW) 2 Normand or Du Temple boilers
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 Triple-expansion steam engines
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	2,300 nmi (4,300 km; 2,600 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	60
Armament	1 × 65 mm (2.6 in) gun 6 × 47 mm (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns 2 × 380 mm (15 in) torpedo tubes

Catapulte was one of 20 Arquebuse-class destroyers built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She saw service during World War I.

On 11 May 1918, Caiatpulte assisted several other ships in rescuing the survivors of the French troopship Sant Anna, which was carrying 2,025 troops when she was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 605 lives by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-54 26 nautical miles east of Cape Bon, French Tunisia.

On 18 May 1918, Catapulte collided with the British steamer Warrimoo. Both ships sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Bône, French Algeria.^[1][2]

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. (1979). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-133-5.
• Couhat, Jean Labayle (1974). French Warships of World War I. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0445-5.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal (1985). Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-245-5.