French cruiser Forbin
Forbin was the lead ship of the French Forbin class of protected cruisers, built in the late 1880s to serve as fast scouts for the main battle fleet. She was designed with armor protection, high speed for her time, and a main battery of four 138.6 mm guns.
Design and specs (simple view)
- Displacement about 1,857 tons; length ~96 meters; beam ~9.3 meters.
- Propulsion: two compound steam engines, six coal-fired boilers, top speed around 20 knots.
- Armament: four 138.6 mm guns, several smaller anti-torpedo gun and revolver cannon; four 356 mm torpedo tubes.
- Armor: a 40 mm thick deck.
- Crew: about 209 men.
Service history (short version)
- Ordered in 1886, keel laid in May 1886, launched January 1888, and commissioned in February 1889.
- Spent much of the 1890s with the Mediterranean Squadron, then the Reserve Squadron, taking part in annual exercises.
- Suffered a propellant fire in 1901 caused by unstable charges but was only lightly damaged.
- Modernized in the early 1900s: upgraded boilers, some guns removed or replaced, and sails reduced/removed.
- In 1911 she moved to the Moroccan Naval Division. Decommissioned in November 1911 and struck in November 1913.
- Reused as a storage hulk from 1913, then converted in 1917–1918 during World War I to a coal-storage ship with space for 1,250 tons of coal.
- Towed to Corfu in 1918, then to Piraeus, and sold for scrap in 1921.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:34 (CET).