1925 SUFFREN Leader of a class of four heavy cruisers which entered service with the French Navy in the early 1930s.
THE SUFFREN CLASS
These four ships, sometimes referred to as First Class cruisers in their home land, were modified versions of the first French treaty cruisers, the Duquesne and the Tourville, with rather better protection at the expense of two knots off their top speed. They were ordered at a rate of one per year from 1925 to 1928, and all were constructed in the Naval Dockyard at Brest, on the Atlantic coast. No two were identical in design or appearance; Suffren and Colbert had auxiliary coal-fired boilers as well as the main oil fired units, to give extended range at low speed and also added protection, the 640 tons of coal they carried being located between the hull and the internal torpedo bulkhead, but Foch and Dupleix had extra armour plating instead.
THE CAREER OF THE SUFFREN
Work commenced on the Suffren in May 1926, and she was launched a year later, on 3 May 1927, Colbert following her onto the stocks two weeks later. Suffren was commissioned in 1930, and underwent a major refit three years later. She was interned by the British at Alexandria following the fall of France in June 1940, and joined the Free French Navy in May 1943. She served in Indo-China in 1945-46, and was disarmed and placed in reserve in 1949. At the end of 1962 she became an accommodation ship, and her name was changed to Ocean in 1964. Fate was kinder to her than to her three sisters, all of which were scuttled at Toulon on 27 November 1942 to prevent them falling into German hands.
TECHNICAL DATA
Type: Heavy cruiser
Machinery: 3-shaft Rateau-Bretagne geared turbines producing 90,000shp
Dimensions (overall): Length, 1 96m (643ft); beam, 20m (65.5ft)
Displacement: 11,290t standard; 12,780t deep load
Draught: 7.3m (24ft)
Complement: 602
