:French cruiser Sully

File:Gloire class cruiser diagrams Brasseys 1912.jpg

The Gloire-class ships were designed as enlarged and improved versions of the preceding {{sclass|Gueydon|cruiser|4}} by Emile Bertin. The ships measured {{convert|139.78|m|ftin|sp=us}} overall, with a beam of {{convert|20.2|m|ftin|sp=us}} and a draft of {{convert|7.55|m|ftin|sp=us}}. They displaced {{convert|9996|t|LT|sp=us|lk=on}}. Their crew numbered 25 officers and 590 enlisted men.Jordan & Caresse, p. 123

The sisters' propulsion machinery consisted of three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft, using steam provided by water-tube boilers, but the types of machinery differed between them. Sully had three-cylinder engines fed by 28 Belleville boilers that were designed to produce a total of {{convert|20500|PS|lk=on|sp=us}} intended to give them a maximum speed of {{convert|21|kn|lk=in}}. During her sea trials on 23 May 1903, the ship reached {{convert|21.41|kn}} from {{convert|20110|PS|sp=us}}. The cruisers carried enough coal to give them a range of {{convert|6500|nmi|lk=in}} at a speed of {{convert|10|kn}}.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 123, 131

The main battery of the Gloire class consisted of two quick-firing (QF) 194 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns mounted in single-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. Their secondary armament comprised eight QF 164.7 mm Modèle 1893–1896 guns and six QF Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1891 guns. Half of the 164.7 mm guns were in two singe-gun wing turrets on each broadside and all of the remaining guns were on single mounts in casemates in the hull.Chesneau & Kolesnik, p. 305 For defense against torpedo boats, they carried eighteen QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss and four {{convert|37|mm|adj=on|sp=us}} Hotchkiss guns, all of which were in single mounts. The sisters were also armed with five {{convert|450|mm|in|adj=on|1|sp=us}} torpedo tubes, of which two were submerged and three above water. Two of these were on each broadside and the fifth tube was in the stern. All of the above-water tubes were on pivot mounts. The ships varied in the number of naval mines that they could carry and Sully was fitted with storage for 10.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 125–126

The Gloire class were the first French armored cruisers to have their waterline armored belt made from Harvey face-hardened armor plates. The belt ranged in thickness from {{convert|70|to|150|mm|1|sp=us}}. Because of manufacturing limitations, the thinner end plates were nickel steel. Behind the belt was a cofferdam, backed by a longitudinal watertight bulkhead. The upper armored deck met the top of the belt and had a total thickness of {{convert|34|mm|in|1|sp=us}} while the lower armored deck curved down to meet the bottom of the belt and had a uniform thickness of {{convert|45|mm|in|1|sp=us}}.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 127–128

The main-gun turrets were protected by {{convert|161|mm|in|1|sp=us}} of Harvey armor, but their barbettes used {{convert|174|mm|in|1|sp=us|adj=on}} plates of ordinary steel. The face and sides of the secondary turrets were {{convert|92|mm|in|1|sp=us}} thick and the plates protecting their barbettes were {{convert|102|mm|in|sp=us|0}} thick. The casemates protecting the 100-millimeter guns also had a thickness of 102 millimeters. The face and sides of the conning tower were 174 millimeters thick.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 128–130

Sully, named after the statesman Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully,Silverstone, p. 112 was authorized in the 1898 Naval Program and was ordered from Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée on 24 May 1899. The ship was laid down on that same day at their shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer, launched on 4 June 1901, and completed in June 1904.Jordan & Caresse, pp. 115, 117–118

The ship was sent to French Indochina for her first commission. On 7 February 1905 Sully struck a rock in Hạ Long Bay; her crew was not injured. Her guns and equipment were salvaged, but the ship broke in two and was abandoned as a total loss.French Armored Cruiser Sully, p. 326

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905|editor1-last=Chesneau|editor1-first=Roger|editor2-last=Kolesnik|editor2-first=Eugene M.|publisher=Conway Maritime Press|location=Greenwich, UK|year=1979|isbn=0-8317-0302-4|name-list-style=amp|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2}}
• {{cite journal|year=1968|title=French Armored Cruiser Sully|journal=Warship International|publisher=Naval Records Club|volume=V|issue=4|pages=324–326|issn=0043-0374}}
• {{cite book |last1=Jordan |first1=John |last2=Caresse |first2=Philippe |title=French Armoured Cruisers 1887–1932 |date=2019 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |location=Barnsley, UK |isbn=978-1-5267-4118-9|name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book|last=Silverstone|first=Paul H.|title=Directory of the World's Capital Ships|year=1984|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York|isbn=0-88254-979-0}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://www.cityofart.net/bship/french_armor.html#gloire Later French Armored Cruisers, 1902-1911]

{{Gloire class cruiser}}

{{1905 shipwrecks}}

{{good article}}

{{coord missing|South China Sea}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sully}}

Category:1901 ships

Category:Ships built in France

Category:Gloire-class cruisers

Category:Maritime incidents in 1905

Category:Ships sunk with no fatalities

Category:Shipwrecks in the South China Sea