French cruiser Pascal

{{main|Descartes-class cruiser}}

File:Descartes class drawing.jpg

In response to a war scare with Italy in the late 1880s, the French Navy embarked on a major construction program in 1890 to counter the threat of the Italian fleet and that of Italy's ally Germany. The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire. The Descartes class, which comprised {{ship|French cruiser|Descartes||2}} and Pascal, was ordered to as part of the program.{{sfn|Ropp|pp=195–197}}{{sfn|Campbell|pp=310–311}} The design for the Descartes class was based on the earlier cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Davout||2}}, but was enlarged to incorporate a more powerful gun armament.{{sfn|Roberts|p=242}}

Pascal was {{cvt|100.7|m|ftin}} long overall, with a beam of {{cvt|12.95|m|ftin}} and an average draft of {{cvt|6.01|m|ftin}}. She displaced {{cvt|4005|t|lk=on}} as designed. Her crew varied over the course of her career, and consisted of 383–401 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by sixteen coal-burning Belleville-type water-tube boilers that were ducted into two funnels. Her machinery was rated to produce {{convert|8300|ihp|lk=on}} for a top speed of {{convert|19|kn|lk=in}}, but she exceeded these figures on trials, reaching {{convert|19.7|kn}} from {{cvt|8943|ihp}}.{{sfn|Campbell|p=311}}{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}} She had a cruising radius of {{convert|5500|nmi|lk=in}} at {{convert|10|kn}} and {{cvt|1000|nmi}} at 19.5 knots.{{sfn|France|p=32}}

The ship was armed with a main battery of four Canon de 164 mm Modèle 1893. They were placed in individual sponsons clustered amidships, two guns per broadside. These were supported by a secondary battery of ten Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1891, which were carried in sponsons, casemates, and individual pivot mounts. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried eight QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss and four QF 1-pounder pom-pom. She was also armed with two {{cvt|356|mm|0}} torpedo tubes in her hull above the waterline. Armor protection consisted of a curved armor deck that was {{cvt|20|to|40|mm}} thick on its sloped sides and {{cvt|25|mm|0}} on the flat portion, along with {{cvt|80|mm}} plating on the sides of the conning tower. The main and secondary guns were fitted with {{cvt|54|mm}} gun shields.{{sfn|Campbell|p=311}}{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}}

Work on Pascal began with her keel laying in Toulon on 4 December 1893. She was launched on 26 September 1895 and was commissioned to begin sea trials on 20 May 1896.{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}} During her initial testing, she was found to suffer from stability problems and had to receive additional ballast to correct the problem.{{sfn|Campbell|p=311}}{{sfn|Smigielski|p=193}} Work on the ship was completed in 1897,{{sfn|Service Performed|p=299}} and she was placed in full commission for active service on 1 June. On 6 July, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron, based in Toulon.{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}} With the beginning of the unrest that led to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China in 1898, many European colonial powers began to reinforce their naval forces in East Asia. Pascal was sent to the region in January 1898 to reinforce the French squadron there, which at that time also included the old ironclad {{ship|French ironclad|Bayard||2}}, the protected cruisers Descartes and {{ship|French cruiser|Jean Bart||2}}, and the unprotected cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Duguay-Trouin|1877|2}}.{{sfn|Service Performed|p=299}}{{sfn|Brassey 1898|pp=59–60}}

Pascal remained in East Asian waters in 1899, along with Descartes and Duguay-Trouin, though Jean Bart was recalled home.{{sfn|Brassey 1899|p=73}} After the uprising broke out in China late that year, the French considerably strengthened the squadron in the Far East; by January 1901, they had assembled a force of nine cruisers, including Pascal.{{sfn|Jordan & Caresse|p=218}} She remained in East Asian waters in 1902,{{sfn|Brassey 1902|p=51}} but with fighting over in China, the unit began to be reduced in size. By 1903, the unit consisted of the armored cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Montcalm|1900|2}} and the protected cruisers {{ship|French cruiser|Châteaurenault|1898|2}} and {{ship|French cruiser|Bugeaud||2}}, in addition to Pascal.{{sfn|Brassey 1903|p=62}} In April that year, Pascal joined a naval review held for the Japanese Emperor Meiji in Kobe, Japan. The foreign naval contingent included the British pre-dreadnought battleship {{HMS|Glory|1899|6}} and protected cruiser {{HMS|Blenheim|1890|2}}, the German protected cruiser {{SMS|Hansa|1898|6}}, the Italian protected cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Calabria||2}}, and the Russian protected cruiser {{ship|Russian cruiser|Askold||2}}.{{sfn|The Naval Review at Kobe|p=433}} Pascal continued to operate in French Indochina in 1904, but she was in poor condition by that time and was unable to steam faster than {{convert|16|to|18|kn}}.{{sfn|Brassey 1904|p=90}}

In February 1904, she was at Chemulpo Bay, Korea, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out. She and several other neutral warships—including the British cruiser {{HMS|Talbot|1895|6}}, the Italian cruiser {{ship|Italian cruiser|Elba||2}}, and the United States' gunboat {{USS|Vicksburg|PG-11|6}}—observed the Battle of Chemulpo Bay on 9 February. {{lang|fr|Pascal}}, Talbot, and {{lang|it|Elba}} cleared for action in the event that the Japanese warships opened fire on them. After the battle ended in a Russian defeat, the three cruisers sent boats to pick up the survivors from the sinking cruiser {{ship|Russian cruiser|Varyag|1899|2}} and gunboat {{ship|Russian gunboat|Korietz||2}}. The three cruisers rescued a total of 27 officers and 654 enlisted saved from the two Russian ships; Pascal later evacuated them to Saigon, French Indochina.{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}}{{sfn|May|pp=142, 145–146, 149}}

Pascal had returned to France by early 1905, and she was placed in reserve at Toulon on 15 February. She was to undergo a major overhaul, but a report dated 12 July determined that by the time work was completed in 1906, the military value of a reconditioned Pascal would be at best mediocre, and so the planned reconstruction was cancelled and the ship lay idle until she was decommissioned on 10 June 1909. She was then struck from the naval register on 24 March 1910 and was placed for sale on 1 August 1911, along with several other older vessels, including the ironclads {{ship|French ironclad|Amiral Baudin||2}} and {{ship|French ironclad|Magenta||2}} and the unprotected cruiser {{ship|French cruiser|Milan||2}}. The ship breaker M. Bénédic purchased Pascal that day and dismantled the ship in La Seyne-sur-Mer in 1912.{{sfn|Roberts|p=243}}

{{reflist|20em}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Brassey

|first=Thomas A.

|author-link=Thomas Brassey, 2nd Earl Brassey

|title=Chapter III: Relative Strength

|journal=The Naval Annual

|year=1898

|location=Portsmouth

|publisher=J. Griffin & Co.

|pages=56–66

|oclc=496786828

|ref={{sfnRef|Brassey 1898}}

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KhcuAAAAYAAJ

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Brassey

|first=Thomas A.

|title=Chapter III: Relative Strength

|journal=The Naval Annual

|year=1899

|location=Portsmouth

|publisher=J. Griffin & Co.

|pages=70–80

|oclc=496786828

|ref={{sfnRef|Brassey 1899}}

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pNIAQAAMAAJ

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Brassey

|first=Thomas A.

|title=Chapter III: Relative Strength

|journal=The Naval Annual

|year=1902

|location=Portsmouth

|publisher=J. Griffin & Co.

|pages=47–55

|oclc=496786828

|ref={{sfnRef|Brassey 1902}}

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=089HAQAAMAAJ

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Brassey

|first=Thomas A.

|title=Chapter III: Relative Strength

|journal=The Naval Annual

|year=1903

|location=Portsmouth

|publisher=J. Griffin & Co.

|pages=57–68

|oclc=496786828

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9pBIAQAAMAAJ

|ref={{sfnRef|Brassey 1903}}

}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Brassey

|first=Thomas A.

|title=Chapter IV: Comparative Strength

|journal=The Naval Annual

|year=1904

|location=Portsmouth

|publisher=J. Griffin & Co.

|pages=86–107

|oclc=496786828

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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpNIAQAAMAAJ

}}

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| editor1-last = Gardiner

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| title = Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905

| publisher = Conway Maritime Press

| location = London

| isbn = 978-0-85177-133-5

| ref = {{sfnRef|Campbell}}

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/conwaysallworlds0000unse_l2e2

}}

• {{cite journal

| title = France

| date=July 1896

| journal = Notes on the Year's Naval Progress

| volume = XV

| pages = 27–41

| publisher = United States Office of Naval Intelligence

| location = Washington, D.C.

| oclc = 727366607

| ref={{sfnref|France}}

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|last1=Jordan

|first1=John

|last2=Caresse

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|title=French Battleships of World War One

|date=2017

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|isbn=978-1-59114-639-1

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|last=May

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}}

• {{cite book

|last=Roberts

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|title=French Warships in the Age of Steam 1859–1914

|year=2021

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}}

• {{cite book

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| first = Theodore

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| editor-last = Roberts

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| year = 1987

| location = Annapolis

| publisher = Naval Institute Press

| isbn = 978-0-87021-141-6

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}}

• {{cite journal

| title = Service Performed by French Vessels Fitted with Belleville Boilers

|date=July 1901

| journal = Notes on Naval Progress

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| publisher = United States Office of Naval Intelligence

| location = Washington, D.C.

| oclc = 699264868

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• {{cite book

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|title=Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921

|year=1985

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|publisher=Naval Institute Press

|isbn=978-0-87021-907-8

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}}

• {{cite journal

|journal=The Japan Weekly Mail: A Review of Japanese Commerce, Politics, Literature, and Art

|title=The Naval Review at Kobe

|page=433

|volume=XXXIX

|number=16

|location=Yokohama

|date=18 April 1903

|ref={{sfnref|The Naval Review at Kobe}}

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1AxAQAAMAAJ

|oclc=708482129

}}

{{Descartes class cruiser}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pascal}}

Category:Descartes-class cruisers

Category:Ships built in France

Category:1895 ships