Over the 1880s and 1890s, the French Navy built a series of protected cruisers, thirty-three vessels in total. Protected cruisers were differentiated from other cruising warships by their relatively light sloped armor deck that provided a measure of protection against incoming shellfire, as opposed to armored cruisers that relied on heavy belt armor, or unprotected cruisers that lacked armor entirely. They were designed to fulfill a variety of roles, including fleet scouts, colonial cruisers, and commerce raiders. Arguments over the purpose of the French fleet during this period played a major role in the design of these ships; proponents of the doctrine favored large cruisers capable of attacking enemy merchant shipping while traditionalist officers preferred vessels more suited to fleet operations. A third group sought more cruisers to expand and defend the French colonial empire. The period was also marked by strategic confusion in the French naval command, as the country reoriented from its traditional rivalry with Great Britain to the perceived threat posed by the Italo-German alliance.

The first French protected cruiser, , was designed in the early 1880s in response to the introduction of similar vessels in the British Royal Navy; two more vessels of similar but larger designs— and —followed shortly thereafter. By 1886, the pro- Admiral Théophile Aube became the French Minister of Marine and initiated a large construction program that included the cruisers , , and , and the three-ship , , and es. The early 1890s saw the construction of the and es, derivatives of the Davout design, and the s, which were improvements on the Troude and Forbin types. The colonial cruisers of the and es were also built during this period.

Beginning in the mid-1890s, a series of large cruisers were ordered; the first of these, , carried the largest guns of any French cruiser, and was intended to serve as a flagship of the squadron stationed in French Indochina, while three more vessels, , , and , were designed to serve as long-range commerce destroyers. Two final colonial cruisers of the were also built during this period.

Most of the vessels had relatively uneventful careers, serving in a variety of locations with the main fleets, in the French colonies in Asia, and on patrol in the Atlantic. Two were lost in accidents, and , in 1907 and 1910, respectively. Many of the ships had either been broken up or reduced to secondary roles by the start of World War I in August 1914, but several saw action, including Jurien de la Gravière at the Battle of Antivari and a number of vessels along the coast of Ottoman Syria. One vessel, Châteaurenault, was lost during the war to a German U-boat attack in 1917. Most of the surviving protected cruisers were discarded in the post-war reduction of the French Navy, though a few lingered on in service as hulks into the 1920s or later. D'Entrecasteaux remained in service the longest, being loaned to the Belgian Navy in the mid-1920s and then sold to the Polish Navy in 1927; she was ultimately seized by German forces during the Invasion of Poland in 1939 and scrapped in 1942.

+ Key Armament The number and type of the primary armament Armor The thickness of the deck armor Displacement Ship displacement at full load Propulsion Number of shafts, type of propulsion system, and top speed generated Service The dates work began and finished on the ship and its ultimate fate Laid down The date the keel began to be assembled __TOC__

Sfax

The French Navy embarked on a construction program in 1878 that included a series of new cruisers. The (Council of Works) intended for the vessels to be used as commerce raiders to attack British merchant shipping. The first four vessels were traditional unprotected cruisers, but the naval engineer Louis-Émile Bertin successfully lobbied for the fifth vessel, which was to become Sfax, to be cancelled and redesigned to incorporate an armor deck to match the latest British protected cruisers. Since she was to attack merchant shipping during long cruises far from port, she was fitted with a barque sailing rig to supplement her steam engines. Sfax proved to be a successful design and created the basis from which the first generation of French protected cruisers would be built.

Sfax had a relatively uneventful career. She spent most of her career alternating between the Mediterranean, Northern, and Reserve Squadrons. During this period, she was primarily occupied with conducting training exercises with the rest of the French fleet. While in the Reserve Squadron, she was kept in commission for only part of the year. In 1895, Sfax was involved in an experimental bombardment of simulated fortifications that demonstrated the difficulty of suppressing prepared defenses. She briefly served on the North American station in 1899, but by 1901, had been reduced to reserve. She was struck from the naval register in 1906 and subsequently broken up.

+ Summary of the Sfax class Ship Armament Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Completed Fate 6 × guns 2 × screw propellers2 × compound steam engines March 1882 June 1887 Broken up, 1906

Tage

Tage was an enlarged version of Sfax ordered in 1885, the next vessel built under the 1878 construction program. She was more than fifty percent larger than her predecessor in terms of displacement; the increase in size was primarily used to install a significantly more powerful propulsion system and thereby attain a much higher speed, though she also carried an additional pair of main battery guns. Like Sfax, Tage was intended to operate as a commerce raider, and as such originally carried a barque sailing rig. She featured a tumblehome shape and a pronounced ram bow, which would become standard characteristics of French cruisers of the period.

The ship spent the 1890s operating in the Mediterranean Sea, either as part of the active Mediterranean or the Reserve Squadron, the latter being typically activated for annual training exercises with the rest of the fleet. The ship was modernized in 1900, which included the installation of new water-tube boilers, removal of her sailing rig, and other alterations. After returning to service, she operated with the Newfoundland and Iceland Naval Division beginning in 1902, and later the Atlantic Squadron the following year. Tage was ultimately struck from the naval register in 1910 and then broken up for scrap.

+ Summary of the Tage class Ship Armament Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Completed Fate 8 × 164 mm guns 2 × screw propellers2 × triple-expansion steam engines July 1885 December 1890 Broken up, 1910

Amiral Cécille

Amiral Cécille represented the third and final development of the basic Sfax design; she was in many respects a scaled-down version of Tage, though she was still larger than Sfax. She retained the same hull general hull shape, layout, barque sailing rig, and eight-gun main battery, but reverted to older compound engines. She nevertheless maintained a similar top speed to that of her predecessor.

Amiral Cécille spent the early 1890s with the main fleet in the Mediterranean Squadron, where she was primarily occupied with training exercises. After being overhauled in the mid-1890s, she was transferred to the Reserve Squadron in the Mediterranean, where she continued to participate in training maneuvers. The ship detached to join the Naval Division of the Atlantic Ocean in 1899, where she served for the next three years. Recalled home in 1902, she saw no further active service and she was hulked in 1907, before being broken up in 1919.

+ Summary of the Amiral Cécille class Ship Armament Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Completed Fate 8 × 164 mm guns 2 × screw propellerscompound steam engines August 1886 September 1890 Broken up, 1919

Davout

In 1886, Admiral Théophile Aube became the French Minister of Marine. Aube was a proponent of the ideas of the doctrine, which envisioned using a combination of cruisers and torpedo boats to defend France and attack enemy merchant shipping. His construction program mandated three more large cruisers similar to Sfax, Tage, and Amiral Cécille, six small cruisers, and two medium vessels. Davout was the first of the large vessels to be built; her design provided the basis for many of the later protected cruisers built by France.

Davout had a relatively uneventful career; her completion was delayed by two years due to problems with her propulsion system. After entering service in 1893, she was assigned to the Reserve Squadron, based in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship spent the rest of the decade operating either with the Reserve Squadron for training exercises or as part of the training unit of the French fleet. In 1899, she received a major overhaul that included the installation of new boilers, and in 1902, she was assigned to the North Atlantic station. By 1910, she had been struck from the naval register and was subsequently sold to ship breakers.

+ Summary of the Davout class Ship Armament Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Completed Fate 6 × 164 mm guns 2 × screw propellers2 × triple-expansion steam engines September 1887 1891 Broken up, 1910

Suchet

Suchet was the second medium ship ordered by Aube; she was originally intended to be a sister ship to Davout, but during construction of that vessel, the design staff realized that the engines were not powerful enough to allow Davout to reach her intended speed. As a result, Suchet was lengthened to accommodate larger engines, since she was not in an advanced state of construction, though Davout could not be similarly modified. The two ships served as prototypes for the later Friant-class of cruisers, though additional lengthening was required to reach the desired speed.

After completing her sea trials in 1894, Suchet was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron the next year. She took part in the opening ceremonies for the Bizerte Canal later that year. She continued to operate with the unit through early 1897, when she was sent to the Levant Division in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship was reassigned to the Naval Division of the Atlantic Ocean in 1900, and she was one of the first responders to the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée in May, helping to rescue survivors from Saint-Pierre and its harbor, along with other towns on the island of Martinique. In total, she evacuated around 1,200 people to Fort-de-France. The next month, she was involved in a minor diplomatic incident with Venezuela, where six Frenchmen had been arrested; Suchets intervention secured their release. The ship returned to France later in 1902, where she was placed in reserve. Struck from the naval register in 1906, Suchet was broken up for scrap.

+ Summary of the Suchet class Ship Armament Displacement Propulsion Service Laid down Completed Fate 6 × 164 mm guns 2 × screw propellers2 × triple-expansion steam engines October 1887 1894 Broken up, 1906

Forbin class

The three Forbin-class cruisers were the first small cruisers ordered under Aube's construction program, though their development predated his tenure as naval minister. The had requested a new design for fast scouts for the ironclad battleships of the main fleet. They specified a displacement of around in 1879, which resulted in the final French unprotected cruiser, . That vessel, designed by Louis-Émile Bertin, provided the basis for an improved version that incorporated an armor deck, heavier armament, and higher top speed.