page_title: Linois-class cruiser
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: Linois-class cruiser / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: French cuiser Lavoisier (1893-1920)
context_page_description: The Linois class comprised three protected cruisers of the French Navy built in the early 1890s; the three ships were Linois, Galilée, and Lavoisier. They were ordered as part of a naval construction program directed at France's rivals, Italy and Germany, particularly after Italy made progress in modernizing its own fleet. The plan was also intended to remedy a deficiency in cruisers that had been revealed during training exercises in the 1880s. As such, the Linois-class cruisers were intended to operate as fleet scouts and in the French colonial empire. The ships were armed with a main battery of four 138.6 mm guns supported by two 100 mm guns and they had a top speed of 20.5 knots.
  All three members of the class served with the Mediterranean Squadron upon entering service in the mid-to-late 1890s. During this period, they were primarily occupied with peacetime training maneuvers. Lavoisier was transferred to the Newfoundland and Iceland Naval Division in 1903, where she patrolled fisheries for the next decade. After uneventful careers, Linois and Galilée were discarded in 1910 and 1911, respectively, having spent less than fifteen years in service.
context_section_description: Linois was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron in 1896, where she was joined by Galilée and Lavoisier in 1898. The three ships served as part of the cruiser force of the main French battle fleet. They took part in training exercises during this period, which sometimes included joint maneuvers with the Northern Squadron, along with shooting practice and naval reviews. Linois was involved in a show of force meant to intimidate the Ottoman Empire in 1902 during a period of tension with France. Lavoisier was transferred to the Newfoundland and Iceland Naval Division in 1903, where she patrolled fishing grounds off the coast of Newfoundland. Linois remained in service with the Mediterranean Squadron through 1905. During a review in 1909, Galilée hosted President Armand Fallières and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia during the latter's visit to France. Linois was struck from the naval register in 1910, thereafter being broken up for scrap. Galilée was discarded the following year.
  Lavoisier was attached to the 2nd Light Squadron in the English Channel at the start of World War I in August 1914, but she saw no action there. She was transferred to the eastern Mediterranean in December 1915, operated briefly with the main French fleet, and then conducted anti-submarine patrols in the western Mediterranean. In 1917, she returned to the Moroccan Naval Division, and the following year, she was reassigned to the Syrian Naval Division, where she remained through the end of the war. In April 1919, Lavoisier was detached from the Syrian Division; decommissioned for the last time in August, she was struck from the naval register in early 1920 and sold to ship breakers.
caption: Postcard depicting Lavoisier underway
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