page_title: Liberté-class battleship
section_title: General characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Liberté-class battleship / Design / General characteristics
caption_attribution_description: Right elevation and deck plan depicting French Liberté class battleship. Top diagram (right elevation) shows armour thickness in inches. Bottom diagram (deck plan) shows gun sizes in inches.
context_page_description: The Liberté class consisted of four pre-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. The class comprised Liberté, Justice, Vérité, and Démocratie. They were ordered as part of a naval expansion program directed at countering German warship construction authorized by the German Naval Law of 1898; the French program called for six new battleships, which began with the two République-class battleships. During construction of the first two vessels, foreign adoption of heavier secondary batteries prompted the French to re-design the last four members to carry a secondary battery of 194 mm guns, producing the Liberté class. Like the Républiques, their main armament consisted of four 305 mm guns in two twin-gun turrets.
  Their peacetime careers were largely uneventful, consisting of a normal routine of training exercises, visits to various French and foreign ports, and naval reviews for French politicians and foreign dignitaries. In 1909, Liberté, Justice, and Vérité visited the United States during the Hudson–Fulton Celebration.
context_section_description: The ships were 131 m (429 ft 9 in) long at the waterline, 133.8 m (439 ft) long between perpendiculars, and 135.25 m (443 ft 9 in) long overall. They had a beam of 24.25 m (79 ft 7 in) at the waterline and an average draft of 8.2 m (26 ft 11 in). They displaced up to 14,900 metric tons (14,700 long tons) at full load. The ships' hulls were modeled on the Gloire-class cruisers, which Bertin had also designed. The hulls were divided into 15 watertight compartments below the lower armor deck. Bilge keels were fitted to improve their stability.
  The Liberté-class ships were built with a tall forecastle deck that extended all the way to the mainmast. They retained a small fighting mast for the foremast, but had a lighter pole mast for the mainmast. The forward superstructure consisted of a four-deck structure erected around the forward mast and the conning tower. The charthouse, commander's quarters, and bridge were located here. In service, the arrangement proved to have several problems; the conning tower was too small to accommodate the crew, the bridge wings obstructed views aft, which forced the commander to leave the safety of the armored conning tower to see all around the ship. In 1912–1913, the wings were removed to reduce the problem. Similar problems caused difficulties in the aft superstructure as well, particularly with the rear fire control system.
  They had a crew of 32 officers and 710 enlisted men, though while serving as a flagship, their crews were increased to 44 officers and 765 enlisted men to include an admiral's staff. Each battleship carried eighteen smaller boats, including pinnaces, cutters, dinghies, whalers, and punts. As a flagship, these boats were augmented with an admiral's gig, another cutter, and three more whalers.
caption: Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual
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