page_title: French battleship Charles Martel
hierarchical_section_title: French battleship Charles Martel
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration of the French battleship Charles Martel
context_page_description: Charles Martel was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the 1890s. She was laid down in August 1891, launched in August 1893, and commissioned into the fleet in June 1897. She was a member of a group of five broadly similar battleships ordered as part of the French response to a major British naval construction program. The five ships were built to the same basic design parameters, though the individual architects were allowed to deviate from each other in other details. Like her half-sisters—Carnot, Jauréguiberry, Bouvet, and Masséna—she was armed with a main battery of two 305 mm guns and two 274 mm guns. She had a top speed of 18 knots.
  Charles Martel spent her active career in the Mediterranean Squadron of the French fleet, first in the active squadron, and later in the Reserve Squadron. She regularly participated in fleet maneuvers, and in the 1901 exercises, the submarine Gustave Zédé hit her with a dummy torpedo, which caused a significant controversy in the French press. The ship was involved in an international squadron that intervened in the Cretan Revolt in 1897.
context_section_description: Charles Martel was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the 1890s. She was laid down in August 1891, launched in August 1893, and commissioned into the fleet in June 1897. She was a member of a group of five broadly similar battleships ordered as part of the French response to a major British naval construction program. The five ships were built to the same basic design parameters, though the individual architects were allowed to deviate from each other in other details. Like her half-sisters—Carnot, Jauréguiberry, Bouvet, and Masséna—she was armed with a main battery of two 305 mm (12.0 in) guns and two 274 mm (10.8 in) guns. She had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
  Charles Martel spent her active career in the Mediterranean Squadron of the French fleet, first in the active squadron, and later in the Reserve Squadron. She regularly participated in fleet maneuvers, and in the 1901 exercises, the submarine Gustave Zédé hit her with a dummy torpedo, which caused a significant controversy in the French press. The ship was involved in an international squadron that intervened in the Cretan Revolt in 1897. Charles Martel spent just five years in the active squadron, having been surpassed by more modern battleships during a period of rapid developments in naval technology. She spent the years 1902–1914 in reserve, and in early 1914 the French Navy decided to discard the vessel. After the outbreak of World War I, however, the navy kept the ship in its inventory, though Charles Martel was not reactivated for service during the conflict. The ship was ultimately broken up in 1922.
caption: Illustration of Charles Martel underway
exif: {}