French battleship Patrie Patrie was a pre - dreadnought battleship of the French Navy built in the early 1900s . She had one sister ship , " République " . " Patrie " was laid down at the La Seyne shipyard in April 1902 , launched in December 1903 , and completed three years later in December 1906 , the same time as the revolutionary British battleship . Armed with a main battery of four guns , she was outclassed by " Dreadnought " , which mounted ten guns of the same caliber , by the time she entered service . " Patrie " served in the Mediterranean Fleet for the duration of her career . She accidentally torpedoed " République " during fleet maneuvers in 1910 . After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , she covered troop convoys from Algeria to France , and participated in the sinking of the Austro - Hungarian cruiser later that month . She spent the majority of the war in Corfu at the mouth of the Adriatic Sea , to keep the Austro - Hungarian fleet bottled up in the Adriatic . In May 1916 , she shot down a German zeppelin off Salonica . The ship was eventually stricken in 1921 and broken up for scrap thereafter . Design . " Patrie " was laid down at the La Seyne shipyard on 1 April 1902 , launched on 17 December 1903 , and completed in December 1906 , at the same time as the revolutionary British battleship , which rendered the pre - dreadnought s like " Patrie " outdated . The ship was long between perpendiculars and had a beam of and a full - load draft of . She displaced at full load , slightly more than her sister " République " . She had a crew of between 766 and 825 officers and enlisted men . She was powered by three vertical triple expansion engines with twenty - four Niclausse boiler s . They were rated at and provided a top speed of . Coal storage amounted to . " Patrie " s main battery consisted of four Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893 / 96 gun s mounted in two twin gun turret s , one forward and one aft . The secondary battery consisted of eighteen Canon de 164 mm Modèle 1893 guns ; twelve were mounted in twin turrets , and six in casemate s in the hull . She also carried twenty - five 3 - pounder guns . The ship was also armed with two torpedo tube s submerged in the hull . The ship ' s main belt was thick and the main battery was protected by up to of armor . The conning tower had thick sides . Service history . While " Patrie " was still conducting sea trials on 29 May 1907 , a condenser pipe in one of her boilers burst . Several stokers were scalded , and the ship had to return to Toulon to have the condenser pipe replaced . After entering service , she was assigned to the 1st Division of the Mediterranean Fleet , along with her sister " République " and " Suffren " , the divisional flagship . She was present for the annual summer maneuvers in June – July of that year , where she acted with several other battleships as a hostile force . While in a drydock on 3 July 1907 , the battleship " Iéna " suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion that destroyed the ship ; " Patrie " was moored nearby . Her commanding officer attempted to flood the dock to put out the inferno by firing one of " Patrie " s secondary guns at the dock gate , but the shell bounced off and did not penetrate it . The dock was finally flooded when Ensign de Vaisseau Roux ( who was killed shortly afterward by fragments from the ship ) managed to open the sluice gates . During the 1910 gunnery training exercises , " Patrie " suffered mechanical problems with her sighting equipment that disabled one of her main battery turrets . In 1910 the battleship again was in an accident ; while on maneuvers in the Gulf of Jouan , " Patrie " launched a torpedo that inadvertently struck her sister " République " . Her hull was damaged , and she was forced to put into Toulon for repairs . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Patrie " was assigned to the 1st Division of the 2nd Squadron in the Mediterranean , along with " République " and the flagship , " Vérité " ; this was the main battle fleet of the French Navy . The French fleet was initially used to cover the movement of French troops — the XIX Corps — from Algeria to metropolitan France . As a result , the fleet was far out of position to catch the German battlecruiser . For the majority of the war , the French used their main fleet to keep the Austro - Hungarian fleet bottled up in the Adriatic Sea . In 1914 she participated in the Battle of Antivari , where the battle line caught the Austro - Hungarian cruiser by surprise and sank her . The French battleships then bombarded Austrian fortifications at Cattaro in an attempt to draw out the Austro - Hungarian fleet , which refused to take the bait . The French operations in the area were hampered by a lack of a suitable base close to the mouth of the Adriatic ; the British had given the French free access to Malta , but it was hundreds of miles away . The Austrians also possessed several submarine s , one of which torpedoed the dreadnought " Jean Bart " in December 1914 . The threat from underwater weapons greatly limited French naval activities in the Adriatic . As the war progressed , the French eventually settled on Corfu as their primary naval base in the area . In 1916 the ships supported Allied operations in Salonica and also detached landing parties to support the Allied attempt to force Greek acquiescence for those operations in Athens on 1 December . They spent the rest of the war at Salonica and Athens . " Patrie " became flagship of the French squadron at Salonica in 1918 . During the war , four of " Patrie " s 3 - pounder guns were converted into anti - aircraft guns with new high - angle mounts . The six casemate - mounted 164 mm guns were removed and landed at Salonica for use ashore . While off Salonica on 5 May 1916 , " Patrie " s anti - aircraft gunners shot down a German zeppelin . " Patrie " was retained in the French Navy ' s inventory and served as a training ship in Toulon for mechanics and torpedomen until 1927 . The following year , she stricken from the naval register and sold for scrap .