French battleship Charlemagne Charlemagne was a pre - dreadnought battleship built for the French Navy in the mid - 1890s , name ship of her class . She spent most of her career assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron ( " escadre de la Méditerranée " ) . Twice she participated in the occupation of the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos , then owned by the Ottoman Empire , once as part of a French expedition and another as part of an international squadron . When World War I began in August 1914 , she escorted Allied troop convoys for the first two months . " Charlemagne " was ordered to the Dardanelles in November 1914 to guard against a sortie into the Mediterranean by the German battlecruiser . In 1915 , she joined British ships in bombarding Turkish fortifications under the command of Rear Admiral ( " contre - amiral " ) Emile Guépratte . The ship was transferred later that year to the squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front . " Charlemagne " was placed in reserve and then disarmed in late 1917 . She was condemned in 1920 and later sold for scrap in 1923 . Design and description . " Charlemagne " was long overall and had a beam of . At deep load , she had a draught of forward and aft . She displaced at deep load . Her crew consisted of 727 officers and enlisted men . The ship used three 4 - cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines , one engine per shaft . Rated at , they produced during the ship ' s sea trials using steam generated by 20 Belleville water - tube boilers . " Charlemagne " reached a top speed of on her trials . She carried a maximum of of coal which allowed her to steam for at a speed of . " Charlemagne " carried her main armament of four 40 - calibre Canon de 305 mm Modèle 1893 gun s in two twin - gun turret s , one each fore and aft . The ship ' s secondary armament consisted of ten 45 - calibre Canon de 138 mm Modèle 1893 gun s , eight of which were mounted in individual casemate s and the remaining pair in shielded mounts on the forecastle deck amidships . She also carried eight 45 - calibre Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1893 gun s in shielded mounts on the superstructure . The ship ' s anti - torpedo boat defences consisted of twenty 40 - calibre Canon de 47 mm Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns , fitted in platforms on both masts , on the superstructure , and in casemates in the hull . " Charlemagne " mounted four torpedo tube s , two on each broadside . Two of these were submerged , angled 20° from the ship ' s axis , and the other two were above the waterline . They were provided with twelve Modèle 1892 torpedoes . As was common with ships of her generation , she was built with a plough - shaped ram . The ships carried a total of of Harvey armour . They had a complete waterline armour belt that was high . The armour belt tapered from its maximum thickness of to a thickness of at its lower edge . The armoured deck was thick on the flat and was reinforced with an additional plate where it angled downwards to meet the armoured belt . The main turrets were protected by of armour and their roofs were thick . Their barbette s were thick . The outer walls of the casemates for the guns were 55 mm thick and they were protected by transverse bulkheads thick . The conning tower walls were thick and its roof consisted of 50 mm armour plates . Its communications tube was protected by armour plates thick . Construction and career . " Charlemagne " , named after the first Holy Roman Emperor , was authorised on 30 September 1895 as the name ship of the three battleships of her class . The ship was laid down at the Arsenal de Brest on 2 August 1894 and launched on 17 October 1895 . She was completed on 12 September 1897 and commissioned three days later . " Charlemagne " was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron ( " escadre du Nord " ) , but , together with , she was transferred to the 1st Battleship Division of the Mediterranean Squadron in January 1900 . On 18 July , after combined manoeuvres with the Northern Squadron , the ship participated in a naval review conducted by the President of France , Émile Loubet , at Cherbourg . She escorted Louis André , the Minister of War and Jean de Lanessan , the Minister of Marine on their tours of Corsica and Tunisia later in October . The following year , " Charlemagne " and the Mediterranean Squadron participated in an international naval review by President Loubet in Toulon with ships from Spain , Italy and Russia . In October 1901 , the 1st Battleship Division , under the command of Rear Admiral Leonce Caillard , was ordered to proceed to the port of Mytilene . After landing two companies of marines that occupied the major ports of the island on 7 November , Sultan Abdul Hamid II agreed to enforce contracts made with French companies and to repay loans made by French banks . The 1st Division departed Lesbos in early December and returned to Toulon . In January – March 1902 , " Charlemagne " was deployed in Moroccan waters and participated in the summer fleet exercises later that year . Naval historians Paul Silverstone and Eric Gille claim that the ship collided with " Gaulois " on 2 March 1903 , but was not damaged . In April 1904 , she was one of the ships that escorted President Loubet during his state visit to Italy and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvers later that summer . A 100 mm cartridge spontaneously ignited in a magazine in January 1905 , but " Charlemagne " suffered no damage from the incident . Together with the destroyer , the ship was the French contribution to an international squadron that briefly occupied Mytilene in November – December 1905 and participated in a naval review by President Armand Fallières in September of the following year . She engaged in the summer naval manoeuvres in 1907 and 1908 and was transferred to the 4th division in September 1908 . " Charlemagne " was transferred back to the Northern Squadron in October 1909 . She made port visits to Oran , Cadiz , Lisbon and Quiberon before having her bottom cleaned in Brest in January 1910 . The ship participated in a large naval review by President Fallières off Cap Brun on 4 September 1911 . " Charlemagne " was placed in reserve in Brest in September 1912 for an overhaul ; the ship rolled 34° during sea trials in May 1913 , after completion of the overhaul . She was assigned to the training squadron of the Mediterranean Fleet from August 1913 until the beginning of World War I a year later . World War I . Together with the older French pre - dreadnoughts , " Charlemagne " escorted Allied troop convoys through the Mediterranean until November when she was ordered to the Dardanelles to guard against a sortie by the " Goeben " . During the bombardment on 25 February 1915 , the ship engaged the fort at Kum Kale with some effect . On 18 March , " Charlemagne " , together with , , and " Gaulois " , was to penetrate deep into the Dardanelles after six British battleships suppressed the defending Turkish fortifications and attack those same fortifications at close range . After the French ships were ordered to be relieved by six other British battleships , " Bouvet " struck a mine and sank almost instantly while " Gaulois " was hit twice , one of which opened a large hole in her hull that began to flood the ship . " Charlemagne " escorted " Gaulois " to the Rabbit Islands , north of Tenedos , where the latter ship could be beached for temporary repairs . " Charlemagne " herself was moderately damaged during the bombardment and continued onwards to Bizerte for repairs that lasted through May . Upon her return , she was assigned to the Dardanelles Squadron ( " escadre des Dardanelles " ) , although naval operations were limited to bombarding Turkish positions in support of Allied troops by that time . The ship was transferred to Salonica in October 1915 where she joined the French squadron assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations in Greece . " Charlemagne " was relieved for a major refit at Bizerte in May 1916 that lasted until August . She returned to Salonica later that month and was assigned to the Eastern Naval Division ( " division navale d ' Orient " ) . The ship remained there until she was ordered to Toulon in August 1917 . " Charlemagne " was placed in reserve on 17 September and disarmed on 1 November . She was condemned on 21 June 1920 and later sold for scrap in 1923 .