French cruiser Colbert ( C611 ) Colbert ( C 611 ) was an anti - air cruiser , later transformed into a missile cruiser , of the French Navy . She was the sixth ship ( and second cruiser ) of the French Navy to be named after Jean - Baptiste Colbert ( the previous one was scuttled at Toulon in 1942 ) . She served in the Navy from 1956 to 1991 , before being converted into a museum ship at Bordeaux from 1993 . Since 2007 she has been anchored in the roadstead of Brest awaiting scrapping . History . Early service . Her construction began in the Brest dockyards in 1953 . She was designed as a powerful ship , the second of the " De Grasse " series , able to overcome all threats solely by her guns ' weight of fire - she had 57mm and 127mm turrets for a firing rate of one shot per second . Launched on 24 March 1956 in Brest , France , starting her trials on 5 December 1957 and officially entering active service on 5 May 1959 , she was made part of a 15 - ship squadron , with the main aims of protecting aircraft carriers from air attack , shore bombardment for ground operations , command hub for naval operations and evacuating French expatriates from overseas . In 1964 a naval reorganisation made her the flagship of France ' s Mediterranean squadron ( " escadre de Méditerranée " ) at Toulon , which was mainly made up of complementary units such as aircraft - carriers and frigates . Foreign representative . Her role as a foreign representative of France was important . In 1961 she repatriated the remains of marshal Hubert Lyautey and she ferried General De Gaulle both on his 1964 South American tour and on his June – July 1967 official visit to Canada ( the latter trip was the occasion of his famous " Vive le Québec libre speech " - the diplomatic row which followed put an end to the trip ) . During the Atlantic crossing on board " Colbert " De Gaulle signed a number of decrees , such as n°67 - 611 ( 23 July 1967 , on interpreters in the army reserve ) and n°67 - 612 ( on interpreters in the naval reserve ) . The " Colbert " also represented France at the bicentennial festivities in Australia in 1988 . Later life . Built too late , after the cruiser ' s time as the main arbiter of naval warfare had passed , the " Colbert " was superseded at the end of the 1960s by a new generation of ships better adapted to new threats . Her big - gun - based armament had become obsolete and inefficient against supersonic attack aircraft and thus between 1970 and 1972 she underwent extensive modifications in Brest to become a missile cruiser , with a double ramp of Masurca Surface - to - air missile s . She once again became flagship for the Mediterranean squadron from 1976 , but her duties from then on were mainly humanitarian or representative - Agadir in 1960 and the evacuation of Bizerte in 1961 . She gained a reputation within the French Navy as a ship that had never fired a single shot in anger , with her only ever active service being in the 1991 Gulf War ( operation " Salamandre " ) a few months before she was decommissioned on 24 May that year . Museum ship . Between June 1993 and 2007 , she was a museum and monument historique in the port of Bordeaux . During 2004 she was France ' s most - visited museum ship and the city ' s most - visited historic attraction . She was a private museum , belonging to the state but with the museum ' s running handed over to " The Friends of the Colbert " association . A visit lasted between 2 and 3 hours , with guided visits given access to parts of the ship closed off to the public , such as the engine rooms and cabins . The ship also housed several permanent exhibitions on the Navy , Météo - France and architectural models ( in which one could see modellers at work ) . The ship ' s siren went off at midday every Wednesday and Sunday . A covered restaurant and dance - room was built on her foredeck , served by the ship ' s former kitchens . A " Colbert " stop on the quay by the ship was even planned on the city ' s tramway , allowing faster access to or from the city centre and thus increase visitor numbers , whilst the ship ' s presence led to the quays becoming highly developed . However , the museum ship also had its critics in the city , such as those living by the quays ( a " Let ' s Sink the Colbert " association even fielded a candidate in the municipal elections of 1995 ) , and the ship also got into recurring financial problems - despite being the owner , the state did not pay its maintenance costs necessary to keep up the ship ' s security and image ( to completely repaint the ship , for example , cost more than 500 , 000 € , too high a price for the museum ' s budget ) . Under pressure from the Mairie of the city and local associations , and without other funding forthcoming , the museum ship closed to the public on 2 October 2006 . Scrapping . She was towed on 31 May 2007 ( the date that the concession to the " Friends " ran out ) to join the mothball fleet in Landevennec . Due to major technological similarities , the Navy cannibalized parts from her from time to time ( mainly from the boilers and turbines ) to maintain the helicopter - carrier " Jeanne d ' Arc " , with the decommissioning of the " Jeanne d ' Arc " in September 2010 the " Colbert " was free to be dismantled .