French battleship France France was the last ship of the s , the first dreadnoughts built for the French Navy . She was completed just before World War I as part of the 1911 naval building programme . She spent the war in the Mediterranean , covering the Otranto Barrage in the Adriatic . " France " , accompanied by her sister ship , was sent to the Black Sea in 1919 to oppose the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War . Her crew briefly mutinied in April 1919 from a combination of war - weariness , Communist sympathizers in the crew and difficult conditions . The mutiny and general lack of morale among her crew caused her to return to France later that month . Striking an uncharted rock off the French coast in 1922 , she foundered four hours later . Description . " France " was long overall . She had a beam of and at full load a draft of at the bow . She displaced at standard load and at full load . She proved to be rather wet in service as she was bow - heavy because of the superimposed turrets forward . " France " had four propellers powered by four Parsons direct - drive steam turbines which were rated at . Twenty - four Belleville water - tube boilers provided steam for her turbines . These boilers were coal - burning with auxiliary oil sprayers . She had a designed speed of . She carried up to of coal and of oil and could steam for at a speed of . " France " s main armament consisted of twelve Mle 1910 45 - calibre guns were mounted in six twin gun turret s , with two turrets superimposed fore and aft , and one on each flank of the ship . For anti - torpedo boat defence she carried 22 Mle 1910 guns , which were mounted in casemate s . Four Modèle 1902 Hotchkiss gun s were fitted , two on each beam . She was also armed with four submerged Modèle 1909 torpedo tube s with twelve torpedoes . " France " s waterline armoured belt extended well below the waterline as the French were concerned about protection from underwater hits . Her main armour was also thinner than that of her British or German counterparts , but covered more area . It was thick between the fore and aft turrets and tapered to towards the bow and stern . It extended below the normal waterline . Above the main belt was another belt , 180 mm thick , that covered the sides , and the secondary armament , up to the forecastle deck , deep , between the fore and aft turrets . The conning tower had armour thick . The main gun turrets had of armour on their faces , on their sides and roofs thick . Their barbettes had of armour . There was no anti - torpedo bulkhead although there was a longitudinal bulkhead abreast the machinery spaces that was used either as a coal bunker or left as a void . Career . " France " , together with her sister ship , was ordered on 1 August 1911 as part of the 1911 Naval Programme . She was built by the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Saint - Nazaire . Her keel was laid down on 30 November 1911 and she was launched on 7 November 1912 . She was commissioned as part of the Bastille Day celebrations in 1914 . Almost immediately after being commissioned , she , escorted by " Jean Bart " , carried the President of the French Republic , Raymond Poincaré , on a state visit to Saint Petersburg , Russia in July 1914 . They were returning from Russia when World War I began , but made it to France without encountering German ships . World War I . " France " , upon her return , was ordered , along with her three sister ships , to serve in the Mediterranean Sea against the Austro - Hungarian and Ottoman Navies . They spent most of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until the submarine torpedoed " Jean Bart " on 21 December off Sazan Island . This forced the battleships to fall back to either Malta or Bizerte . After the French occupied the neutral Greek island of Corfu in 1916 they moved forward to Corfu and Argostoli , but their activities were very limited as many of their crews were used to man anti - submarine ships . After the war , " France " and " Paris " supported Allied forces in the Black Sea in 1919 during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War . Mutinies briefly broke out on both ships in April 1919 , but collapsed when Vice - Admiral Jean - Françoise - Charles Amet agreed to meet their main demand to take the ships home . 26 crewmen were sentenced to prison terms upon her return , although they were commuted in 1922 as part of a bargain between Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré and the parties of the Left . On 26 August 1922 , she struck an uncharted rock in Quiberon Bay and foundered four hours later . Of her crew of 900 , only three were lost . She was not modernized before her loss .