Jeanne d'Arc

Once a helicopter cruiser of the French Navy under the name La Résolue, the cruiser took on the name Jeanne d'Arc in 1964 after the previous ship bearing the name was retired and decommissioned. Jeanne d'Arc spent most of its career as a training vessel for the naval officer's application academy during peacetime, occasionally participating in anti-piracy operations later on and acting as a symbol of French diplomacy.
In June 2010, Jeanne d'Arc was formally removed from service after 46 years in the employ of the French Navy, with the final ceremonies taking place in September that year. The ship remained in its home port of Brest while undergoing disarmament; removed not only of its weapons, but its name and number as well, now re-designated as hull Q 860. After being stripped of all recoverable arms and equipment, the hulk was left in Brest while the method of disposal was decided. Q 860 was spared from these final steps of destruction by the global invasion that would begin the Human-Vannai War. 
During the reign of anarchy in France that followed the invasion, the hulk took the interest of a certain eccentric man in Brest who seized the hull for his own purposes. Over the next three years, this man and several other fellow enthusiasts would use the chaos of the invasion, and later the invasion of the Germans, to their advantage, slowly restoring the bare hull to seaworthiness, with the eventual goal of restoring the warship completely.
However, the Intervention War ended in mid-2017 with France's defeat. Large military vessels such as the Charles de Gaulle that would not easily escape the lurking BPR ships were scuttled out of spite by the French military, sparing them the fate of being scuttled out of spite by the occupying forces. Smaller ships such as frigates and destroyers escaped to international waters, including the now-barely operable restored hulk Q 860. Under escort of the Rubis-class submarine Améthyste, Q 860 sailed south to Africa, reconvening with French remnant forces in Gabon, where Q 860 remained for another 8 months while the vessel was restored to fighting capacity with the aid of the French marine detachment there, using modern arms and equipment. Afterwards, the cruiser acted as the flagship of the French Exile Navy, ferrying troops, equipment, material and intelligence between Gabon, Mayotte and Réunion.
As the ship was never officially re-commissioned by France, Jeanne d'Arc operates without a national prefix or hull number, but is referred to as "La Jeanne" by its operators nonetheless.
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:Naval Vessels
Category:Europe
Category:France
Category:Africa
Category:Gabon
Category:South Africa