French destroyer Bouclier. Bouclier was the name ship of her class of a dozen destroyers built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century.

Design and description
The Bouclier class were designed to a general specification and varied significantly from each other in various ways. Bouclier was the shortest ship in her class and had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draft of . Designed to displace , Bouclier was also the lightest ship of her class and displaced  at normal load. Their crew numbered 80–83 men.

Bouclier was powered by three Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four water-tube boilers. The engines were designed to produce  which was intended to give the ships a speed of . Bouclier was the fastest ship of her class, reaching  during her sea trials. The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of  at cruising speeds of .

The primary armament of the Bouclier-class ships consisted of two  Modèle 1893 guns in single mounts, one each fore and aft of the superstructure, and four  Modèle 1902 guns distributed amidships. They were also fitted with two twin mounts for  torpedo tubes amidships.

During World War I, a  or  anti-aircraft gun, two  machine guns, and eight or ten Guiraud-type depth charges were added to the ships. The extra weight severely overloaded the ships and reduced their operational speed to around .

Construction and career
Bouclier was ordered from Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand and was launched from its Le Havre shipyard on 29 June 1911. The ship was completed later that year.

When the First World War began in August 1914, Bouclier was the flagship of the Group of Destroyer Flotillas () of the 1st Naval Army (). During the preliminary stages of the Battle of Antivari, Montenegro, on 16 August, the 1st, 4th and 5th Destroyer Flotillas were tasked to escort the core of the 1st Naval Army while the 2nd, 3rd and 6th Flotillas escorted the armored cruisers of the 2nd Light Squadron () and two British cruisers. After reuniting both groups and spotting the Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser  and the destroyer , the French destroyers played no role in sinking the cruiser, although the 4th Flotilla was sent on an unsuccessful pursuit of Ulan. Having broken the Austro-Hungarian blockade of Antivari (now known as Bar), Vice-Admiral () Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère, commander of the 1st Naval Army, decided to ferry troops and supplies to the port using a small requisitioned passenger ship, , escorted by the 2nd Light Squadron, reinforced by the armored cruiser , and escorted by the Bouclier with the 1st and 6th Destroyer Flotillas under command while the rest of the 1st Naval Army bombarded the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro, Montenegro, on 1 September. Four days later, the fleet covered the evacuation of Danilo, Crown Prince of Montenegro, aboard Bouclier, to the Greek island of Corfu. The flotilla escorted multiple small convoys loaded with supplies and equipment to Antivari, beginning in October and lasting for the rest of the year, always covered by the larger ships of the Naval Army in futile attempts to lure the Austro-Hungarian fleet into battle. Amidst these missions, the 1st and 6th Flotillas were led by the  as they conducted a sweep south of Cattaro on the night of 10/11 November in an unsuccessful search for Austro-Hungarian destroyers.

The torpedoing of the  on 21 December caused a change in French tactics as the battleships were too important to risk to submarine attack. Henceforth, only the destroyers would escort the transports, covered by cruisers at a distance of  from the transports. The first convoy of 1915 to Antivari arrived on 11 January and more were made until the last one on 20–21 April. On 26 March, the badly damaged predreadnought battleship  radioed for help as she was taking on water in a storm off the Greek coast. Bouclier, the destroyers  and  and the armored cruiser  responded, but were unable to render assistance due to the heavy weather.

After Italy signed the Treaty of London and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 23 May, the ship was still assigned to the 6th Flotilla when the unit was transferred to the 1st Division of Destroyers and Submarines () of the 2nd Squadron () based at Brindisi, Italy. On 12 July, the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, including Bouclier, was part of the force that raided the island of Lastovo off the Austrian coast of the Adriatic (now part of Croatia), destroying oil stores and the telegraph station. This attack was simultaneous with the Italian occupation of Palagruža.

On 27 June 1922, Bouclier collided with the battleship  at Toulon, France; both ships were severely damaged.

Bouclier was stricken on 15 February 1933.

References

Bibliography

 
 

Bouclier-class destroyers
Ships built in France
1911 ships
Maritime incidents in 1922