![]() Kersaint about 1934–1936
| |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | Kersaint |
Namesake | Guy François de Kersaint |
Ordered | 1 February 1930 |
Builder | |
Laid down | 19 September 1930 |
Launched | 14 November 1931 |
Completed | 31 December 1933 |
Commissioned | 20 September 1933 |
In service | 14 January 1934 |
Fate | Scuttled, 27 November 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Vauquelin-class destroyer |
Displacement | |
Length | 129.3 m (424 ft 3 in) |
Beam | 11.8 m (38 ft 9 in) |
Draft | 4.97 m (16 ft 4 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
Speed | 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) |
Range | 3,000 nmi (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) |
Crew | 12 officers, 224 crewmen (wartime) |
Armament |
|
Kersaint was one of six Vauquelin-class destroyers (contre-torpilleurs) built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) during the 1930s. The ship entered service in 1934 and spent most of her career in the Mediterranean. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, she was one of the ships that helped to enforce the non-intervention agreement. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, all of the Vauquelins were assigned to the High Sea Forces (Forces de haute mer (FHM)) which was tasked to escort French convoys and support the other commands as needed. Kersaint helped to protect a group of freighters in the Atlantic once, but otherwise remained in the Mediterranean for the duration of the war.
The Vichy French reformed the FHM after the French surrender in June. Kersaint was present when the Royal Navy attacked the ships in French Algeria in July to prevent them from being turned over to the Germans, but managed to escape. The ship was in reserve until she was activated in mid-1941. Kersaint was scuttled in Toulon when the Germans occupied Vichy France in November 1942. The ship was not significantly salvaged during the war and her wreck was broken up in 1950.