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French submarine Pierre Chailley
Pierre Chailley was a French Navy minelayer submarine commissioned in 1923. She was the ancestor of the Saphir-class submarines, which were the last French minelayer submarines.[1][2] She was decommissioned in 1936. Pierre Chailley — originally named Paul Chailley — was named for the commanding officer of the submarine Curie, Lieutenant de vaisseau Paul Étienne Pierre Chailley, killed during World War I when two Austro-Hungarian Navy ships sank Curie on 20 December 1914.[3] DesignA double-hulled ocean-going submarine, Pierre Chailley was 70 metres (229 ft 8 in) long, with a beam of 7.52 metres (24 ft 8 in) and a draft of 4.04 metres (13 ft 3 in).[1][2] Her surface displacement was 884 long tons (898 t), and her submerged displacement was 1,191 long tons (1,210 t).[1][2][4] She was propelled on the surface by two Sulzer two-stroke diesel engines producing a combined 1,800 horsepower (1,342 kW).[1][2][4] Underwater propulsion was provided by two electric motors producing a combined 1,400 horsepower (1,044 kW).[1][2][4] The twin-propeller propulsion system made it possible to reach a speed of 13.75 knots (25.5 km/h; 15.8 mph) on the surface and 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph) when submerged.[1][2][4] She had a range of 2,800 nautical miles (5,190 km; 3,220 mi) at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) on the surface and 80 nautical miles (148 km; 92 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) underwater.[1][2][4] Pierre Chailley′s main armament consisted of 24[5] or 40 (according to different sources) 200-kilogram (441 lb)[2] mines, and she employed the Fernand Fenaux minelaying system, in which the mines were stored in wells placed in inclined external ballast tanks, with a direct release mechanism.[1][4][5] She had six 450-millimetre (18 in) torpedo tubes, four internal at the bow and two trainable external tubes, and carried a total of six torpedoes.[1][4][6] She also had a 100-millimetre (3.9 in) deck gun which fired a 13.6-kilogram (30 lb) shell.[5] Her crew consisted of four officers and 40 petty officers and seamen.[1][2][4] Construction and commissioningPierre Chailley was ordered during World War I on 18 May 1917 with the name Paul Chailley[7] as part of France's 1917 naval expansion program.[1] She was designed by Marie-Augustin Normand and Fernand Fenaux.[1][2] Her keel was laid down at Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand in Le Havre, France, in May 1917.[2] She was launched on 19 December 1922, completed at the end of 1922,[1][2][4] and renamed Pierre Chailley on 15 February 1923.[7] She was commissioned on 1 August 1923. She had no Q-series pennant number.[1] Service historyPierre Chailley spent her operational career mostly in the Mediterranean Sea.[4] The French Navy used her mainly for the study of and experimentation with undersea warfare techniques.[8] On 8 April 1925, Pierre Chailley′s trainable torpedo tubes suffered damage.[7] During a minelaying exercise on 20 November 1927, two of her mines became stuck in their launch chutes.[7] She suffered serious damage to her two diesel engines on 13 June 1928[7] and had a water leak in her battery compartment on 27 June 1930.[7] Pierre Chailley was placed in "special reserve" on 11 July 1933.[7] She officially was declared unfit for use as a combat vessel on 21 January 1935.[7] DisposalDecommissioned and stricken from the navy list on 13 May 1936,[4] Pierre Chailley was condemned at Cherbourg, France, on 14 May 1936.[7] She was towed to Brest, France, on 5 September 1936,[7] sold at Brest on 16 April 1937,[7] and subsequently scrapped. See alsoReferencesCitations
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