French protected cruiser Châteaurenault 1917
Marker: recorded wreck position (First World War).
Key facts
| Name | French protected cruiser Châteaurenault | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1917 | English Wikipedia lead text (year following a loss verb, parsed) |
| Era | First World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | ship, shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | France | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | French Navy | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Sea / ocean | Ionian Sea | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | Greece | Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 10 km from land |
| Position | 38.2500, 22.3333 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
Châteaurenault was a large protected cruiser built for the French Navy in the late 1890s and early 1900s. She was intended to serve as a long-range commerce raider, designed according to the theories of the Jeune École, which favored a strategy of attacking Britain's extensive merchant shipping network instead of engaging in an expensive naval arms race with the Royal Navy. As such, Châteaurenault was built with a relatively light armament of just eight medium-caliber guns, but was given a long cruising range and the appearance of a large passenger liner, which would help her to evade detection while raiding merchant shipping.
Châteaurenault spent much of her early career overseas in French Indochina, deploying there immediately after her commissioning in 1902 through mid 1904, and then again in 1905–1906. She was reduced to reserve in 1907 and then modified to serve as a fast minelayer the following year. She was assigned to the Reserve Division of the Mediterranean Squadron. She saw little further activity until the outbreak of World War I in July 1914.
The ship was mobilized into the 2nd Light Squadron and based in the western English Channel.
Location
- Recorded position: 38.2500, 22.3333 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: Ionian Sea
- Nearest coast: Greece
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article French cruiser Châteaurenault (1898) (revision 1374860467), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Chamois 1904 · 82 km
- IMO 5074226 104 km
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- SS Reina del Mar 1981 · 112 km
- U-596 1944 · 112 km
- U-133 1942 · 119 km
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Greece · Ionian Sea · First World War