text: french battleship france france was the last ship of the courbet - class battleships , the first dreadnoughts built for the french navy . she was completed just before world war i as part of the 1911 naval building programme . she spent the war in the mediterranean , covering the otranto barrage in the adriatic . france , accompanied by her sister ship jean bart , was sent to the black sea in 1919 to oppose the bolsheviks during the russian civil war . her crew briefly mutinied in april 1919 from a combination of war - weariness , communist sympathizers in the crew and difficult conditions . the mutiny and general lack of morale among her crew caused her to return to france later that month . striking an uncharted rock off the french coast in 1922 , she foundered four hours later . description france was 166 metres ( 544 ft 7 in ) long overall . she had a beam of 27 metres ( 88 ft 7 in ) and at full load a draft of 9 . 04 metres ( 29 ft 8 in ) at the bow . she displaced 23 , 475 tonnes ( 23 , 104 long tons ) at standard load and 25 , 579 tonnes ( 25 , 175 long tons ) at full load . she proved to be rather wet in service as she was bow - heavy because of the superimposed turrets forward . france had four propellers powered by four parsons direct - drive steam turbines which were rated at 28 , 000 shaft horsepower ( 20 , 880 kw ) . twenty - four belleville water - tube boilers provided steam for her turbines . these boilers were coal - burning with auxiliary oil sprayers . she had a designed speed of 21 knots ( 39 km / h ; 24 mph ) . she carried up to 2 , 700 long tons ( 2 , 700 t ) of coal and 906 long tons ( 921 t ) of oil and could steam for 4 , 200 nautical miles ( 7 , 800 km ) at a speed of 10 knots ( 12 mph ; 19 km / h ) . france 's main armament consisted of twelve 305 - millimetre ( 12 in ) mle 1910 45 - calibre guns were mounted in six twin gun turrets , with two turrets superimposed fore and aft , and one on each flank of the ship . for anti - torpedo boat defence she carried 22 138 - millimetre ( 5 . 4 in ) mle 1910 guns , which were mounted in casemates . four 47 - millimetre ( 1 . 9 in ) modèle 1902 hotchkiss guns were fitted , two on each beam . she was also armed with four 450 - millimetre ( 18 in ) submerged modèle 1909 torpedo tubes with twelve torpedoes . france 's waterline armoured belt extended well below the waterline as the french were concerned about protection from underwater hits . her main armour was also thinner than that of her british or german counterparts , but covered more area . it was 270 millimetres ( 10 . 6 in ) thick between the fore and aft turrets and tapered to 180 mm ( 7 . 1 in ) towards the bow and stern . it extended 2 . 4 metres ( 7 ft 10 in ) below the normal waterline . above the main belt was another belt , 180 mm thick , that covered the sides , and the secondary armament , up to the forecastle deck , 4 . 5 metres ( 14 ft 9 in ) deep , between the fore and aft turrets . the conning tower had armour 300 mm ( 11 . 8 in ) thick . the main gun turrets had 290 millimetres ( 11 . 4 in ) of armour on their faces , 250 millimetres ( 9 . 8 in ) on their sides and roofs 100 millimetres ( 3 . 9 in ) thick . their barbettes had 280 millimetres ( 11 . 0 in ) of armour . there was no anti - torpedo bulkhead although there was a longitudinal bulkhead abreast the machinery spaces that was used either as a coal bunker or left as a void . career france , together with her sister ship paris , was ordered on 1 august 1911 as part of the 1911 naval programme . she was built by the ateliers et chantiers de la loire in saint - nazaire . her keel was laid down on 30 november 1911 and she was launched on 7 november 1912 . she was commissioned as part of the bastille day celebrations in 1914 . almost immediately after being commissioned , she , escorted by jean bart , carried the president of the french republic , raymond poincaré , on a state visit to saint petersburg , russia in july 1914 . they returned from russia shortly before world war i began . world war i france , upon her return , was ordered , along with her three sister ships , to serve in the mediterranean sea against the austro - hungarian and ottoman navies . they spent most of 1914 providing gunfire support for the montenegrin army until the submarine u - 12 torpedoed jean bart on 21 december off sazan island . this forced the battleships to fall back to either malta or bizerte . after the french occupied the neutral greek island of corfu in 1916 they moved forward to corfu and argostoli , but their activities were very limited as many of their crews were used to man anti - submarine ships . after the war , france and paris supported allied forces in the black sea in 1919 during the allied intervention in the russian civil war . mutinies briefly broke out on both ships in april 1919 , but collapsed when vice - admiral jean - françoise - charles amet agreed to meet their main demand to take the ships home . 26 crewmen were sentenced to prison terms upon her return , although they were commuted in 1922 as part of a bargain between prime minister raymond poincaré and the parties of the left . on 26 august 1922 , she struck an uncharted rock in quiberon bay and foundered four hours later . of her crew of 900 , only three were lost . she was not modernized before her loss .