French cruiser Guichen

Guichen was a protected cruiser of the French Navy launched in 1897, commissioned in 1899 and retired in 1921. She was constructed by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire at Saint-Nazaire.

Guichen first steamed from Saint-Nazaire to undergo sea trials out of Toulon. In September 1903 she carried President Émile Loubet to Britain for an official visit. In 1913 she was converted into a training ship for boatswains at Brest. She was in the Channel at the start of the First World War, but in 1915 she was transferred to the 3rd blockading squadron off Syria. In September, under Captain Joseph Brisson, she helped evacuate Armenian resistors from Musa Dagh after one of her crew spotted an Armenian flag flying over the fortress. She conveyed her refugees to Port Said. It was, according to Lord Bryce, "the only story ... with a happy ending" in his report on the treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The ship's evacuation role was depicted in the historical drama film The Promise.

In November 1916 Guichen and Lutétia transported a Russian expeditionary force to the Salonika Front. In 1917 Guichen transported some of the Armée d'Orient from Taranto to Bizerte. In 1919 she was sent to the Black Sea as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, where she suffered a mutiny, led by Charles Tillon (future leader of the Communist Party of France), on 26 June 1919. She was retired in 1921, and condemned and sold at Brest in 1922.

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Category:Cruisers of the French Navy
Category:Ships built in France
Category:1897 ships
Guichen