French battleship Paris
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 Paris proceeding trials at full steam |
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| Career (France) |   |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Paris |
| Builder: | La Seyne, France |
| Laid down: | November 10, 1911 |
| Launched: | September 28, 1912 |
| Commissioned: | August 1, 1914 |
| Fate: | Scrapped January 1956 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Courbet-class battleship |
| Displacement: | 22,189 tonnes |
| Length: | 166.0 m (544 ft 7 in) |
| Beam: | 27.9 m (88 ft 7 in) |
| Draught: | 8.80 m (29 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 24 Niclausse boilers, four Parsons steam turbines |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Range: | 1,140 nautical miles (2,110 km) at full speed. 4,200 nmi (7,780 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 1085 to 1100 |
| Armament: |
12 × 305mm/45 Modèle 1910 guns |
| Armour: | Belt: 270 mm Deck: 30 to 50 mm Bridge: 300 mm |
The French battleship Paris was a Courbet-class dreadnought battleship of the French Navy. The Courbet class was designed by M. Lyasse. Paris was built as part of the 1910 naval building programme.
Paris was the only ship of the Courbet class to be built by the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée firm in La Seyne Arsenal. She and her sister ship, France, were sent to St. Petersburg, Russia as part of French President Raymond Poincare's official visit. Both ships were en-route home through the Baltic Sea in August 1914 when the First World War broke out. At the time, France was not fully armed and had no ammunition aboard. Paris would have had to defend France if an enemy ship were sighted, but both managed to escape the German High Seas Fleet.
Along with her three sister ships, Paris served in the Mediterranean Sea during the War against Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Naval forces.
During the Second World War, on June 11, 1940, Paris was damaged by German bombing at le Havre, France, and was towed to Brest for repairs. Before France surrendered, Paris sailed to Plymouth, England.
In the wake of the Armistice, Paris was docked at Portsmouth. On the 3 July 1940, as part of "Operation Catapult", British forces forcibly boarded Paris, along with the destroyers Le Triomphant and the Léopard, Paris's sister-ship Courbet, eight torpedo boats, five submarines and a number of other ships of lesser importance. After "Operation Catapult" when Paris was in British hands it was planned to transfer her to the Polish Navy. The ceremony was to be held on July 15, 1940 and it was planned to rename the ship to OF Paris (OF - Okręt Francuski - "French ship") but due to lack of personnel the ship was never handed over to the Polish Navy and was used by the British as an accommodation ship in Devonport.
On August 21, 1945, after the war had ended, Paris was towed to Brest. She was never used again, and was sold for scrap on December 21, 1955.
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