French battleship Diderot
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| History | |
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 France
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| Name: | Diderot |
| Namesake: | Denis Diderot |
| Builder: | ACh de la Loire, Saint-Nazaire |
| Laid down: | 20 October 1907 |
| Launched: | 19 April 1909 |
| Completed: | 1 August 1911 |
| Reclassified: | As training ship, 1927 |
| Struck: | 1936 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1937 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Danton class semi-dreadnought battleship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 144.9 m (475 ft 5 in) |
| Beam: | 25.8 m (84 ft 8 in) |
| Draft: | 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in) |
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| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Complement: | 681 |
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Diderot was one of the six Danton class semi-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. Shortly after World War I began, the ship participated in the Battle of Antivari in the Adriatic Sea and helped to sink an Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser. She spent most of the rest of the war blockading the Straits of Otranto and the Dardanelles to prevent German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish warships from breaking out into the Mediterranean. Diderot briefly participated in the occupation of Constantinople after the end of the war. She was modernized in 1922–25 and subsequently became a training ship. The ship was condemned in 1936 and later sold for scrap.
Although the Danton-class battleships were a significant improvement from the preceding Liberté class, they were outclassed by the advent of the dreadnought well before they were completed. This, combined with other poor traits, including the great weight in coal they had to carry, made them rather unsuccessful ships, though their numerous rapid-firing guns were of some use in the Mediterranean.
Diderot was 146.6 meters (481 ft 0 in) long overall and had a beam of 25.8 meters (84 ft 8 in) and a full-load draft of 9.2 meters (30 ft 2 in). She displaced 19,736 metric tons (19,424 long tons) at deep load and had a crew of 681 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines using steam generated by twenty-six Belleville boilers. The turbines were rated at 22,500 shaft horsepower (16,800 kW) and provided a top speed of around 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).Diderot, however, reached a top speed of 19.9 knots (36.9 km/h; 22.9 mph) on her sea trials. She carried a maximum of 2,027 tonnes (1,995 long tons) of coal which allowed her to steam for 3,370 nautical miles (6,240 km; 3,880 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).
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