Jump to content

Draft:Le Flore (S 645)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Class overview
NameLe Flore
History
Launched21st december 1960
StatusRetired from active service the 29th March 1989 Naval museum since the 1st of May 2010
General characteristics
Class and typeDaphné class
Displacement870 tonnes on surface 1043 tonnes diving
Length57.75m
Beam6.74m
Depth300m
Propulsion2 generators of 450kW SEMT Pielstick type 12PA1 or 12PA4 - 2 electric motors of 1000 horses - 2 propellers
Speed12 knots (22,2 km/h) on surface 15 knots (28 km/h) diving
Range4300 miles at 7.5 knots by schnorchel
Crew7 officers

28 marine officers

19 marines
Armament12 tube torpedos of 550mm (8 at the front, 4 at the back)

Le Flore (S 645) is a french submarine of Daphné class. Launched in 1960, it was in service from 1964 to 1989. Since 2010, is has been used as a museum at Lorient.

History

[edit]

Construction

[edit]

The submarine was baptised Flore on 17 April 1956. [1] It was placed under construction at the Direction des Constructions et Armes navales (DCAN) of Cherbourg the 19 June 1958.[2][3] It was the fifth constructed of its class.

It was launched on 21 December 1960.[1] and was placed on water on 22 September 1961[2]

Tests

[edit]

On the 15 November 1961 it was decided that its marines would wear the fourragere of colours of the ribbon of the cross of war with olive 1939-1945. This inherits the tradition of the torpedo boat of the same name. [1][2]

The submarine had a mascot from 1961 to 1963: a dog named Annie.[4][5]

On 23 January 1962, the submarine Flore exercised its first static dive in a transatlantic dock in Cherbourg. [1] It underwent its endurance cruise from 28 July 1962 to 25 August 1962, probably between Cherbourg and Toulon via Funchal (Madeira) and Malaga (Spain), under the commandment of its ship lieutenant Barbier. [1]

On November 1962, landed at Genoa (Italy).[1]

On 26 July 1963, it stopped at Alicante (Spain), in company of the submarines Amazone, Minerve and Galatée, as well as the squadron escorter Maillé-Brézé. [1]

From October 1963 to November 1963, a test of an automatic immersion system was held at Toulon to aid the future ballistic missile submarines of class Le Redoutable. [1]

On February 1964, it stops again at Genoa with the Astrée.[1]

Active service

[edit]
Inner bow tube torpedos of submarine Flore

The submarine Flore was commissioned on 21 May 1964 and was enlisted to the 1st squadron of submarines at Toulon, its base port. [1][2][6] Most of its career took place in the Mediterranean. [2] It periodically went back to Lorient for refitting. [2]

From 16 April 1965 to 29 April 1966, the submarine underwent refitting at Lorient and was temporarily enlisted to the 2nd squadron of submarines. It subsequently returned to Toulon. [1]

In January 1968, the submarine experienced its first accident which resulted in the sinking of the fairing of the passive sonar bulb of the bow. [1][2]

From 28 May 1969 to 1 April 1970, it underwent major refit at Toulon. [1]

In February 1970, the ship was integrated into the Mediterranean submarine squadron when it was created in Toulon. [1]

On 19 February 1971, the submarine suffered a leak off the coast of Toulon whilst it was in periscopic immersion, following the malfunction of the air installation[1]. The engine was broken (compartment flooded) and the submarine was forced to release its safety weights to return to the surface. [1] It was picked up shortly after by the tugs Pachyderme and Travailleur to be taken to Toulon, where it was repaired. [1]

In 1974, it underwent major refit in Toulon and new equipment was installed (new sonars, improved detection installations). [1]

On 1 December 1975, General Bigeard, then Secretary of State for Defence, carried out a dive on the submarine Flore. [7] On this occasion, General Bigeard drank a bowl of seawater in order to comply with the tradition of baptism as a submariner during the first dive. [7]

On 7 September 1978, it left Toulon for Cherbourg where he arrived on the 20th of September.[1]. It entered into a major refit (1st of November 1978 to October 1979), then left Cherbourg on the 3rd of October 1979. [1] It returned to Toulon on the 28th of October 1979[1]

On the 21st of October 1986, the fast escorter L'Alsacien was sunk in the Mediterranean by the submarine Flore[1].

The submarine Flore was placed in normal reserve in 1988. On the 3rd of March 1989, it made its last dive in the Mediterranean, then reached Lorient on the 29th of March 1989, the date on which it was withdrawn from active service.[1],[2],[6] . The last raising of the colors took place in Lorient on the 19th of May 1989[1]

On the 29th of November 1994, it was placed in special reserve[1] and is still ventilated to allow its conservation[8]

The Flore submarine traveled 320,000 miles, or nearly 15 times around the Earth.[4]. It has spent 41,000 hours diving[4]

[edit]
The submarine Flore at Lorient

On 12 July 1995, the submarine Flore was put on dry land on the slipway of the Lorient submarine base.[1],[2]. It will be temporarily sheltered from the 3rd of July 1997 to the 9th of April 2000 in cell no. 1, taking into account the weather, strong winds could unbalance it[1]

Then, the submarine was maintained by former volunteer submariners grouped within the Museum of the Atlantic Submarine Squadron association which was created to support the transformation project of the submarine in the naval museum. [1][2]

In 2003, the French Navy made the submarine available to the Cap l'Orient urban community to make it a heritage item open to the public. Cap l'Orient then carried out essential conservation work for €550,000, such as painting the hull. However, Cap l'Orient's priority was then the creation of the Éric Tabarly Sailing City.

In 2008, Norbert Métairie, mayor of Lorient, relaunched the project of a museum around the submarine. The idea is to discover the innards of a submersible, to talk about the history of the Lorient submarine base, as well as to publicize the evolution of the harbor and its strategic issues. The project benefits from the work carried out by the Museum of the Atlantic Submarine Squadron association team of volunteers, in particular to collect material and objects linked to the life of submariners. It also draws on historical studies prepared by René Estienne, the Navy archivist.

Since the 1st of May 2010, the submarine has been on display and open to the public in the Flore submarine discovery area, at the Lorient submarine base.[6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab "Historique du sous marin Flore". www.netmarine.net. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Flore". www.netmarine.net. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  3. ^ "FLORE - Tome 1 - Page 11". www.anciens-cols-bleus.net (in French). Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  4. ^ a b c "Sous marin Flore S645 | U Boat Lorient | Tourisme Bretagne". www.la-flore.fr. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  5. ^ "les chiens mascottes des sous marins".
  6. ^ a b c "Actualités". France 3 Régions (in French). 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  7. ^ a b "FLORE - Tome 1 - Page 9". www.anciens-cols-bleus.net (in French). Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  8. ^ "FLORE - Tome 1 - Page 4". www.anciens-cols-bleus.net (in French). Retrieved 2024-03-28.

See also

[edit]

Biographies

[edit]
  • Jean moulin, Le sous-marins Flore, Rennes, Marines éditions, 2011, 97p.
  • Claude Huan et Juan Moulin, les sous-marins français 1945-2000, Rennes, Marines édition, 16th of February 2010, 119p. p 65-66.
[edit]
[edit]

[[:Category:Museum ships in France]] [[:Category:1960 ships]] [[:Category:Submarines of the French Navy]]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Le_Flore_(S_645)&oldid=1239372128"