Service
She entered service with the French Mediterranean Fleet in 1932. Pluton experienced many teething problems, particularly with the machinery. Shortly after she was commissioned the Navy decided to give her an extra role as a gunnery training ship and she entered Toulon Dockyard for the necessary modifications on 24 October 1932. Quarters for 40 men were added on the mine deck. Most of the 37-mm AA guns and all of the 8 mm machine guns were replaced by four 50-caliber 75 mm Canon de 75 mm Mle 22 or 24 AA guns and 12 13.2 mm (0.52 in) Hotchkiss mahine guns on six twin mounts, two mounts where the 37 mm guns had been mounted on the foredeck and four between the funnels. The 75 mm guns had a maximum depression of 10° and a maximum elevation of 90°. They fired a 5.93-kilogram (13.1 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 850 m/s (2,800 ft/s) at a rate of fire of 8–18 rounds per minute and had a maximum effective ceiling of 8,000 m (26,000 ft). The Hotchkiss guns had a cyclic rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute, but the practical rate was between 200 and 250 rounds per minute to allow for reloading its 30-round magazines. They had a theoretical ceiling of 4,200 m (13,800 ft). A simple fire-control director was added for the 138 mm guns and 15 additional rangefinders were installed for use by the Rangefinding School.
Pluton spend much of 1933-1935 in dockyard hands after finishing her first round of modifications on 27 April 1933. She was refitted four times during this period to add more gunnery equipment and to rectify some of her defects. These included reinforcement of her superstructure where it had been damaged by the muzzle blast from her 138 mm guns and replacement of her corroded aluminum ladders and booms with steel ones. A high-angle fire-control director for her 75 mm guns was added, two of her 75 mm gun were converted to powered, remotely-controlled mounts, gun shields were added to the 75 mm guns to protect their crews from blast and facilities for another 40 men was installed on her mine deck.
In 1936, an experimental twin 13.2 mm gun mount with a gun shield was added between the starboard 75-mm guns and more rangefinders were added to bring her total up to 31. Her boilers and condensers were repaired in a refit between 25 November 1936 and 13 March 1937. Later that year Pluton had a major refit that involved repair of her turbines, replacement of her 138 mm fire-control director by one of the type used by the 8,000 t (7,900 long tons) light cruisers and the transfer of the foredeck 13.2 mm machine guns to positions on the forward superstrucut. Her last refit, from 15 November 1938-15 February 1939, retubed two boilers, enclosed the AA director to protect it from the weather, improved the remote control of the 138 mm guns and added gun shields to each of the twin 13.2 mm mounts.
Pluton was transferred to Lorient on 10 May 1939 when the French Navy formed the 5e Escadre there which controlled all training ships and planned to convert her into a full-time training ship as consort to the training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc on 1 June 1940. She would have been renamed La Tour d'Auvergne at that time, as the name Pluton was reserved for mine warfare ships in the French Navy.
As war approached, it was decided to retain her as a minelayer and most of the extra fire control equipment was removed. She was transferred to Brest as part of the reorganization of the 5e Escadre. She sailed for Casablanca, French Morocco on 2 September with 125 Bréguet mines embarked. She was ordered to lay a defensive minefield there on 4 September, but this order was rescinded the next day, after the mines had already been fuzed, and the ship was ordered to disembark the mines. While landing the mines on 13 September one of them exploded, destroying the ship and killing 186 people. A further 73 crewmen and 47 others were injured and significant damage was caused by flying debris. One gun and some armor was salvaged during the war, but demolition work did not begin until October 1952 and was completed by July 1953.
Read more about this topic: French Minelaying Cruiser Pluton
Famous quotes containing the word service:
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)
“A man’s real faith is never contained in his creed, nor is his creed an article of his faith. The last is never adopted. This it is that permits him to smile ever, and to live even as bravely as he does. And yet he clings anxiously to his creed, as to a straw, thinking that that does him good service because his sheet anchor does not drag.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)