Aréthuse was an unprotected cruiser built for the French Navy. The ship was laid down in 1879 and completed in 1885. Intended to serve as a long-range commerce raider, the ship was fitted with a sailing rig to supplement its steam engine on long voyages, and she carried an armament of four and twenty-two guns. She was among the final French unprotected cruisers, thereafter being replaced by more durable protected cruisers.
The ship served with the main fleet in the Mediterranean Sea in 1886 before being assigned to patrol duty with the South Atlantic Squadron, serving as the unit's flagship. Aréthuse had been transferred to the North Atlantic Squadron by 1890, and was extensively modernized in 1891–1892. Another stint with the North Atlantic Squadron followed from 1893 to 1895, and in 1899, she was reduced to a hulk. Aréthuse was briefly used as the headquarters for the coastal defense unit based in Landévennec, but was broken up in 1901.
Design
In 1878, the French Navy embarked on a program of cruiser construction authorized by the (Council of Works) for a strategy aimed at attacking British merchant shipping in the event of war. The program called for ships of around with a speed of . Four vessels were ordered, including Aréthuse; the vessels were dated designs more similar to the first screw frigates that had been built in the 1850s than the latest protected cruisers being designed abroad. Aréthuse and the other three vessels were the final generation of unprotected cruisers built in France, that type thereafter being replaced by protected cruisers beginning with in the early 1880s.
The design for Aréthuse was prepared by the naval constructor Arthur Bienaymé, which he submitted to the Minister of the Navy, Louis Pierre Alexis Pothuau. Bienaymé designed a ship similar in size to the earlier cruiser . Pothuau forward it to the on 8 February 1878, which during a meeting on 26 March, made several recommendations for improvements. These primarily concerned the arrangement of the armament, which Bienaymé had placed on the upper deck, but the wanted to be a deck lower so that it would be covered. On 6 April 1878, Pothuau issued a request to the various French shipyards for proposals for a pair of new cruisers similar to what the had asked Bienaymé to revise about his design. Pothuau wanted a ship not more than in length, with a top speed of , and an armament of four or six guns and twelve guns. Pothuau had received a number of submissions by July, and he forwarded six of them, including Bienaymé's, to the for further evaluation. They selected two on 13 August, and Bienaymé's revised proposal became Aréthuse.
Aréthuses design was revised during construction in 1882; the naval minister at that time, Admiral Bernard Jauréguiberry, decided that the 194 mm guns were too heavy, so he ordered they be replaced with 164.7 mm guns. The reduction in firepower was compensated by an increase in the number of 138.6 mm guns to twenty two. The changes increased the crew significantly and reduced the room available for accommodation and storage spaces. The design was nevertheless approved as revised on 27 July 1883. Though the ship was originally intended to carry four torpedo tubes, these were never installed.
Characteristics
Aréthuse was long at the waterline and long between perpendiculars, with a beam of and an average draft of . After, her draft increased to . She displaced . Her hull was constructed with wood; she had a clipper bow and an overhanging stern. She had a raised forecastle and sterncastle. The ship had no armor protection. Her crew varied over the course of her career, ranging from 467 to 474 officers and enlisted men.
The ship was propelled by a single horizontal, 3-cylinder compound steam engine that drove a screw propeller. Steam was provided by eight coal-burning fire-tube boilers that were ducted into a single funnel located amidships. Coal storage amounted to . The power plant was designed to produce , but on speed trials, her propulsion system reached , for a top speed of . At a cruising speed of , she could steam for . To supplement her steam engines, she was fitted with a three-masted full ship rig.