Design
Starting in 1910, the French Navy began a dreadnought battleship construction program, starting with the four ships of the Courbet class that year. The three-ship Bretagne class was authorized the next year, and five Normandie-class battleships followed in 1912. Design work began in 1912; the design staff submitted several proposals for the new battleships. Displacements ranged from 27,000 metric tons (27,000 long tons; 30,000 short tons) to 29,000 t (29,000 long tons; 32,000 short tons); the various designs featured a main battery of fourteen or sixteen 340 mm (13 in) guns, eight or ten 380 mm (15 in) guns, or twenty 305 mm (12.0 in) guns, in a mix of quadruple or twin gun turrets.
In 1913, the Navy authorized a fourth class of battleships, Lyon, which was scheduled for 1915. The design staff determined the 38 cm gun would take too long to design, so the proposals that incorporated these weapons were cancelled. The design staff settled on one of the two 34 cm proposals. The first proposal, which mounted fourteen guns, was a 27,500 t (27,100 long tons; 30,300 short tons) ship 185 meters (607 ft) long. On 24 November 1913, the design staff instead chose the slightly larger second design, armed with sixteen guns in four quadruple turrets. The first two ships, Lyon and Lille, were scheduled to be ordered on 1 January 1915, and Duquesne and Tourville would have followed on 1 April 1915. World War I broke out in August 1914, however, and shifting military requirements, particularly for the army, forced the cancellation of the class.
Read more about this topic: Lyon Class Battleship
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—John Adams (1735–1826)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)