French cruiser Pascal

Plan and profile drawing of the Descartes class

In response to a war scare with Italy in the late 1880s, the French Navy embarked on a major construction program in 1890 to counter the threat of the Italian fleet and that of Italy's ally Germany. The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire. The Descartes class, which comprised Descartes and Pascal, was ordered to as part of the program.[1][2]

Pascal was 96.32 m (316 ft) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 12.98 m (42 ft 7 in) and a draft of 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in). She displaced 3,960 long tons (4,020 t). Her crew varied over the course of her career, and consisted of 383–401 officers and enlisted men. The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers. Steam was provided by sixteen coal-burning Belleville-type water-tube boilers that were ducted into two funnels. Her machinery was rated to produce 8,500 indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) for a top speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph).[3] She had a cruising radius of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and 1,000 nmi (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) at 19.5 knots.[4]

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 164 mm (6.5 in) guns. They were placed in individual sponsons clustered amidships, two guns per broadside. These were supported by a secondary battery of ten 100 mm (3.9 in) guns, which were carried in sponsons, casemates, and individual pivot mounts. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried fourteen 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and eight 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder guns. She was also armed with two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes in her hull above the waterline. Armor protection consisted of a curved armor deck that was 30 to 60 mm (1.2 to 2.4 in) thick, along with 70 mm (2.8 in) plating on the conning tower.[3]

Work on Pascal began with her keel laying in Toulon in December 1893. She was launched on 26 September 1895 and was commissioned to begin sea trials in 1896. During her initial testing, she was found to suffer from stability problems and had to receive additional ballast to correct the problem. Work on the ship was completed in 1897.[3][5][6] With the beginning of the unrest that led to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China in 1898, many European colonial powers began to reinforce their naval forces in East Asia. Pascal was sent to the region in January 1898 to reinforce the French squadron there, which at that time also included the old ironclad Bayard, the protected cruisers Descartes and Jean Bart, and the unprotected cruiser Duguay-Trouin.[6][7]

Pascal remained in East Asian waters in 1899, along with Descartes and Duguay-Trouin, though Jean Bart was recalled home.[8] After the uprising broke out in China late that year, the French considerably strengthened the squadron in the Far East; by January 1901, they had assembled a force of nine cruisers, including Pascal.[9] She remained in East Asian waters in 1902,[10] but with fighting over in China, the unit began to be reduced in size. By 1903, the unit consisted of the armored cruiser Montcalm and the protected cruisers Châteaurenault and Bugeaud, in addition to Pascal.[11] Pascal continued to operate in French Indochina in 1904, but she was in poor condition by that time and was unable to steam faster than 16 to 18 knots (30 to 33 km/h; 18 to 21 mph).[12] She saw little further service, in part because of her deteriorated state, but also because by this time, the French Navy had settled on building a fleet of armored cruisers to fulfill the roles that the Descartes class had been intended to fill.[13] Pascal was struck from the naval register in 1911 and broken up for scrap.[5]

• Brassey, Thomas A. (1898). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 56–66. OCLC 496786828.
• Brassey, Thomas A. (1899). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 70–80. OCLC 496786828.
• Brassey, Thomas A. (1902). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 47–55. OCLC 496786828.
• Brassey, Thomas A. (1903). "Chapter III: Relative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 57–68. OCLC 496786828.
• Brassey, Thomas A. (1904). "Chapter IV: Comparative Strength". The Naval Annual. Portsmouth: J. Griffin & Co.: 86–107. OCLC 496786828.
• "France". Notes on the Year's Naval Progress. Washington, D.C.: United States Office of Naval Intelligence. XV: 27–41. July 1896. OCLC 727366607.
• Gardiner, Robert, ed. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-133-5.
• Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-907-8.
• Jordan, John & Caresse, Philippe (2017). French Battleships of World War One. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-639-1.
• Ropp, Theodore (1987). Roberts, Stephen S. (ed.). The Development of a Modern Navy: French Naval Policy, 1871–1904. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-141-6.
• "Service Performed by French Vessels Fitted with Belleville Boilers". Notes on Naval Progress. Washington, D.C.: United States Office of Naval Intelligence. 20: 299. July 1901. OCLC 699264868.