French Submarines at Gallipoli

Submarine Joule was most likely sunk by a mine, 1st May 1915. The commanding officer was Louis Georges Marie Félix Auber DUPETIT THOUARS de St George

Submarine Mariotte was sunk by a mine, 28 July 1915

The French submarine" Saphir" was lost at sea on 15/1/1915. It started to take water after passing through a mine field near Nagara coast . It was just 22 meters deep. The submarine run aground. The rear engines were engaged....but the sub fell to 70 meters deep ..more water entered the sub.. The commander, Lieutenant de Vaisseau Henri Fournier decided to surface..but the Turks opened fire. To avoid capture of his craft Lieut Fournier gave the order to open the ballast and to sink the sub. Just 10 men survived the sinking. Fournier died with his submarine.

Submarine Turquoise was in fact captured by the Turks on 30/10/1915. Lieut Vaisseau Ravenel was the commander. The crew was taken prisoner and some died from the Spanish flu in Turkish jails. On 17 September 1915, during the height of the Gallipoli Campaign, the French submarine TURQUOISE managed to get through the defenses into the Sea of Marmara. On her passage back to her base, she ran aground at Aksaz in Dardanelles. Sighted by the Turkish defence, she come under fire. TURQUOISE was hit by the conning tower as she accidentally surfaced. Unable to dive, she was captured and towed to Istanbul. She was commissioned into the Ottoman Navy as MÜSTECİP ONBAŞI named after the soldier whose shot hit the submarine. Her only use during the war however was to charge the batteries of the German submarines.

Details by Yves "Froggy" Fohlen.