A couple of weeks ago I had a pleasant communication with my friend at SB, Brockpaine. I had noticed that he had the Suffren-class DDGs on his To Do-list. As we talked about it, he kindly mailed me a 'skeleton'-drawing of the ship that I could use to draw the class in their late appearances. Said and done, here's first the Suffren as she appeared during the 1990s, and next is her sister, (or brother?!? Hmmm...)
the Duquesne as she looked like after her major (and last) refit between 1999-2001, and prior to being converted into a Midshipsmans' training ship, in 2007, and duly being placed in reserve. The Duquesne is still in commission, though with reduced power (only half her (his?!?) machinery is currently operational, and partly disarmed (Malafon, 20 mm AA gone and Masurca only used for practice rounds.) The Suffren was decommissioned in 2001, although she can still be seen, in a sadly deplete condition, at the Arsenal in Toulon. Altogether an impressive record for a pair commissioned as early as 1965, incidentally my year of birth! Today, the Duquesne holds the unenviable record of being the only surviving steam-powered European surface combatant of any significant size remaining! She marks the sad but tranquil passing of a 150 year old tradition.A note on the credits. I've credited both me and Brock equally, but decided to put our tags in an alphabetical order. Brock agrees on this arrangement.
Enough small talk. Here's firstly the Suffren, followed by the Duquesne:
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/DDG_Suffren-Class_Suffren.png)
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/D603Suffren-ClassDuquesne2001.png)
![[ img ]](http://i752.photobucket.com/albums/xx161/Bezobrazov/DDG_Suffren-Class_Duquesne_training.png)
![[ img ]](http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Thiel/Help/untitled1.png)
