Hi again!
Gueydon-Class armoured cruisers
After the Jeanne d'Arc had turned out oversized and unhandy, the next type of armoured cruiser was supposed to have similar abilities on a 25% smaller hull. The result was a 9.500-tonner about equal to the British Monmouth-class (2 195mm, 8 165mm and 4 100mm guns with a broadside of 400kg; the 14 152mm guns of HMS Monmouth had a broadside of 405 kg). Protection was slightly stronger, speed was slightly less. They were versatile (in the sense that they were not really good at anything) and reasonably cheap, so the three units of this class were the basis for a follow-on class of five more very similar ships (Gloire-class, next on my to-do list). The three units of the Gueydon-Class (Gueydon, Montcalm and Dupetit-Thouars) were commissioned between 1902 and 1905. While very similar from a distance, the closer you came to them, the more details differed - funnel shape, fore and aft bridge arrangement, hatch and porthole pattern, mast arrangement, you name it. Despite this, there are only few relatively easy giveaways to tell them from each other. Montcalm had an additional deckhouse aft and no platform on the mainmast:
Gueydon had her forward hawsepipe covered by a hatch, two large steam tubes abaft both forefunnels and the compass platform amidships instead aft:
Dupetit-Thouars was unique by not having any of these unique features:
None of them received any meaningful modernization; modifications were limited to improved bridge and fire control arrangements and rangefinders. I have not been able to find post-1914 photographs of Dupetit-Thouars; she likely was not significantly altered afterwards. She was torpedoed by U-62 in 1918.
Gueydon and Montcalm are shown on late- or postwar photographs with an additional pair of searchlights abreast the foremast. Both had landed their 37mm revolvers. Gueydon was retained as a TS postwar and lingered till 1942 or 1943 as accomodation hulk; she was scrapped by the Germans.
Montcalm also had the number of 47mm guns reduced. She also was converted to a barracks ship and scrapped during the Second World War by the Germans.
Greetings
GD