The 1912 ships were designed to mine the Channel and France's northern coast, where they could help contain German forces behind the country's limited North Sea outlet while French dreadnoughts concentrated in the Mediterranean. Each displaced about 574 tons, carried roughly 140 mines and a single 75 mm gun, and used twin-shaft triple-expansion machinery for a 21-knot top speed. That was fast enough to work with the contemporary battle line, while a 1,900-nautical-mile range at 16 knots and a crew of 52 made the type a compact specialist. Pluton captured the German merchant ship SS Porto on 5 August 1914, laid fields off occupied Flanders, and spent the war working closely with the Dover Patrol. Cerbere moved to the Mediterranean, where she laid mines off Syria and the Dardanelles, joined Allied pressure on Greece over communications and transport, and later operated in the Adriatic. That wartime record makes France's decision to discard the ships in 1921 look premature.
Notable Point · 16:26-20:27
The earlier Pluton-class minelayers
An earlier Pluton class was built to mine northern waters, then proved useful alongside the Dover Patrol in the First World War.