The French Navy sent the newly commissioned ship to Toulon to add a training role, altering anti-aircraft armament, accommodation, rangefinding, and fire control. Extra quarters and fifteen rangefinders crowded a mine deck whose clear working space was central to the original design. Repeated dockyard work followed as gun-blast damage, corroded aluminium fittings, boilers, condensers, turbines, and fire-control equipment demanded attention. Further weapons and shields added still more topside equipment through the late 1930s. The continual changes crowded and complicated a vessel whose original specialist mission remained valuable.
Chapter · 28:13-31:43
Converting a minelayer into a gunnery school
Early in service Pluton was altered for gunnery training, adding equipment and accommodation that strained a hull meant for mine warfare.