The name d’Entrecasteaux borne first by a dispatch cruiser with both sails and a propeller launched in 1858; then in 1896 by a cruiser designed for faraway stations and finally given to this light dispatch cruiser launched in 1931; she was a member of a series of 9 identical ships which had also mine laying capacity.

Assigned to the Atlantic fleet, from early 1933 to July 1939, she sailed a number of times to the French Antilles and went on missions in the Atlantic, Newfoundland and Patagonia.

In 1939 she is stationed in Morocco and escorts Atlantic convoys until the armistice of June 1940. Back in Toulon for careening in May 1941, she resumes escorting activities in Dakar.

In February 1942 she sails for Madagascar with a cargo ship and the Béveziers submarine. Attacked by the British fleet on the 5th of May 1942 in Diego-Suarez, she runs aground after thirty six hours of combat and exploses with a heavy loss of personnel.

Reset afloat she sails North in April 1944 to reach Bizerte in Tunisia where she is decommissioned in October 1948.

Specifications :

Model building : medium difficulty

Scale of drawing : 1/ 200th,
one plan, one photograph, one notice.
The drawing represents the d’Entrecasteaux as it was in 1933