Suffren was a predreadnought battleship built for the Marine Nationale (French Navy) in the first decade of the twentieth century.

Completed in 1902, the ship was assigned to the Escadre de la Méditerranée (Mediterranean Squadron) for most of her career and often served as a flagship.

Suffren was assigned to join the naval operations off the Dardanelles, where she participated in a series of attacks on the Ottoman fortifications guarding the straits.

Suffren provided covering fire as the Allies withdrew from the peninsula and accidentally sank one of the evacuation ships.

After repairs the ship was assigned to the French squadron tasked to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front.

While en route to Lorient for a refit, Suffren was torpedoed off Lisbon by an Imperial German submarine on 26 November 1916 and sank with all hands.

The Chamber authorized another battleship the following year and Besnard, not wishing to delay construction for the time required for an entirely new design, requested an enlarged and improved version of Iéna.

The ship carried a maximum of 1,233 t (1,214 long tons) of coal which allowed her to steam for 3,086 nmi (5,715 km; 3,551 mi) at a speed of 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph).

Suffren carried 52.15 t (51.33 long tons) of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to improve its burn rate.

[5] Like Iéna, Suffren carried her main armament of four 40-calibre Canon de 305 mm (12 in) Modèle 1893/96 guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure.

[7] For defence against torpedo boats, Suffren mounted twenty-two 50-calibre Canon de 47 mm (1.9 in) Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns.

This armour was backed by a highly subdivided cofferdam intended to reduce flooding from any penetrating hits as its compartments were filled by water-resistant "bricks" of dried Zostera seaweed (briquettes de zostère).

The last two shells, fired with full charges, cracked the plate, but Suffren's turret was fully operational, as was her Germain electrical fire-control system, and the sheep were unharmed.

[15] As time went by several defects were revealed in service, including the weakness of the underpowered capstan which was barely capable of raising the anchor in waters 15–20 m (49–66 ft) deep.

Burning fragments started a small fire aboard Suffren, but she was not otherwise damaged by the explosion and participated in the annual fleet manoeuvres that began on 1 July.

On 14 February 1911 the port anchor chain broke while Suffren was conducting towing exercises with two other battleships, killing one sailor and injuring two others.

[18] When the magazines of the semi-dreadnought Liberté exploded in Toulon on 25 September 1911, flying debris from the explosion killed four men aboard Suffren.

[19] When the Marine Nationale mobilized in anticipation of war on 1 August, the Division de complément was ordered to Algiers, French Algeria, to protect the convoy route to Metropolitan France.

Guépratte complained that his ships were not well suited to such a mission and he was ordered to take Suffren, the predreadnought Saint Louis and the torpedo cruiser Cassini to Port Said, Egypt, to escort troop convoys from British India on 23 September.

The following day he was ordered to rendezvous with the semi-dreadnought Vérité at the island of Tenedos where he was to place himself under the orders of the British Vice-Admiral Sackville Carden to assist British ships in blockading the Dardanelles to prevent any sortie by the Ottoman battlecruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim and the light cruiser Midilli back into the Mediterranean.

The short bombardment by the Allies, during which Suffren fired 30 shells from her main guns, did little damage, but alerted the Ottomans that their defences there required strengthening.

On 7 March the French squadron attempted to suppress the Ottoman guns in the Dardanelles while British battleships bombarded the fortifications.

While the French squadron was withdrawing pursuant to Admiral John de Robeck's order Bouvet struck a mine and sank in 55 seconds.

Suffren lowered her admiral's barge, her only intact boat, and rescued 75 men before she had to escort the badly-damaged Gaulois away from the Dardanelles.

Suffren arrived at Toulon on 3 April and was repaired by 20 May when she returned to the Dardanelles to provide gunfire support for the troops ashore.

She remained in the area until 31 December; upon returning to her anchorage at Kefalos on the island of Kos, she collided with and sank the British steamer Saint Oswald, a horse transport involved in the evacuation from Gallipoli, and was badly damaged.

That month she joined the French squadron of six predreadnoughts assigned to prevent any interference by the Greeks with Allied operations on the Salonica front.

On 9 July Suffren briefly became flagship of the reestablished 3e Escadre de ligne when Patrie departed for a refit at Toulon.

On 7 October Patrie, Démocratie, and Suffren entered the harbour of Eleusina prepared to fire on the Greek predreadnoughts Kilkis and Limnos and the cruiser Elli, but things were resolved peacefully and the French ships returned to their base.

On the morning of 26 November, roughly 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) off the Portuguese coast near Lisbon, she was torpedoed by the German submarine SM U-52, which was en route to the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro in the Adriatic Sea.