French ship Laplace (A 793)

For other ships with the same name, see French ship Laplace.

Laplace is a hydrographic survey ship of the French Navy, third of the Lapérouse-class survey ships.

French Ship Laplace
History
France
Name	Laplace
Namesake	Cyrille Pierre Théodore Laplace[1]
Laid down	1 September 1987 [1]
Launched	9 November 1988 [1]
Commissioned	5 October 1989 [1]
Identification	MMSI number: 228798000
Status	in active service
General characteristics
Class & type	Lapérouse-class survey ship
Displacement	850 t (837 long tons) 980 t (965 long tons) full load
Length	59 m (193 ft 7 in)
Beam	10.9 m (35 ft 9 in)
Draught	3.63 m (11 ft 11 in)
Propulsion	2 SACM Wärtsilä UD30 RVR V12 M6 diesel engines 2,500 hp (1,864 kW) 2 shafts with 4-blade controllable pitch propellers
Range	6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Complement	3 officers 10 non-commissioned officers 18 enlisted personnel 11 hydrographers
Armament	2 × 12.7 mm machine guns

Career

In 1999, Laplace surveyed the Persian Gulf, retrieving samples from the sea floor under 3000 metres of water.^[2]

In 2004, she took part in an anti-drug operation leading to the capture of 2 tonnes of cocaine.^[2]

In 2016, after the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804, Laplace was dispatched to search for the black boxes of the aircraft.^[3][4] She departed her base of Porto-Vecchio, in Corsica, on 27 May and arrived at the search area by 31 May.^[3] On 1 June Laplace detected a signal from one of the black box recorders.^[5]