French aviso Les Éparges

Laid down by Chantiers de la Méditerranée at their shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer in 1917, Les Éparges was launched in September 1919.^[4][8] The first ship of the name in the French fleet, after completing trials, on 5 July 1921, the vessel was deployed to the fleet as a guard ship at Toulon.^[9][10] On 28 November, quartermaster Pierre Farge was charged with sabotage after damage had been found on the ship that was deemed deliberate. Protesting his innocence, he was imprisoned until 10 January the following year, when he was released and subsequently given a pardon by the Minister of the Navy Flaminius Raiberti. He returned to the ship, which by that point had been transferred to Toulon.^[11] In between, on 28 November, the vessel had left Lorient and sailed for Gibraltar for a brief deployment in the Mediterranean Sea.^[12]

In 1926, the French Navy set up a Commission d’études pratiques de navigation Commission for Practical Navigation Studies) with a base at Toulon for the study of gyroscopes and compasses. Les Éparges was allocated to the commission.^[13] In 1929, the vessel was transferred to the better equipped Commission de détection littorale de Cherbourg (Cherbourg Coastal Detection Commission).^[14] This specialist role meant that the ship was excluded from the tonnage allowed under the London Naval Treaty signed the following year.^[15] The ship was disarmed and equipped for surveying.^[1]

Les Éparges had returned to Toulon by 1 May 1939 at the brink of the Second World War.^[16] After the Armistice of 22 June 1940, the vessel was transferred to the Marine de Vichy (Vichy French Navy) and was one of the members of the French fleet scuttled at Toulon on 27 November 1942.^[8] The vessel was raised and entered service with the German Kriegsmarine as the minesweeper M.6060.^[17] Renamed SG.25 in May 1943, with the intention of re-entering service as an escort corvette, the vessel was badly damaged in a fire on 1 March 1944 and deliberately scuttled; this time the ship was not raised.^[18]

• Bernay, Henri (22 March 1926). "La marine de guerre et les éludes de navigation" [The navy and navigation studies]. Le Yacht: Journal de La Marine (in French). No. 2252. p. 241 – via Gallica.
• Bernay, Henri (26 January 1929). "Marine et sciences" [The Navy and Science]. Le Yacht: Journal de La Marine (in French). No. 2392. pp. 37–38 – via Gallica.
• Friedman, Norman (2011). Naval Weapons of World War One: Guns, Torpedoes, Mines and ASW Weapons of All Nations; An Illustrated Directory. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-100-7.
• Le Conte, Pierre (1932). Répertoire des Navires de Guerre Français [Directory of French Warships] (in French). Cherbourg: Pierre Le Conte, La Villarion, rue des Bastions. OCLC 1400324432.
• Labayle Couhat, Jean (1972). French Warships of World War II. Shepperton: Ian Allen. ISBN 978-0-71100-153-4.
• Labayle Couhat, Jean (1974). French Warships of World War I. Shepperton: Ian Allen. ISBN 978-0-71100-445-0.
• Patyanin, Sergey; Dashyan, Alexander; Barabanov, Mikhail (2021). Все корабли Второй Мировой. 10 000 кораблей, подлодок и катеров 54 стран [All ships of World War II. 10,000 ships, submarines, and boats from 54 countries] (in Russian). Moscow: ЛитРес. ISBN 978-5-04343-255-1.
• Smigielski, Adam (1985). "France". In Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (eds.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 978-0-85177-245-5.
• Thomazi, Auguste (17 May 1930). "Les clauses accessoires du traité naval de Londres" [The ancillary clauses of the London Naval Treaty]. Le Yacht: Journal de La Marine (in French). No. 2460. p. 267 – via Gallica.
• Willmott, Hedley Paul (2010). The Last Century of Sea Power, Volume 2: From Washington to Tokyo, 1922–1945. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-25400-409-2.