Built in 1931 by the Toulon shipyards, the Rubis was launched on September 30. It is the fourth submarine in a series of six. After the Sapphire, the Turquoise, the Nautilus, will follow the Diamond and the Pearl. This submarine was designed to lay mines without surfacing . It was 66 m long by 7 m wide and 8 m high . It was equipped with a Vickers-Armstrong engine of 3900 HP allowing it a speed of 8 knots in diving and 12 on the surface . The Rubis could descend to 50 m , and navigate in periscope immersion up to 15 m.
Armament: 1 x 75 mm cannon, 2 x 13 mm machine guns, 32 mines of 1090 kg, 3 torpedoes of 550 mm and 2 torpedoes of 400 mm.
Crew: 45 men (4 officers, 9 non-commissioned officers, 32 crew).
In 1936 the Rubis was sent to Cherbourg to complete the training of the crew. During "the funny war" in 1939 , it was first in the Mediterranean at Bizerte , then depended on the 9th fleet based in Dundee (Scotland) . He carried out numerous missions in Norwegian waters from 1940 when the Third Reich invaded this country. Following the Armistice of June 22, 1940, the English triggered Operation Catapult which consists in seizing French ships. The Rubis is part of the lot and therefore changes flag. Of the 45 men, only 5 returned to France, the others chose to serve in the Free French Forces under the command of Admiral Muselier .
The Ruby went through the war and came out intact, which for this type of boat and during this period was quite a feat.
In 1945 the results of the submarine are eloquent: 28 missions, 683 mines dropped, 15 ships, 7 dredgers, 1 freighter of 4360 tons sunk, a damaged U-BOOT.
On June 8, 1945 , he returned to Oran where he was disarmed on the 23rd . Until 1950 it was used as an instruction building , then was transformed into a submarine base.
In 1957 it escaped demolition thanks to a former commanding officer, but the decision was taken to sink it.
On January 31, 1958, the tug Samson and the barge Criquet brought it to 2600 meters from Cap Camarat. Commander Riffaud places the burden of 9 kg and blew the back of Ruby sinking on a background of 40 meters for his last journey.