I served on board the USS Carl Vinson in the Reactor Controls division We had a knotmeter mounted in the No aft EOS enclosed operating station Where the watch officer reactor operator two throttlemen and a logrcorder stood watch I remember seeing  power aft and in the s forward The aft plant always drew more power at high speed due to the center screws taking more power At this max allowed peacetime power the ship did do over thirty knots but not muchthe increase in power required to gain even a few knots was immense Even if the battle short switches were on overriding all reactor protective functions the plants just plain could not make enough power to go a whole lot faster The power required to turn a marine propeller is proportional to the cube of the propellers rotational speed ie to double the speed of the propeller takes eight times the power  Forty knots Not likely