page_title: Vauquelin-class destroyer
section_title: Design and description
hierarchical_section_title: Vauquelin-class destroyer / Design and description
caption_attribution_description: A French 2400-tonne class destroyer: Recognition and general arrangement drawings prepared circa 1940-1942 by the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence. This is one of the later ships, with seven torpedo tubes. The original print came from the Office of Naval Intelligence.The 2400-tonne classes were the Guépard-, Aigle- and Vauquelin-classes.
context_page_description: The Vauquelin class was a group of six large destroyers built for the French Navy in the early 1930s. Entering service in 1933–1934, the sister ships spent most of their careers in the Mediterranean. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, they helped to enforce the non-intervention agreement. When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, all of the Vauquelins were assigned to the High Sea Forces which was tasked to escort French convoys and support the other commands as needed. Three of the sisters briefly deployed to Scotland in early 1940 to support the Allied forces in the Norwegian Campaign and Maillé Brézé was lost to an accidental explosion. The others returned to the Mediterranean in time to participate in Operation Vado, a bombardment of Italian coastal facilities after Italy entered the war in June.
  The Vichy French reformed the FHM after the French surrender in late June. After the Allies invaded French Lebanon and Syria in June 1941, Le Chevalier Paul was ordered to ferry ammunition there.
context_section_description: Like their predecessors, the contre-torpilleurs of the Vauquelin class were designed as fleet scouts, intended to fight their way through the enemy's screen. The design was virtually identical to the preceding Aigle-class destroyers, although the stern was reshaped to improve minelaying and the torpedo armament was revised. To reduce topweight, the use of electric welding for non-strength parts of the hull and superstructure was increased as was the use of duralumin for internal partitions and parts of the superstructure. This improved their metacentric height at deep load to 0.7 m (2.3 ft) and made them much more stable than the Aigles. The Vauquelins were considered to be good seaboats, although the small rudder, carried over from the earlier ships, made them not very maneuverable. In service the use of duralumin was much criticized as it was corrosion prone and required much maintenance.
  The Vauquelin-class ships had an overall length of 129.3 meters (424 ft 3 in), a beam of 11.8 meters (38 ft 9 in), and a draft of 4.97 meters (16 ft 4 in). The ships displaced 2,441 metric tons (2,402 long tons) at standard and 3,120 metric tons (3,070 long tons) at deep load. Their hull was subdivided by a dozen traverse bulkheads into 13 watertight compartments. Their crew consisted of 10 officers and 201 crewmen in peacetime and 12 officers and 220 enlisted men in wartime.
  The Vauquelins were powered by two geared Rateau-Breguet or Parsons steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four du Temple boilers that operated at a pressure of 20 kg/cm² (1,961 kPa; 284 psi) and a temperature of 215 °C (419 °F). The turbines were designed to produce 64,000 metric horsepower (47,000 kW; 63,000 shp) which was intended give the ships a speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). During their sea trials, each of the ships comfortably exceeded their designed speed, ranging from 38.4 to 41 knots (71.1 to 75.9 km/h; 44.2 to 47.2 mph) from 69,326 to 79,846 PS (50,989 to 58,727 kW; 68,378 to 78,754 shp). They carried a maximum of 585 metric tons (576 long tons) of fuel oil which give them a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). The ships were fitted with two 80-kilowatt (110 hp) turbo generators in the engine rooms. In addition, a pair of 22-kilowatt (30 hp) diesel generators were located in the central superstructure.
caption: Right elevation and plan of the Vauquelin class
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