Le fantasque never made 45 knots, ever. No idea where that nonsense came from. In point of fact they were probably no faster at all in operation, they only attained high speeds in trials via excessive forcing of the power plant as was typical of Italian and French trials at the time.
The design power of the class was around 73,000 HP basically the same as Shimakaze, most plants could sustain a modest overload. Shimakaze's highest speed 40.9 run was attained at about 79,000 HP about 5% she made a hair under 40 at her actual design power. Le fantasque speed trials often quoted were run with outputs averaging around 90,000 in the longer test and 95,000 in the final sprint test after large quantities of fuel had been burned. A 20 to 25% overload is not even CLOSE to representative of the output that would be used in combat.
It produced impressive numbers on paper... that meant absolutely fucking nothing in reality. This is easily seen by the setting of the actual maximum formation speed in service as 39 knots.
This is hardly surprising the ships had basically the same design horsepower and maximum displacement with similar length to beam ratios, there was no magic in le fantasque's design that would somehow give them four extra knots. The only way it could do so is unsustainable forcing of the power plant that would never be allowed outside a trial environment. And even then with a 20% overload to around 90,000 horsepower some of the ships where barely any faster with one making only 40.99 knots.
To be fair to the author, the English wikipedia page for the ship herself has it down as 45kn. Interestingly, while Japanese wikipedia lacks any individual pages for any of the ships in her class, the page for the class itself puts it down as 37kn...
To be fair to the author, the English wikipedia page for the ship herself has it down as 45kn. Interestingly, while Japanese wikipedia lacks any individual pages for any of the ships in her class, the page for the class itself puts it down as 37kn...
37 knots was set as the standard formation speed for the class, 39 knots could be called for in unusual circumstances. 40 knots was never considered routinely attainable in actual service where the true design power would be used rather then ludicrous forcing.
Putting the speed at 45 knots is surely overstating the speed of the class, however they did de facto achieve higher speeds than Shimakaze did in trial conditions. There is no guarantee Shimakaze would be able to do the same if it had been run alongside the Le Fantasque ships in the French trials. I think it's quite fair to consider them as faster than Shimakaze due to that.
As an aside, per John Jordan and Jean Moulin initially half of the ships had 40 knots as their formation speed (Le Fantasque, L'Audacieux and Le Terrible), 39 for the three others.
Honestly, both of them seem pretty underwhelming when you consider that the Gridley class had only about 49k HP with a design speed of 36.5kn and their actual speed ended up being even higher, while Maury achieved 42.8kn in trials.
A 20 to 25% overload is not even CLOSE to representative of the output that would be used in combat.
"Inquire of the engineer about the possibility of going to 105 percent on the reactor."
Also, there is the small matter that after the French changed sides, American shipyards rebuilt Le Fantasque and one of her sisters into light cruisers with better radars and AA guns, making them considerably slower in the process.
Keep in mind the Gridley-class has a considerably lower displacement. The Le Fantasque class were pretty large and heavily armed and still managed to do 40kts at normal operating speed pre-refit. Also unless the 39kts listed for Mogador-class was during speed trials only, having a ship THAT massive and THAT heavily armed going doing 39kts is even more impressive
Le fantasque never made 45 knots, ever. No idea where that nonsense came from. In point of fact they were probably no faster at all in operation, they only attained high speeds in trials via excessive forcing of the power plant as was typical of Italian and French trials at the time.
The design power of the class was around 73,000 HP basically the same as Shimakaze, most plants could sustain a modest overload. Shimakaze's highest speed 40.9 run was attained at about 79,000 HP about 5% she made a hair under 40 at her actual design power. Le fantasque speed trials often quoted were run with outputs averaging around 90,000 in the longer test and 95,000 in the final sprint test after large quantities of fuel had been burned. A 20 to 25% overload is not even CLOSE to representative of the output that would be used in combat.
It produced impressive numbers on paper... that meant absolutely fucking nothing in reality. This is easily seen by the setting of the actual maximum formation speed in service as 39 knots.
This is hardly surprising the ships had basically the same design horsepower and maximum displacement with similar length to beam ratios, there was no magic in le fantasque's design that would somehow give them four extra knots. The only way it could do so is unsustainable forcing of the power plant that would never be allowed outside a trial environment. And even then with a 20% overload to around 90,000 horsepower some of the ships where barely any faster with one making only 40.99 knots.
Ok so it seems some clarifications are needed. 45 knots was the speed record during trials of le Fantasque's sister, le Terrible (45.07 knots to be precise). She was the only one to reach that speed with le Fantasque being the slowest of the 6. The average top speed in trials for the class was 43 knots :
Le Fantasque : 42.71 knots L'Indomptable : 43.02 knots Le Malin : 43.11 knots L'Audacieux : 43.18 knots Le Triomphant : 43.24 knots Le Terrible : 45.07 knots
The machinery between the ships was also different. Half of them received Rateau turbines and the other half Parsons turbines. The average nominal speed for Rateau was 40 knots and for Parsons 39 knots. It is interesting to note that Le Terrible kept the shaft support of the previous Vauquelin class while her sisters had new "improved" designs ; this may be the reason of her different top speed.
In practice, all of them could reach 43 knots in trials and could easily sustain 40 knots in service. Indeed such amazing speed were achieved by overloading the turbines between 90.000 hp and 100.000 hp however, contrary to what you said, this was perfectly sustainable for them. Their trials, as well as the other ships in the French navy, were conducted at Washington displacement during an 8 hours run and with an extra 9th hour at the end.
Ships of the Le Fantasque class were performant enough to sustain high speed for a long period of time if needs be, but such occasions are rare and doing so consummes lots and lots of fuel so in combat, they were often operating at much slower speed as many other ships did. The difference is, if they were forced to go all out and push themselves to their maximum, they were capable of doing so without any problem (as long they had fuel of course).
I-I lost...You're so slow, Shimakaze~Eheheh~D-Dammiiiit...
I'll beat her in speed for sure, she'll see!Have you seen that suspense movie yet?La Fantasque, you're so sloooow!*40 knotsNo, I'm heading to see it now.Oi.The butler did it.
The English-equivalent trope.
This refers to a meme based upon Portopia Serial Murder Case, a never-ported Nintendo game series.Saw the very earliest screening.Since I'm off-duty and all, maybe I should go and see that suspense movie that opened today...hmm?
A phone call from Shimakaze...?*45 knots
