Aigle-class destroyer
The Aigle-class destroyers were built for the French Navy during the 1930s.
Design and description
The Aigle-class ships were improved versions of the preceding. They had an overall length of, a beam of, and a draft of. The ships displaced at standard load and at deep load. They had a metacentric height of and their hull was divided by a dozen transverse bulkheads into 13 watertight compartments. Their crew consisted of 10 officers and 198 crewmen in peacetime and 10 officers and 217 enlisted men in wartime.The ships were powered by two geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by four du Temple boilers that operated at a pressure of and a temperature of. The turbines were designed to produce which was intended give the ships a speed of. They comfortably exceeded their designed speed; the fastest of the ships,, reached a speed of from during her sea trials. The Aigles carried of fuel oil which gave them a range of at.
The main battery of the Aigle class consisted of five Modèle 1927 guns in single shielded mounts, one superfiring pair fore and aft of the superstructure and the fifth gun abaft the rear funnel. Their anti-aircraft armament consisted of four Modèle 1927 guns in single mounts positioned amidships. In addition Gerfaut and were initially fitted with a M1897-15 gun forward of the rear pair of funnels, but this was removed by the end of 1932. All the ships carried two rotating triple mounts for torpedo tubes, one mount between the two pairs of funnels as well as another aft of the rear funnel. A pair of depth charge chutes were built into their stern; these housed a total of sixteen depth charges, with eight more in reserve. They were also fitted with four depth-charge throwers, two on each broadside abreast the forward pair of funnels, for which the ships carried a dozen depth charges.