Branlebas-class destroyer

The Branlebas class was a class of ten destroyers built for the French Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Eight of the ships survived the First World War and were scrapped afterwards.

Construction and design
The Branlebas-class was a development of the previous Claymore-class destroyer, and was the final evolution of the 300-tonne type which the French had built since 1899 with their first destroyer class, the Durandal-class destroyer. Like all the 300-tonne destroyers, the Branlebas-class ships had a turtledeck forecastle with a flying deck, raised above the hull, aft.

They were 58 m long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 6.28 m and a maximum draught of 2.96 m. Displacement was 344 LT. Two coal-fired Normand or Du Temple boilers fed steam at 265 psi to two 3-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, rated at 6800 ihp, and driving two propeller shafts, giving a design speed of 27.5 kn. Speeds reached during sea trials ranged from 27.09 kn for FRENCH DESTROYER Glaive to 29.82 kn for FRENCH DESTROYER Sape. The ships had a range of 2100 nmi at 10 kn.

A 20 mm belt of armour was fitted to protect the ship's boilers and machinery. The class was built with the standard gun armament for the 300-tonne destroyers, with a single 65 mm forward, backed up by six 47 mm guns, while two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes were carried, with one amidships and one right aft. The ships had a complement of 4 officers and 56 men.

The Branlebas class were considered good sea-boats, with reliable machinery. By the time the class was built, however, they were outclassed by contemporary British and German destroyers, such as the River-class destroyer and the German S138-class torpedo boat being larger (and more heavily armed. (French destroyer size had been kept small owing to the influence of the Jeune École, which favoured the construction of large numbers of small ships.)

Losses

 * Branlebas was sunk by a German mine on 30 September 1915 near Nieuwpoort, Belgium.
 * Étendard was sunk by German torpedoboat A39 on 25 April 1917 in the North Sea.