Voltigeur-class destroyer

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

Design and description
The Voltigeur class was based on the preceding Spahi-class destroyer, albeit with a different arrangement of propulsion machinery. They had a length between perpendiculars of 63 - 65.5 m, a beam of 6.4 - 6.8 m, and a draft of 2.9 - 3.1 m. Designed to displaced 450 t, the ships displaced 590 t at deep load.

The destroyers were powered by one triple-expansion steam engines and two direct-drive steam turbine. The steam engines drove the center propeller shaft while the turbine powered the two outer shafts, all using steam provided by four water-tube boilers of two different types. The engines were designed to produce 7500 ihp which was intended to give the ships a speed of 28 kn. The ships carried 118 t of coal which gave them a range of 1520 nmi at a cruising speed of 10 kn.

The primary armament of the Voltigeur-class ships consisted of six 65 mm Modèle 1902 guns in single mounts, one each fore and aft of the superstructure and the others were distributed amidships. They were also fitted with three 450 mm torpedo tubes. One of these was in a fixed mount in the bow and the other two were on single rotating mounts amidships.

Ships

 * FRENCH DESTROYER Voltigeur - built by Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne, Nantes, launched 23 March 1909, decommissioned May 1920.
 * FRENCH DESTROYER Tirailleur - built by Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde, Bordeaux, launched 27 November 1908, decommissioned July 1921.