Bouclier-class destroyer


The Bouclier class consisted of twelve destroyers built between 1910 and 1912 for the French Navy, four of which were lost during the First World War.

Design and description

The Bouclier-class was nearly double the size of the preceding destroyers to match the increase in size of foreign destroyers. The French Navy issued a general specification that required oil-fired boilers, steam turbine propulsion and a uniform armament that allowed individual shipyards the freedom to design their ships as they saw fit. This allowed for some variations in size and machinery.
Bouclier was the shortest ship with an overall length of 72.32 meters and her sister ships ranged in length from. All of the ships had beams of and drafts of. Bouclier and her sister had the lightest displacements at ; the others displaced at normal load. Their crews numbered 80–83 men.
The destroyers were powered by two or three steam turbines of four different models, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by four water-tube boilers of four different types. The turbines were designed to produce which was intended to give the ships a speed of. During their sea trials, they reached speeds of. The ships carried of fuel oil which gave them a range of at cruising speeds of.
The primary armament of the Bouclier-class ships consisted of two Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1891| Modèle 1893 guns in single mounts, one each fore and aft of the superstructure, and four Modèle 1902 guns distributed amidships. They were also fitted with two twin mounts for torpedo tubes amidships.
During World War I, a or Canon de 75 modèle 1897#Naval and coastal artillery| anti-aircraft gun, two machine guns, and eight or ten Guiraud-type depth charges were added to the ships. The extra weight severely overloaded the ships and reduced their operational speed to around.

Ships

Citations