The Arabe-class destroyers was a group of twelve destroyers built for the French Navy during the First World War. All the ships were built in Japan as an export version of the Kaba-class destroyer, and were named after ethnic groups within the French Empire at the time.

Design and description

The French Navy ordered the Arabe-class ships from Japan as it was in desperate need of additional destroyers and there was no capacity to build more in France, Great Britain or the United States. They had an overall length of 82.26 m, a length between perpendiculars of 79.4 m a beam of 7.33 m, and a draft of 2.39 m. The ships displaced 865 t at normal load. They were powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four mixed-firing Kampon Yarrow-type boilers. The engines were designed to produce 10000 PS, which would propel the ships at 29 kn. During their sea trials, the Arabe class reached 29.16 - 30.44 kn. The ships carried 102 t of coal and 118 t of fuel oil which gave them a range of 2000 nmi at 12 kn. Their crew consisted of 5 officers and 104 crewmen. The main armament of the Arabe-class ships was a single Type 41 12 cm gun, mounted before the bridge on the forecastle. Their secondary armament consisted of four Type 41 76 mm guns in single mounts; two of these were positioned abreast the middle funnel and the others were on the centerline further aft. One of these latter guns was on a high-angle mount and served as an anti-aircraft gun. The ships carried two above-water twin mounts for 450 mm torpedo tubes. In 1917–18, a rack for eight 75 kg depth charges was added.

Ships

Citations