How fast is a destroyer?

Answer 1

The most famous destroyer of all time, was the WW2 Fletcher class destroyers, which were capable of exceeding 33 knots. The famous WW2 Admiral Arleigh Burke was nick-named "31 Knot Burke" as a joke, when someone asked why he was only doing 31 knots, when his Fletcher "tin-cans" (slang for a WW2 destroyer) were capable of going much faster than 31 knots. The WW2 French destroyer Le Terrible once held the Guiness World Record for the fastest (47 knots) destroyer, but it may have been broken since. 31 knots was a slow destroyer speed in WW2, but any way you look at it, destroyers are still the fastest displacement warships on the high seas. Today they use gas turbines (jet engines) instead of diesel which probably makes them even faster, but they do not use their maximum speed except when necessary.

Answer

The fastest and most famous destroyer in British Commonwealth service (and some would say the best destroyer of WWII) was the Tribal Class of 1936, used by and built in UK, Canada and Australia. Their top speed was 36 knots, and they had a heavy armament of 8 X 4.7 inch main guns.