The faulty propellers left an uncertain paper trail because a fire destroyed the supplier's relevant quality-management records. The account explicitly says the supplier was not believed to have been intentionally at fault. Spare propellers from Clemenceau limited the carrier to roughly 25 knots, a published figure treated cautiously here. A fifteen-month refit beginning in 2007 included refuelling and new propellers for the stated 27-knot design speed, while displacement rose to about 42,500 tons. Further repairs in Toulon in 2009 show that the major refit did not settle every engineering problem.
Notable Point · 23:25-25:48
Propeller problems and the 2007 refit
The carrier's early propulsion problems illustrate how a complex warship can enter service with compromised performance and need a major refit to reach its intended speed.