3 destroyer + 1 admiral still can't pull 2 battleship o_O

At least get strong BB to help! Like Nagato. Oh wait, she is busy doing... stuff.

Fusou-class battleships have 29,330 tons of standard displacement, the two of them have a combined displacement of 58,660 tons. Inazuma, Ikazuchi, and Nenohi have combined displacement of 5,630 tons.

Probably it will take 24 Fubuki-class, 6 Hatsuharu-class and Yukikaze, with a combined displacement of 60,870 tons to pull them up.

Don't they have the Battleship Hime with them ?

In a training, Nagato can be towed with two destroyers.
I think displacement are not as important when towing a ship compared to the engine output; and two Akatsuki class' engine could have exceeded the old Fusou class' engine.

But I'll wait for more technical explanation about how it translate to real life situation.

Seika said:

I think displacement are not as important when towing a ship compared to the engine output;

Hehe, you have to say it... anyway, Inazuma and Ikazuchi has a combined horsepower output of 100,000 hp which gives them speed for 38 knots, with Nenohi's horsepower, they have a total of 142,000 horsepower output which I could say more than compare to the Fusou sisters' 80,000 horsepower output combined.

We just need someone who is good at physics to determine how much horsepower we need to pull two 29,330 tons ships, probably grand zero.

Well, that's from previously looking for some information about tug boats.

But ships are floating on water, unlike stranded blocks on land that have to be dragged against the immense surface friction. It would cost less power to drag them compared to on land.

Fastest and most efficient way will still be from using teleport puchi to send them back to base

But according to physics (which I'm not good at, just a fundamental knowledge), bigger mass always pulls smaller mass, so smaller mass must use more force to pull the bigger mass, and about tugboats, despite their adorable size, some of the has 27,200 horsepower output capable of towing bigger ships on deeper waters.

Oh, and about Nagato, she was towed by salvage-rescue ship USS Clamp ARS-33 after stopping while on their way to Bikini Atoll for Operation Crossroad, Clamp's displacement is 1,630 tons with 2,780 horsepower, Clamp towed the battleship at 1 knot and arrived at Eniwetok for repairs, then she steams by herself at 13 knots to Bikini Atoll.

Lunatic6 said:

We just need someone who is good at physics to determine how much horsepower we need to pull two 29,330 tons ships, probably grand zero.

Uh, if a Physics expert is what you need, I'm not your guy.
lol

Anyway, long story short, those three destroyers in-line should actually be able to drag the Fusou sisters around at 12 knots or higher.

I know a single Sumner/Gearing-class running hot at ~70,000shp was theoretically supposed to be able to tow a heavily damaged Iowa-class (at full load, 57,000tons) at 'low cruising speeds' (cruising speed was ~15kn, so take from that what you will).
Of course, that never happened (all Iowas made it out under their own power, except Mo when she got stuck in the mud), so I have no historical event to back that up on.