Nuclear Carriers can do 50 MPH. That is a fact.
That would be 44 knots. A little high, I think. I had a friend on the JFK when she was on a post-overhaul full power run and they only hit 36.5.
I was on a non-nuclear carrier (Kennedy) and I will tell you, the first time the vessel was at flank speed while I was on it, we were crossing from Norfolk to Rota. I don’t know why they were at flank speed, but it woke me out of sleep (my rack was right underneath the arresting gear cables!)
When I woke up the entire ship was going WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM at about 240 WHAMS a minute! It was loud, too. So I got dressed, and it was probably around 0200-0300 sometime, and as I went down and looked out a hangar bay door, I could not believe how fast the water was rushing by. I will admit, my mouth dropped open, I had no idea how fast those ships went.
I took a walk back to the fantail, and there was a mountain of boiling water astern of the ship. Just unbelievable, the amount of water being churned up! I am only half-kidding when I said it made a rooster-tail!
Only if you drop them from 120 feet.