| Somers-class destroyer | |
|---|---|
 USS Somers (DD-381) | |
| Class overview | |
| Name: | Somers class destroyer |
| Builders: |
Federal Shipbuilding Bath Iron Works |
| Operators: |
 United States |
| Preceded by: | Bagley-class destroyer |
| Succeeded by: | Benham-class destroyer |
| Built: | 1935–1939 |
| In commission: | 1937–1945 |
| Completed: | 5 |
| Lost: | 1 |
| Retired: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Destroyer |
| Displacement: |
1,850 tons (standard) 2130 tons (full) |
| Length: | 381 ft (116 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft 2 in (11.02 m) |
| Draught: | 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) |
| Propulsion: |
4 Boilers 2 General Electric Turbines 52,000 horsepower |
| Speed: | 36.0 knots |
| Complement: |
16 Officers 278 Enlisted |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: |
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The Somers-class destroyer was a class of 1850-ton United States Navy destroyer based on the Porter-class. They were answers to the large destroyers that the Japanese navy was building at the time, and were initially intended to be leaders for destroyer flotillas. This class featured controversial (for the time) high-temperature air-encased boilers derived from the ones installed in the modernized New Mexico (BB-40). Despite the added weight, it permitted use of only a single smoke stack for the engines, allowing for a third centerline torpedo tube mount. Even so, they were still over-weight and top heavy.
The first two ships were laid down at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny, New Jersey in 1935, the following three in 1936 by Bath Iron Works Corporation of Bath, Maine.
The ships were commissioned between 1937 and 1939 and served during World War II. Warrington foundered in a hurricane in the Caribbean in 1944. The others survived the war to be scrapped in 1946.
Ships in class[]
- USS Somers (DD-381)
- USS Warrington (DD-383)
- USS Sampson (DD-394)
- USS Davis (DD-395)
- USS Jouett (DD-396)
See also[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Somers class destroyers. |
External links[]
- Somers-class destroyers at Destroyer History Foundation
- Tin Can Sailors @ Destroyers.org – Somers class destroyer
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The original article can be found at Somers-class destroyer and the edit history here.