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A destroyer is a relatively small warship, often referred to by sailors in WWII as "tin cans". They tend to give a very rough ride in heavy seas. "Destroyer" is actually short for "torpedo boat destroyer", which the class of ships originally was. With the development of self-propelled naval torpedoes around 1900, the battleships of every nation were suddenly vulnerable to attack from small, cheap, light boats equipped to launch torpedoes, spurring the counter-measure of a "torpedo boat destroyer" class. Different nations built destroyers of different sizes, but all were small.

The US built 175 Fletcher class destroyers during the war, which were pretty big for a destroyer. They were about 375 feet long, 30 feet wide, and drew 13 feet of water. The crew was about 275. The preceding US class of destroyers was the Gleaves class, about 350 feet long, 36 feet wide, and also drawing 13 feet of water, with a slightly smaller crew. Sixty-two Gleaves class destroyers were built. The class after the Fletcher class was the Sumner class, about 375 feet long, 41 feet wide, and drawing nearly 16 feet of water, with a crew of around 350. Fifty-eight Sumner class destroyers were built.

The Navy operated several earlier classes of destroyers, especially in the early days of the war, including the old "four pipers" mothballed since WWI. Fifty of these "four pipers" were transferred to Great Britain before the US became involved actively in the war, in a controversial move for a "neutral" nation.

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15y ago

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