U.S. Navy Flush Deck Destroyers

The US Navy’s Flush-Deck Destroyers

What’s a “flush deck” destroyer?315 feet overall; 31 feet beam;1,080–1,287 tons standard displacement;6 officers, 95 men as designed;273 built.

FLUSH DECKER EVOLUTION


THE GREAT WAR


THE GREAT WAR

FLUSH DECKERS IN PEACETIME


THE GREAT WAR


FLUSH DECKERS AT WAR


THE GREAT WAR




THE GREAT WAR



By 1890, 75 years after steamboats first became viable,the Navy had commissioned its first “protected cruisers.”

USS Chicago, flagship of the “ABC cruisers”

But their gun batteries offered no defenseagainst speedy torpedo boats.

Chicago 6-inch gun.

In 1897, the Royal Navywas rudely introduced to steam turbine power …

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by Charles Dixon.

New Asst. Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt took note.

Theodore Roosevelt at the Naval War College, 1897.

How could the torpedo boat be defeated?Answer: by a “torpedo boat destroyer.”

Decatur, Torpedo Boat No. 5, authorized in 1898, runs trials in 1902.

In 1904, President Roosevelt ordered the Navy to convene a board under RAdm. George A. Converse to “consider the types and qualities of torpedo vessels and their machinery.”

President Theodore Roosevelt and RAdm. George A. Converse.

By 1907, the “battleship navy” was growing.

USS Connecticut, flagship of the Great White Fleet, on trials in1907.

F/Y 1907: Congress authorized destroyers for fleet defense based on the Converse Board’s recommendations.

Drayton (Destroyer No. 23).

The series continued until F/Y 1916, when displacement increased to 1200 tons on a strengthened “flush deck” hull.

The series continued until F/Y 1916, when displacement increased to 1200 tons on a strengthened “flush deck” hull.

Flush-decker Wickes and 1000-tonner Aylwin.

Same overall dimensions; same freeboard fore ’n aft.

Four stacks …

USS Caldwell

… or three.

Main battery: four x 4-inch/50 …

… and 12 torpedo tubes.


THE GREAT WAR



1914 in Europe: World War I broke out …

Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated.

1914 in the Americas: the Panama Canal opened.

First ship through the Panama Canal, 1914.

1915: despite provocation, the US remained neutral.

Lusitania torpedoed, May 7, 1915.

1916 in Europe: the Battle of Jutland.

1916 in the US: Congress passed the Naval Act of 1916(the “Big Navy” Act), which authorized 10 battleships,5 battlecruisers … and 50 destroyers.

Artist’s conception of Lexington-class battlecruiser.

1917: Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare.The United States responded bydeclaring war …

President Woodrow Wilson

… and sent destroyers to Ireland, to help defend the western approaches against the U-boat.

Return of the Mayflower by Bernard F. Gribble

The destroyers operated from Queenstown (now Cobh)and later from Brest.

Brest

Queenstown

IRELAND

FRANCE

Over the next 18 months, they convoyed 2 million troopsto Europe without loss.

“A Critical Moment” by Burnell Poole.

Precision munitions!

Eleven builders eventually completed 273 flush deckers …

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Charleston NY

Seattle-Tacoma

Norfolk NY

Bath

Mare Island NY

Newport News

New York Ship

Beth Squantum

Beth Quincy

Cramp

Beth San Francisco

Caldwell

Wickes

Clemson

… although only 40 were in commission by the Armistice,11 November 1918.

Their construction required a dramatic expansion in shipbuilding capacity …

Number of flush deckers as of 1 September.

Keel laid

Launched

Commissioned

… involving existing yards,

Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts

… and new ones.

Delphy, first to launch at Squantum, Massachusetts, 18 July 1918.

Mare Island launched Ward after only 17½ days.

Ward, launched at Mare Island after only 17½ days (15 May–1 June 1918).

The program continued even after the Armistice.

Laying the keel for USS Zane at Mare Island Navy Yard, 15 January 1919.

Craven, LCdr. M.B. McComb commanding.

Plane guard duty.

First transatlantic flight, May 1919

The peace conference in 1919 revived old suspicions.

Signing the peace treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 29 June 1919.

… and flush-decker deliveries continued.


Keel laid

Launched

Commissioned

Minelayers

In 1920, the navy converted 14 flush deckers aslight minelayers.

Rizal.

“… to contribute to the maintenance of the general peace, and to reduce the burdens of competition in armament …”

Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes

Preamble to “five-power” treaty between the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy and Japan signed at Washington, February 6, 1922.

Not until 1921 did the United States host a conference on naval arms limitation …

.. and then cut the number of its own destroyers in commission by more than half.


It placed the remainder in reserve.

“Red lead row,” San Diego, 1922. 1922

Question: why didn’t we stop building earlier?

Anglo-Japanese alliance.

Answer: we were concerned about another war.

IJN Kongo in 1913.

Question: Why did we continue building flush deckers when the British were commissioning more advanced destroyers?

HMS Vivien


THE GREAT WAR



There followed a 10-year building “holiday.”


There never were 273 flush deckers.

De Long at Half Moon Bay, California, December 1921.

Unfinished business

Smyrna

GREECE

TURKEY

Odessa

Theodosia

TrabzonSamsunConstantinople

Varna

Alexandria

Venice

USS Pope at Hangkow (Wuhan), China.

Wuhan

CHINA

1923: Japan earthquake relief.

1923: Honda.

CALIFORNIA

SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL

1923: Honda.

The United States’ signature around the world.

McFarland at Venice in 1927.

Kanawha (AO 1) and her nest.

Off Coronado.

1930: 60 destroyers were taken from mothballs to replace others that were worn out.


Coast Guard

1931: six were loaned to the Coast Guard

1932: radio control.

Sigourney controlled by aircraft.

Later in the 1930s: some decommissioned and scrapped as newer destroyers fleeted in.


1937: first test of radar on board ship.

Leary.

Peacetime cruises (rarely over 15 knots).

Borie and sisters, Alaska, 1937.

1939: war in Europe. The Navy mobilized all flush deckers in reserve. Began conversions.


Seaplane tenders

To Britain

To Canada

Minesweepers

1940: “Mr. President …in the long history of the world this is a thing to do now.”

Late 1940: 50 destroyers for base sites.

Used in convoy and secondary duty.

HMS Mansfield, 1943.

By late 1941, Bismarck had been sunk but Tirpitz was ready for sea duty.

Tirpitz.

The only drydock in German hands outside of Germany was the Normandie Dock at St. Nazaire.

St. Nazaire

FRANCE

GERMANY

Raid on St. Nazaire

HMS Campbeltown at Normandie Dock, St. Nazaire , Brittany, 28 March 1942.


THE GREAT WAR



Neutrality patrol: 4 September 1941

The Greer Incident

“This was piracy—legally and morally .

“From now on, if German or Italian vessels of war enter the waters, the protection of which is necessary for American defense, they do so at their own peril.”

— President Roosevelt11 September 1941

Greer signalman Joe Moll.

Neutrality patrol: October 1941:

Reuben James torpedoed.

Reuben James

7 December 1941 at 0645Off Pearl Harbor

Ward by Tom Freeman.

Attention immediately shifted to the Asiatic Fleet …

… which was driven out of Manila and retired to the south.

Japanese planes bomb Cavite Naval Base, 10 December 1941.

Peary executed anepic escape to Darwin …

Darwin

Soerabaya

… only to be sunk in an air raid there.

USS Peary Memorial, Darwin, Australia.

The remainder of the Asiatic Fleet lasted only until March.

Soerabaya

Balikpapan

Soerabaya

Loss of Pope?

Survivors made their way home to the Atlantic, where the Navy had been unprepared for a U-boat war.

Roving patrols didn’t work.

Jacob Jones

The convoy system did work.

Loss of Truxtun.

Argentia

Chambers Cove

NEWFOUNDLAND

Chambers Cove, Newfoundland.

Typical unconverted flush decker in World War II.

Ellis in the Atlantic.

In 1943, hunter-killer groups gained control.

USS Card (CVE 11)

Borie’s last battle.

1 November 1943.

Borie’s last battle.

1 November 1943.

Borie–U-256 reunion, Rudesheim, Germany, May 1992.“We almost killed you!”

November 1942:Invade North Africa.

Safi

MOROCCO

Port LyauteyCasablanca

Dallas, Bernadou and Cole were stripped down.

Cole stripped down.

Dallas went upriver to capture thePort Lyautey airfield.

Port Lyautey, Morocco.

Bernadou and Cole landed special forcesinside the harbor at Safi.

Safi, Morocco, 10 November 1942.

Moosehead.

Moosehead.

We entered the war with 118 flush deckers, one 1,000-tonner and 100 “modern” destroyers …

By the end of the war, we added 356 more.

Flush deckers remained in demand as conversions.


APDs …

Manley (APD 1)

… led the landings at Guadalcanal in August 1942.

Beach Red, Guadalcanal

In September, Little and Gregory were illuminated by flares from a friendly plane and sunk by Japanese destroyers.

Little and Gregory rehearse for the Guadalcanal landings.

In October, AVP McFarland survived a daytime bombing and made it back to Pearl with a jury-rigged rudder.

Seaplane tenders

McFarland (AVD 14)

Thereafter, flush-deckers operated in every Pacific war campaign except one.

View toward Kolombangara across Blackett Strait from Plum Pudding Island.

At Blackett Strait, Gamble, Preble and Breese laid an offensive minefield that sank 3 DDs.

Gamble’s minelaying gear.

To New Georgia’s Viru Harbor …

Where Hopkins, Kilty and Crosby were initially turned back.

Crosby.

To Vella Lavella …

Where Dent and Waters rescued the last Helena survivors.

Dent.

To Bougainville.

The landing beaches at Capt Torokina and Mt. Bagana, Bougainville.

Where McKean was lost.

Minesweeper conversion.

USS Zane

1944: across the Pacific to the Philippines.

Philippines

Japan

November 1943 – October 1944Central Pacific Drive

In 1944: the majority of flush deckers were conversions.


To Leyte …

Where Ward was hit by a kamikaze and lost.

To Luzon …

Where minesweepers Hovey, Long and Palmer were lostin January 1945 …

Hovey.

1945: north toward Japan.

Japan

Iwo JimaOkinawa

Where Dickerson was scuttled.

Barry in 1945.

But the time of the surrender, there were fewer than 100 flush deckers around the world.


… and fewer than 50 by 1 January 1946.


The score: 33 US Navy flush deckers were lost during or immediately after the war; 9 others.

• US Navy

30 were lost, captured, or damaged beyond economical repair:

• 2 minelayers.

• 7 minesweepers.

• 11 transports.

• 10 unconverted destroyers.

3 more were stranded before they returned home from their final wartime deployments.

• Other

7 British, 1 Canadian, 1 Russian.

One came home from Japan.

USS Stewart at San Francisco postwar.

The score: 32 of the 118 USN flush deckers were decorated —more per ship than any other US Navy destroyer class.

• 6 ships received the Presidential Unit Citations for individual performance.

• 10 others received a total of 15 awards for hunter-killer operations in the Atlantic.

• 8 transports, 7 minesweepers, and 1 minelayer received a total of 18 Navy Unit Commendations.

Today, little is left except the stories …

Remains of two may still be seen in San Francisco Bay.

Thompson

Corry

Tomorrow … ?

The US Navy’s Flush-Deck Destroyers

More …

Destroyer History Foundation

www.destroyerhistory.org

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U.S. Navy Flush Deck Destroyers

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