The ''Caldwell'' class was a
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
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of six
"
flush deck
Flush deck is a term in naval architecture. It can refer to any deck of a ship which is continuous from stem to stern.
History
The flush deck design originated with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting i ...
"
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...
s built during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and shortly after. Four served as convoy escorts in the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
; the other two were completed too late for wartime service. Two were scrapped during the 1930s, but four survived to serve throughout
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, three of these in service with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
under the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement
The destroyers-for-bases deal was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940, according to which 50 , , and US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights ...
and the fourth as a
high speed transport
High-speed transports were converted destroyers and destroyer escorts used in US Navy amphibious operations in World War II and afterward. They received the US Hull classification symbol APD; "AP" for transport and "D" for destroyer. In 1969, the ...
.
Design and construction
The six ''Caldwell''-class
torpedo boat destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in 1 ...
s were authorized by
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
under the Act of 3 March 1915, "to have a speed of not less than thirty knots per hour
icand to cost, exclusive of armor and armament, not to exceed $925,000.00 each ...Provided, that three of said torpedo-boats herein authorized shall be built on the
Pacific Coast
Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean.
Geography Americas
Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...
."
Built from 1916 to 1918, the six ships of the ''Caldwell'' class were the first of 279 ordered (6 of which were cancelled) to a flush-decked design to remove the
forecastle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...
break weakness of the preceding and other "thousand tonners". They were effectively prototypes of the mass production and vessels which followed them, although somewhat slower ( vs. ) and differing in some details. The forward sheer of the ''Caldwell'' class was improved to keep "A" mount from being constantly washed out; however, this was unsuccessful.
[Gardiner, p. 123] The ''Caldwell''s had a cutaway stern rather than the cruiser stern of the later ships, and thus had a tighter turning radius than their successors.
[ The armament of the ''Sampson''s was retained, but the broadside guns were relocated to "bandstands" aft of the bridge. There were differences in appearance; ''Caldwell'', ''Craven'' and ''Manley'' were built with four "stacks" (funnels), while ''Gwin'', ''Conner'' and ''Stockton'' had only three. The middle stack of the three-stack ships was wider due to combining two boiler uptakes. Once the mass-production destroyers made the design prevalent, the ''Caldwell''s and their successors became known as "flush-deck" or "four-stack" destroyers.
was converted to a prototype high-speed destroyer transport (]hull classification symbol
The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ind ...
APD) in 1939, with her forward stacks and boilers removed to give her the capacity to lift 200 Marines and four Higgins assault boats (LCP(L)
The Landing Craft Personnel (Large) or LCP (L) was a landing craft used extensively in the Second World War. Its primary purpose was to ferry troops from transport ships to attack enemy-held shores. The craft derived from a prototype designed by t ...
, LCP(R), or LCVP). She saw action at Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...
, Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilia ...
, Saipan
Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...
, and the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
Three entered Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
service in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement
The destroyers-for-bases deal was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940, according to which 50 , , and US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the US Navy in exchange for land rights ...
as part of the . , serving as HMS ''Leeds'', provided cover at Gold Beach
Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was lo ...
on 6 June 1944; her sisters served as convoy escorts
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
. All three survived the war, two being sunk as targets and one scrapped, postwar.
Armament
The armament repeated that of the preceding ''Sampson''-class of "thousand tonners", and would be retained in the subsequent mass production "flush deckers". While the gun armament was typical for destroyers of this period, the torpedo armament of twelve torpedo tubes was larger than usual, in accordance with American practice at the time. A factor in the size of the torpedo armament was the General Board
The General Board of the United States Navy was an advisory body of the United States Navy, somewhat akin to a naval general staff and somewhat not. The General Board was established by general order 544, issued on March 13, 1900 by Secretary ...
's decision to use broadside rather than centerline torpedo tubes. This was due to the desire to have some torpedoes remaining after firing a broadside, and problems experienced with centerline mounts on previous classes with torpedoes striking the gunwale
The gunwale () is the top edge of the hull of a ship or boat.
Originally the structure was the "gun wale" on a sailing warship, a horizontal reinforcing band added at and above the level of a gun deck to offset the stresses created by firing ...
s of the firing ship.[Friedman, p. 24] The Mark 8 torpedo
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Finn ...
was equipped. The "bandstand" location of the waist 4-inch guns kept the mounts dry, but restricted the firing arc.
These ships carried a 23 caliber anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
(AA) gun, typically just aft of the bow 4-inch gun. The original design called for two 1-pounder AA guns, but these were in short supply and the 3-inch gun was more effective. Anti-submarine
An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...
(ASW) armament was added during World War I, or included in the initial design with DD-70 and DD-71. Typically, a single depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...
rack was provided aft, along with a Y-gun
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...
depth charge projector forward of the aft deckhouse.[Friedman, p. 37]
Engineering
As a somewhat experimental class, the ''Caldwell''s differed in their engineering. ''Conner'' and ''Stockton'', built by Cramp, followed the class's original design, with three-shaft direct drive
A direct-drive mechanism is a mechanism design where the force or torque from a prime mover is transmitted directly to the effector device (such as the drive wheels of a vehicle) without involving any intermediate couplings such as a gear train or ...
steam turbine
A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s. A high-pressure turbine on the center shaft exhausted to low-pressure turbines on the outboard shafts. A gear
A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic pr ...
ed cruising turbine was provided on the center shaft for fuel economy at low and moderate speeds. The remaining ships had two shafts with geared turbines and no cruising turbines. This arrangement saw an increase from and the ships' speed from . With a further increase in horsepower, this geared turbine arrangement was adopted for the mass-production classes.[ ''Caldwell'' had an experimental "electric speed reducing gear" connecting the cruising turbines to the main turbines, a forerunner of the ]turbo-electric drive
A turbine–electric transmission system includes a turboshaft gas turbine connected to an electrical generator, creating electricity that powers electric traction motors. No clutch is required.
Turbine–electric transmissions are used to drive ...
that would be used on several US battleships and aircraft carriers built from World War I through the 1920s.[
]
Ships in class
References
Bibliography
*
* Gardiner, Robert, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921'', London: Conway Maritime Press, 1985. .
* Gardiner, Robert and Chesneau, Roger, ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946'', London: Conway Maritime Press, 1980. .
*
*
*Fitzsimons, Bernard, General Editor. ''The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare'', Volume 5, pp. 510–11, "''Caldwell''", and Volume 16, pp. 1717–18, "''Leeds''". London: Phoebus, 1978.
* Silverstone, Paul H., ''U.S. Warships of World War I'' (Ian Allan, 1970), .
* Silverstone, Paul H., ''U.S. Warships of World War II'' (Ian Allan, 1965), .
External links
''Caldwell''-class destroyers
a
Destroyer History Foundation
a
DestroyerHistory.org Flush Decker page
DestroyerHistory.org USS Craven page
{{WWII US ships
Destroyer classes