USS ''Champlin'' (DD-104) was a built for the
United States Navy during World War I.
Description
The ''Wickes'' class was an improved and faster version of the preceding . Two different designs were prepared to the same specification that mainly differed in the turbines and boilers used. The ships built to the
Bethlehem Steel design, built in the Fore River and Union Iron Works
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
s, mostly used
Yarrow boilers that deteriorated badly during service and were mostly scrapped during the 1930s.
[Gardiner & Gray, p. 124] The ships displaced at
standard load and at
deep load. They had an
overall length of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of and a
draught of . They had a crew of 6 officers and 108 enlisted men.
Performance differed radically between the ships of the class, often due to poor workmanship. The ''Wickes'' class was powered by two
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, each driving one
propeller shaft, using steam provided by four
water-tube boilers. The turbines were designed to produce a total of intended to reach a speed of . The ships carried of
fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
which was intended gave them a range of at .
The ships were armed with four
4-inch (102 mm) guns in single mounts and were fitted with two
1-pounder guns for anti-aircraft defense. Their primary weapon, though, was their torpedo
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
of a dozen
21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in four triple mounts. In many ships a shortage of 1-pounders caused them to be replaced by 3-inch (76 mm)
anti-aircraft (AA) guns.
[ They also carried a pair of ]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 ...
rails. A "Y-gun" depth charge thrower was added to many ships.[Friedman, p. 45]
Construction and career
''Champlin'', named in honor of Stephen Champlin
Stephen Champlin (17 November 1789 – 20 February 1870) was an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.
Born in Kingston, Rhode Island, Champlin entered the Navy as a sailing master 22 May 1812. He commanded the schooner in her ...
, was launched 7 April 1918 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California; sponsored by Miss G. H. Rolph; and commissioned 11 November 1918, Lieutenant Commander F. M. Knox in command.
''Champlin'' arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, 12 December 1918 for duty with the Atlantic Fleet. After training operations in the Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, she cleared New York City 19 November 1919 for San Diego, California. Arriving 24 December 1919, she went into reserve with the Pacific Fleet the same day, and cruised on training assignments with a reduced complement until decommissioned 7 June 1922. Laid up at San Diego until her assignment for use in experiments on 19 May 1933, ''Champlin'' was sunk in tests 12 August 1936.
See also
*See USS ''Champlin'' for other ships of the same name.
Notes
References
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External links
NavSource Photos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champlin
Champlin (DD-104)
Ships built in San Francisco
1918 ships
Maritime incidents in 1936
Ships sunk as targets
Shipwrecks of the California coast