USS Fuller (DD-297)
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USS ''Fuller'' (DD-297) was a built for the United States Navy during World War I.


Description

The ''Clemson'' class was a repeat of the preceding although more fuel capacity was added.Gardiner & Gray, p. 125 The ships displaced at standard load and at deep load. They had an overall length of , a
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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 ''Clemson'' 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 a maximum of 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. In many ships a shortage of 1-pounders caused them to be replaced by 3-inch (76 mm) guns. Their primary weapon, though, was their torpedo
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of a dozen 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in four triple mounts. 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, pp. 44–45


Construction and career

''Fuller'', the first Navy ship named for
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Captain Edward Fuller, who was killed in the Battle of Belleau Wood, was launched 5 December 1918 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco, California; sponsored by Miss Gladys Sullivan; and commissioned on 28 February 1920. After a brief cruise to the
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, ''Fuller'' arrived at her home port, San Diego, California, on 28 April 1920, and at once took up the schedule of training which took the Pacific destroyers along the west coast from California to Oregon. In February and March 1923, she joined in Battle Fleet maneuvers in the
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, and returned to experimental torpedo firing and antiaircraft firing practice off San Diego. In July 1923, with her division, she sailed north for maneuvers and repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. While making their homeward-bound passage from San Francisco, California to San Diego on the night of 8 September, the division went on the rocks at Point Honda when mistakes were made in positional calculations, causing the Honda Point Disaster in the foggy darkness. ''Fuller'' was abandoned, with all of her crew reaching safety. The ship later broke in two and sank. She was decommissioned 26 October 1923.


Notes


References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller (DD-297) Clemson-class destroyers Ships built in San Francisco 1918 ships Shipwrecks of the California coast Maritime incidents in September 1923