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
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 ''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
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. 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
Marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
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
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...
, ''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
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...
, 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
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller (DD-297)
Clemson-class destroyers
Ships built in San Francisco
1918 ships
Shipwrecks of the California coast
Maritime incidents in September 1923