Somers-class destroyer

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The Somers-class destroyer was a class of five 1850-ton United States Navy destroyers based on the Porter class. They were answers to the large destroyers that the Japanese navy was building at the time, and were initially intended to be flotilla leaders. They were laid down from 1935–1936 and commissioned from 1937–1939. They were built to round-out the 13 destroyers of 1,850-ton standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the London Naval Treaty and were originally intended to be repeat Porter ships. However, new high-pressure, high-temperature boilers became available, allowing the use of a single stack. This, combined with weight savings (including elimination of reload torpedoes), allowed an increase from two quadruple centerline torpedo tube mounts to three. However, the Somers-class ships were still overweight and top-heavy. This was the first US destroyer class to use 600 psi (4,100 kPa) steam superheated to 850 °F (454 °C), which became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and World War II. Like the Porter class, they were originally built with eight 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns in four single-purpose (surface action only) twin mounts. Antiaircraft (AA) protection was initially provided by two quadruple 1.1-inch (28 mm) machine cannon mounts and two .50-caliber machine guns. The 1.1-inch mounts were intended to compensate for the 5-inch guns' lack of AA capability; in the 1930s, this was thought to be sufficient. As with the Porter clas, the Somers' main armament was reduced to six guns (and replaced with dual-purpose mounts totaling five guns in Davis and Jouett) during World War II, with the AA armament replaced by 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikon guns and the torpedo armament reduced to eight tubes. In two ships (Davis and Jouett), the torpedo armament was eliminated to maximize the number of 40 mm...