Gleaves-class destroyer

Gleaves-class destroyer

USS Gleaves underway on 18 June 1941
Class overview
Name:	Gleaves class
Builders:	Bath Iron Works Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Boston Navy Yard Charleston Navy Yard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Operators:	United States Navy  Hellenic Navy  Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force  Marina Militare  Republic of China Navy  Turkish Navy
Preceded by:	Benson class
Succeeded by:	Fletcher class
Subclasses:	48 Bristol class
Built:	1938–43
In commission:	1940–56
Completed:	66
Lost:	14
Retired:	52
General characteristics
Class and type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	1,630 tons standard, 2395 tons full load
Length:	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam:	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft:	13 ft 2 in (4.01 m)
Installed power:	4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 Westinghouse geared steam turbines; 50000 shp (37 MW)
Propulsion:	2 shafts
Speed:	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range:	6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament:	As designed:   5 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns,   6 × 0.50 in. (12.7 mm) guns,   10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2 × 5), 10 torpedoes   2 × depth charge tracks DD-453 onward:   4 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns,   4 × 40 mm Bofors guns (2 × 2),   7 × 20 mm Oerlikon guns,   5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (1 × 5),   4-6 × K-gun depth charge throwers,   2 × depth charge tracks
Notes:	Ship data sources: Destroyers.org, Friedman, pp. 95-109, 470-471

The Gleaves-class destroyers were a class of 66 destroyers of the United States Navy built 1938–42, designed by Gibbs & Cox. The first ship of the class was USS Gleaves. They were the production destroyer of the US Navy when it entered World War II.

The Gleaves class were initially specified as part of a 24-ship Benson class authorized in fiscal years 1938–40; however, Bethlehem Shipbuilding requested that the six ships designed by them use less complex machinery. Initially, Gleaves and Niblack, although designed by Gibbs & Cox and built by Bath Iron Works, were to follow the Benson design. This temporarily made Livermore the lead ship with more complex machinery, so the class was initially called the Livermore class, and this name persisted through World War II. However, it soon proved possible for Gleaves and Niblack to be built to the Livermore design. Since Gleaves was completed before Livermore and had a lower hull number, the class is more correctly the Gleaves class. Eighteen of these were commissioned in 1940–41. The remaining 48 “repeat Gleaveses” were authorized in 1940–42. These plus the 16 "repeat Bensons" were also known at the time as the Bristol class, after USS Bristol. During World War II the Bensons were usually combined with the Livermores (more correctly the Gleaves class) as the Benson-Livermore class; this persisted in references until at least the 1960s. The classes are now called the Benson-Gleaves class. In some references both classes are combined and called the Benson class. The Benson- and Gleaves-class destroyers were the backbone of the pre-war Neutrality Patrols and brought the action to the enemy by participating in every major naval campaign of the war.