Somers-class destroyer

USS Somers in 1942
Class overview
Name:	Somers class
Builders:	Federal Shipbuilding Bath Iron Works
Operators:	United States
Preceded by:	Bagley class
Succeeded by:	Benham class
Built:	1935–39
In commission:	1937–45
Completed:	5
Lost:	1
Retired:	4
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	1,840 tons standard, 2,767 tons full load
Length:	381 ft (116 m)
Beam:	36 ft 2 in (11.02 m)
Draft:	10 ft 4 in (3.15 m)
Installed power:	4 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 General Electric geared steam turbines, 52,000 shaft horsepower (39,000 kW) (design), 53,271 shaft horsepower (39,724 kW) (trials)
Propulsion:	2 shafts
Speed:	36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph) design, 38.6 kn (71.5 km/h; 44.4 mph) trials
Range:	7,020 nmi (13,000 km; 8,080 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	10 officers, 225 enlisted (peacetime) 16 officers, 278 enlisted (wartime)
Armament:	As built: 4 × twin 5 in (127 mm)/38 caliber guns 2 × quad 1.1 in (28 mm)/75 caliber guns 2 × .50 caliber machine guns (12.7 mm) 3 × quad 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes 2 × Depth charge stern racks
Notes:	Armament varied greatly from ship to ship during World War II.

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 1935-1936 and commissioned 1937-1939. They were built to round out the thirteen destroyers of 1,850 tons standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the London Naval Treaty, and were originally intended to be repeat Porters. 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 were still over-weight 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 Porters, they were originally built with eight 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns in four single purpose (surface action only) twin mounts.Anti-aircraft (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 Porters, 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 anti-aircraft 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 guns.

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