Wickes class destroyer
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Wickes class |
| Builders: | Various |
| Operators: | |
| Preceded by: | Caldwell class |
| Succeeded by: | Clemson class |
| Subclasses: |
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| Built: | 1917–21 |
| In commission: | 1918–46 (USN) |
| Completed: | 111 |
| Lost: |
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| Retired: | 90 scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Destroyer |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 314 ft 4.5 in (95.82 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 11.25 in (9.43 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft (2.74 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 35.3 kn (65.4 km/h; 40.6 mph) |
| Complement: | 100 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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| Notes: | popularly known as Flush Deckers, Four Pipers, Four-stackers, 1200-ton type |
The Wickes-class destroyers were a class of 111 destroyers built by the United States Navy in 1917–19. Along with the 6 preceding Caldwell-class and 156 subsequent Clemson-class destroyers, they formed the "flush-deck" or "four-stack" type. Only a few were completed in time to serve in World War I, including USS Wickes, the lead ship of the class.
While some were scrapped in the 1930s, the rest served through World War II. Most of these were converted to other uses; nearly all in U.S. service had half their boilers and one or more stacks removed to increase fuel and range or accommodate troops. Others were transferred to the British Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, some of which were later transferred to the Soviet Navy. All were scrapped within a few years after World War II.
The destroyer type was at this time a relatively new class of fighting ship for the U.S. Navy. The type arose in response to torpedo boats that had been developing from 1865, especially after the development of the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo. During the Spanish–American War, it was realized that a torpedo boat destroyer was urgently needed to screen the larger warships, so much so that a special war plans board headed by Theodore Roosevelt issued an urgent report pleading for this type of ship.
A series of destroyers had been built over the preceding years, designed for high smooth water speed, with indifferent results, especially poor performance in heavy seas and poor fuel economy. The lesson of these early destroyers was the appreciation of the need for true seakeeping and seagoing abilities. There were few cruisers in the Navy, which was a fleet of battleships and destroyers (no cruisers had been launched since 1908) so destroyers performed scouting missions. A report of October 1915 by Captain W. S. Sims noted that the smaller destroyers used fuel far too quickly, and that war games showed the need for fast vessels with a larger radius of action. As a result, the size of U.S. destroyer classes increased steadily, starting at 450 tons and rising to over 1,000 tons between 1905 and 1916. The increase in destroyer size has never stopped, with some US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers now up to 10,800 tons full load, and the Zumwalt-class destroyers at 14,564 tones full load. The need for high speed, economical cruising, heavy seas performance, and a high fuel capacity saw larger hulls, the inclusion of oil fuel, reduction geared steam turbines with cruising turbines, and increased fuel capacity.
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