Fletcher class Design
Fletcher class destroyers were the first to break with design practices that had developed as a result of the London Treaty of 1930. They were large ships that carried sufficient food, fuel, ammunition and stores for extended operations in the Pacific. Powered by four Babcock & Wilcox boilers and General Electric trubines, with 2 shafts totalling 60,000 SHP, they were capable of 38 knots. Loaded with 492 tons of oil, they could range 6,500nm at 15 knots. Being 376 feet, 6 inches, in length meant that they could carry five five-inch dual-purpose guns, ten torpedoes, depth charges and antiaircraft guns.
The Fletcher Class destroyer was only 39 feet 6 inches wide. The design helps to give it the speed and manueverability to perform its job and survive. When general quarters were sounded the men ran to their battle stations. To avoid men colliding with each other the men moved on the ship in a counter clockwise direction. General quarters required men to move down the port side of the ship and up starboard. Their ability to refuel at sea enabled them to carry less fuel yet operate effectively in the vastness of the Pacific.
DD-343 Noa, a Clemson-class destroyer, recommissioned at Philadelphia 1 April 1940 and was fitted with a seaplane which nested just forward of the after deckhouse, replacing the after torpedo tubes. At the same time a boom for lifting the aircraft was stepped in place of the mainmast. She steamed for the Delaware Capes in May and conducted tests with an XSOC-1 seaplane. The plane was hoisted onto the ocean for takeoff and then recovered by Noa while the ship was underway.
Such dramatic demonstrations convinced the Secretary of the Navy that destroyer-based scout planes had value, and 27 May he directed that six new destroyers of the soon-to-be-constructed Fletcher Class (DD 476-481) be fitted with catapults and handling equipment. Because of mechanical deficiencies in the hoisting gear the program was cancelled early in 1943. The concept thus failed to mature as a combat technique, but the destroyer-observation seaplane team was to be revived under somewhat modified conditions during later amphibious operations. Originally built with a seaplane catapult in place of her number three 5-inch gun mount, these ships resembled other Fletcher-class destroyers except for the 40-millimeter twin antiaircraft mount on the fantail.
Watson (DD-482) - planned as a modified Fletcher-class destroyer to be built at Kearny, N.J., by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. - was to be powered by an experimental diesel propulsion system. However, due to more pressing wartime destroyer construction programs, the ship was never laid down, and her construction was cancelled on 7 January 1946.
The USS KIDD was part of Destroyer Squadron 48 of World War II, which was composed of nine Fletcher class destroyers, four of which were constructed at the Kearney Shipyard in New Jersey. After the end of the War, all of the other destroyers of the 245 Fletcher and Sumner class besides the USS KIDD were modernized. This was done by the replacement of the rear island of the ship with a helicopter platform, the addition of side launching torpedo tubes, and the installation of hedgehog depth charge launchers.
The wardroom served as a dining room and lounge for the ten to twelve ship's officers. During combat, the wardroom became the forward battle dressing station; therefore it was equipped with an operating table and surgical lights. The crew's meals were prepared in this kitchen and carried to the crew's mess two decks below, as well as to the chief petty officers' mess and to the officers' wardroom. The laundry of the entire crew was done at least once a week, except during heavy seas or fresh water shortages. Over 300 men lived and worked aboard ship, and Navy regulations required cleanliness and neatness.
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