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DD-51 O'Brien

For FY13 the General Board wanted a more powerful destroyers. The new design of the DD-51 O'BRIEN-class sacrificed one of the guns of the earlier ships, but added a larger number of larger 21" torpedo tubes instead. The preliminary design prepared for the Fiscal Year 1913 destroyers, which became the O'Brien class (Destroyer #s 51 to 56) provided four 4-inch guns and a speed of 29.5 knots in a ship 310 feet long on the load water line (L.W.L.), 30 feet 6 inches in beam, with a normal displacement of 1,090 tons.

The plans and specifications for torpedo-boat destroyers Nos. 51 to 56, authorized by act of Congress approved August 22, 1912, were completed and circular signed by the Acting Secretary of the Navy August 24, 1912, and issued to the bidders upon request thereafter. Bids for the construction of torpedo-boat destroyers Nos. 51 to 56 were opened at the department November 18, 1912.

Contracts for torpedo boat destroyers No. 51, O'Brien, No. 52, Nicholson, and No. 53, Winslow, were signed with the Wm. Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., Philadelphia, Pa., on December 7, 1912, at a price of $842,000 each; to have the Cramp type of impulse turbine propelling machinery installed, with reciprocating engines for cruising purposes, and to be completed within 23, 23 J, and 24 months, respectively.

Contract for torpedo boat destroyer No. 54, McDougal, was signed with the Bath Iron Works, Bath Me., on December 16, 1912, at a price of $810,000; to have the bidder's design of Parson's turbine propelling machinery installed, with reciprocating engines for cruising purposes, and to be completed within 21 months. The vessel to be a duplicate of Cassin and Cummings, with changes to date of tender. The hull and machinery were exact duplicates of the U. S. S. Cassin and U. S. S. Cummings, built by the same company, except that the auxiliary condenser was increased to 284 square feet of cooling surface, and the generating sets are 25 kilowatts each, instead of 10 kilowatts as installed on the former vessels.

Contract for torpedo boat destroyer No. 55, Cushing, was signed with the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Mass., on December 11, 1912, at a price of $854,500 ; to have Curtis turbine propelling machinery installed, with speed-reduction gearing fitted between cruising turbine and the propeller shafts, and to be completed within 24 months.

Contract for torpedo boat destroyer No. 56, Ericsson, was signed with the New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, N. J., on December 16, 1912, at a price of $873,500; to have the bidders' design of Parson's turbine propelling machinery installed, with reciprocating engines for cruising purposes, and to be completed within 24 months.

The contract required :

1. A progressive trial over the measured-mile course at Rockland, Maine, for standardizing the screws, extending from maximum speed (at least 30.5 knots) down to a speed of 8 knots.
2. A full-speed trial of four hours' duration in the open sea in deep water, at the highest speed attainable, the average for the four hours not to be less than 30.5 knots. The speed to be determined by the average revolutions of the main shafts, according to the official standardization curve.
3. A fuel-oil and water-consumption trial of four hours' duration in the open sea in deep water, at an average uniform speed of 24 knots, as nearly as possible. The trial to be conducted as nearly as possible to service cruising conditions.
4. A fuel-oil and water-consumption trial of four hours' duration at 15! knots, under conditions similar to the preceding trial, but with the cruising engine connected and in use.
5. An endurance trial of 10 hours' duration in the open sea at an average uniform speed of 15^ knots, as nearly as possible, following as closely as possible the fuel-oil and water-consumption trial, with cruising engine connected and in use. Fuel oil and water consumption will not be measured on this trial, the purpose of which is to determine the reliability and endurance of the cruising engine.
6. A fuel-oil and water-consumption trial of four hours' duration in the open sea, with the cruising engine connected and in use, at an average uniform speed of 12 knots, as nearly as possible.
7. In addition to the above-enumerated trials the contract was amended to include a two-hours' trial at about 15 knots, with the main turbines only in use, fuel oil and water consumption to be carefully measured on this trial.

These ships were twin-screw vessels fitted with a combination of turbines and reciprocating cruising engine. The starboard shaft is driven by the main H.P. turbine, abaft of which and connected to the same shaft, is an independent astern turbine. On the port shaft is the combined L.P. ahead and astern turbine, just forward of which is the reciprocating cruising engine, fitted with disconnecting coupling for throwing out of gear when not in use. Steam is supplied by four oil-buruing Normand water-tube boilers, arranged in pairs in two separate compartments.

The Parsons "compound" turbine divides the whole expansion of the steam into a great number of successive and separate steps he limited the velocity acquired at each step to such an extent as to make it comparatively easy to extract the greater part of the kinetic energy, as work done upon the moving blades, without making the velocity of these blades inconveniently high. The Curtis turbine, like that of De Laval, is a pure impulse turbine, but the velocity of the jet is extracted not by one ring of buckets but by a series of rings, each of which extracts a certain part. Between the first and second rings of buckets there are fixed guide blades which serve to turn the remaining motion of the steam into a direction proper for its action on the second ring, and so on.

The 1,000-ton class includes all vessels from the Cassin, No. 43, to and including the Shaw, No. 68. Vessels of this class have a high forecastle extending from the stem to a point just abaft the pilot house, where it breaks off to a low main deck which is extended to the stern. The high forecastle of these vessels plays an important part in their manoeuvring qualities; acting as a permanent jib, which, while helpful under some conditions, is a serious handicap under others. It must always be kept in mind and allowed for, its principal effect being, of course, to make it difficult to bring the vessel up to the wind. Caution must be used when such a vessel is run into a small harbor into which the wind is blowing and where it will be necessary to turn her within the harbor in order to get out. Under such conditions the ship may get beam to wind, and, lacking space to gather headway, refuse to turn into it, and may drift ashore broadside on.

Several narrow escapes are on record resulting from failure to appreciate this feature. In turning with a vessel of this type, it is desirable to turn in such a way as to take advantage of the jib effect instead of having to work against it. The effect of the wind upon the bow is particularly important in going alongside a dock. Destroyers of this class had a large after dead-wood, which resulted in greater steadiness of sea route but produced an excessively large turning circle, the tactical diameter being as great as one thousand yards with rudder angle of twenty degrees.

The convoy gave few opportunities for encounters with submarines. The great value of this system as a protection to shipping was that it compelled the underwater boats to fight their deadliest enemies, the destroyers, every time they tried to sink merchant ships in convoy, and they did not attempt this often on account of the danger. There were destroyer commanders who spent months upon the open sea, convoying huge aggregations of cargo vessels, without even once seeing a submarine.

During the Great War the USS O'Brien was engaged in the important exacting and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, in escorting and protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters, and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted against all forms of enemy naval activity.

One of the disappointing aspects of destroyer work was that many of the finest performances were those that were the least spectacular. The mere fact that an attack upon a submarine did not result in a sinking hardly robbed it of its importance; many of the finest exploits of American forces did not destroy the enemy, but they will always hold a place in American naval annals for the daring and skill with which they were conducted. Rear-Admiral William Sowden Sims stated that in this class belonged the achievements of the Sterrett, under Lieutenant-Commander Farquhar; of the Benbam, under Lieutenant-Commander D. Lyons; of the O'Brien, under Lieutenant-Commander C. A. Blakeley; of the Parker, under Lieutenant-Commander H. Powell; of the Jacob Jones, under Lieutenant-Commander D.W. Bagley ; of the Wadsworth, under Lieutenant- Commander Taussig, and afterward I.F. Dartch; of the Drayton, under Lieutenant-Commander D.L. Howard; of the MeDougal, under Commander A.L. Fairfield; and of the Nicholson, under Commander F. D. Berrien.