My dad gave me a book about the battle of Miday for my birthday, and it brought to mind a question that I have always wondered about- namely what niche were destroyers designed for and how did they get that name?

Originally destroyers were called torpedo boat destroyers (about 1890). Two trends in naval evolution happened about the same time, the realization that torpedo boats were not very practical operating with the fleet, and the invention of effective submarines. To counter the submarine the destroyer got considerably bigger and began carrying sonar and depth charges.By WWII the destroyer had grown from the 100 ton torpedo boat destroyer to a multi-purpose 2200 ton ship useful in anti-submarine, air defense, inshore fire support, and as a torpedo lauching platform a real threat to enemy large ships. The trend continues today with destroyers of light cruiser size. That has caused the intoduction of frigates that are about the size of WWII destroyers. curmudgeon

I would add to Curmudgeons excellent report on destroyers that most of these ships are painted gray.

Actually the truth is we didn't have many destroyers in New Mexico where I grew up long ago. And in fact, I've never even seen a destroyer!

As an ex-destroyer sailor, I can attest that yes, destroyers are painted grey.

The ship I was on, the USS Oldendorf, DD-972, was a Spruance class destroyer. We never destroyed any Spruance classes however we did pound the hell outta San Clemente Island and once shredded a remote controlled speedboat with the 5" Mark 5 autoloaders fore and aft.

The island escaped unscathed but the boat was no longer seaworthy.

Tim

Isn't that "sea foam suede gray"? - Dan

Hey Pecos,

What the hell are you doing in this forum, ya lost? ROFLMAO!!!!

Sorry I just had to say that!

Curmudgeon, then would it be a correct statement to say that the destroyers are responsible for perimeter protection of a fleet or task force under way?

During my 4 years on the flight deck of aircraft carriers all I ever saw them do was pick up aircrew who bailed out of jets and my very, very lucky friend Randy who got himself blown off the flightdeck of the America CVA-66 by jetblast, missed the catchnet, landed in the propwash, managed by the grace of God to surface and got himself scouped up by one of the planeguard destroyers. That was Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf circa 1968. Things might have changed since then.

Ha! Who woulda thunk it? Never did I think I'd remember my Navy days with much of any fondness. I remember spending endless days trailing the Kitty Hawk or Ranger or even the Big "E" on planeguarding duty.

We held "man overboard" drills on a regualar basis. I think the true intent of these drills was to instill a real fear of going over the side. We would toss a blaze orange kapok filled man sized dummy (Oscar) over the side and the bridge would call "man overboard!" The ol' 972 would roll hard over to one side as we did a "180" turn. I remember running on the bulkheads (walls to you landlubbers) on the "03" level as I raced to my "man overboard station" for a nose count. It was fun, but I wasn't bright enough to know it at the time.

Anyway, what really scared me about going over the side was the number of times we ran over Oscar as we came back around for him.

Might as well drown yourself if you go over.

Tim

Mark, The destroyers are on the outside of the formation because they:
(1) are cheaper
(2) carry fewer people
(3) almost never have Admirals aboard.
(4) seriously, to detect submarines before
they can attack the carrier, or such was the idea on the USS Gurke (DD783) in 1958.
It is an article of faith, or rather uncertainty that "a destroyer has a life expectancy of 15 minutes in combat." Can't address that point, all I ever did was glare at the Chicoms. Somebody mentioned plane guard duty in this thread. Because I was Seaman number such and such in 2nd Division my plane guard station was swimmer. At the time I weighed about 117# and had never swam more than 100 yards in my life. "Your billet calls for you to be the swimmer, and that's it!" "Aye aye, Sir. Three bags full Sir." My duty, if God forbid, a plane went in the water would have been to leap out of the motor whaleboat, swim to the briefly floating plane, and rescue the pilot. I think it was some sort of Viking custom, sending a menial to drown with the officer so he would have a servant in Valhalla! curmudgeon

We had a saying in the Navy, "There are only two kinds of boats in the Navy, submarines and targets." I wasn't too enthralled with that saying at the time as I was aboard one of the target class.

The Spruance Class destroyer was supposedly the best Anti Submarine Warfare platform in the Navy's fleet. However, subs are just too quiet, too quick and just too darnsneakyto be honorable adversaries.

One time we and two other Spruances were operating in a war game against one puny little ol' sub. He sank us all many times over. It was scary how close in he could get to us.

The only thing they feared were ASW helos cause they couldn't hear them until they dropped their sonobuoys. And there wasn't much they could do about helos. But helos could drop bad stuff on them.

I am glad that we never had to go toe to toe with the Soviet Navy. Their subs were much, much noisier than ours but they were fast and plentiful.

The only Soviet sub I ever saw was on the surface being towed in by a Soviet tug on the South China Sea. I think it blew a head gasket or somethin'.

Tim

A good part of my time in the navy was spent as a BT aboard the USS DuPont (DD941). One of our missions was antisubmarine warfare. Seems like our CO had a motto of "haze gray, underway everyday is the only way". Spent a lot of time on VACapes. That is patroling up & down the Virginia/North Carolina coast. Lot of good memories there. I have often thought if I were to go back in & go fleet put me on a destroyer and leave me there.

Whatever gets in the way.