Caldwell class destroyer

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	9 December 1916
Launched:	10 July 1917
Commissioned:	1 December 1917
Decommissioned:	27 June 1922
Fate:	Sold, 30 June 1936
Struck:	7 January 1936
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,020 tons (standard), 1,125 tons (normal)
Length:	308' (93.88m) wl, 315'6" (96.2m) oa
Beam:	31' 3" (9.52m)
Draft:	8' (2.44m), 11' 6" (3.5m) max
Machinery:	(DD.69-71) Thornycroft boilers, Parsons geared turbines, two shafts (DD.72-73) White-Forster boilers, Parsons turbines, three shafts
Power:	(DD.69-71) 20,000shp, (DD.72-73) 18,500hp
Speed:	(DD.69-71) 35 knots (65 km/h), (DD.72-73) 30 knots (56 km/h)
Complement:	146
Armament:	4 in (102 mm)/50cal (4x1), 1x1pdr, 1.1" (28 mm) AA (1x1); later 3" (76 mm) (1x1), 12 x 21" (533 mm) TT. (2x3 each beam)

The Caldwell class of destroyers served in the United States Navy near the end of World War I.

Built in 1917 and 1918, the Caldwell class was flush-decked to remove the fo'c'sl break weakness of the preceding Tucker class. The forward sheer of the Caldwell class was improved to keep "A" turret from being constantly washed out. The class had beam torpedo tubes and wing turrets, both flaws in design.

Manley's high-speed destroyer transport (APD) conversion, removing her forward stacks and boilers, gave her the capacity to lift 200 Marines and four 11m (36') Higgins assault boats. She saw action at Guadalcanal and Kwajalein.

Three entered Royal Navy service under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement as the Leeds-class. Leeds provided cover at Gold Beach on 6 June 1944; her sisters served as convoy escorts. All survived the war, two being sunk as targets and one scrapped, postwar.

[edit] Sources

Fitzsimons, Bernard, General Editor. The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare, Volume 5, pp.510-11, "Caldwell", and Volume 16, pp.1717-18, "Leeds". London: Phoebus, 1978.
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