Porter-class destroyer

The Porter-class destroyers were a class of eight 1,850-ton destroyers in the United States Navy.

The first four ships were laid down in 1933 by New York Shipbuilding and the next four in 1934 at Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. All were commissioned in 1936 except the Winslow, which was commissioned in 1937.

They were built in response to the large destroyers that the Japanese Navy was building at the time, and were initially leaders of destroyer flotillas. They were originally built with eight Mk 12 5 inch/38 caliber (127 mm) guns in four Mark 22 Single Purpose (surface action only) twin mounts. This proved to be top heavy, and planes were becoming a greater threat, so during the war, mounts 51 and 54 were replaced with Dual Purpose (surface action and air action) twin mounts, and more smaller anti-aircraft guns were installed. In some ships, mount 52 was replaced by a quad 40 mm mount, and mount 53 became a single 5 in/38 (127/38 mm) Dual Purpose mount.  Additional 40 mm guns were added amidships.

Design
The larger Destroyer Leader type had been under active consideration since 1921. Indeed the General Board recommended the construction of five of the type in that year. Naval historian Norman Friedman believed that the great number of Wickes-class destroyer and Clemson-class destroyer hindered the U.S.Congress from purchasing them. The General Board was very interested in equipping such a type with the new higher pressure and higher temperature steam propulsion equipment. The London Naval Treaty and the large French destroyers seems to have become the tripping point with the 1930 recommendations beginning the cycle to actually build ships. The Geneva proposals about destroyers also seems to have influence the design as the Destroyer Leader proposals limited themselves to 1850 tons per the proposals. There were extensive discussions about the armament, the 5"/25 caliber AA gun being favored as being easy to work and train in a fast moving and lively type of ship. The other candidate was the 5"/51 caliber surface type, being very powerful but all but useless against aircraft. It was a discussion made more interesting as the 5"/38 caliber dual purpose gun was now becoming available and the Ordnance Department favored it rather strongly.

Ships in class

 * USS Porter (DD-356)
 * USS Selfridge (DD-357)
 * USS McDougal (DD-358)
 * USS Winslow (DD-359)
 * USS Phelps (DD-360)
 * USS Clark (DD-361)
 * USS Moffett (DD-362)
 * USS Balch (DD-363)