Porter Class Destroyer - Design

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 rendered 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.