Benson Class, U.S. Destroyers

Naval Historical Center #NH 51094

ONI 222

Specifications:

The Bensons were completed in 1940-43. The individual ships varied considerably in design details and are sometimes treated as up to three distinct classes (Benson, Gleaves, and Bristol). In particular, some of the Bristols were modified by replacing one of the 5" guns with 2 40mm Bofors and 4 20mm Oerlikons. They were "rush job" ships based on the Sims class and were meant to fill the gap until the Fletchers could appear in large numbers. As such, they performed adequately, helping to hold the line in the Solomons and elsewhere.

The ships had excellent machinery dispersal for their size, with widely separated boiler rooms. This required two funnels in place of the single funnel of the Sims. They were the first destroyer class to ship an emergency generator on the main deck, where it would be relatively safe from flooding, and their hulls were significantly stronger than the Sims. All these features enhanced survivability, which was first demonstrated when Kearny survived a torpedo hit by a German U-boat while participating in the Neutrality Patrol. The ships also proved capable of shipping new wartime equipment without excessive loss of stability. Those built by Bath Iron Works used the same high-pressure machinery as the Mahans while those build by Bethlehem used that company's own machinery. 

The Bensons introduced the quintuple torpedo tube mount (Mark 14 and Mark 15) that became standard on all wartime destroyer classes. The only significant difference between the two was that the Mark 15 had a circular blast shield for its operators to protect them from the destroyer's own gun battery. The mount was electrically trained (with manual backup) and remotely directed from Mark 27 directors on the bridge wings, backed up with simple local direction. All torpedoes had to be set to the same running depth, but the gyro angle setter could set all the torpedoes to the same course or to a spread around a base course. Torpedoes were launched using a black powder charge at 50 fps (15 m/s) using a flash eliminator. Torpedoes were usually launched in the sequence left, right, left center, right center, center. The launch tubes were heated in cold climates using ship's auxiliary steam to prevent icing up.

As Fletchers became available for fleet operations, many of the Bensons were optimized for convoy escort duty by replacing one torpedo bank with improved antisubmarine and antiaircraft weaponry. Although some consideration was given to continuing production of the Bensons, the decision was eventually made to focus on mass production of the Fletchers for fleet duty and destroyer escorts for convoy duty. However, following the Japanese surrender, the remaining Bensons were considered still capable enough to be put in reserve rather than scrapped.

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Booklet of general plans

References

Branfill-Cook (2014)

DANFS

Friedman (2004)

Morison (1959)

Whitley (1988)

Worth (2001)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007-2012, 2015-2016 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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