Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco’s hull no. 5391,
Twining, exhibited the characteristics of low-bridge 2,100-tonners built there.
DATA
Name: United States Ship Twining.
Type: Destroyer.
Namesake: Rear Admiral Nathan Crook Twining.
Navy Classification: DD 540.
Class: DD 445, Fletcher.
Builder: Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, California.
Builder’s Hull Number: 5391
Keel laid: 20 November 1942.
Launched: 11 July 1943.
Commissioned: 1 December 1943.
Disposition: Decommissioned: 1 July 1971; sold to Taiwan 16 August 1971 as Chinese Nationalist Navy Kwei Yang (DD-8); stricken 1994.
Length Overall: 376' 5½"
Extreme Beam: 39' 8"
Normal Displacement: 2,050 long tons
Draft: Light: 8' 1"; Mean: 13' 5" Deep: 22’8”
Designed Complement: Officers, 34; Enlisted, 295
Designed Shaft Horsepower: 60,000
Designed Speed: 36 knots
Screws: Two
Rudder: One
Stacks: Two
Tactical diameter: 950 yards at 30 knots
Endurance: 4,800 nautical miles at 15 knots.
Twining’s armament was that of a
typical Fletcher-class destroyer from 1943–4: five 5-inch guns in single mounts, ten 40mm guns in twin mounts and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes in quintuple mounts plus 20mm guns and depth charges. She returned to the west coast too late to received the “1945 refit.”
Primary: 5 x 5-inch/38 cal. in five single mounts
Long-range anti-aircraft: 10 x 40mm Bofors in five twin mounts
Short-range anti-aircraft: 7 x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts
Torpedo Tubes: 10 x 21-inch in two quintuple mounts
ASW: 2 racks for 600-lb. charges; 6 “K”-guns for 300-lb. charges
Her electronics were also typical:
Radar: SC (air search) and SG (surface search), Mk 37 (fire control)
Sonar: QC
From the beginning,
Twining also carried 20mm single mounts, eventually mounting four in the waist and three on the fantail.
