Destroyer Escorts
Classes
Evarts Class
Buckley Class
Cannon Class
Edsall Class
Rudderow Class
John C. Butler Class
APD Conversions
Presidential Unit Citations
Unit Commendations
USS Evarts (DE 5).
GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: “Short hull” 289' 5" x 283' 6"

Molded Beam: 35' 2"

Displacement: 1,140 long tons standard; 1,430 full load.

Draft: Light: 8' 3"; Deep: 11' 0"

Designed Complement: Officers, 15; Enlisted, 183.

Shaft Horsepower: 6,000

Speed: Trial: 21.5 knots; Service: 19.5 knots.

Screws: Two.

Rudders: Two.

Bridge: High, open.

Stack: One.

ARMAMENT

Gun battery: 3 x 3-inch/50 caliber dual purpose guns.

Initial: 1 x quad 1.1-inch cannon or 2 x single 40mm Bofors.

Later: 1 x quad 40mm Bofors.

Short range: 8 x single 20mm Oerlikon.

Anti-submarine battery: 2 x depth charge tracks, 8 x depth charge projectors, 1 x Hedgehog.

The destroyer escorts of the initial Evarts-class were of a General Motors diesel-electric design—the General Motors Tandem drive (GMT) type—with details prepared by Gibbs and Cox.

Their hull design reflected a shortage of both reduction gears and diesels.

  • Steam turbine propulsion developing 12,000 shp was intended but the necessary reduction gears were in short supply. The solution was was to substitute 1,500 hp diesels, which turned at low RPM and therefore did not require reduction gears.
  • Competing for the supply of diesels, however, were higher-priority submarines and landing craft, so a reduction in the number of diesels from eight to four was accepted, for a total horsepower of 6,000. The GMT hulls, designed to fit a steam turbine powerplant, could also accommodate the four diesels.

Most of the original British order for 50 ships were commissioned in the US Navy. Survivors among GMTs transferred to the Royal Navy as the Captain class were transferred back to the US in August 1945 and briefly commissioned in the United States Navy for their return voyage.


BUILDERS

GMTs were built at four navy yards: Boston, Mare Island, Philadelphia and Puget Sound.

LOSSES

GMTs in the US Navy sustained no losses during World War II. Two Royal Navy ships, DE 275 and DE 523, were damaged and not repaired.

DECORATIONS

Rall received the Navy Unit Commendation for action off Okinawa, 12 April 1945.
Evarts class

Sources: Bauer and Roberts, Friedman, Whitley, DESA, Global Security, Destroyer History Foundation database.