Introduction
Torpedoes
Torpedo Boats
First Destroyers
Flivvers
1000-tonners
Cassin Class
Aylwin Class
O’Brien Class
USS O’Brien
USS Nicholson
USS Winslow
USS McDougal
USS Cushing
USS Ericsson
Tucker Class
Sampson Class
World War I Divisions
Operations
USS O’Brien (Torpedo Boat Destroyer No. 51) runs trials.
O'Brien class
GENERAL INFORMATION1

Length: 305' 5" overall.

Beam: 31' 2" extreme.

Displacement: 1,050 long tons normal.

Draft: 9' 6" mean.

Propulsion machinery: geared steam turbines; 17,000 shp; 2 shafts.

Designed speed: 29 knots.

Fuel bunkerage: 307 tons.

Designed complement: 5 officers; 93 enlisted.

ARMAMENT2

Torpedo battery: 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes in four trainable twin mounts.

Gun battery: 4 x 4-inch/50 caliber rapid fire guns in single pedestal mounts.

In fiscal year 1913, Congress began authorizing six-ship torpedo boat destroyer classes. Ten feet longer than the 1,000-ton classes authorized in 1912, the new destroyers (Nos. 51–56) introduced the 21-inch torpedo and were completed in 1914–15.

Cramp built O’Brien, Nicholson and Winslow, which had two reciprocating cruising engines. Bath, Fore River and New York Shipbuilding built McDougal, Cushing and Ericsson, which had other arrangements for cruising economy. The six ships commissioned in 1914–15 and served in World War I.

1 Bureau of Construction and Repair’s General Information book for USS O’Brien.
2 Bauer and Roberts.