Dunlap runs trials in 1937.
GENERAL INFORMATION

Length: 341' 2-3/8" overall; 333' 10-3/4" design waterline.1

Beam: 35' 5-7/16" molded maximum; 35' 0-3/16" outside of plating at design waterline.1

Freeboard: 21 4-3/4" at bow; 10' 7-3/4" at stern.1

Displacement: 1,500 long tons design; 1,715 long tons to design waterline.1

Draft: 11' 5-1/2" mean; 13' 2-1/4" full load.3

Propulsion machinery: 4 x Foster Wheeler boilers; 400 psi, 645° F.; GE geared turbines; 50,000 shp; 2 shafts.1

Designed speed: 36.5 knots.2

Fuel bunkerage: 513 tons full load (95% of capacity).1

Endurance: 7,800 nm at 12 knots.3

Designed complement: 13 officers; 193 enlisted.3

ARMAMENT

Torpedo battery: Twelve 21-inch trainable torpedo tubes: one quadruple centerline mount between the stacks; one quadruple wing mount on each side of the main deck abaft the after stack.

Main gun battery: 4 x dual purpose 5-inch/38 caliber guns: 2 forward in enclosed base ring mounts; 2 aft in open pedestal mounts.  

Anti-aircraft battery: 1937: 4 x .50 cal. machine guns; 1945: 2 x 40mm Bofors in one twin mount; 6 x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts.

The two ships of the Dunlap class, Dunlap and Fanning, were funded in fiscal year 1935. They repeated the Mahan design to the extent that many sources list them as part of the Mahan class. They differed in the introduction of base ring mounts for the forward 5-inch/38 caliber guns, which permitted the projectile hoist to rotate with the gun, simplifying handling for the gun crew and allowing for slightly more rapid firing. Accordingly, these forward guns were enclosed by gunhouses of a general design that continued in use through the Fletcher class, and in Cold War frigates through the Garcia and Brooke classes.

United Shipbuilding built both ships at Staten Island, New York. As completed in 1937, they lacked the Mahans’ tripod foremast and pole mainmast; as modified during World War II, they appeared very similar to the Mahans.


1 Bureau of Construction and Repair’s General Information book for USS Dunlap and Fanning; dimensions given for Gridley.
3 Friedman.