Length: 341' 3" overall; 334' design waterline.1
Beam: 34' 2" molded maximum; 34' 2-7/8" outside of plating at design waterline.1
Freeboard: 21' 9-5/8" at bow; 10' 6-11/26" at stern.1
Displacement: 1,500 long tons design; 1,758 long tons to design waterline.1
Draft: 10' 2-13/16" design.1 16' 4" maximum.3
Propulsion machinery: 4 x Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Ltc. boilers; 400 psi, 645° F.; geared turbines; 42,800 shp; 2 shafts.3
Designed speed: 36.5 knots.2
Fuel bunkerage: 600.07 tons full load (95%).1
Endurance: 5,980 nm at 12 knots.3
Designed complement: 10 officers; 150 enlisted.3
Torpedo battery: 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes in two trainable quadruple centerline mounts.2
Main gun battery: as built: 5 x 5-inch/38 caliber dual purpose guns; as modified: 4 x 5-inch/38 caliber dual purpose guns: 2 forward in shielded pedestal mounts; 2 aft in open pedestal mounts.2
Anti-aircraft battery: 1935: 4 x .50 cal. machine guns; 1942: 6 x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts; 1945: 2 x 40mm Bofors in one twin mount; 4 x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts.2
Authorized but not funded in 1918, the Farraguts were designed in 1931 by Bethlehem Steel under the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Their original armament consisted of five 5-inch/38 caliber guns—two forward, two aft, and the No. 3 mount abaft the second stack—plus eight 21-inch torpedo tubes in two quadruple centerline mounts.
Farragut, the lead ship, was laid down on 20 September 1932. All eight ships were completed by mid-1935. Depth charge tracks were not initially installed on the first two ships, but added in 1936.
As Destroyer Squadon 1 with flagship Phelps, the eight Farraguts were present on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor, where Monaghan depth charged and sank a midget submarine during the Japanese attack. Transferred to the Aleutians, she and Dale fought in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. She and Hull were lost off the Philippines in the typhoon of 18 December 1944, while Dewey survived rolling 75 degrees and other ships were similarly hard-pressed. Worden was also lost in the Aleutians in 1943 to grounding in a narrow channel—a fate other destroyers operating there were lucky to avoid. The other Farraguts remained throughout the war in the Pacific, where all earned 10 or more service stars. After they returned home, they were broken up.
1 Bureau of Construction and Repair’s General Information book for USS Farragut.
2 Bauer and Roberts.
3 Friedman.
