United States Navy Destroyers

This pictorial history examines the key role played by US Navy destroyers from the turn of the twentieth century through the Cold War and beyond. The first sixteen United States Navy destroyers were ordered in 1898. Prior to America’s entry into the First World War, another sixty-three destroyers were commissioned and, due to the U-boat threat, 267 more were authorized by Congress once hostilities were joined. Between 1932 and Pearl Harbor ten new classes totaling 169 destroyers came into servic