The
Somers-class destroyer was a class of five 1850-ton
United States Navy destroyers based on the
Porter class. They were answers to the large destroyers that the
Japanese navy was building at the time, and were initially intended to be leaders for destroyer flotillas. They were laid down 1935-1936 and commissioned 1937-1939. They were built to round out the thirteen destroyers of 1,850 tons
standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the
London Naval Treaty, and were originally intended to be repeat
Porters. However, new high-pressure, high-temperature
boilers became available, allowing the use of a single stack. This combined with weight savings (including elimination of reload torpedoes) allowed an increase from two quadruple centerline
torpedo tube mounts to three. However, the
Somers class were still over-weight and top-heavy. This was the first US destroyer class to use steam
superheated to , which became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and
World War II.