The main armament consisted of four 127mm/38 dual purpose guns mounted in four single mounts. The cruising range was 6,500 nautical miles at a speed of 12 knots. Otherwise their propulsion was not all too different, the three aforementioned boilers would generate steam for two sets of turbines, which would give the ship a designed horsepower of 50,000 for a speed of 38.5kn.

They were improved in several ways over the preceding classes, but also somewhat heavier passing the 1,500 ton mark by more than 10% when carrying their standard load.Ĭompared to the earlier Bagley-class they had one less boiler, which resulted in a noticeably smaller funnel.

The Benham-class of destroyers was the last class of destroyers in the United States Navy that was equipped with 16 torpedo tubes. She was torpedoed and nearly destroyed by the IJN near the end of 1942, which resulted in her scuttling by a friendly destroyer in order to prevent her capture. It also served off Hawaii during the Doolittle raid, rescued survivors from several ships, and operated during the Battle of Midway and the landings on Guadalcanal, among other missions. It missed the attack on Pearl Harbor, being an escort for the USS Enterprise on its way to Midway at the time. USS Benham (DD-397) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers and the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Andrew Ellicot Kennedy Benham.

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