Smith-class destroyer

USS Flusser
Class overview
Name	Smith class
Operators	United States Navy
Preceded by	Truxtun class
Succeeded by	Paulding class
Subclasses	Flusser
Built	1908–1910
In commission	1909–1919
Completed	5
Scrapped	5
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	700 long tons (710 t) (normal) 902 long tons (916 t) (full load)
Length	293 ft 10 in (89.56 m)
Beam	26 ft 0 in (7.92 m)
Draft	8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
Installed power	4 × Mosher coal-fired boilers 3 × Parsons direct-drive steam turbines 10,000 shp (7,500 kW) (design)
Propulsion	3 × shafts
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) (design)
Range	2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Capacity	304 long tons (309 t) coal (fuel)
Complement	4 officers 83 enlisted men
Armament	5 x 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber guns 3 x 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, six torpedoes

The Smith-class destroyers were the first ocean-going torpedo-boat destroyers in the United States Navy, and the first to be driven by steam turbines instead of the reciprocating engines fitted in the sixteen earlier and much smaller torpedo-boat destroyers ordered under the Act of 4 May 1898. Flusser and Reid are sometimes considered to be Flusser-class ships. Also, since Flusser was completed first, some period documentation refers to the entire class as Flussers.^[1]

The first three of the class were ordered under the Act of 29 June 1906 "to have the highest practical speed, and to cost, exclusive of armament, not to exceed seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars each". The remaining pair were ordered under the Act of 7 March 1907 "to have the highest practical speed, and to cost, exclusive of armament, not to exceed eight hundred thousand dollars each".^[1]

All of the ships served as convoy escorts in World War I, and several attacked U-boats. The latter four vessels were all sold in November 1919 following the end of World War I; Smith survived another two years as a bombing target until scrapped.^[2]