Design
The builder of Mahan was United Dry Docks, Inc., successor to Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company, Staten Island, New York. Her keel was laid down on 12 June 1934, and the ship launched on 15 October 1935. She was sponsored by Miss Kathleen H. Mahan, the great-granddaughter of Rear Admiral Alfred T. Mahan, and commissioned on 18 September 1936, with Commander J. B. Waller in command.
The original sixteen ships of the Mahan class emerged as the improved version of the Farragut class destroyer of 1934. The designers of the Mahan-class ships, Gibbs and Cox, devised a cutting-edge propulsion system that combined increases in boiler pressure and steam temperature, with a new type of lightweight, fast-running turbine and double reduction gears. The Mahan class ushered in a new age of destroyer technology that became considerably more efficient than her predecessors.
The Mahan class had a silhouette similar to the larger Porter class, whose construction immediately preceded them. The Mahan class was the first design fitted with emergency diesel generators, which replaced storage batteries of earlier classes. In addition, for the first time, gun crew shelters were built for the superimposed weapons fore and aft. The class also added a third quadruple set of torpedo tubes, so that one mount was on centerline and two in side positions. But it required the relocating of one 5" gun to the after deckhouse.
The armament of Mahan as built is identified in the sidebar of the article. But as World War II wore on, the leading threat to US destroyers in the Pacific Theater of Operations changed notably from surface warfare to anti-aircraft warfare. To counter this turn of events, Mahan, like other destroyers, was retrofitted with stronger anti-aircraft armament and gun fire control systems and directors.
Read more about this topic: USS Mahan (DD-364)
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