By A. D. Jensen
The GEARING-class (DD-710) destroyers were basically a stretch-version of the
ALLEN M. SUMNER class (DD-692) featured in our July-August-September 1988
newsletter. They were barely distinguishable from their predecessors, unless a
GEARING and a SUMNER were side by side. Then, the greater length of the
GEARING's hull amidships was obvious. The navy acknowledged the similarity,
referring to the two classes in official navy publications as SUMNER Class
(Short Hull) and SUMNER Class (Long Hull). As originally designed the GEARINGs
had the following characteristics:
Measurements
Length overall: 390'-6"
Extreme beam: 41'-6"
Displacement: 2,425 tons Standard
Armament
Three, twin 5-inch/38 caliber gun mounts
Two, quadruple 40-mm and two, twin 40-mm gun mounts
Ten, single 20-mm gun mounts
Two, quintuple 21-inch torpedo tubes
Two depth charge release tracks (for 600 pound Charges)
Six, single K-Gun depth charge throwers (for 300 pound Charges)
Machinery
Four boilers
Two sets geared turbines
Two shafts/screws
Shaft horsepower: 60,000
Speed: 35 knots
Manning
Officers: 11
Enlisted: 325
Form followed function in the evolution of the GEARINGs' design, which
actually began with the popular FLETCHERs. The SUMNERs' hulls were nearly
identical to those of the FLETCHERs that preceded them, but having twin rudders
and about a foot more beam. Almost immediately after the first SUMNERs put out
to sea, the navy realized that because of their additional weight, they did not
have the desired operating radius. Bureau of Ships' designers went back to
their drawing boards. Their solution was to add a fourteen-foot section between
the stacks, aft of the forward torpedo tubes, for additional fuel oil storage.
The GEARING (DD-710) was the result.
She and her sister ships were so close to the SUMNERs that their designers did
not bother to change the frame numbers. Instead, they merely assigned letters
to the frames added amidships. This also made the change-over easier on the
building yards. Because the navy ordered GEARINGs from the same yards that had
been building FLETCHERs and SUMNERs, and since some of them took more time than
others to switch to the long-hulled version, the new destroyers' hull numbers
are intermingled with those of the SUMNERs and a few FLETCHERs. The first group
of GEARINGs, DD-710 through 721, were built at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry
Dock Company, Kearny, New Jersey.
Although the new destroyers' machinery was nearly identical to that of the
FLETCHER class, the topside arrangement of the SUMNER/GEARINGs differed widely
from their predecessors. They were distinguished by a larger bridge area,
three, twin 5-inch/38 caliber gun mounts, and a heavier antiaircraft battery.
These improvements made the SUMNERs 150 tons heavier than the FLETCHERs. With
their added length, the GEARINGs were 375 tons heavier. The additional
displacement reduced the SUMNER/GEARINGs' speed by about three knots. In
addition, the two large twin gun mounts forward increased their weight at the
bow, which tended to make them dive into boarding seas inviting damage in the
forecastle area.
The twin 5-inch gun mounts and increased antiaircraft battery required a
larger electrical output than in the FLETCHERs. As a result, the capacity of
the SUMNER/GEARINGs' ship's service generators was increased from 250-kw to
400-kw, and a second 100-kw emergency diesel generator was added. To meet the
needs of the additional crew, the new design included a second evaporator.
The GEARINGs' three, twin 5-inch gun mounts, instead of the FLETCHERs' five
single gun mounts considerably reduced topside clutter. Also, the change
increased the arcs of fire of the 40-mm and 20-mm guns. The GEARINGs' added
length allowed designers to relocate the 5-inch practice loading machine from
the second platform forward to the first superstructure level just forward of
the second stack. This helped decrease the weight forward.
In the SUMNER/GEARING class, navy designers introduced several internal
topside features. The new destroyers were the first in the U.S. Navy designed
with a combat information center (CIC). The enlarged area on the superstructure
deck, below the open bridge and pilot house, easily accommodated the CIC as
well as the radio and crypto rooms. A new longitudinal passageway ran along the
port side, with a midships passageway to the starboard side, affording the crew
sheltered access fore and aft to all of the essential spaces below the main
deck.
Soon after commissioning, most of the early GEARINGs traded their aft torpedo
tubes for an additional quadruple 40-mm gun mount, and this change became
standard for those still under construction. The navy also converted a number
of the GEARINGS to radar pickets (DDR), in which case, each ship's forward
torpedo tubes were replaced with a heavy tripod mast to support an SP aircraft
height-finding radar and various electronic warfare antennas.
By late 1944, as the speed and power of aircraft greatly increased, the 40-mm
and 20-mm mounts were less effective. Bureau of Ordnance put its designers to
work on developing a 3-inch automatic weapon to replace the 40-mm guns. At the
war's end, however, work on the 3-inch gun slowed and the first installations
in the fleet did not occur until 1949. When the Korean War began in 1950, the
3-inch replacement and conversion program was well under way. The new guns did
not really change the GEARINGs' familiar silhouette, but what was noticeable
was a new tripod mast for the postwar SPS-6C air search radar.
After World II, new Soviet submarines, engineered and built using the
technology of the German Type-XXI U-boats, began to appear. This emerging
Soviet submarine threat roused considerable concern among the free-world
navies. Using experience gained by confrontations with the German "wolf packs"
during the Battle of the Atlantic, the U.S. Navy developed new antisubmarine
warfare (ASW) weapons and sonars. The GEARINGs offered an ideal platform for
testing the new systems. To that end, a number of them were converted
specifically for that purpose and became escort destroyers (DDE). They mounted
trainable hedgehog and Weapon Able projectors and a new omnidirectional sonar.
The operational experience gained from these special ASW-type destroyers was
valuable in the navy's development of two major antisubmarine warfare systems
during the 1950s: the Antisubmarine Rocket (ASROC) and the Drone Antisubmarine
Helicopter (DASH) standoff weapons. Although the GEARING hulls provided an
adequate platform, they were aging and needed major overhaul and reconstruction
to accommodate the new weapons systems. After careful analysis of the
situation, the Secretary of the Navy initiated the Fleet Rehabilitation and
Modernization (FRAM) program. Besides extensively refurbishing their hulls and
machinery, the ships received a completely new superstructure. Following their
modernization, the GEARINGs presented a more boxlike, yet modern, silhouette.
The FRAM program consisted of two levels of modernization. Whereas most of the
GEARINGs received the more extensive FRAM I reconstruction, a few underwent the
somewhat less extensive FRAM II program. The latter, with a few exceptions,
were those ships that had been converted from DDEs and DDRs. The FRAM I
GEARINGS received both ASROC and DASH systems. To compensate for the weight of
the ASROC system, they lost one of their twin 5-inch gun mounts. FRAM II, on
the other hand, was developed primarily for the SUMNERs because they did not
have enough hull length amidships to accommodate the ASROC system. They kept
all three of their 5-inch gun mounts.
The GEARINGs were the last World War II destroyers built by the U.S. Navy, and
many of them served well into the 1970s. Stricken from U.S. Navy lists, a
number of them continued their service in foreign navies. They survived because
they were large enough to adapt to the changing requirements of new weaponry
and tactics. To say they were superb ships is perhaps an understatement.
