Gleaves-class destroyer

The Gleaves class was a class of 66 destroyers of the United States Navy, built from 1938 to 1942 to a design by the New York firm of Gibbs and Cox, and was the destroyer type in production when the United States entered the Second World War. The first ship was USS Gleaves. The class began as part of a 24-ship Benson class authorized for fiscal years 1938 to 1940, but Bethlehem Shipbuilding asked to use less complex machinery for its six ships, which for a time made Livermore the lead ship and gave the class its wartime name, the Livermore class. Eighteen were commissioned in 1940 and 1941 and a further 48 repeat ships were authorized in 1940 to 1942. The Benson and Gleaves ships formed the backbone of the prewar Neutrality Patrols and took part in every major naval campaign of the war. Bath Iron Works in Maine built eight of them, starting with Gleaves and Niblack.