Paulding-class destroyer

The Paulding-class destroyers were a series of 21 United States Navy destroyers derived from the Smith class, with torpedo tubes increased from three to six in twin mounts, and they were the first destroyers in the Navy with oil-fired boilers. They doubled the number of destroyers in the fleet and were the largest class of destroyers the United States had built to that date. They were laid down in 1909 to 1911 and commissioned in 1910 to 1912, and trials reached 32.8 knots, helped by a 14-ton drop in displacement from burning oil instead of coal. Like the Smiths they were nicknamed flivvers after the small, shaky Model T Ford once larger thousand-ton destroyers entered service. Thirteen served with the Coast Guard against rum runners from 1924 to 1931 and the class was sold for scrap in 1934 and 1935. Bath Iron Works in Maine built five of them.