In 1898 during the Spanish-American War, Spain deployed torpedo boat destroyers to Cuba,“the only real menace” to the American fleet blockading Santiago wrote Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore

What the fuss was all about: Cushing, the US Navy’s first torpedo boat.

Roosevelt, who argued that “a great nation must have a great navy” and urged that every effort be made to procure both torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers.
   Congress soon authorized sixteen torpedo boat destroyers, which joined the fleet by the end of 1903. These were built to multiple designs, typically about 250 feet long and displacing 400 tons or more. They carried two 18-inch torpedoes and two 3-inch guns. While some were coal fired and used reciprocating machinery, oil-fired steam turbines soon became standard. They had four stacks, a conning tower forward, turtleback foc’sles, a flat stern and a length-to-beam ratio of more than 10:1. First to commission, in May 1902, was Decatur of the Bainbridge class (coincidentally, later run aground in the Philippines under Lt. Chester Nimitz). Her SHP was 8,300; her trial speed approached 30 knots.
   As president since 1901, Theodore Roosevelt continued his keen attention to naval affairs. At his behest in 1904, a board convened under RAdm. George A. Converse to identify qualities and functions appropriate for follow-on destroyer construction, which began with 26 740-ton Smith and Paulding-class “flivvers” (lightweights), authorized in 1907–10 and commissioned by mid-1912. These were longer at 294 feet LOA with a redesigned “cutaway” stern. Armament was three single or twin torpedo tube mounts and five 3-inch guns.
   Nominal displacement rose to 1000 tons for the four-ship Cassin and Aylwin classes funded in 1912. The O’Brien, Tucker and Sampson classes funded in 1913–15 (6 ships each) were also “1000-tonners”—all “broken-deckers” with high foc’sles mounting eight 18-inch or 21-inch torpedo tubes on hulls 305–315 feet in length. Main gun battery was now four 4-inch/50 .cal guns and complement was up to nearly 100. Commissioned in 1913–17, these were the most modern ships of their type in the US Navy when it entered World War I.