While 273 flush-deckers were built, there never were 273 in commission at one time: three were lost in 1921 (below), so when the final trio commissioned in August 1922, the total

FLUSH-DECKERS IN COMMISSION 1920–1939

reached only 270.
   The number of active destroyers had already peaked at 268 in June 1921. Along the way, in 1919–20, Waters decommissioned for five months and then returned to service. Also, in August 1920, fourteen hulls were converted as fast minelayers.

EARLY LOSSES
The flush-deck fleet was reduced by three ships in 1921:
  • On 26 February off Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, Woolsey was run down and cut in half by SS Steel Inventor.
  • On 1 December in heavy fog, De Long ran aground and was wrecked at Half Moon Bay, California, south of San Francisco.
  • On the 16th off New Jersey, Graham was damaged beyond repair in collision with SS Panama.
  Salvaged, both the latter ships decommissioned the following March.

PEACETIME DECOMMISSIONINGS
For just over a year beginning in April 1921, the number of active flush-deckers stabilized at more than 260. Already in July, however, decommissionings began with Dickerson. These proceeded slowly at first; then increased precipitously in July, August and September of the following year.
   By April 1923, there were 152 ships on “red lead row.” With the total number of flush-deckers remaining constant at 270, the number of ships in commission dropped accordingly—from 261 in May 1922 to to 138 in July—then stabilized at 118 (six of which were minelayers).

THE POINT PEDERNALES DISASTER
On the evening of 8 September 1923, the US Navy experienced its most celebrated peacetime loss when seven ships of Destroyer Squadron 11—Delphy, S. P. Lee, Young, Woodbury, Nicholas, Fuller and Chauncey—piled up on the California coast at Point Pedernales (Honda), just north of Point Arguello, bringing the number in commission down to 111.

1930 REHABILITATION PROGRAM SCRAPPED OR SOLD RECOMMISSIONED 100 Maury 102 Mahan 276 McCawley 277 Moody 278 Henshaw 280 Doyen 282 Toucey 285 Case 286 Lardner 289 Flusser 290 Dale 291 Converse 292 Reid 293 Billingsly 294 Charles Ausburn 295 Osborne 298 Percival 299 John Francis Burns 300 Farragut 301 Somers 302 Stoddert 303 Reno 304 Farquhar 305 Thompson 306 Kennedy 307 Paul Hamilton 308 William Jones 313 Zeilin 315 La Vallette 316 Sloat 319 Kidder 321 Marcus 322 Mervine 323 Chase 324 Robert Smith 325 Mullany 326 Coghlan 327 Preston 328 Lamson 329 Bruce 330 Hull 331 Macdonough 332 Farenholt 333 Sumner 334 Corry 335 Melvin 74 Manley 76 Philip 78 Evans 93 Fairfax 94 Taylor 101 Lansdale 113 Rathburne 114 Talbot 115 Waters 116 Dent 117 Dorsey 118 Lea 123 Gamble 124 Ramsay 125 Tattnall 126 Badger 128 Babbitt 130 Jacob Jones 132 Aaron Ward 132 Buchanan 133 Hale 134 Crowninshield 135 Tillman 140 Claxton 141 Hamilton 142 Tarbell 145 Greer 146 Elliot 147 Roper 148 Breckinridge 152 Du Pont 153 Bernadou 154 Ellis 155 Cole 156 J. Fred Talbott 157 Dickerson 158 Leary 159 Schenck 160 Herbert 193 Upshur 206 Chandler 208 Hovey 209 Long 210 Broome 211 Alden 337 Zane 338 Wasmuth 340 Perry

   The total increased again to 113 in April 1925 when Hazelwood and Dallas recommissioned, leaving 150 in reserve. McDermut and Meyer decommissioned in May 1929, bringing the number in service back down to 111.

1930 REHABILITATION PROGRAM
Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash, Navy Secretary Charles Francis Adams’ annual report to Congress raised the issue that 60 flush-deckers—Bethlehem-built with Yarrow boilers (including 46 of the 111 ships in commission)—were wearing out. As the Navy Department could not justify the expenditures necessary to refit them, he said, “they would be decommissioned with a view to their ultimate removal from the Naval List.”
   Most of the 46 were scrapped or sold by 1934. (Two that escaped were Thompson, which became a floating restaurant in South San Francisco, and Corry, which was towed up the Napa River from Mare Island and stranded along the east bank.) To replace them, 48 mothballed ships were recommissioned (see table).

COAST GUARD DESTROYERS
In the twenties, during the “prohibition era,” 23 flivvers and 1000-tonners had been transferred to the Coast Guard to help chase down “rum runners.” From 1930–1934 as the older ships were retired, six flush-deckers—Abel P. Upshur, George E. Badger, Herndon, Hunt, Welborn C. Wood and Semmes—served intermittently as Coast Guard Cutters Nos. 15–20.
   In 1935, a year after returning from her Coast Guard service, Semmes was converted as a submarine test ship (AG 24). Operating thereafter from Key West, Florida, she continued in this service throughout World War II and was credited with the last U-boat sinking by a flush-decker.

1936 FORCE REDUCTION
The 1930 London Naval Treaty limited the total tonnage of destroyers the US Navy could maintain. Also, as the first goldplaters began to commission, a second group of flush-deckers was sold for scrapping, including 35 more Bethlehem-built ships with Yarrow boilers (see table).
   As a result of this program (partially offset by some recommissionings) plus the loss due to collision of Smith

1936–9 SOLD, SUNK OR SET ASIDE 69 Caldwell 71 Gwin 80 Kimberly 84 Dyer 86 Stevens 87 McKee 91 Harding 92 Gridley 94 Taylor 95 Bell 96 Stribling 97 Murray 98 Israel 99 Luce 101 Lansdale 104 Champlin 105 Mugford 107 Hazelwood 111 Ingraham 120 Radford 163 Walker 165 Meredith 166 Bush 172 Anthony 173 Sproston 176 Renshaw 177 O’Bannon 238 James K. Paulding 259 Turner 271 Morris 272 Tingey 275 Sinclair 302 Stoddert 316 Sloat 321 Marcus

Thompson in 1936, the total number of flush-deckers dropped from 200 (102 in commission) at the beginning of 1936 to 172 by May 1937. The decommissioning of Walker in March 1938 and Taylor in December brought the active and reserve force down to 170 (78 in commission).

NEUTRALITY PATROLS
On 3 September 1939, two days after Germany invaded Poland to begin World War II, Congress passed the Neutrality Act. Thirteen flush-deckers had long been attached to the Asiatic Fleet in Destroyer Squadron 29. In addition to 60 1500–1850-tonners, that left 65 flush-deckers—some of which were conversions—to cover the entire western hemisphere, for which the US Navy was now responsible.
   Immediately it moved to activate every additional escort vessel available. Fifty-four of the 92 mothballed flush-deckers recommissioned during the last four months of 1939 and by September 1940, when transfer of fifty “destroyers for bases” to the UK and Canada began, “red lead row” was empty.