By 1930, ten years after the last of the mass-produced “flush-deck” destroyers had been laid down and in light of the new London Naval Treaty, a need for new construction had become clear. First among these were eight ships of the Farragut class, which reintroduced a raised

RECOGNITION FEATURES OF GOLDPLATER DESTROYER CLASSES

forecastle for improved seakeeping, began a trend toward higher-pressure boilers for longer-range steaming and, most importantly, introduced the 5-inch/38-cal. dual purpose gun which, with an effective fire control system, remained the most advanced weapon of its type through the end of World War II.
   When they entered service beginning in 1934, the Farraguts represented such an advance over the flush-deckers that their “over-lavish facilities” attracted criticism; old-time destroyermen soon began referring to them as “goldplaters.”
   Eventually, however, 73 ships (DDs 348–420—see ship list) were commissioned in five more classes—the “1500-ton” Mahan, Gridley, Bagley, Benham classes and successor 1570-ton Sims class plus two classes of larger “destroyer leaders,” Porter and Somers, authorized in fiscal years as follows:
   1932–3: eight original “goldplaters” (the Farraguts), with twelve torpedo tubes and five 5-inch/38 cal. dual purpose guns.
   1934: eight leaders (the Porter class) and sixteen improved 1500-tonners (the Mahan class).
   1935: two leaders of a new class (Somers and Warrington) and twelve 1500-tonners. Originally contemplating twelve ships of an improved Mahan design, the navy instead had just two laid down (Dunlap and Fanning—the last two-stackers) while authorizing Bethlehem Steel’s Quincy, MA, shipyard to build two ships (Gridley and Craven) of a new single-stack design with an advanced propulsion system and sixteen torpedo tubes in four quadruple wing mounts, but just four 5-inch guns. It filled out the procurement with eight more single-stackers (the Bagley class) with machinery carried over from the Mahans.
   1936: twelve more sixteen-tube ships—two more Gridleys from Bethlehem and ten similar designs from Gibbs & Cox with three instead of four boilers (the Benham class), plus three more leaders.
   1937: twelve slightly larger and heavier ships, the streamlined Sims class, in which anticipated savings in machinery weight—needed to offset improved-but-heavier ordnance and fire control—were not achieved. Originally fitted with twelve tubes and five 5-inch/38s, these were promptly reduced to eight and four, respectively.

OPERATIONS, LOSSES AND DECORATIONS
Goldplaters were at the heart of the Pacific War from the beginning. At Pearl Harbor, two (Cassin and Downes) were destroyed and a third (Shaw) was heavily damaged, but all were returned to service. Other ships of these classes held the line after the retreat from Indonesia, screening carriers, facing an initially-superior enemy at Guadalcanal, and also serving in the Aleutians. One with a striking career was Morris, flagship of DesRon 2 and rescuer of survivors from no less than four sinking aircraft carriers.
   While twenty-one 1500-tonners, leaders and Sims-class ships were lost during the war, twenty-seven of them earned ten or more engagement stars, and six of them under Comdr. Frederick Moosbrugger engaged in the first major night surface action in the Solomons Islands without cruisers present—also the first clear-cut US victory in that campaign—the Battle of Vella Gulf, 6–7 August 1943. Two of these, Maury and Sterett, both subjects of excellent books (see references), were awarded Presidential Unit Citations. A third, Smith also received a citation for her crew’s work in saving her after being crashed by a Japanese plane) during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, October 1942.