In the U.S. Navy,there are ships called destroyers.Why are they called that?It seems unusual.?

Answer 1

Originally lightly armored, faster ships were used to counteract the threat of torpedo boats and submarines. They were called "torpedo boat destroyers" or "submarine destroyers". The modern day equivalents borrow a shortened form of those names.

Answer 2

The story of of how the destroyer got it's name goes back to the turn of the century. Navies at that time where building up steam powered, armoured ships.Weapon systems were being rapidly improved and newly invented systems introduced. One of the weapons introduced was the whitehead torpedo. Then as now bigger was better and the dreadnought and battle cruisers became larger as the rifled guns became larger. Then someone had the idea of creating a small fast agile ship armed only with whitehead torpedoes and machine guns. These torpedoes boats where effective and beside they cost little to build. The descendants of these boats were the PT and MBT boats of the US and British Navies and the E Boats of the German navy. Back to the original situation. The navies had these large, cumbersome ships that cost a fortune and these little wood things that the battle wagons couldn't sink but with the new torpedo's the little craft could sink them. It drove the admirals spare. They came up with the torpedo boat destroyer. A larger armoured craft that carried machine guns, cannon and torpedo's and could sink the the torpedo boat. The torpedo boat destroyer out lasted is original purpose because it had rapidly gained a lot of other roles. It was treated much as the frigate was during the Napoleonic days of sail. As matter of fact the role of convoy escort was taken over by both of them. It had by this time lost part of it's name and was refered to simply as the destroyer.

Answer 3

The name 'destroyer' is the short version of 'torpedo boat destroyer'. At the turn of the century, naval fleets has many heavily armed battleships and cruisers. Then the torpedo was invented an put on small, fast boats called 'torpedo boats'.

The battleships and cruisers were too slow and couldn't fire their guns fast enough to counter these torpedo boats, so they came up with the torpedo boat destroyer, a small but fast and heavily armed warship, to escort the battleships and cruisers.

By the time WW1 rolled around, the torpedo boat and torpedo boat destroyer has pretty much merged to become a destroyer. A warship about 1000 to 1500 tons with light guns and torpedos.

In WW2, destroyers had grown to 2000 tons, with more weapons (like depth charges), and were used for hunting submarines.

Now, the US Arleigh Burke Class destroyers weigh 9,000 tons, and resemble a cruiser more than a destroyer.

Answer 4

The Destroyer is the most capable ship in the US Navy it could pretty much fight an entire war on its on. Obviously that will never be the case because all the ships do a certain job to copliment each other. For instance a Carrier by its self (with out an air wing or strike group) is pretty much defensless.
Teh DDG is an awsome ship with lots or power.

Answer 5

Destroyer is just a very general term for a certain type of naval ship. They are typically (relatively) small and fast ships which, when part of a larger fleet, act to defend less manouverable ships.

It is by no means unique to the US Navy.

Other types of naval ship include, Frigate, Battleship, Aircraft Carrier and Cruiser.

Answer 6

Native has no idea what he is talking about. Destroyers are lightly armored and have very small guns but most carry lots of missles these days. Check out wikipedia.

Destroyers were historicaly used to screen the capital ships from damage.

Answer 7

They were originally torpedo boat destroyers. There was a time when the battleship was only vulnerable to other large warships. The development of the torpedo boat meant that a battleship needed escorts to protect her from torpedo attacks, hence the destroyer. The aircraft carrier came about in the same sort of way, carriers were originally intended to protect battleships from air attack.

Answer 8

I served on the USS Allen M Sumner DD 692. It was our job to seek out and destroy enemy ships and subs. It was also our job to protect the rest of the convoy. We had two twin mount 5" guns forward. One twin mount 5" gun aft. Also two torpedo tubes, one on the starboard side and one on the port side. We also had Hedge hog rack forward. We had sonar forward as well as sonar aft, known as a porpoise sonar. The ship had a draft of 14 feet, a beam of 50 feet, and length of 376 feet. It would make 33 knots at flank speed. Another name for a destroyer is a Tin can.

Answer 9

I think they were mostly designed to kill subs, at least in WW2. They are light and fast so they could chase after subs and kill them. Also they took part in naval gunfire support for the marines and army ashore especially in Vietnam since they carry 5 inch guns.

Answer 10

Destroyers were developed around the World Wars because their primary responsibility was to destroy subs.