DD-17 Smith
The Smith (DD-17) class was the first class of United States Destroyers fitted with turbines (Parsons), and the first class of destroyers designed to protect the battle line from hostile torpedo craft. A more robust gun armament of five 3-inch guns (versus 2 in prevous classes) and increased endurance and stability were introduced with this class. At 700 tons standard displacement, they were considerably larger than the earlier 420-ton designs and could range 2,800 nm at 10 knots. They were the last class of destroyer to use coal-fired boilers.
In 1884 the first compound steam turbine was built in England by the Hon. C. A. Parsons. It developed 10 horsepower at 1,800 revolutions per minute and ran for several years at Gateshead-on-Thames, England. It consisted of two groups of 15 turbines each, the steam entering between them and passing in opposite directions through each group. In 1895 the manufacturing rights of the Parsons turbine were acquired in the United States by the Westinghouse Machine Company, who introduced their product commercially in 1899.
In the Parsons turbine there are alternate rows of stationary guide vanes and moving wheel vanes. The steam flows through a fixed ring of directing blades, which serve the purpose of steam nozzles, onto a revolving ring of similar blades and so on, the pressure being reduced a small amount at each step. Steam is admitted direct from the boilers to blades on the shaft drum, thus doing away with the necessity for piston valves or slide valves, cylinders, pistons, piston rods, crossheads, connecting rods, cranks, eccentrics, eccentric rods, and links, &c.
The first marine turbine was installed in the yacht "Turbina", built in 1894 by the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company. The first marine turbine installation in the United States was the Curtis turbine, in the yacht "Revolution", 1902-1903. The Parsons turbine was first developed in England and its application soon became universal. The Curtis turbine was first developed in the United States, but in its adaptation to the marine field had been extensively developed as the A. E. G. turbine in Germany and as the Brown-Curtis turbine in P^ngland, while in the United States numerous turbines of this type have been built for the navies of the United States, Japan, Italy and Argentine.
The development of a successful marine turbine necessitated the work of years and requires the expenditure of large sums of money. The most generally successful marine turbine now in use represents the results of more than twenty years of application to the marine field. It required years of development to determine the details and proportions that would make it a thoroughly reliable machine.
In 1903 a special commission was appointed to consider the question whether it was desirable to introduce steam turbines into the Navy of the United States of North America. The conclusions drawn by Admiral Melville from his investigations and submitted by him in a report to the Secretary of the Navy are worthy of note. He said:
"With a turbine little or no care or precaution is required in starting or reversing, and these operations can be performed as rapidly as the necessary valves can be manipulated.
"As the propellers used with turbines are smaller than those with reciprocating engines, the tips of the upper blades will be more deeply immersed and less likely to be uncovered by the pitching of the vessel, so there will be less possibility of racing. But even if racing does occur, there will be no risk of serious injury or breakdown as with a reciprocating engine.
"There will be little or no vibration caused by the turbine, and the vibration from the propellers will be greatly decreased by reason of their smaller size. This absence of vibration and perfect balance of the parts will allow much lighter engine platforms to be used. "The absence of all interior rubbing parts will allow highly superheated steam to be used, which cannot be done satisfactorily with the reciprocating engine ; this in turn will add greatly to the economy of the turbine.
"As the turbine would have but two bearings, any working of the vessel would not disturb it, and could only tend to throw it out of adjustment with the line shaft ; this tendency, however, would be no greater than is now the case with the reciprocating engine. "The absence of all working parts except a few of the very simplest description, and especially the absence of linkages and interior rubbing parts in the steam spaces, reduces the cost and labor of upkeep to a minimum.
"The lubrication of a turbine is almost ideal, since the absence of adjustable bearings permits forced lubrication without appreciable loss of oil or any of it being carried into the condenser by the exhaust. The same oil can be pumped through the bearings over and over again, being cooled in passage by a water coil."
According to the experience obtained with Parsons machines, the circumstances are such that, in comparison with the ordinary reciprocating engines of merchant vessels, in which, in the main, only rapid motion ahead is of importance, these turbines offered considerable economic advantages. As regards war vessels, in which provision must also be made for cheap voyages at marching speeds and for rapid motion astern, it would seem that favorable solutions for these problems for turbines were achieved.
The first United States naval vessels to have turbines were the Scout Cruisers "Chester" (Parsons) and "Salem" (Curtis), which were contracted for in 1905 and completed in 1908. The first United States Destroyers fitted with turbines (Parsons) were the "Smith", "Lamson", "Preston", "Flusser" and "Reid", contracted for in 1907 and completed in 1909, and the "Sterett" and "Perkins" (Curtis) contracted for in 1908 and completed in 1910.
Five ships of this class were laid down at three different shipyards in 1908 and they commissioned 1909-10. All five served during World War One and were decommissioned in the summer of 1919 and sold for scrap.
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