The Fletcher class comprised 175 destroyers. USS Fletcher supplied the class name and held the earliest hull number on the order list, but her keel was not laid until October 1941. Other members had already begun construction during the preceding months, starting in March. The example separates class naming and administrative numbering from the sequence in which shipyards actually started work.
Notable Point · 8:09-9:03
USS Fletcher gave the class its name after other keels were laid
Class names and hull-number order do not establish which ship began construction first.