Six Tuckers and six Sampsons brought the American destroyer total to 69 when the Sampsons finished in 1917. Only 26 of those ships belonged to the thousand-ton classes. Tucker and Sampson supplied twelve between them, while Cassin and Aylwin contributed four each and O'Brien six. Several European navies already counted their destroyers in three digits. The small American classes fell below the numbers normally associated with destroyer flotillas elsewhere, limiting how the Navy could organize its force.
Notable Point · 4:15-6:36
Only 26 of 69 American destroyers were thousand-tonners
Small classes left the U.S. Navy with only 26 thousand-ton destroyers and constrained its ability to form flotillas.