Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "Town-class destroyers - Guide 399" video.

Not long ago, I reread "Fifty Ships That Saved The World" about the destroyers for bases deal, and service of the ships in the RN. HMS Ludlow, that Drac mentioned at the end of his piece, had an interesting incident at the start of it's RN service. Ludlow, the former USS Stockton, was one of the earlier Caldwell class ships, significantly shorter ranged than the later classes. She had made it to France in 1917, so she should have been able to make the trip again, if everything went smoothly. Ludlow, in company with several other destroyers, was making her way to the UK, when radio traffic was picked up from Jervis Bay, which was engaging the Scheer, desperately asking for help. The USN had turned over the ships with full magazines and torpedo tubes. so the destroyers rang up flank speed and rushed to Jervis Bay's assistance. They arrived at the scene too late to help. But that flank speed run had tossed Ludlow's fuel consumption calculations in the dustbin. According to the book, Ludlow's burners went out, from lack of fuel, just as she dropped anchor in Belfast. Reports of Jervis Bay's action say that Scheer's reconnaissance plane had spotted the convoy, and reported it as completely unescorted. Can't help but wonder, if the destroyers, iirc, about six, had been steaming from Halifax with the convoy, would Scheer have attacked? If Scheer had attacked, what would the result have been, with six destroyers firing their large loads of torpedoes at Scheer?
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@rob5944 correct, FDR had to make the deal palatable for Congress, by the US gaining something for the ships. In a transatlantic telephone call, the parties were trying to work out a deal. At one point Churchill said "Empires don't bargain". iirc, it was the US Secretary of State who replied "but republics do". This story was also relayed in "Fifty Ships That Saved The World".
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@cmck472 iirc, from "Fifty Ships That Saved The World", it took until spring of 41 to get them into service. Luckily, for the UK, the Germans were critically short of U-Boats over that same period. By the time the U-Boat fleet had been rebuild, the Towns were in service.
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@scottgiles7546 each DD carried a dozen Mark 8s. Not a very good torpedo, but the captain of the Scheer could not count on any particular one malfunctioning. It would take some pretty fancy driving to duck all of them. And, while Scheer was ducking torpedoes, the freighters of the convoy are disappearing over the horizon.
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@themanformerlyknownascomme777 the Lexington class carriers. The Lexington conversions were sold to Congress as being cheaper than new build carriers. The price escalated, a lot. I have the exact numbers in my notes somewhere, as reported in the newspapers, as the Navy went back, repeatedly, for more money. The Lexingtons ended up costing something like triple what the Yorktowns cost.
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@ROBERTNABORNEY-jx5il from what I find, a Clemson carried 375 tons of fuel, a Wicks 295 tons, and a Caldwell 290 tons. As you said, a Clemson carries 80-85 tons more fuel than the earlier classes.
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