This follows the question I have already ask regarding the thickness
of the steel on the hull of a "Fletcher Class" destroyer (naval
vessel).  I know that the steel was quite thin and I hope that somehow
we can determine the approximate thickness.  Dan Greenwood

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 16 Mar 2004 03:13 PST

I have a book called Ships of World War 2 by John 
Ward, 
(this book- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0760309353/qid=1079435405/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-3176871-9697511?v=glance&s=books
)
and it gives armor thickness for Fletcher class destroyers, aside from
other famous ships, as part of a table on a ship's stats. Would this
be acceptable for you as an answer?

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Clarification of Question by ships1-ga on 16 Mar 2004 13:03 PST

The thickness of the armour of the destroyers would be fine.  I will
certainly accept that as a good response.  Dan Greenwood

Hello Ships1,
Thanks for accepting my proposal to post an answer. Based on the book
I have by John Ward, here are the hull and skin thickesses for certain
parts of the ship that were listed (they are called armor plate in the
stats, but the destroyers were actually unarmored):
Armor belt: .75 inch (would be the side of the hull)
Turrets: .5 inch
Deck: .5 inch

The two Fletcher ships profiled in this book are the Heerman and Johnston.

Source:
Ward, John. Ships of World War II. Motorbooks International, October 2000.

Other sources:
DD-445 Fletcher class - Microworks.net
http://www.microworks.net/pacific/ships/destroyers/fletcher.htm
- Here's a site which gives some stats of the Fletcher class
destroyer, and it says that there is no belt armor for this class of
ship.

Google search terms used:
fletcher class hull thickness
fletcher class armor belt

I hope this has been a most helpful answer. If you need anything else,
or have a problem with the answer, do please post a Request for
Clarification before rating and I shall respond as soon as I can.
Thank you.

The answer is thorough and specific

ships1-ga:

Amazingly, in spite of the number of websites devoted to the Fletcher
class destroyers of WWII, none seem to mention this detail of their
design.

One website that provides information that you can use to infer the
hull thickness of the Fletcher-class, is:

http://www.thefabricator.com/xp/Fabricator/Articles/Fabricating/Fab02/02web499.xml

In this article, they comment that "Modern commercial ship hulls
continue to be built with 14- to 19-millimeter-thick (0.5- to
0.75-inch) plate. Carbon steel is low-cost and easy to repair. These
materials normally are specified American Bureau of Shipping grade A,
although sometimes grades B and H are used."

Hopefully, this provides enough clues that you can get to the answer
you are seeking. Hope this comment helps.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

By the way, I noticed you had this previous question on the same topic
still around:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=316694

I just mentioned this since you have two questions asking the same
thing, and you can close or cancel one of them to prevent a
double-charge. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the tip!