Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt wrote Spanish torpedo boat destroyers (such as the 370-ton ) were "the only real menace" to the fleet blockading Santiago, and pushed for the acquisition of torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. As President, Theodore Roosevelt continued to pay close attention to naval affairs, including the expansion of the Navy's fleet of destroyers. In 1898 Congress authorized 16 torpedo boat destroyers, which would join the fleet by 1903. The first torpedo boat destroyers, the , featured two torpedo tubes and two guns, displacing . The subsequent and classes displaced , the reason these classes were nicknamed "flivvers" (lightweights, after the Model T Ford). By the time the United States entered World War I, destroyers displaced and burned oil instead of coal. These "1000 tonners" were armed with eight to twelve torpedo tubes, four /50 caliber guns; and had a complement of approximately 100 officers and men. The 1000 tonners were the through classes, and were also called "broken deckers", due to their high forecastles. World War I Prior to entering World War I in 1917, the United States began producing destroyers to a new design with a continuous sheer strake, collectively referred to as "flush deckers". Six prototypes of the were dissimilar: three had three stacks; two of these also had three screws. The others of this and the 267 ships of the mass-production and classes that followed all had two screws. As built, they also had four stacks, which gave rise to the nicknames "four stackers" or "four pipers". Eleven shipyards participated in their construction, which peaked in 1917 and 1918. By the time of the Armistice of 11 November 1918, keels for 177 ships had been laid and 41 had joined the fleet. Though the remaining ships were not needed in peacetime, the building program continued and by the end of May 1921, all but four of the 273 flush-deckers had been placed in commission. The final two did not follow until August 1922. While the flush-deckers' freeboard fore and aft were designed to match preceding classes, the new ships differed in other respects. The waist guns were moved to a platform amidships, the galley beneath them; and a bulwark added between the galley and the bridge. The standard displacement of the flush deck destroyers was , the length approximately , the beam measured approximately , and the draft approximately . A