The Bainbridge-class destroyers were a class of United States Navy Torpedo Boat Destroyers (TBDs) built between 1899 and 1903. The first class so designated, they comprised the first 13 of 16 TBDs authorized by Congress in 1898 following the Spanish–American War. One ship of the class was lost at sea during service in World War I: , which collided with the British merchant ship SS Rose in 1917. The balance were decommissioned in 1919 and sold postwar in 1920, eleven to Joseph G. Hitner of Philadelphia, and the to the Denton Shore Lumber Company in Tampa, Florida. Subclasses Some sources subdivide the Bainbridge class into subsidiary classes based on their builders' differing designs. the first five vessels - Bainbridge, Barry, Chauncey, Dale and Decatur - shared a raised forecastle and had two widely-spaced pairs of funnels. Hopkins and had a turtledeck forward and may be considered to be Hopkins class. These had their two single torpedo tubes replaced by two twin torpedo tubes during World War I; total torpedoes remained at four. and had a turtledeck forward, Fore River boilers, carried their funnels in only one group of four, and may be considered to be Lawrence class. In 1906 two additional 6-pounder guns were substituted for the two 3-inch guns to save weight. , and carried one twin torpedo tube instead of two singles beginning in World War I and may be considered to be Paul Jones class. was equipped with Seabury boilers and was the fastest of the 400-tonners on trials at , but her trial displacement of is described as unrealistically light. Design Origins Some references, including contemporary ones, describe four ocean-going torpedo boats launched in 1898-1899 as the first US destroyers based on their tonnage, which ranged from . These were , , , and . Stringham, the largest of these, was larger than some contemporary British destroyers. However, at the Bainbridges were considerably larger and had a significantly greater gun armament than the four 6-pounders of the torpedo boats. The Bainbridge class were produced on the recommendation of an 1898 war plans board formed to prosecute the Spanish–American War and chaired by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. The poor sea-keeping qualities of existing torpedo boats (such as the ) and the existence of Spanish torpedo boat destroyers (such as the ) were cited as reasons for the US to build its own destroyers. The