 In September 1912 , the General Board of the United States Navy asked the Navy 's Bureau of Construction and Repair ( C & R ) to develop plans for the next class of destroyers . The General Board asked for a design with four 4 @-@ inch ( 102 mm ) guns , six twin 21 @-@ inch ( 533 mm ) torpedo tubes , and twenty floating mines , that could travel at up to 35 knots ( 65 km / h ) with steaming radius of 2 @,@ 500 nautical miles at 20 knots ( 4 @,@ 600 km at 37 km / h ) . C & R came back with a design for a 385 @-@ foot ( 117 m ) long , 2 @,@ 160 @-@ long @-@ ton ( 2 @,@ 190 t ) displacement , triple @-@ screw " super @-@ destroyer " requiring 40 @,@ 000 shaft horsepower ( 30 @,@ 000 kW ) to make the design speed of 35 knots ( 65 km / h ) . The C & R design was similar to , but larger than the unique British destroyer HMS Swift of 1907 , and more than twice the displacement of the largest U.S. destroyers . 
