[sasportas]

So the Ward was a four stacker,of WW1 vintage. I see my impression that WW2 destroyers were of the Fletcher class, was wrong.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Most were of the later class. But the Ward was a left-over from the WWI flush deck destroyer series. We didn’t have enough ships, and had to use whatever floated.

The Brit’s got several other four-stacker flush deck destroyers from the US in a trade for part of the (now US) Virgin Islands. They were desperate as well.

[Bull Snipe]

She was no longer being used as a destroyer in the usual meaning. She had been coverted to a high speed transport and here hull number at the time she was sunk was APD-16.
The Fletchers, Gearings and Sumners were the back bone of our Destroyer forces WWII.

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

Plenty of flush deckers survived into WW2, mostly converted to anti-sub escorts.

Nice looking ships, a pity that none were preserved. My granddad served on one in the '30s.