Seventy-one American destroyers were lost during WWII, 60 of them in confrontations with enemy ships, planes, shore batteries and mines, the other 11 to accidental groundings, friendly mines or severe storms.
Some were battle scared veterans that went down in a blaze of glory, some recently commissioned and on the way to the war when they hit a friendly mine.
Great book with the details of each ship lost: “Blood On The Sea: American Destroyers Lost In World War II”
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-On-The-Sea-Destroyers/dp/0306810697
Search “Typhoon Cobra”. A terrible loss. I think it was three destroyers were lost and about three hundred men.
My father-in-law was on the USS Randolph when it got hit by a Kamikaze attack in Mar 1945. 35 sailors died and 107 wounded.
I would also recommend “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors” about the battle between Task Force Taffy 3 and the Japanese Navy off the island of Samar in the Phillipines.