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Back at ya the lovely and gracious Ms. bentfeather, Saturday Humor Bump for the Freeper Foxhole

A St. Paul construction site boss was interviewing men for a job, when along
came a Norwegian. I'm not hiring any Norwegians, the foreman thought to
himself, so he made up a test to avoid hiring the Norwegian without getting
into an argument.
"Here's your first question," the foreman said. "Without using numbers,
represent the number 9."
"Without numbers?" The Norwegian says. "Dat is easy," and proceeds to draw
three trees.
"What's this?" the boss asks.
"'Ave you got no brain? Tree and tree and tree make nine," says the Norwegian.
"Fair enough," says the boss. "Here is your second question. Use the same
rules, but this time the number is 99."
The Norwegian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that
he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree.
"'Ere you go."
The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to
represent 99?"
"Each of da trees is dirty now! So it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, and
dirty tree. Dat is 99."
The boss is getting worried he's going to have to hire this Norwegian, so he
says, "All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number
100."
The Norwegian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture
again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree, and says, "Ere you
go. One hundred."
The boss looks at the attempt. "You must be nuts if you think that
represents a hundred!" The Norwegian leans forward and points to the marks
at the base of each tree, and says, "A little dog come along and crap by
each tree. So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and
dirty tree and a turd, which make one hundred. So when I start?"

"Monday."

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

As an early 2100-ton Fletcher-class ship from Bath Iron Works, the specifications for hull 194, Taylor, reflected the characteristics of all early Fletcher-class ships built there:

Length Overall: 376' 5½"
Extreme Beam: 39' 8"
Normal Displacement: 2,050 long tons
Draft: Light: 8' 1"; Mean: 13' 5" Deep: 22’8”
Designed Complement: Officers, 34; Enlisted, 295
Designed Shaft Horsepower: 60,000
Designed Speed: 36 knots
Screws: Two
Rudder: One
Stacks: Two
Tactical diameter: 950 yards at 30 knots
Endurance: 4,800 nautical miles at 15 knots.

At launch, Taylor carried a high mount intended for a 1.1-inch anti-aircraft gun between the Nos. 3 and 4 5-inch gunhouses, but experience with ships already in service showed this tended to overheat and jam in service. As commissioned, therefore, Taylor was the second Bath-built 2100-tonner—after Strong— to mount one of the newly-available twin 40mm Bofors in this location, plus a second 40mm twin on the fantail, giving her the typical 1942-43 armament for an early high-bridge Fletcher:

Primary: 5 x 5-inch/38 cal. in five single mounts
Long-range anti-aircraft: 4 x 40mm Bofors in two twin mounts
Short-range anti-aircraft: (probably 7) x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts
Torpedo Tubes: 10 x 21-inch in two quintuple mounts
ASW: 2 racks for 600-lb. charges; 6 “K”-guns for 300-lb. charges

Her electronics were also typical:

Radar: SC (air search) and SG (surface search), Mk 37 (fire control)
Sonar: QC

In December 1943–January 1944, Taylor was modified, with her forwardward 20mm singles replaced by 40mm twin Bofors. The 40mm twin on the fantail was removed, and 40mm twins were mounted in the waist—the typical 1943–1944 armament:

Primary: 5 x 5-inch/38 cal. in five single mounts
Long-range anti-aircraft: 10 x 40mm Bofors in five twin mounts
Short-range anti-aircraft: 7 x 20mm Oerlikon in single mounts
Torpedo Tubes: 10 x 21-inch in two quintuple mounts
ASW: 2 racks for 600-lb. charges; 6 “K”-guns for 300-lb. charges

The Terrible "T"

The first shipyards to change over construction from Gleaves-class ships to Fletchers were Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Bath, ME and Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp. in Kearny, NJ. Both yards customarily laid down ships on adjoining slipways in pairs. Thus Fletcher was laid down side-by-side with Radford at Kearney on October 2, 1941 and Jenkins and La Vallette followed on November 27. But before this, Nicholas and O’Bannon had been laid down on March 3, 1941, followed by Chevalier and Strong on April 30, then Taylor on August 28 and De Haven by the end of September.

Taylor was sponsored at her launch on 7 June 1942 by Mrs. H. A. Baldridge. She was commissioned at Boston’s Charlestown Navy Yard on 28 August 1942, exactly a year after she was laid down.

Taylor had three commanding officers during World War II. Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Katz commissioned her, and stayed with her throughout the Solomon Islands Campaign until January 1944, after she returned to Mare Island for modifications. Cmdr. Nicholas J. Frank then took her back to sea, where Cmdr. Henry H. deLauréal took her through the end of the war.

Along the way, Taylor participated in every major southwest Pacific campaign from the Solomon Islands through the end of the war. After the war, she was presented with a Navy Unit Commendation in addition to the 15 battle stars she had earned. She was the only ship in her squadron to emerge from the war without either casualties or battle damage.

Decommissioned in 1946, she was recommissioned in 1951, Cmdr. Sheldon H. Kinney commanding, and continued her career until 2 July 1969, when she was taken into the Italian Navy as Lanciere. In addition to her Navy Unit Commendation, she earned a total of 23 stars over her 27 years in the United States Navy.