How many U.S. warships had World War II cost? Last week the Navv told. Beginning with the destroyer Reuben James, sunk on Atlantic patrol by a U-boat five weeks before Pearl Harbor, and ending with the submarine Bullhead, which disappeared in the Java Sea just as Japan quit, the total was 701. The list included 157 first-line combat ships, plus 544 supporting ships and auxiliaries ranging from troopships to 15-ton yard craft.
The first-line ships list—battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, destroyer escorts and submarines—represented 496,994 tons, or 46% of the Navy's combat force...