Aluminum Destroyers

A rumpled man with cantilever mustach was giving the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ships plenty to brood about. Greying William Starling Burgess, designer of America's Cup defenders (Enterprise, Rainbow and Ranger), whipper-upper of the automobile-engined Sea Otter (TIME, Sept. 29), had turned up with another ship innovation.

This time it was a new kind of destroyer, faster by 25% than any of the 41-knot, steel-hulled speedsters the Navy is getting, and nimble-footed as a seagoing cat. "Skipper" Burgess had patented the design in 1937, had tested it, as well as he could without a...

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