Thanks Erik -- for me a drawing isn't great without some historical context.
Also, updated the OP with all current drawings and fixed the broken filenames.
![[ img ]](http://shipbucket.com/drawings/7659/file)
This is HALFORD (DD-480) in April of 1943 while undergoing an inclining test at Puget Sound Navy Yard. She is camouflaged in Measure 21.
HALFORD was one of the experimental "aircraft-handling" FLETCHER class destroyers. Six of the original 24 ships were ordered to be completed with a catapult and crane for launching and recovering a single OS2U Kingfisher scout plane. Ultimately only three of the six ever actually operated a plane at sea, and the concept was considered flawed by the Navy in light of the destroyers' normal operation alongside carrier task forces, but pressure from above pushed the project along. All six DDs were returned to standard configuration after the design proved ineffective.
The "aircraft-handling" group of modifications included the removal of mount 53 and the after torpedo tubes and their replacement with a compressed-air driven catapult. The catapult itself was a slightly modified version of the type used aboard the OMAHA class cruisers and was designated the Type A Mark 4 Mod.1. The original design for the aircraft-handling ships included a center line mounted boom-and-kingpost crane fitted just aft of the no.2 stack, but in trials this design was disappointing a new crane type was commissioned. HALFORD was fitted with the updated crane, itself a modified version of those used on cruisers. Unfortunately it could not fit on the centerline, so was mounted on the port side main deck abeam the no.2 stack. It was powered by winching gear mounted on the main deck, and the knuckle was hinged to allow it to be laid flat on the deck when not in use. The modifications also added repair shops for the aircraft and an aviation fuel tank in the stern. The after conning station normally sited on the deck house between mount 53 and 54 was relocated to the searchlight platform on the aft stack, a modification later performed on all the rebuilt "round bridge" FLETCHERs and standard on all the "square-bridge" types.
Otherwise, HALFORD has a fairly standard early-to-mid war configuration for a FLETCHER class destroyer. She has not yet received amidships 40mm Bofors, but one twin 40mm mount sits on the fantail between the depth charge tracks, controlled by a Mark 51 director. HALFORD also has 20mm Oerlikon guns atop the pilot house and in a small tub forward of the bridge; this was a design created by the Boston Navy Yard for the BENSON/GLEAVES class destroyers and later authorized for use on FLETCHERs as a stopgap measure to get more guns onto each ship. The ship's radar fit is the standard SC-2 air search and SG surface search, with a Mark 4 "FD" fire control/ranging radar on the Mark 37 director.
HALFORD would survive the war, being decommissioned shortly after the Japanese surrender, ultimately being scrapped in 1970.
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