Interdiction, one way or another

Commissioned 110 years ago this week: the Sampson-class tin can USS Davis (DD-65). Built in 17 months at Bath Iron Works in Maine, she was commissioned on 5 October 1916 after being christened by the granddaughter of the late Civil War-era admiral. At just some 315 feet in length and 1,225 tons displacement, she could make 29.5 knots and carried a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes in four triple mounts as well as four 4″/50 guns and a 1-pounder balloon gun. Broadside view of Davis in Hampton Roads, 10 December 1916, clearly showing her main and secondary battery, with 4-inch guns on the foc’sle deck and on the main deck aft, with 1-pounder anti-aircraft guns mounted forward of the bridge and atop the deckhouse, aft. Her port side torpedo tube mounts are in the shadows. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships Photograph 19-N-1931 10 December 1916. Looking aft from the bow of the USS Davis (DD-65) toward the bridge area and forward guns, a 4-inch gun (closest) and a 1-pounder anti-aircraft gun,…