The second USS Bainbridge was the first destroyer, also called "Torpedo-boat destroyers", in the United States Navy and the lead ship of the Bainbridge-class. She was named for William Bainbridge. Bainbridge was commissioned 12 February 1903. She served in the Asiatic Fleet before World War I and served in patrol and convoy duty during the war. She was decommissioned 3 July 1919.
USS Bainbridge in an Asiatic port c. 1915-1916.
USS Bainbridge (Destroyer # 1) Ship's officers and men pose on a pier, alongside Bainbridge, c. 1914–1916, while she was serving in Asiatic waters. Note life rings and neatly arranged line.
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were originally conceived in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.
USS Arleigh Burke, the lead ship of her class of guided-missile destroyers.
The destroyers of the US Navy's Zumwalt-class, pictured here sailing with a Littoral combat ship (LCS) are the longest and heaviest destroyers currently in service.
The Italian Caio Duilio, belongs to the Horizon-class of Franco-Italian designed first-rate frigates.
Fernando Villaamil, credited as the inventor of the destroyer concept, died in action during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898.