Edsall-class destroyer escort

The Edsall-class destroyer escorts were destroyer escorts built primarily for ocean antisubmarine escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Edsall, was commissioned on 10 April 1943 at Orange, Texas. The class was also known as the FMR type from their Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive, with a type of engine used in the submarines of the time. The FMR's substitution for a diesel-electric power plant was the essential difference from the predecessor Cannon ("DET") class. This was the only World War II destroyer escort class in which all the ships originally ordered were completed as United States Navy destroyer escorts. Destroyer escorts were regular companions escorting the vulnerable cargo ships. Late in the war, plans were made to replace the 3-inch (76 mm) guns with 5-inch (127 mm) guns, but only Camp was refitted (after a collision). In total, all 85 were completed by two shipbuilding companies: Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas (47), and Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas (38). Most were en route to the Pacific Theater when Japan surrendered. One of the ships participated in Operation Dragoon and two were attacked by German guided missiles.