They were built to round-out the thirteen destroyers of 1,850 tons standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the London Naval Treaty, and were originally intended to be repeat Porters.

[2] This was the first US destroyer class to use 600 psi (4,100 kPa) steam superheated to 850 °F (454 °C),[3] which became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and World War II.

In early 1942 Warrington and Sampson were transferred to the Southeast Pacific Area, where they primarily escorted convoys between the Panama Canal and the Society Islands.

[7] The five Somers class were built to round out the eight Porter-class 1850-ton destroyers to the London Naval Treaty tonnage limit of thirteen such ships, and were originally intended to be repeat Porters.

However, controversial (for the time) high-pressure, high-temperature air-encased boilers derived from the ones installed in the modernized battleship New Mexico became available, and the class was built to a modified design by Gibbs & Cox.

Steam conditions rose to 600 psi (4,100 kPa), superheated to 850 °F (454 °C) for the first time;[3] this became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and World War II.

[6] In 1941, all of the class were based in the Atlantic or Caribbean conducting Neutrality Patrols, during which Somers and the cruiser Omaha captured a German blockade runner, earning the last prize money ever awarded by the US Navy.

In early 1942 Warrington and Sampson moved to the Southeast Pacific Area, escorting convoys from the Panama Canal to the Society Islands, along with patrols to ports in South America.

Somers, Davis, and Jouett spent the first years of the war patrolling the Caribbean and South Atlantic, intercepting several German blockade runners and at least one U-boat (U-128) near Brazil.

In January 1943 Somers relocated to Bathurst, Gambia to support the Roosevelt-Churchill-De Gaulle Casablanca Conference, later escorting the Free French warships Richelieu and Montcalm from Dakar, Senegal to the United States.