Gold Plater

Warning Deadly Shores spoiler.

Gold Platers appears in Deadly Shores Alan Letts describes the next generation of naval vessels to be built as "Four stack cruisers and genuine gold platers," so what is a gold plater? When asked Taylor Anderson noted on his discussion blog, :

"On January 16, 2015 Taylor says:

Good WAG Charlie. “Gold Plater” was a common term among four stacker destroyermen for the newer–far more modern, roomy, and comfortable–relatively speaking–destroyers that began joining the fleet."

Examples of these are the newer Benham-class, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benham-class_destroyer Sims class, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sims-class_destroyer, or Benson class DDs see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson-class_destroyer.

Earlier classes are (Newest first) the Somers-class, Bagley-class, Gridley-class Mahan-class [named for USS Mahan DD-364 not our DD-102], Porter-class, or Farragut-class. The preceding class to the Farragut-class was the four stacker Clemson-class, the last class of "Four Pipers."