A long line of surface warships, including destroyers and cruisers, operated from the Charleston Navy Base from before World War I until 1995. More than fifty destroyers, destroyer escorts, sub chasers, cutters, and patrol gunboats, as well as two destroyer tenders, were built in the Charleston Navy Yard. These destroyers, known as the "Greyhounds Of The Fleet," and their crews of "Tincan Sailors," along with their sister surface ships, sailed from Charleston into seas around the world. Some who left from here for dangerous duty never returned.