Japanese destroyer Shirotae: Difference between revisions

Destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Shirotae (白妙) (“White cloth”) was one of 32 Kamikaze-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century.

The Kamikaze-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding Harusame class.^[1] They displaced 381 long tons (387 t) at normal load and 450 long tons (460 t) at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of 227 feet (69.2 m) and an overall length of 234 feet (71.3 m), a beam of 21 feet 7 inches (6.6 m) and a draught of 6 feet (1.8 m). The Kamikazes were powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft using steam produced by four Kampon water-tube boilers. The engines produced a total of 6,000 indicated horsepower (4,500 kW) that gave the ships a maximum speed of 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph). They carried a maximum of 100 long tons (102 t) of coal^[2] which gave them a range of 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). Their crew consisted of 70 officers and ratings.^[3]

The main armament of the Kamikaze-class ships consisted of two 40-calibre quick-firing (QF) three-inch (76 mm) 12 cwt guns^{[Note 1]} on single mounts; the forward gun was located on superstructure, but the aft gun was at the stern. Four 28-calibre QF three-inch 8 cwt guns on single mounts were positioned abreast the superstructure, two in each broadside. The ships were also armed with two single rotating mounts^[1][3] for 450-millimetre (17.7 in)^[4] torpedoes between the superstructure and the stern gun.^[1]

Shirotae was laid down at Mitsubishi‘s shipyard in Nagasaki on 25 July 1905 and launched on 30 July 1906.^[2] Completed on 20 November 1906, the ship saw service in World War I and ran aground in Jiaozhou Bay, China, on 31 August 1914 during the Siege of Tsingtao. She was wrecked beyond repair on 3 September.^[5]

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