Japanese torpedo boat Shirataka

The Shirataka (”White hawk”) was a 1st class torpedo boat (suiraitei) of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was ordered under the Ten Year Naval Expansion Programme[1] passed in 1896 from the shipbuilder Schichau-Werke (as Yard No. 629) in Danzig, Germany, where she was built during 1897–98 in parts along Japanese specifications, and then re-assembled by Mitsubishi in Nagasaki, Japan.

History
Empire of Japan
Name: Shirataka
Ordered: 1885
Builder: Schichau-Werke, Danzig, Germany
Laid down: 3 March 1899
Launched: 10 June 1899
Completed: 22 June 1900
Decommissioned: 15 November 1923
Fate: Sold 6 April 1927
General characteristics
Type: Torpedo boat
Displacement: 126 long tons (128 t)
Length: 152 ft 6 in (46.48 m)
Beam: 16 ft 9 in (5.11 m)
Draught: 4 ft 3 in (1 m)
Propulsion: Coal-fired engine, 2,600 ihp (1,939 kW)
Speed: 28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h)
Complement: 26
Armament:
  • 3 × 42 mm (1.7 in) QF guns
  • 3 × 355 mm (14.0 in) torpedo tubes

She participated in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). She was decommissioned on 15 November 1923, and sold to break up on 6 April 1927.[2]

Design

In common with all the other early torpedo boat destroyers and 1st class torpedo boats, the Shirataka had a "turtle-back" forecastle intended to prevent seawater covering the forecastle and throwing excessive spray over the control area. Unlike the two-funnel Hayabusa class, the Shirataka had a single funnel amidships, and was completed with three 3-pounder (42mm) QF guns (two abreast just forward of the funnel, and one aft on the centreline).[3] These were later replaced by two 57mm guns and one 47mm 40-cal gun.[4] She also carried three 14-inch torpedo tubes (two abreast just abaft of the funnel, and one aft of the gun on the centreline).

Her machinery comprised two Schichau water-tube boilers, and two 3-cylinder VTE engines developing 2,600 ihp. She carried 30 tons of coal.

References
  • Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887–1941, David C. Evans, Mark R. Peattie, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland ISBN 0-87021-192-7
  • The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy: Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War, Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-35485-7
  • Lengerer, Hans (2017). "Torpedo Boats of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Part III". Warship International. LIV (4): 293–306. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • The Imperial Japanese Navy of the Russo-Japanese War. Mark E. Stille, Osprey Publishing, Oxford, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4728-1119-6
  • The Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Anthony John Watts & Brian Glynn Gordon, Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd, London, 1971. ISBN 0-356-03045-8
  • Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869–1945. Hansgeorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung & Peter Mickel, Arms & Armour, London, 1977. ISBN 1-85409-525-0
  1. The Ten Year Programme provided for (among other ship types) 23 torpedo boat destroyers and 63 torpedo boats;the latter comprised 16 1st class (the Shirataka and 15 Hayabusa class), 37 2nd class and 10 3rd class TBs.
  2. Jentschura, op.cit. p.127.
  3. Watts, op.cit. p.233.
  4. Jentschura, op.cit. p.127.
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