Pacific ships

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Shimakaze

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ClassMinekaze class
TypeDestroyer (DD)
BuilderMaizuru Naval Arsenal
Launched1920-03-31
Commissioned1920-11-15
FateSunk. Renamed Patrol Boat No. 1 in 1940. Torpedoed and sunk by Guardfish on 12 January 1943 near Kavieng, escorting the oiler Akebono. This is the Shimakaze of 1920, not the Shimakaze of 1942.
Armament (class)Older fleet destroyer. Four single guns and two funnels.

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Shimakaze
Shimakaze (Minekaze class), around 1922. This is the destroyer of 1920, not the Shimakaze of 1942. Photo from the Kaigunsha book History of Japanese Destroyers (1992), as credited on Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons File:IJN Shimakaze (Minekaze class) Taisho 11.jpg. Public domain.

This is the Shimakaze of 1920, a Minekaze-class destroyer, not the Shimakaze of 1942, which has its own page. The name means island wind. Maizuru Naval Arsenal laid her down on 5 September 1919, launched her on 31 March 1920 and completed her on 15 November 1920. She served in Destroyer Division 3 of the Second Fleet. On 11 October 1928, on a night exercise in the Uraga Channel, she collided with her sister Yukaze and was badly damaged on the port side.

On 25 September 1937, at Shanghai, Chinese troops fired on her in the Huangpu River and wounded the division commander, Lieutenant Commander Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi. She patrolled the China coast in 1938 and 1939, and Destroyer Division 3 was disbanded in December 1938.

In April 1940, after extensive rebuilding, she returned to service as a patrol boat and was renamed Patrol Boat No. 1. After Pearl Harbor she patrolled and escorted in the Philippines, the Netherlands East Indies and the Solomons. Wikipedia's introduction adds that she was rebuilt as a destroyer transport in 1941 and had a minor role at Midway, but its career section gives no detail of either, so neither is shown here. On 12 January 1943 USS Guardfish torpedoed and sank her near Kavieng while she was escorting the oiler Akebono. She was removed from the Navy List on 10 February 1943.

Sources: Wikipedia, Japanese destroyer Shimakaze, rewritten here.

The pictures on this page are the originals.