Kawakaze (江風, Inlet Wind) was the lead ship of her class of two destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War I.
Design and description The Kawakaze-class destroyers were enlarged and faster versions of the preceding with a more powerful armament. They displaced at normal load and at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of and a overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . Kawakaze was powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one shaftFriedman 1985, p. 243 using steam produced by four Type Ro Kampon water-tube boilers.Todaka, et al., p. 208 The engines produced a total of that gave the ships a maximum speed of .Watts & Gordon, p. 254 They carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of at a speed of . Their crew consisted of 128 officers and ratings.Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 140
The main armament of the Kawakaze-class ships consisted of three quick-firing (QF) guns; one gun each was located at the bow and stern with the third gun positioned abaft the bridge on the forecastle deck. Their torpedo armament consisted of three twin rotating mounts for torpedoes; two mounts were located between the stern gun and the funnels while the third mount was placed between the forward funnel and the forecastle. The ships were later rearmed with two triple-tube mounts in lieu of their twin mounts.
Construction and career Kawakaze was launched on 10 October 1917 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal and completed on 11 November 1918. She was decommissioned on 1 April 1934 and subsequently broken up.
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