("February") was one of 32 destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century.
Design and description The Kamikaze-class destroyers were improved versions of the preceding .Friedman 1985, p. 241 They displaced at normal load and at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of and an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of . 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 that gave the ships a maximum speed of . They carried a maximum of of coalWatts & Gordon, p. 243 which gave them a range of at a speed of . Their crew consisted of 70 officers and ratings.Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 133
The main armament of the Kamikaze-class ships consisted of two 40-calibre quick-firing (QF) 12 cwt guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 12 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. 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 for Friedman 2011, p. 349 torpedoes between the superstructure and the stern gun. When Kisaragi was converted into a minesweeper in 1924, she was rearmed with a pair of 3rd Year Type guns taken from older ships on single mounts and the three-inch 8 cwt guns were removed.
Construction and career Kisaragi was launched at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 6 September 1905 and completed on 19 October. The ship saw service in World War I and participated in the Siberian Expedition. She was converted into a minesweeper on 1 December 1924 and was decommissioned on 1 April 1928, although Kisaragi remained in use until 12 October,Todaka, et al., p. 218 and was subsequently broken up for scrap.
Notes
Citations
Books