Japan - Chidori Class Torpedo Boat.

The Chidori-class torpedo boat was an Imperial Japanese Navy class of torpedo boats that served during the Second World War.
In 1930, the London Naval Treaty was concluded in which the IJN received a heavy limit on the destroyers. The IJN planned to build the under 600 tons class destroyer which were not limited by the treaty, and the category Torpedo boat was revived for them. The aim for these ships was to have half the armament of the Fubuki-class destroyer. Initially, four boats were constructed for evaluation, out of a planned twenty, in the Circle 1 Programme. After Chidori was completed, the IJN discovered on her trials that her center of gravity was too high and that she was 92 tonnes (91 long tons; 101 short tons) overweight. The IJN ordered 250 millimetres (9.8 in) bulges fitted to the rest of the class. However, this proved to be insufficient.
On 12 March 1934, shortly after completion, Tomozuru sailed in company with her sister Chidori and the light cruiser Tatsuta for night torpedo training. The weather worsened during the exercise and it was called off at 0325; the ships returning to port. Tomozuru never arrived and a search was launched. She was spotted at 1405 that same day, capsized, but still afloat.
This disaster forced the IJN to review the stability of every ship recently completed, under construction or still being designed. The Chidori's themselves exchanged their 127 mm (5.0 in) Type 3 guns for hand-worked 12 cm 11th Year Type M guns, landed the rear twin torpedo tube mount and the bridge structure was cut down by one level. The bulges were removed, but displacement increased to 815 long tons (828 t) with the addition of 60–90 tonnes (59–89 long tons; 66–99 short tons) ballast. Their speed dropped to 28 knots (32 mph; 52 km/h) and range decreased to 1,600 nmi (3,000 km) at 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h).

Chidori as of 1933:
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Tomozuru as of 1934:
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Tomozuru as of 1935:
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Manazuru as of 1935:
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Hatsukari as of 1945:
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(description courtesy of Wikipedia)

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

really well done, and atleast for my part, this is very long waited addition.

Beautiful but a badly flawed design, trying to stuff half the firepower of a Fubuki-class DD on a hull one-third the size. The same can be said for the Hatsuharu-class DD's; I'm surprised there weren't more capsizing's...

The follow-on class of Torpedo Boat (the Oodori's) incorporated these modifications from the start but had a triple TT instead of a twin. All these ships later lost their aft 4.7-inch gun for DC's and racks and became some of the best subchasers in the IJN...

Actually, the Otoris were never really used as subchasers. They spent most of the war escorting convoys or doing high-speed transport runs and all but one (Kiji, which survived the war) were lost while performing such duty.

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

eltf177 wrote:

Absolutely right. Just from pictures it had always striked me that bridge placed on a such tiny hull (not even taking into account the full turrets...) but while drawing them, with the entire hull there in fron of my eyes I started to wonder how they ven managed to stay upright in the first place....

Wow! I had heard of these when reading about modifications
to IJN DD to reduce topweight, but I never saw one. A really
bad design. Most Japanese ships of this size had shielded deck
guns instead of turrets. Very nice drawings. Thank you.

Very nice work BB1987.
They do indeed obviously look topheavy and very cramped. You can't fault the designers for lacking ambition!

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Hood wrote:

Very nice work BB1987.
They do indeed obviously look topheavy and very cramped. You can't fault the designers for lacking ambition!

That you can't, IJN designers really seemed to think outside the box in their endless quest to reduce displacement...

Tomozuru as of 1935, after the refit to correct her top-heavyness:
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Japan - Chidori Class Torpedo Boat.

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