Japanese destroyer Urakaze (1915)

Urakaze (浦風) was the lead ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy′s Urakaze-class destroyers. Completed in 1915, she served during World War I, followed by service on the Yangtze in China during the 1920s and 1930s. She was the only unit of her class to enter Japanese service, the Japanese having sold her only sister ship, Kawakaze, to Italy while Kawakaze was under construction. Urakaze also was the last Japanese destroyer built in a foreign shipyard to enter service in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Stricken in 1936, she thereafter was used for training until she was sunk during World War II in an Allied air raid in 1945. She was refloated and scrapped in 1948.

Construction and commissioning
The Government of Japan authorized the construction of Urakaze in its fiscal year 1911 budget and signed a construction contract with the British firm Yarrow Shipbuilders on 27 December 1912. She was laid down at Yarrow's shipyard in Scotstoun, Scotland, on 1 October 1913 as Destroyer No. 35, received the name Urakaze on 12 September 1914, and was registered as a first-class destroyer on 6 December 1914. She was launched on 16 February 1915 and completed on 14 September 1915. Her guns were shipped from Japan and installed at the Yarrow yard and the Japanese negotiated the purchase of ammunition for them from the British firm Armstrong Whitworth, but she was completed without her torpedo tubes.

Service history
Urakaze left the Yarrow shipyard's mooring pond on 15 September 1915 and moored at Greenock, Scotland, the same day. There she filled her fuel tanks with 248 tons of fuel oil and took aboard 50 tons of canned goods, which were loaded on her upper deck.

Delivery voyage
Urakaze began her delivery voyage to Japan on the afternoon of 16 September 1915, departing Greenock bound for Gibraltar, with an itinerary calling for her to make calls at ports in the British Empire along the way. With World War I raging and Japan an active belligerent on the Allied side, she maintained a speed of 20 kn to reduce the danger of attack by Imperial German Navy submarines. She arrived at Gibraltar on the afternoon of 19 September 1915 and refueled.

Urakaze′s fuel consumption was lower than expected, and even after she had left the German submarine threat behind her she maintained 20 kn — with occasional exceptions — throughout her voyage to Japan as an experiment in the range and endurance of oil-fired ships, refueling as necessary along the way. She resumed her voyage on 21 September 1915, departing Gibraltar to cross the Mediterranean Sea and calling at Valletta, Malta, from 23 to 24 September before arriving at Port Said, Egypt, on 26 September. She immediately entered the Suez Canal, completing her transit of the canal with her arrival at Suez Port on 27 September. She departed Suez Port on 29 September and proceeded southward through the Red Sea, calling at Aden on the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula from 1 to 4 October 1915. She then began her crossing of the Indian Ocean. On 7 October she had to drift for about an hour because of a clogged oil filter, but she soon got back underway and arrived at Bombay, India, later that day.

Urakaze departed Bombay on 11 October 1915 and called briefly at Colombo, Ceylon, on 13 October, and at Singapore from 17 to 18 October. She then set out across the South China Sea, conducting fuel consumption tests along the way. She encountered strong winds on 22 October and rolled 30 degrees, causing her aft mast to collapse. She arrived at Hong Kong later that day and made emergency repairs to her mast before departing on 23 October for the last leg of her voyage. She completed it on 27 October 1915 with her arrival at Yokosuka, Japan, which became her home port.

At Yokosuka, Urakaze′s torpedo tubes were installed and additional work was carried out, temporarily interrupted by a naval review on 4 November 1915.

World War I
On 1 December 1915, Urakaze was assigned to the 16th Destroyer Squadron, a component of the 2nd Torpedo Squadron in the 1st Fleet, an element of the Combined Fleet. The squadron also included the destroyers JAPANESE DESTOYER Umikaze and JAPANESE DESTOYER Yamakaze. On 13 December 1915, the Combined Fleet was dissolved, and on that date the 16th Destroyer Squadron was transferred to the 2nd Torpedo Squadron in the 2nd Fleet.

On 26 September 1916, the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal was ordered to equip Urakaze with cruise turbines, although this work did not take place until 1918. Meanwhile, the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal carried out other work on Urakaze between 5 December 1916 and 5 June 1917, installing a new engine room ventilation system and other equipment. During this work, Urakaze left the 16th Destroyer Squadron on 1 April 1917.

The Yokosuka Naval Arsenal finally installed Urakaze′s new cruise turbines in 1918. In February 1919, just after the end of World War I, a new cruise turbine test run report was submitted.

Post-World War I
On 1 December 1926, Urakaze was assigned to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, which was responsible for operations in China, and was engaged in patrolling the Yangtze area of China. On 20 May 1933, the 3rd Fleet was organized as a permanent fleet, and Urakaze became a unit of the 3rd Fleet's 11th Squadron.

On 25 May 1936, Urakaze returned to her home port of Yokosuka for the first time in about a year, after her last tour patrolling the Yangtze. She was stricken from the naval register on 1 July 1936, and on the same day she was handed over to the Yokosuka Special Naval Landing Force, which used her as a training ship. On 1 April 1940, she was renamed Decommissioned Destroyer No. 18, freeing up her former name for use by the new destroyer Urakaze, commissioned later that year.

Decommissioned Destroyer No. 18 was sunk when a bomb hit her during the United States Navy and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm air raid on Yokosuka on 18 July 1945, during the final weeks of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Sources agree that her wreck was refloated in 1948 and subsequently scrapped, but disagree on details: According to one source, she was scrapped at Uraga between 27 May and 15 August 1948, while another claims that she was refloated on 9 September 1948 and subsequently scrapped by Shinto Iron Works.