Japanese escort Ishigaki
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Ishigaki |
| Laid down: | 15 August 1939 |
| Launched: | 14 September 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 15 February 1941 |
| Struck: | 10 July 1944 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed by USS Herring, 31 May 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Shimushu-class escort ship |
| Displacement: | 870 long tons (884 t) standard |
| Length: | 77.7 m (255 ft) |
| Beam: | 9.1 m (29 ft 10 in) |
| Draught: | 3.05 m (10 ft) |
| Speed: | 19.7 knots (22.7 mph; 36.5 km/h) |
| Complement: | 150 |
| Armament: | • 3 × 120 mm (4.7 in)/45 cal DP guns • Up to 15 × 25 mm (0.98 in) AA guns • 6 × depth charge throwers • Up to 60 × depth charges • 1 × 80 mm (3.1 in) mortar |
Ishigaki (石垣) was an escort ship of the Shimushu class in the service of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. Based in the Kuriles, she patrolled and escorted convoys and ships there.
Service
On October 7, 1943 the Ishigaki sank the submarine USS S-44. S-44 discovered a target on her radar[1] that she took to be a lone small freighter.[2] S-44 opened fire with her 4-inch deck gun on the refrigerator ship Koko Maru. Ishigaki, Koko Maru's escort, sighted the submarine at 3,300 yards and opened fire with her bow 4.7-inch gun. Captain Francis Brown of the S-44 ordered a crash dive, but Ishigaki scored her first hit on S-44's conning tower before she could submerge. S-44 attempted to fight back with her deck gun, but her gunners were blinded by Ishigaki's 75 cm searchlight and she scored no hits. Ishigaki then scored her second hit on the submarine's battery section. She then turned and all three 4.7-inch guns began firing at S-44. Soon, she scored several more hits on S-44 which began to sink. Perhaps as many as eight men had made it off the submarine; but only Chief Torpedoman's Mate Ernest A. Duva and Radioman Third Class William F. Whitemore were picked up by the Ishigaki, so the Ishigaki's captain to claim his success.[2]
On May 31, 1944 the Ishigaki was torpedoed by the USS Herring, and her bow was destroyed. She managed to drop several depth charges before sinking with a loss of 167 sailors.
References
- ↑ "FleetSubmarine.com". www.fleetsubmarine.com. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "USS S-44 (SS-155)". www.subsowespac.org. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- http://www.combinedfleet.com/Ishigaki_t.htm
- Worth, Richard, Fleets of World War II, Da Capo Press (2001), ISBN 0-306-81116-2
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