TOP-HEAVY WARSHIPS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 96, 6 April 1934, Page 7

TOP-HEAVY WARSHIPS

Japanese Destroyer’s Capsize TOIGO, April 5. The board of inquiry which investigated tho capsize of the Japanese destroyer Tomozuru reported that tho eapsizo was duo to a structural defect of topheaviness and inability of the vessel to right herself when she careened under the stress of very heavy waves in a gale at dawn on March 13, and was not attributable to bad seamanship or lack of water-tight-ness. As a result of tho report the Tomozuru and her sister ships, the Chidori, Manazuru and Hatsukari, will be reconstructed, and the building plans for 16 torpedo-boats authorised in last year’s second replenishment programme will be withdrawn. The Tomozuru was one of the newest torpedo-boat destroyers. She capsized on March 12 in heavy seas during manoeuvres in the Goto Islands while being towed to Sascbs by the destroyer Tatsuta. Fifty-two of her crow were drowned. A commission of 25 noted naval officers was appointed to inquire into the disaster, the chairman being Admiral Nomura, chief of the Yokosuka Admiralty. The disaster recalls a very similar tragedy to the destroyer Sawarabi in Formosa Strait, on December 5, 1932, when 104 were drowned.