A Siamese gunboat build in Japan according to the Dutch newspaper De Indische courant dated 4 November 1938

According to the newspaper Japan Chronicle departed recently a Siamese gunboat of 2,265 tons Kobe where she was build at the Kobe yard.(1) Around 200 men including scouts and officials of the House of Commerce and the Kawasaki and Mitsubishi yards showed her departure towards Yokohama. There her officers would meet Japanese naval authorities before leaving to Siam. ‘

Note

1. This is presumably the coast defence ship Dhonburi, laid down in 1936, launched on 31 January 1938 at the Kawasaki yard, completed on 5 August 1938 and which was beached on 17 January 1941 after a disastrous fight with French naval forces in the night before. Although salvaged she capsized while being towed and sunk. Her sister ship was the Sri Ayuthia build by the same yard and which was completed on 16 June 1938. The dimensions were 76,50 x 14,43 x 4,17 metres or 252’8” x 47’4” x 13’8”. The MAN diesels supplied through two shafts 5,200 bhp allowing a speed of 15,5 knots with an oil bunker capacity of 150 tons. With a crew which numbered 155 men consisted the armament of 2-x1-4” guns, 4x1-3’ anti aircraft guns and 4x1-4cm anti aircraft guns. The armour consisted of a 2,5” thick belt while the turrets and barbettes were protected by 4” thick armour and further more a 1-1,5” thick deck.