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Monday, 29 October 2012

Portuguese river gunboat Macau 1909-1943 (1968)




Built at the shipyard Yarrow in 1909 and seized by Japanese forces while lying in Macau in 1943. Renamed Maiko was she commissioned in Japanese service on 15 August of the same year. In September 1945 handed over to the Chinese Nationalist’s Republic of China  where she was commissioned as the Wu Feng, in 1949 she was captured by the Communist People’s Liberation Army and served until 1968 With a displacement of 133 (normal) tons were her dimensions 36,5 x 6,0 x 0,6 metres or119’8” x 19’9”x 2’. The 2-shaft reciprocating engines and Yarrow boilers supplied 250 ihp allowing a speed of 11,8 knots. The armament in Portuguese service consisted of 2-5,7cm/3pdr guns and 3 machineguns while her crew numbered 24 men.