Japan returned to Yarrow for the Urakaze class to resume work on turbine propulsion and higher-pressure boilers. The ships exceeded 1,000 tons at full load, a considerable increase over Japan's first destroyers. The ship completed for Japan carried a 4.7-inch gun, three 12-pounders, and four 21-inch torpedo tubes in twin mounts. German diesel engines had been considered, but the First World War cut off that option and led to oil-fired Brown-Curtis turbines instead of Parsons machinery. Urakaze was consequently the first destroyer designed and built for Japan that relied entirely on oil and was not later converted to burn coal.
Notable Point · 1:02:45-1:04:16
Urakaze reopens the turbine and boiler experiment
The Yarrow-built Urakaze design gave Japan another route into high-pressure boilers, turbines, oil firing, and 21-inch torpedoes as war disrupted the original machinery plan.