Momo was the lead ship of her class of four destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I. Completed in 1916, the ship was sent to the Mediterranean Sea where she served as a convoy escort. Momo was decommissioned on 1 April 1940 and subsequently scrapped.
The Momo-class destroyers were enlarged and faster versions of the preceding with a more powerful armament. They displaced 835LT at normal load and 1080LT at deep load. The ships had a length between perpendiculars of 275feet and a waterline length of 281feet, a beam of 25feet and a draught of 7feet. The Momos were powered by two Brown-Curtis geared steam turbines, each driving one shaft using steam produced by four Kampon water-tube boilers.[1] Two boilers burned a mixture of coal and fuel oil while the other pair only used oil.[2] The engines produced a total of 16000shp that gave the ships a maximum speed of 31.5kn.[3] They carried enough fuel to give them a range of 2400nmi at a speed of . Their crew consisted of 110 officers and ratings.[4]
The main armament of the Momo-class ships consisted of three quick-firing (QF) 12cm (05inches) guns; one gun each was located at the bow and stern with the third gun positioned between the funnels. Their torpedo armament consisted of two triple rotating mounts[4] for 450adj=onNaNadj=on[5] torpedoes located fore and aft of the funnels.[4]
Momo was launched on 12 October 1916 at the Sasebo Naval Arsenal[1] and completed on 23 December. The ship played a minor role in World War I and participated in the 1937 Battle of Shanghai that began the Second Sino-Japanese War. She was decommissioned on 1 April 1940[2] and subsequently broken up.[1]