The French destroyer Somali was one of a dozen s built for the French Navy in Japan during the First World War.
Design and description The Arabe-class ships had an overall length of , a length between perpendiculars of a beam of , and a draft of .Garier, p. 33 The ships displaced at normal load.Smigielski, p. 205 They were powered by three vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam provided by four mixed-firing Kampon Yarrow-type boilers. The engines were designed to produce , which would propel the ships at . During their sea trials, the Arabe class reached .Garier, pp. 34, 36 The ships carried enough coal and fuel oil which gave them a range of at .Couhat, p. 118 Their crew consisted of 5 officers and 104 crewmen.Garier, p. 37
The main armament of the Arabe-class ships was a single Type 41 gun, mounted before the bridge on the forecastle. Their secondary armament consisted of four Type 41 guns in single mounts; two of these were positioned abreast the middle funnel and the others were on the centerline further aft. One of these latter guns was on a high-angle mount and served as an anti-aircraft gun. The ships carried two above-water twin mounts for torpedo tubes. In 1917–1918, a rack for eight depth charges was added.Garier, pp. 36–37
Construction and career Somali was ordered from Kawasaki Dockyard Co. and was laid down in its Kobe shipyard in 1917. The ship was launched on 21 July and completed on 8 November of that year. She was stricken on 27 August 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap.Garier, p. 34
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External links naval-history.net