Thonburi-class coastal defence ship

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Thonburi-class coastal defence ships

The Thonburi class was a pair of heavy coastal defence ships built for the Royal Thai Navy in the late 1930s. Built by Kawasaki in Kobe, Japan, they were larger, better-armoured versions of Siam’s earlier gunboats. The two ships were HTMS Sri Ayudhya and HTMS Thonburi, each displacing about 2,265 tons and armed with four 8-inch guns in two twin turrets, plus smaller anti-aircraft guns. They used MAN diesel engines, could reach about 15.5 knots, and served as Thailand’s main surface combatants.

Both ships were laid down in 1936 and completed in 1938. They were initially seen as the navy’s backbone for protecting the long Thai coastline. Plans for more ships were discussed, but Thailand was offered Italian Etna-class cruisers instead; however, those ships were seized by Italy in 1941 before construction finished, leaving Thonburi and Sri Ayudhya as the strongest Thai vessels.

In 1941, Thonburi fought the French Navy at the Battle of Ko Chang, where she was damaged and grounded; she was later raised by Japanese salvage crews but the hull remained badly damaged and the ship stayed out of action for years. Sri Ayudhya was not damaged in that battle but ran aground during the 1951 coup and was subsequently damaged and sunk, later to be salvaged. After the war, only the turret and bridge of Thonburi were preserved at the Naval Academy; the rest was dismantled.