IJN Kongō

Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.



Name: Kongō
Namesake: Mount Kongō
Ordered: 1911
Builder: Vickers Shipbuilding Company, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down: 17 January 1911
Launched: 18 May 1912
Commissioned: 16 August 1913
Struck: 20 January 1945
Fate: Sunk by USS Sealion in the Formosa Strait, 21 November 1944
General characteristics
Class and type: Kongō-class battlecruiser
Displacement: 36,600 long tons (37,187 t)[1]
Length: 222 m (728 ft 4 in