was the
lead ship
The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels.
Large ships are very complex and may ...
of the
corvettes built for the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
(IJN) in the 1870s. The class was built in the United Kingdom because such ships could not yet be constructed in Japan. Completed in 1878, ''Kongō'' briefly served with the Small Standing Fleet before becoming a
training ship
A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...
in 1887, thereafter making training cruises to the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...
and to countries on the edge of the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
. The ship returned to active duty during the
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...
of 1894–95 where she participated in the
Battle of Weihaiwei
The Battle of Weihaiwei (Japanese: was a battle of the First Sino-Japanese War. It took place between 20 January and 12 February 1895, in Weihai, Shandong Province, China, between the forces of Japan and Qing China. In early January 1895, the ...
. ''Kongō'' resumed her training duties after the war, though she also played a minor role in the
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
of 1904–05. The ship was reclassified as a
survey ship in 1906 and was sold for
scrap in 1910.
Design and description
During the brief Japanese
occupation of Taiwan in 1874, tensions heightened between China and Japan, and the possibility of war impressed on the Japanese government the need to reinforce its navy. The following year the government placed an order for the
armored frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
and the ''Kongō''-class corvettes ''Kongō'' and
''Hiei''[Lengerer, Pt. I, pp. 40–42]—with British shipyards as no Japanese shipyard was able to build ships of this size. All three ships were designed by British
naval architect This is the top category for all articles related to architecture and its practitioners.
{{Commons category, Architecture occupations
Design occupations
Occupations
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role ...
Sir
Edward Reed,
The contract for ''Kongō'' was awarded to
Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. in
Hull,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
on 24 September 1875 for the price of £120,750, exclusive of armament. The vessel was named for
Mount Kongō
is a mountain in the Kawachi region of Osaka Prefecture, Kansai, Japan. It is near Mount Yamato Katsuragi.
The mountain has lent its name to a series of naval ships and ship classes: the Imperial Japanese Navy's 1877 ironclad ''Kongō''; ...
.
''Kongō'' was
long between perpendiculars and had a
beam of .
[Jentschura, Jung & Mickel, p. 13] She had a forward
draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
of and drew aft. The ship
displaced and had a crew of 22 officers and 212 enlisted men. Her
hull was of
composite
Composite or compositing may refer to:
Materials
* Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances
** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts
** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials
...
construction with an iron framework planked with wood.
[Lengerer, Pt. III, p. 50]
Propulsion
''Kongō'' had a single two-cylinder double-expansion
horizontal-return connecting-rod steam engine, driving a single propeller using steam from six cylindrical
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
s. The engine was designed to produce to give the ''Kongō''-class ironclads a speed of . During her
sea trial
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...
s on 7 December 1877, the ship reached a maximum speed of from , enough to earn the builder a bonus of £300. She carried enough coal to steam at .
[ The ironclad was ]barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...
-rigged and had a sail area of .[ The ship was reboilered at ]Yokosuka Naval Arsenal
was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and was located at Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture on Tokyo Bay, south of Yokohama.
History
In 1866, the Tokugawa shogunate government established the ...
in 1889; the new boilers proved to be less powerful during sea trials, with ''Kongō'' reaching a maximum speed of from . Her topmast
The masts of traditional sailing ships were not single spars, but were constructed of separate sections or masts, each with its own rigging. The topmast is one of these.
The topmast is semi-permanently attached to the upper front of the lower ...
s were removed in 1895.
Armament and armor
''Kongō'' was fitted with three Krupp rifled breech-loading (RBL) guns and six RBL Krupp guns. All of the 172-millimeter guns were positioned as chase guns, two forward and one aft. The 152-millimeter guns were mounted on the broadside. The ship also carried two short guns for use ashore or mounted on the ships' boats.[Lengerer, Pt. II, p. 39]
During the 1880s, the armament of the ship was reinforced with the addition of four quadruple-barreled Nordenfelt and two quintuple-barreled Nordenfelt machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ar ...
s for defense against torpedo boat
A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
s. Around the same time she also received two torpedo tube
A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes.
There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...
s for Schwartzkopff torpedoes. The anti-torpedo boat armament was again reinforced in 1897 by the addition of a pair of 2.5-pounder Hotchkiss guns. After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, ''Kongō''s armament was reduced to six ex-Russian 12-pounder guns and six 2.5-pounders.[
The ''Kongō''-class corvettes had a ]wrought-iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...
armor waterline belt thick amidships that tapered to at the ends of the ship.[
]
History
Japanese sources universally give the date for ''Kongō''s keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
-laying as 24 September 1875—the same as that for the awarding of the contract—but historian Hans Langerer describes this as improbable, arguing that no shipyard would order enough material to begin construction without cash in hand. ''Kongō'' was launched on 17 April 1877; the wife of a secretary in the Japanese Legation cut the retaining rope with a hammer and chisel. Completed in January 1878,[ ''Kongō'' sailed for Japan on 18 February under the command of a British captain and with a British crew because the IJN was not yet ready for such a long voyage. She arrived in ]Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...
on 26 April and was classified as a Third Class Warship on 4 May. On 10 July a formal ceremony was held in Yokohama for the receipt of the ship that was attended by the Meiji Emperor
, also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figure ...
and many senior government officials. The ship was opened for tours by the nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
, their families and invited guests for three days after the ceremony. On 14 July, the general public was allowed to tour the ship for a week.
''Kongō'' hosted the Duke of Genoa
Duke of Genoa was a subsidiary title of the King of Sardinia. It was first awarded in 1815 to Prince Charles Felix of Savoy, who became the King of Sardinia in 1821.
Upon the death of King Charles Felix in 1831, the title was given to Prince F ...
when he visited Japan in late 1879. The ship was assigned to the Small Standing Fleet in 1885 and made port visits to Port Arthur and Chefoo
Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...
in China and Jinsen
Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...
in Korea the following year. She became a training ship in 1887 for the Kure Naval District
was the second of four main administrative districts of the pre-war Imperial Japanese Navy. Its territory included the Inland Sea of Japan and the Pacific coasts of southern Honshū from Wakayama to Yamaguchi prefectures, eastern and northern K ...
. Together with her sister ship , ''Kongō'' sailed from Shinagawa, Tokyo
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The Ward refers to itself as Shinagawa City in English. The Ward is home to ten embassies.
, the Ward had an estimated population of 380,293 and a population density of 16,510 persons per km2. The total a ...
on 13 August 1889 on a training cruise to the Mediterranean with cadets from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy The was a school established to train line officers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was originally located in Nagasaki, moved to Yokohama in 1866, and was relocated to Tsukiji, Tokyo in 1869. It moved to Etajima, Hiroshima in 1888. Students st ...
, returning on 2 February 1890. On 5 October, the sister ships departed Shinagawa for Kobe to pick up the 69 survivors of the wrecked , transporting them to their homeland at Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
, Turkey,[ on 2 January 1891, after which the ships' officers were received by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The ships also carried a class of naval cadets on this mission. On the return voyage, the two corvettes made port at ]Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saron ...
where they were visited by King George I of Greece
George I ( Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, ''Geórgios I''; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 30 March 1863 until his assassination in 1913.
Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen, and seemed destined for ...
and his son, Crown Prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wi ...
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
. Making stops at Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
, Port Said, Aden, Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...
, Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, the sister ships arrived at Shinagawa on 10 May where ''Kongō'' resumed her training duties.[Lengerer, Pt. III, p. 47]
''Kongō'' began another cadet cruise on 24 September 1892 and visited Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. On her return voyage she stopped at Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
and was present during the Hawaiian Revolution of 1893. Though playing no part in the affair, she remained there to protect Japanese interests until relieved by the cruiser and reached home on 22 April. ''Kongō'' began another cadet cruise on 19 April 1894, but on arrival at Honolulu, transferred her cadets to the cruiser on 16 June and relieved ''Takachiho'' as the patrol ship. ''Kongō''s tenure there was brief as she was recalled home on 5 July due to rising tensions ahead of the First Sino-Japanese War. She did not participate in the Battle of the Yalu River in September, but was present during the Battle of Weihaiwei in January–February 1895.
After the war, ''Kongō'' and ''Hiei'' alternated annual cadet training cruises, with ''Kongō'' making the 1896 cruise to China and Southeast Asia from 11 April to 16 September. The ''Kongōs stop in Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
during that cruise coincided with the start of an uprising against Spanish rule in the Philippines. The captain of the ship was approached by the leaders of the rebellion in an attempt to buy arms from Japan, but ultimately no deal was made.
In 1898 the ''Kongō'' cruised to Australia from 17 March to 16 September.[Lacroix & Wells, p. 654] During this cruise, on 21 March 1898, she was re-designated as a 3rd-class coast defense ship, although she retained her training duties.[Lengerer, Pt. III, p. 48] '' Kongō '' made the 1900 cruise to Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
, Hong Kong and Australia from 21 February to 30 July and both ships made the 1902 cruise, their last, to Manila and Australia from 19 February to 25 August.[ ''Kongō'' played a minor role in the Russo-Japanese War before being reclassified as a survey ship in 1906. She was stricken from the ]Navy List
A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval autho ...
on 20 July 1909 and sold on 20 May 1910 for scrap.[
]
Notes
References
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* (contact the editor at lars.ahlberg@halmstad.mail.postnet.se for subscription information)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kongo
Screw sloops of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Ships built on the Humber
1877 ships
First Sino-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
Russo-Japanese War naval ships of Japan
Three-masted ships
Naval ships of Japan