Hokoku Maru
1942
(Carlo Maquardt CMP-69)
- Type: Armed merchant cruiser
- Displacement: 10,438 tons
- Dimensions: 527 x 66 x 26 ft.
- Machinery: 2 Mitsui-B&W diesels, twin screws, 13,000bhp = 21 knots
- Armament: 8-5.5in (8x1) guns, 2-3in (2x1) AA guns; 4-21in TT
- Aircraft: 2 Kawanishi E7K aircraft
- Crew: 150
- Builder: Tama Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Tama, Japan, 1939
- Service: One of three passenger / general cargo vessels built for Osaka Shosen KK lines with capacity for 400 passengers and intended for trade with South America. Taken up by IJN and converted to AMC Sep 1941. Operated with sistership / AMC Aikoku Maru; shelled and torpedoed American freighter Vincent 12 Dec 1941; captured Dutch tanker Genota 9 May 1942; severely damaged British cargo liner Elysia 5 Jun 1942 causing her abandonment (to be sunk 4 days later by submarine}; captured British freighter Hauraki 12 Jul 1942.
In fight 11 Nov 1942 SW of Cocos Islands, Indian Ocean, with RIN minesweeper HMIS Bengal and Dutch tanker Ondina, she caught fire, broke off the engagement, then exploded and sank.
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