HMS Gorgon (1914)

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Career Royal Navy Ensign
Class and type: Gorgon-class monitor
Name: HMS Gorgon
Builder: Armstrong Whitworth
Launched: 9 June 1914
Fate: Scrapped August 1928
General characteristics
Displacement: 4,900 tons (4,445 t)
Length: 310 ft (94 m)
Speed: 12 knots (22.2 km/h)
Complement: 305
Armament: Two x 9.2in Mk XII guns
Four 6in Mk XVIII guns
Two 3in anti-aircraft guns
Four 2pdr anti-aircraft guns
Armour: 7in-3in (belt)
4in-3in (bulkheads)
8in (turret faces)
8in (conning tower)
2.5in-1in (decks)

HMS Gorgon and her sister ship HMS Glatton were originally built as coastal defence ships for the Norwegian Navy, as HNoMS Nidaros and HNoMS Bjørgvin respectively. HMS Gorgon was launched on 1914-06-09 and was taken over by the Royal Navy. Work began on converting the ships for British use in January 1915 but was suspended in May of the same year and did not resume until September 1917. The two ships did not enter service until the summer of 1918.

HMS Gorgon entered service at Dover in June 1918. She fired the last shots against German batteries on the Belgian coast. After the war, several attempts were made to sell her, but she was eventually used as a target ship.

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