MS Togo was a German merchant ship that was launched in Requisitioned by Nazi Germany 's Kriegsmarine as Schiff 14 , in April she participated in the invasion of Norway; in August was converted to a minelayer as part of the German plan to invade England ; then from June she began conversion to the armed auxiliary cruiser Hilfskreuzer HSK Coronel. Following Coronel ' s unsuccessful attempt in February to become the last German commerce raider of World War II , she was then used as a minesweeper Sperrbrecher before being recommissioned in late as NJL Togo , a night fighter direction vessel Nachtjagdleitschiff , operating in the Baltic Sea.
After the war, Togo passed through various changes of ownership, name and function before finally being wrecked off the Mexican coast in As built, Togo was Her gross register tonnage was 5,, with a net register tonnage of 2, The engines gave a total of 1, NHP. Togo was initially built as a freighter with cabins for 12 passengers.
On 25 October, she sailed from Boma and, breaking through the Allied blockade , returned to Hamburg on 23 November where she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine. She was rebuilt as a minelayer Minenleger [ 11 ] and based in Cherbourg from August to November as part of Operation Sea Lion , the planned German invasion of England.
In late , Togo was converted into an auxiliary cruiser. To the Royal Navy , she was Raider K. She was named after the Battle of Coronel , Admiral Maximilian von Spee 's victory over a British cruiser flotilla off the coast of Chile in November Converted at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyards in Rotterdam and the Stettiner Oderwerke yard at Stettin , [ 2 ] she was recommissioned in December Her armament consisted of six TK15 15 cm guns, six 4 cm AA-guns , four 2 cm machine guns in twin mounts, and a few 2 cm guns in single mounts.
Relying on the element of surprise, Schiff 14 Coronel departed from Norway on 31 January with a large escort of minelayers and patrol boats and attempted to break out into the Atlantic through the English Channel. Coronel moved on by stages to Sylt , Dunkirk and Calais and on 10 February ran the gauntlet of the coastal artillery at Dover.
