Hitachi Maru (ship, 1898)

Hitachi Maru

The Hitachi Maru

Ship data flag Japanese Empire Ship type Cargo ship Owner Nippon Yūsen Shipyard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries , Japan Launch April 16, 1898 Commissioning August 16, 1898 Whereabouts Sunk June 15, 1904

Ship dimensions and crew length 135.6 m ( Lüa ) width 15 m Draft Max. 10.2 m measurement 6172 GRT

Machine system machine Two triple expansion machines with exhaust steam turbine Machine performance 3,857 hp (2,837 kW) Top speed 14.2 kn (26 km / h) propeller 2

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers 24 1st class 20 2nd class 116 3rd class

Memorial stone for the victims of the sunk Hitachi Maru

The Hitachi Maru ( Japanese 常 陸 丸 ) was a Japanese cargo steamer. She is considered the first modern seaworthy steamship from a Japanese shipyard .

details

In 1884 Mitsubishi leased the Nagasaki Ironworks & Shipyard from the government . Three years later Mitsubishi acquired the shipyard and built Japan's first iron steamer, the Yugao-Maru, here . Japan's first steel-built steamer, Chikugogawa-Maru, followed in 1890 .

Another eight years later, in June 1898, the shipyard delivered Hitachi Maru , which was financed by the Shipbuilding Promotion Act . With this ship, the shipyard had built the first larger sea-going steamship with a steel hull from a Japanese shipyard and, in terms of shipbuilding technology, caught up with the technological level of western shipyards.

The Hitachi Maru was measured with 6172 GRT and was driven by two triple expansion steam engines with a total output of 3847 hp. She reached a speed of around 14  knots .

In 1904 the Hitachi Maru was sunk by the Russian cruiser Gromoboi on a trip from Shimonoseki to the Manchurian coast with around 1000 soldiers on board . Only 152 people survived the sinking. No other sinking of a Japanese ship resulted in the death of more people during the Russo-Japanese War .

additive

After the sinking of the Hitachi Maru (1898), the name was given twice to ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

• Hitachi Maru (ship, 1906) , seized by SMS Wolf on September 26, 1917 and sunk on November 7, 1917.
• Hitachi Maru (ship, 1939) , sunk by American B-17 bombers on February 14, 1943 .

literature

• Christopher Howe: Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy: Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War , C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1996

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ishikawa Ichirō ( 石川 一郎 ): 二度 も 撃 沈 さ れ た 悲 運 の 常 陸 丸 (5) (The misfortune of Hitachi Maru, who was sunk twice). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 22, 2014 ; Retrieved January 10, 2013 (Japanese, with illustration). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Japanese Ammunition Ships , English
3. ↑ Pacific Wrecks , English