Nippon Maru (ship, 1930)
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The Nippon Maru ( Japanese 日本 丸 , German ship Japan ) is a four-masted barque made of steel, which is now a museum ship in a converted dock in front of the Yokohama Maritime Museum ( 横 浜 マ リ タ イ ム ミ ュ ー ジ ア ム , Yokohama maritaimu myūjiamu ), Japan . She was built in the Kawasaki shipyard in Kobe under construction number 557 as a sailing training ship for the Merchant Navy School and was launched on January 27, 1930.
The Nippon Maru was designed just like the Kaiwo Maru in Leith , Scotland . Both ships were on the Pacific Ocean as training ships for the Japanese Ministry of Culture ( 文部省 , mombushō ) . The Nippon Maru visited the United States four times and Hawaii five times . During the Second World War she was stripped down to the masts and ran for the Ministry of Post ( 逓 信 省 , teishinshō ) as a motor- powered cargo ship within Japan's waters. After the war she was used for 29 repatriation trips for Japanese citizens (25,423 people). From 1952 to 1984 she sailed again as a sailing training ship , again on routes to the USA (participation in the 200th anniversary celebration), before she was replaced by the Nippon Maru (II).
Since April 28, 1984, it has been in a stone-built, flooded dry dock in the Minato Mirai 21 area , a former port and shipyard district that is now an office and leisure area. The dock in which the Nippon Maru is located previously belonged to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and was built in 1899.
Both the Nippon Maru and the Maritime Museum and the surrounding park are maintained by a foundation ( 財 団 法人 帆船 日本 丸 記念 財 団 , zaidanhōjin hansen Nippon-maru kinen zaidan , German foundation in memory of the sailing ship Nippon Maru ). The ship is open to the public.
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Coordinates: 35 ° 27 ′ 14 ″ N , 139 ° 37 ′ 56 ″ E