SS Nichiryu Maru (1919)

History
Name:	Rozan Maru (1919–???) Karafuto Maru Nichiryu Maru (??-1943)
Owner:	Karafuto Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha Nissan Kissen Kabushiki Kaisha Imperial Japanese Army (???-1943)
Builder:	Asano Ship Building Company, Tsurumi
Launched:	1919
Fate:	Sunk by Australian aircraft on 6 January 1943
Status:	Shipwreck
General characteristics
Displacement:	5,870 gross ton
Length:	400 feet (122 m)[1]
Beam:	53 feet (16 m)
Draught:	29.4 feet (9.0 m)
Propulsion:	Triple expansion engines (513 NHP)

The Nichiryu Maru (Nitiryu Maru) was a 5,447 gross ton cargo ship built by Asano Ship Building Company, Tsurumi in 1919 as Rozan Maru. She was acquired by Karafuto Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha and renamed Karafuto Maru and later acquired by Nissan Kissen Kabushiki Kaisha and renamed Nichiryu Maru. She was requistioned by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.

Fate

On 6 January 1943, while steaming as part of a convoy, carrying two companies of the 3rd Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment and medical supplies for the garrison at Lae, was hit by bombs from a Royal Australian Air Force PBY Catalina aircraft, and was sunk at 06°30'S, 149°00'E. Destroyers rescued 739 of the 1,100 troops on board, but the ship took with it 361 soldiers and all of Okabe’s medical supplies.

Notes

1. "Lloyd's Register 1942–43" (PDF). plimsollshipdata. Retrieved 22 November 2011.

External links

• Chronological List of Japanese Merchant Vessel Losses