Name MS Tatsuta Maru Yard number 451 Completed 15 March 1930 Construction started 3 December 1927 Length 178 m | Operator Nippon Yusen (NYK) Laid down 3 December 1927 In service 1943 Launched 12 April 1929 | |
Builder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. | ||
Tatsuta Maru (龍田丸, Tatsuta maru), also known as Tatuta Maru after 1938, was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. The ship was built in 1927-1930 by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Nagasaki, Japan.
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Tatsuta Maru was built for the trans-Pacific Orient-California fortnightly service. Principal ports-of-call included Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobe, Yokohama, Honolulu, Los Angeles & San Francisco.
The vessel was created as a twin of Asama Maru; and both ships were named after important Shinto shrines.
History
The shipyard number of the first passenger liner built by NYK was 450 (Asama Maru) and 451 was the yard number of her sister ship, Tatsuta Maru.
Both vessels were built by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu. Tatsuta Maru was launched on April 12, 1929. When almost complete, she was severely damaged by fire on 7 February 1930, but the damage was repaired quickly and she soon was completed. She undertook her maiden voyage on March 15, 1930, sailing from Yokohama to San Francisco.
The 16,975-ton vessel had a length of 583 feet (178 m), and her beam was 71 feet (22 m). The ship had four diesel motors, quadruple screws and a service speed of 21-knots. Asama Maru was the second Japanese passenger liner to be propelled by diesel engines.
Pacific War
In December 1941 the liner was part of an elaborate Japanese deception plan to mask the unannounced attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. She sailed from Yokohama on 2 December bound for San Francisco with the task of exchanging American evacuees from East Asia for Japanese nationals in the United States. She was scheduled to reach the US on 14 December and despite rumours of war the American press wrongly concluded that meant nothing was likely to happen for some time.
The master of the ship had sealed orders to turn around at midnight on 7 December and return to Japan while maintaining radio silence. Subsequently, Tatsuta Maru was requisitioned as a troopship for the Imperial Japanese Navy.
On February 8, 1943, Tatsuta Maru was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine Tarpon 42 miles east of Mikurajima.
Some 1,400 Japanese soldiers on board were killed.