Post by KG on Oct 4, 2018 15:27:35 GMT
The Hirano Maru ,owned by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) Line was torpedoed by the German UB 91 200 miles south of Ireland while on a voyage to Yokohama.
We are all aware of the unspeakable horrors and squalor of the trenches in France in this dreadful war. The Western Approaches to Britain, the triangular sea area extending from Cornwall to Ireland and Pembrokeshire was just as deadly , being the hunting ground of the German U boats .
On the fourth of October 1918, the Hirano Maru was in this war zone , she was a 7700 ton merchant ship, built by the Mitsubishi Dockyard Nagasakin ( Nagasaki) in 1908. At the time of her sinking she was owned by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ( NYK) Line. She was sailing from Liverpool to Yokohama via South Africa with a mixed cargo of unknown nature together with 320 crew and passengers and a Scottish Captain ,Hector Fraser. She was in a convoy escorted by an American destroyer the USS Sterett to give protection against attack by submarines .
Japan at the time, was a staunch ally of Britain and the Imperial Japanese Navy defended the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
When she was 200 miles south of Ireland she came into the sights of UB 91 a Class III German submarine, commanded by Capt Wolf Hans Hartwig .
A torpedo hit the Hirano Maru and she sank in seven minutes ,going down so quickly that her few undamaged lifeboats could not be launched . The USS Sterett also came under attack and was thus prevented from rescuing the struggling survivors for some time.
Of the 320 souls on board Hiranu Maru , only 29 survived . Among the passengers that perished was the London Branch Manager of the Yokohama Specie Bank ,S Ujie, his wife and three sons as well as a bank employee Takashi Aoki and his wife Sueko.
LINK
We are all aware of the unspeakable horrors and squalor of the trenches in France in this dreadful war. The Western Approaches to Britain, the triangular sea area extending from Cornwall to Ireland and Pembrokeshire was just as deadly , being the hunting ground of the German U boats .
On the fourth of October 1918, the Hirano Maru was in this war zone , she was a 7700 ton merchant ship, built by the Mitsubishi Dockyard Nagasakin ( Nagasaki) in 1908. At the time of her sinking she was owned by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ( NYK) Line. She was sailing from Liverpool to Yokohama via South Africa with a mixed cargo of unknown nature together with 320 crew and passengers and a Scottish Captain ,Hector Fraser. She was in a convoy escorted by an American destroyer the USS Sterett to give protection against attack by submarines .
Japan at the time, was a staunch ally of Britain and the Imperial Japanese Navy defended the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
When she was 200 miles south of Ireland she came into the sights of UB 91 a Class III German submarine, commanded by Capt Wolf Hans Hartwig .
A torpedo hit the Hirano Maru and she sank in seven minutes ,going down so quickly that her few undamaged lifeboats could not be launched . The USS Sterett also came under attack and was thus prevented from rescuing the struggling survivors for some time.
Of the 320 souls on board Hiranu Maru , only 29 survived . Among the passengers that perished was the London Branch Manager of the Yokohama Specie Bank ,S Ujie, his wife and three sons as well as a bank employee Takashi Aoki and his wife Sueko.
LINK
