The ''IJN Hashidate Maru'' was a Japanese Standard Merchant 1TL tanker built by
Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation
is the shipbuilding subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. It produces primarily specialized commercial vessels, including LNG carriers, LPG carriers, container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers, as well as high speed passenger jetfoils. In ...
for Nippon Kaiyo Gyogyo K. K. It was built at
Kobe, Japan and commissioned on 31 October 1944 to support the war effort by transporting oil, and was later refitted as a whaling factory ship.
World War II
On 15 January 1945, while the ''Hashidate Maru'' was docked at the Hong Kong port, an American carrier aircraft began attacks that caused light damage to the oil tanker. The next day, as it is moved to the dockyard for repairs, it was lightly damaged by near misses.
When the battle ended, the Japanese claimed they had shot down 22 enemy aircraft, but took serious damage to three tankers and light damage to three escorts.
On 1 February 1945, the ''Hashidate Maru'' departed
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
in a convoy with four Type 2TE tankers. Soon after, she struck a
naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...
and began to settle, but emergency repairs contained the flooding.
On 15 August 1945, it docked at
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
for repairs and surrendered to the Allied Forces in September 1945.
Whaling
General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...
, as military governor of Japan in 1945, encouraged the defeated Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to its starving people, and millions of dollars in oil for the USA and Europe.
The Japanese whaling industry quickly recovered as MacArthur authorized the commission of two tankers as whaling factory ships: the ''Hashidate Maru'' and ''
Nisshin Maru No. 1,''
to once again take whales in the Antarctic and elsewhere.
The ''Hashidate Maru'' began its reconversion to a whale factory ship by
Hitachi Zosen Corporation
is a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation. It produces waste treatment plants, industrial plants, precision machinery, industrial machinery, steel mill process equipment, steel structures, construction machinery, tunnel boring ma ...
in June 1946, with the work completed in October 1946. A refrigeration unit was installed in May 1947.
The crew numbered 304, of whom 186 were factory workers, and comprised a large proportion of young men, most of them being between 15 and 20 years of age.
The ''Hashidate Maru'' served as a factory whaling ship from 1946 to early 1951.
Oil tanker
The ship was decommissioned from whaling in 1951
and sold in May 1951 to Iino Kaiun for 45 million ¥ens, who converted it back to an oil tanker. The ''Hashidate Maru'' then was chartered in 1952 to
Standard Oil of California. It made three voyages from the Persian Gulf and Indonesia carrying crude oil to California. On 7 July 1962 it was sold to Naigai Kisen K.K. in Tokyo. The ''Hashidate Maru'' was finally sold for scrapping on 20 April 1965.
See also
* ''
Hiyo Maru''
* ''
Nisshin Maru
The is the primary vessel of the Japanese whaling fleet and is the world's only whaler factory ship. It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. It has a tonnage of and is the largest member and flagshi ...
''
* ''
Shōnan Maru 2''
* ''
Yūshin Maru № 2''
*
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation ...
*
Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary
The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is an area of 50 million square kilometres surrounding the continent of Antarctica where the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has banned all types of commercial whaling. To date, the IWC has designated two ...
*
Whaling in Japan
Japanese whaling, in terms of active hunting of whales, is estimated by the Japan Whaling Association to have begun around the 12th century. However, Japanese whaling on an industrial scale began around the 1890s when Japan started to participate ...
References
Bibliography
* {{cite book , last=Commonwealth Fisheries Office (Australia) , last2=Coonan , first2=K. J. , title=Japanese Antarctic Whaling Operations, 1946/48: Report on the Operations of the Japanese Mother Ship "Hashidate Maru" and Attendant Chasers , edition=1947
Whaling ships
Fishing vessels of Japan
Whaling in Japan
1944 ships
Ships built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries