The was a 6,172 gross ton combined passenger-cargo ship built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding in Nagasaki, for NYK Lines in 1898. She was requisitioned in 1904 by the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

Background

In 1896, following the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...

, NYK Lines announced an ambitious expansion plan for shipping routes to Europe, which would require up to twelve new vessels. Up until this time, all such vessels had been purchased from overseas sources; however, with the promulgation of the Japanese Shipbuilding Assistance Law in 1896, Mitsubishi was able to secure a contract from NYK for two of these vessels. Previously, the largest vessel constructed by Mitsubishi had been the ''Suma Maru'' (1592 tons) for the OSK Lines, so the construction of such a large steel vessel entirely in Japan was unprecedented. Although the company enlisted the support of foreign advisors and used foreign blueprints as a guide, the work took longer than expected, and Mitsubishi eventually was forced to pay compensation to NYK for the cancellation of one of the vessels, and for the delay in delivery of the vessel later named ''Hitachi Maru''. ''Hitachi Maru'' was placed into service with NYK on its European routes for almost six years. In February, 1904, she was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Army to transport men and war materials from Japan to ports in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

in support of the

. While transporting 1,238 people, including 727 men of the 1st Reserve Regiment of the

Imperial Guard of Japan In Japan, the Imperial Guard is the name for two separate organizations dedicated to the protection of the Emperor of Japan and the Imperial Family, palaces and other imperial properties. The first was the , a quasi-independent elite branch of the ...

and 359 men from the

IJA 10th Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its tsūshōgō code name was the . The ''10th Divisio''n was one of six new infantry divisions raised by the Imperial Japanese Army in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War, 1 ...

and 18 Krupp 11-inch (280 mm) siege

howitzers A howitzer () is a long-ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like oth ...

, she was shelled and sunk by the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...

armored cruiser The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a battleship and fast eno ...

in the southern Korean Strait between the Japanese mainland and Tsushima in the " ''Hitachi Maru'' Incident". There were only 152 survivors, meaning 1,086 people lost their lives.Russo-Japanese War.com
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Notes

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitachi Maru (1898) 1898 ships Maritime incidents in 1904 Merchant ships of Japan Ships built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ships of the NYK Line Shipwrecks in the Sea of Japan Shipwrecks of the Russo-Japanese War Steamships of Japan