SS ''De Klerk'' was a Dutch

passenger-cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

owned by NV Koninklijke Paketvaart Mij (KPM)

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

Construction and history

Dutch service

SS ''De Klerk'' was constructed in early 1900 until December 1900 by Netherlandsche SB, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, where she was commissioned not long after. In 1928, She was renovated to hold 1,327 passengers aboard. ''De Klerk'' was converted to a troop carrier in December 1941. She was

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

in port by the

Royal Dutch Navy The Royal Netherlands Navy ( nl, Koninklijke Marine, links=no) is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. During the 17th century, the navy of the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) was one of the most powerful naval forces in the world a ...

in Tanjong Priok,

West Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

on 2 March 1942 to prevent capture by the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Japanese service

The Japanese found the ship and refloated ''De Klerk'' in 1942. They converted her into a Transport ship renamed . She was navigating to Labuan, carrying 162 Japanese and 1,048 (today's Indonesian) workers. 5 Japanese and 334 workers were lost in the quick sinking. Most of the victims might be by the explosion of torpedo or mine or bomb ( the possibility of bombing is low judging from the hull). In WWII, the Japanese forces captured lots of ships and also salvaged sunken vessels, and named a Japanese name, normally registered in the merchant fleet. All the ships were requisitioned by the state and most of them were operated by IAJ (Imperial Army of Japan) or INJ ( Imperial Navy of Japan). S/S Imaji Maru will be a underwater cultural heritage in 2044 under the Convention of the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (UNESCO), it’s natural to say that the history of the ship must be correct and out of the fiction. It has been repeated the base fiction concerning this tragedy in Wikipedia and among insincere diving centers. There were not POWs (prisoners of war) on board, over 700 local workers were rescued. The wrong information must be excluded hereafter.

Sinking

She lies on the sea bed 21 to 33 meters underwater opposite

Labuan Labuan (), officially the Federal Territory of Labuan ( ms, Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan), is a Federal Territory of Malaysia. Its territory includes and six smaller islands, off the coast of the state of Sabah in East Malaysia. Labuan's capita ...

and Muara,

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

. Imbari Maru lies 50 degree list to port. Divers are free to explore the wreck as there are many marine life around it.

Lion fish ''Pterois'' is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, cre ...

and Frog fish can sometimes be spotted in the wreck. Her wreck was named “''The Australian Wreck''” which they mistakenly and falsely thought that she was sunk by

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

on 16 September 1944. The woods on the ship had all rotten away which exposes the cargos inside her such as Chinese crockery and bottles. Her wreck was discovered in 2003 and now being treated as a

war grave A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

and tourism site.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Klerk, SS Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1900 ships Steam engine technology Japan–Netherlands relations Ships of the Royal Netherlands Navy Steamships Steam engines Auxiliary steamers Ships sunk by mines Pacific theatre of World War II World War II shipwrecks in the South China Sea Japanese hell ships Ships built by Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij