HOKAN!

(Gunboat IJN HOZU by Takeshi Yuki scanned from "Color Paintings of Japanese Warships")

IJN Gunboat MAIKO:
Tabular Record of Movement

©2007-2016 Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall
Revision 1


1557:
China. Portugual establishes a permanent settlement at the port of Macau, then called Amagao.

1909:
Scotstoun, Great Britain. Gunboat MACAU is completed at Yarrow Shipbuilders, then loaded aboard steamer SS GLENOCHY.

7 July 1909:
Hong Kong. GLENOCHY arrives at the British Crown Colony. MACAU is lowered from the steamer's deck into Victoria Harbor.

21 July 1909:
Departs Hong Kong for the Portuguese colony of Macau. Gunboat MACAU’s Commanding Officer is Primeiro-Tenente (Lt) Joaquim Anselmo da Mata Oliveira.

19 July 1910:
MACAU, now under CO Major Alfredo Artur de Margalhaes, lands a police company on Coloane, one of Macau's three islands. The police rescue a number of Chinese children being held for ransom by pirates. MACAU's crew receives gallantry awards from the Portuguese government for their actions.

1910-1941:
MACAU conducts patrols and surveys and maintains lights and buoys. She travels down the Chinese coast providing safe passage for Portuguese missionaries and shows the flag in Canton and other Chinese ports. MACAU conducts exercises with other Portuguese warships and British, American and French gunboats. Occasionally, she assists foundered vessels or those subjected to pirate attacks.

7 July 1937: The Marco Polo Bridge (The"First China Incident") Incident:
Hun River, Peking (now Beijing), China. The Japanese discover a soldier missing after night maneuvers at the bridge. They assume the Chinese captured him and demand entry to a Peking suburb to look for him, but the Chinese refuse. The Japanese then shell the city and an undeclared war begins.

12-21 October 1938:
Ta-Ya (Bias Bay), 35 miles NE of Hong Kong. At dawn, LtGen Furusho Motoo’s 21st Army, supported by the China Area Fleet’s Fifth Fleet and Formosa-based and carrier-based Navy air units, make a surprise landing. Thereafter, Japanese forces continue their advance with little or no resistance and by 21 October capture Canton. The operation isolates Hong Kong and Macao.

8 December 1941:
MACAU is at Hong Kong. During World War II, Portugual remains neutral. Macau provides safe haven for war refugees from China and Hong Kong.

1943:
Governor (Navy Commander) Gabriel Maurício Teixeira's Colony of Macau is bankrupt. Teixeira approves the sale of gunboat MACAU to the Japanese. [1]

15 August 1943:
Renamed MAIKO and registered in the Sasebo Naval District. Attached to Vice Admiral Soejima Daisuke's (38)(former CO of YAKUMO) Second China Expeditionary Fleet of the China Area Fleet. Lt (later LtCdr) Fukuchi Yoshi is appointed CO.

17-23 August 1943:
Hong Kong. MAIKO undergoes repairs at the No. 2 Repair Facility.

1 October 1943:
At Hong Kong.

6 October 1943:
Begins training.

20 November 1943:
MAIKO patrols the West River (Si Kiang) in the vicinity of Hong Kong.

23 November 1943:
Departs Canton (now Guangzhou). Runs aground soon thereafter.

3-23 June 1944:
Hong Kong. Undergoes repairs at the No. 2 Repair Facility.

29 April 1945:
Reserve Lt Doi Masao is appointed CO.

9 September 1945:
Japanese troops in China formally surrender.

Canton. MAIKO is surrendered and taken over by the Chinese Nationalist's Republic of China Navy. Renamed WU FENG.

30 September 1945:
Removed from the Navy List.

1949:
After the Chinese revolution, WU FENG is captured by the navy of the Communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Early 1960s:
Discarded.


Authors' Notes:
[1] One report indicates the Japanese seized MACAU, rather than purchased her.

Thanks go to Dr. Higuchi Tatsuhiro and "Fontessa" of Japan and to Matt Jones of the USA.

-Bob Hackett, Sander Kingsepp and Peter Cundall


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