RIKUGUN YUSOSEN
(BORDEAUX MARU, prewar)
IJA/IJN BORDEAUX MARU:
Tabular Record of
Movement
© 2012-2015 Bob Hackett
22 April 1922:
Kobe. Laid down at Kawasaki Dockyard Co. K. K. as Yard No,
483, a 6,567-ton passenger-cargo ship for Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (“K” Line) K.
K. of Kobe.
31 July 1923:
Launched and named named BORDEAUX MARU.
20 December 1923:
Completed and placed on K Line's westbound
Around-the-World service.
March 1927:
Transferred to K Line’s North Pacific Express Line.
8July 1930:
Arrives at San Franscisco, California.
27 August 1933:
Arrives at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
December 1934:
Transferred to K Lines’s Central and South America
route.
December 1938: Sino-Japanese War:
Requisitioned by the Imperial Army
(IJA) and converted to a troop transport. Assigned IJN No. 718.
9 July 1941
Released back to her owners by the IJA.That same day, she is
requisitioned by the Imperial Navy (IJN)s as B-AK.
8 December 1941:
The Pacific War begins.
1 February 1942: American Air Raid on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands:
Vice Admiral (later Fleet Admiral) William F. Halsey Jr’s (USNA ’04) Task
Force 8 (USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) raids Kwajalein and Wotje in the Marshall
Islands. ENTERPRISE’s Douglas “Dauntless” SBDs of VB-6 and VS-6 and TBD
“Devastators” of VT-6 sink BORDEAUX MARU. Two crewmen and
a gunner are KIA.Gunboat TOYOTSU MARU and auxiliary net-layer KASHIMA MARU are also sunk.
The planes also damage light cruiser KATORI, flagship of the Sixth Fleet,
oiler TOA MARU, oiler HOYO MARU, submarine depot ship YASUKUNI MARU, submarine
I-23 and other important ships.
1 March 1942:
Released back to her owners by the IJN.
Author's Note:
Thanks go to Erich Muehlthaler of Germany.
Bob Hackett
Back
to IJA Transports
.