RYOSHOKUSEN
(Old cargo ship by Ueda Kihachiro)
HOSHI MARU:
Tabular Record of Movement
© 2009-2017
Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp
Revision 1
1904:
Glasgow (Yoker), Scotland. Laid down at Napier & Miller, Ltd. as 2,486-ton cargo ship for the Royal Hungarian Sea Navigation Co. Adria, Ltd., Fiume.
25 January 1905:
Launched and named BUDA II.
March 1905:
Completed. Enters service with Adria, Ltd., the leading steamship company of the Croato-Hungarian part of the Monarchy, that connects Rijeka with North-European, western Mediterranean and South-American ports.
4 August 1914: World War 1 Begins:
The United Kingdom, France and Russia declare war on Austria-Hungary.
18 August 1914:
The Hungarian Ministry of War prohibits mercantile shipping on the waters of the Monarchy because of the risk posed by mines. BUDA II is laid up at Santos, Brazil.
25 April 1917:
Brazil declares neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany, but anti-German factions attack and damage some German and Austro-Hungarian ships in Brazilian harbors.
June 1917:
Forty-six ships are seized, and later repaired, by the Government of Brazil because of the threat of submarine warfare to Brazilian shipping. Brazil revokes its neutrality and American and other Allied warships guard Brazilian merchantmen. BUDA II, with damaged machinery, is among the ships seized.
26 Ocober 1917:
Brazil declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Their assets, mainly banks and insurance companies, are seized as well as the 46 ships.
1919:
Brest, France. BUDA II is ceded to the French Government as a war reparation. Renamed MARÉCHAL FOCH.
1922:
La Rochelle, France. Acquired by Compagnie Delmas Frères et Vieljeux, later one of France's most important shipping companies.
1936:
Shanghai, China. Sold to Heng An Cheng Kee Steamship Co. Renamed HA-VEN.
1938:
Nominally acquired by the Norwegian shipping firm of Wallem & Co of Bergen and Hong Kong. Renamed FOCH and registered in Panama.
7 July 1941:
Japan. Chartered by Yamashita Kisen.
1941:
Transports cargo between Tsingtao, China and Yokohama.
8 December 1941: Japan Opens Hostilities Against the Allies:
Yokohama. Norwegian Captain K. W. Nyquist's FOCH is seized by the Japanese while unloading a cargo of salt from Tsingtao. [1]
1942:
Renamed HOSHI MARU. Chartered by wholly owned Japanese Government Teikoku Senpaku Kaisha (Imperial Steamship Co.) and
operated by Yamashita Kisen.
25 May 1942:
Departs Moji.
26 May 1942:
Arrives at Shanghai.
December 1943:
Portland, Oregon. Five new ships built at the Kaiser & Oregon Shipyards are handed over to the Soviet Union under President Roosevelt's lend-lease program. During the month, the ships
depart Portland for Nakhodka, Siberia and deliver Red Cross parcels for Allied prisoners of war (POW).
November 1944:
HAKUSAN MARU picks up 2,200-tons of Red Cross relief supplies at Nakhodka and returns to Kobe.
4 January 1945:
HOSHI MARU departs Kobe for Shanghai carrying 275 tons
of prisoner relief supplies and, allegedly, 15 tons of gold bars and 7600 million banknotes. [2]
7 January 1945:
Departs Moji. The Japanese, through the Swiss, notify the United States of the exact time and course of HOSHI MARU.
12 January 1945:
Arrives at Shanghai without incident. Unloads POW relief supplies. Loads coal, pig iron, 6 boxes of opium confiscated from the Chinese and 19 boxes of whiskey.
16 January 1945:
Departs Shanghai.
18 January 1945:
Arrives at Tsingtao.
23 January 1945:
Departs Tsingtao.
28 January 1945:
Arrives at Moji.
28 January 1945:
Arrives at Kobe.
25 June 1945:
Arrives at Darien (Port Arthur), Manchuria.
6 July 1945:
Arrives at Pusan, Korea.
25 July 1945:
Thirty USAAF 20th Air Force Boeing "Superfortress" B-29s mine the waters off Korea and Japan. Near Osaka, HOSHI MARU strikes a mine and sinks at mouth of Maizuru Bay,
34-35N, 135-21E.
Authors' Note:
[1] Captain K. W. Nyquist was arrested on 8 Dec '41. He was released and transported on 30 Jul '42 on TATUTA MARU to Lourenço Marques (Maputo), Mozambique arriving 29 Aug 42.
[2] Allegedly, the gold and bank notes were landed succesfully since the Japanese used a red cross ship to guarantee safe passage. The gold was used to pay the Chinese for commodities because they would no longer
accept Japanese paper currency.
Thanks goes to Peter Cundall of Australia.
-Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp.
Back to Prisoner of War Relief Supply Ship Page
