YUSOSEN!
(Wartime Standard Merchant Tanker 1TL)
KYOKUEI MARU:
Tabular Record of Movement
© 2011-2023 Bob Hackett, Berend van der Wal and Peter Cundall
Revision 1
1 April 1943:
Nagasaki. Laid down at Mitsubishi Jukogyo K.K. Nagasaki Zosensho as a 10,570-ton Type 1TL Standard Tanker for Nitto Kisen K.K., Tokyo.
19 July 1943:
Launched and named KYOKUEI MARU.
4 September 1943:
Completed and registered at Tokyo with Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) and Net Registered Tonnage (NRT) of respectively 10,570-tons and 6,290-tons. Her call sign is JGDS. [1].
9 October 1943:
Rated as the 16th Navy Designated Ship.
12 October 1943:
At 1600, KYOKUEI MARU departs Moji in convoy HI-13 also consisting of IJN oiler AMATSU MARU, IJA transports AOBASAN, FUSO, MANILA and MIZUHO MARUs, IJN transports NANKAI and SANUKI (ex seaplane tender) MARUs escorted by destroyer ASAKAZE and kaibokan TSUSHIMA.
16 October 1943:
Arrives at Takao, Formosa (now Kaoshiung, Taiwan).
18 October 1943:
Departs Takao.
21 October 1943:
Arrives at Samah (Sanya) Hainan Island, China.
24 October 1943:
Departs Samah.
30 October 1943:
At 1546, arrives at Singapore.
3 November 1943:
At 1210, KYOKUEI MARU departs Singapore in convoy HI-14 also consisting of IJN oiler AMATSU MARU, IJA transport AKI and AWA MARUs and IJN transports KAGU (ex seaplane tender) and HOKUROKU MARUs escorted by kaibokan TSUSHIMA.
6 November 1943:
At 2052 (H) LtCdr George E. Porter's USS BLUEFISH (SS-222) sights the convoy south of West York Island, Spratly Islands. Starts tracking the convoy. [2]
7 November 1943:
During daylight the ships are in a line of columns, two ships to a column.
8 November 1943:
Near Dangerous Ground, Palawan, Philippines. At 0505, LtCdr George E. Porter attacks the convoy on the surface. Porter fires all ten of his tubes; one torpedo prematures just after leaving the tube. USS BLUEFISH reloads and Porter makes three more attacks sinking KYOKUEI MARU with two torpedoes at 17-00N, 116-17E. TSUSHIMA is detached to
rescue survivors, but is unable to relocate the convoy.
At 1500 (H) BLUEFISH sails through the attack scene. Porter sights numerous oil slicks. Loots two lifeboats of standard lifeboat equipment.
10 November 1943:
At 1100 convoy HI-14 arrives at Takao. TSUSHIMA arrives later this day and disembarks the KYOKUEI MARU survivors.
Authors' Notes:
[1] NRT is a ship's cargo volume capacity expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of 100 cubic feet (2.83 m3). It is calculated by subtracting non-revenue-earning spaces i.e. spaces not available for carrying cargo, for example engine rooms, fuel tanks and crew quarters, from the ship's gross register tonnage (GRT). Net register tonnage (NRT) is not a measure of the weight of the ship or its cargo, and should not be confused with terms such as deadweight tonnage or displacement.
[2] Military time. (H) is Hotel time zone, another name for UTC +8 or a zone at sea between longitudes 112.5° East and 127.5° East.
Thanks go to Mr. Gengoro Toda of Japan.
- Bob Hackett, Berend van der Wal and Peter Cundall
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