YUSOSEN!
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(Oiler by Takeshi Yuki scanned from "Color Paintings
of Japanese Warships")
IJN RYUEI MARU:Tabular Record of Movement
© 2008-2020 Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall.
Revision 3
27 March 1943:
Aioi. Laid down by Harima Shipbuilding as a 5,141-ton Type 1TM Wartime Standard Merchant Tanker for Nitto Kisen K. K., Tokyo.
5 July 1943:
Launched and named RYUEI MARU.
30 August 1943:
Completed and registered at Tokyo. Her Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) and Net Registered Tonnage (NRT) respectively are 5,141-tons and 2,948-tons. Her call sign is JGTP. [1]
E 31 August 1943:
Departs Aioi for Moji.
2 September 1943:
RYUEI MARU departs Moji in convoy SA-12 also consisting of YAMAMIZU MARU No.2 and Navy oilers SUNOSAKI and ASHIZURI.
4 September 1943:
At 0255, LtCdr…..10-128E. Hit on the ports side of No. 4 tank and on the port side of the bow. The latter torpedo didn’t explode. No 4 tank floods. The outer plating and most of the deck are cracked. The port side boat is lost. Begins ASW combat. The 40 caliber 12 cm gun fires 3 shots . Detaches from the convoy and reverses her course. Auxiliary fleet oiler SUNOSAKI escorts her to Koshiki Jima. Later at Koshiki Jima auxiliary subchaser CHOUN MARU No. 16 takes over the escort from SUNOSAKI. Arrives at Nagasaki later this month. Likely undergoes prolonged repairs there rather than at Singapore as previous TROM revisions indicated.
27 November 1943:
Requisitioned by the IJN as an Ippan Choyosen (B-AO) (general requisitioned ship [oil supply]). Registered in the Sasebo Naval District and assigned to the Naval Department.
28 November 1943:
Departs Sasebo for Moji.
1 December 1943:
RYUEI MARU departs Moji in Part 1 of convoy HI-23 also consisting of fleet oiler TAKASAKI, oilers ICHIU, ASASHIO and OMUROSAN MARUs and transports AKI and NOSHIRO MARUs escorted by destroyer NAMIKAZE.
5 December 1943:
The second echelon of convoy HI-23 departs Moji consisting of oilers TATEKAWA, ITSUKUSHIMA and BOKUEI MARUs escorted by fleet oiler OSE (ex-Dutch GENOTA).
6 December 1943:
Fleet oiler SUNOSAKI from Sasebo joins convoy HI-23 at sea.
7 December 1943:
RYUEI MARU departs Takao in convoy HI-23 also consisting of tankers OMUROSAN, ASASHIO, ICHIU, ICHIYO, GOYO, ITSUKUSHIMA, TATEKAWA and BOKUEI MARU, fleet oilers TAKASAKI, SUNOSAKI and OSE and cargo passenger ships NOSHIRO and AKI MARUs escorted by destroyer NAMIKAZE and kaibokan KANJU.
10 December 1943:
Arrives at St Jacques, Indochina.
17 December 1943:
Arrives at Seletar Naval Base, Singapore.
19 December 1943:
At 1200 departs Singapore in HI-24 also consisting of ASAHIO, ARABIA, BOKUEI, ICHIYO, ASAHI, ASAHISAN and GOYO MARUs escorted by kaibokan KANJU.
28 December 1943:
Arrives at Takao. ASAHISAN, GOYO and RYUEI MARUs are detached. Later (exact date unknown) RYUEI MARU leaves for Miri
3 January 1944:
South China Sea, NW of Miri. LtCdr (later Rear Admiral-Ret) Herbert L. Jukes’ (USNA ’32) USS KINGFISH (SS-234) torpedoes and sinks RYUEI MARU at 06-03N, 110-02E. 46 crewmen are KIA.
Author's 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.
Some sources confuse 1TM RYUEI MARU with the smaller 2TM RYUEI MARU completed well after the 1TM was sunk.
Thanks to Gilbert Casse of France and Berend van der Wal of Netherlands.
- Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall
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