KAMOTSUSEN!


(GUSTAV DIEDRICHSEN)

Freighter TEIKYU MARU:
Tabular Record of Movement

© 2010-2012 Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall.

Revision 1

E 1929:
Kiel, Germany. Laid down at Howaldtswerke as a 2,332-ton cargo ship for Rhederi M. Jebsen of Aabenraa, Denmark.

E 1930:
Launched and named GUSTAV DIEDERICHSEN.

May 1930:
Completed.

1930-1940:
In M. Jebsen’s service.

Late February 1933:
Captain Jacobsen departs Hong Kong for Swatow, China and Bangkok, Thailand, unknowingly carrying about 40 armed Chinese pirates. Once at sea, the pirates take over the ship and rob the other passengers of their money and jewellry. They take three wealthy Chinese passengers hostage and force the ship's crew to row them and the hostages ashore at Mirs Bay, Hong Kong.

25 September 1935:
GUSTAV DIEDERICHSEN arrives at Singapore from Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) enroute to Hong Kong.

30 October 1938:
Departs Shanghai.

9 April 1940: German Operation Weserubung Süd (Weser Exercise South):
At 0500, the Germans invade Denmark. Resistance to the overwhelming power of the German Wehrmacht by the tiny Danish military is pointless. The Danish government agrees to a German ultimatum to end the fighting. King Christian orders a cease fire to begin at 0720.

24 April 1940:
Dairen (former Port Arthur), Manchuria. The Japanese seize GUSTAV DIEDERICHSEN.

October 1941:
Controlled by Teikoku Senpaku (Imperial Steamship Co.) wholly owned by the Japanese government. Renamed TEIKYU MARU. Assigned signal letters JDKR.

2 September 1942:
13 miles SE of Chikyu Mizaki, Hokkaido. TEIKYU MARU is sailing between Shimizu and Koshira. At 0640 (K), lookouts aboard LtCdr (later Rear Admiral-Ret) Thomas B. Klakring’s (USNA ’27) USS GUARDFISH (SS-217) spot a freighter. Klakring begins an “end around” to get ahead of the target. At 0727(K), USS GUARDFISH submerges on the target’s track. At 0844(K), Klakring fires three torpedoes and gets two hits, but the target does not appear to be sinking.

At 0850(K), USS GUARDFISH fires a fourth torpedo. An explosion is not seen nor heard, but at 0850(K), the target’s crew is observed abandoning ship in two lifeboats. At 0900(K), TEIKYU MARU breaks in two and sinks at 42-08N, 141-15E. Only one crewman is KIA.

- Bob Hackett and Peter Cundall.

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