History | |
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Name | Sagara Maru |
Builder | Mitsubishi Shipbuilding |
Launched | 23 March 1939 |
Fate | Torpedoed and beached 23 July 1943 |
General characteristics (as seaplane tender) | |
Displacement | 7,189 long tons (7,304 t) |
Length | 479 ft 9 in (146.23 m) |
Beam | 62 ft 4 in (19.00 m) |
Draught | 32 ft 3 in (9.83 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried |
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Aviation facilities | 2 catapults |
Sagara Maru was a Japanese Sakito Maru-class cargo liner converted to a seaplane tender that served during World War II. It was hit by torpedoes from two different submarines before being abandoned and sinking.
Sagara Maru was built in 1939 at the Mitsubishi Yokohoma shipyard for the Nippon Yusen company, being completed in 1940. She was the fifth of seven ships of the Sakito Maru class of high speed transports: Sakito Maru (崎戸丸), Sanuki Maru (讃岐丸), Sado Maru (佐渡丸), Sagami Maru (相模丸), Sagara Maru (相良丸), Sasako Maru (笹子丸), and Sakura Maru (佐倉丸). [1]
Shortly before Japan's entry into the war, she was acquired by the Imperial Japanese Navy and converted to an auxiliary seaplane tender. [2] After hostilities commenced she was involved in the escort forces for landings at Sabang, Rangoon [3] and the Andaman Islands, and after that spent the majority of her time patrolling and escorting convoys between Penang and Singapore. [4] In December 1942 she was re-classified as a transport/replenishment ship. [5]
On 23 June 1943 off the coast of Omaezaki, Japan she was spotted by USS Harder, [6] who despite being spotted and fired upon managed to fire four torpedoes one of which hit the bow of Sagara Maru. The destroyer Sawakaze took her in tow but to avoid sinking she was beached. Ten days later, on 4 July, before she could be re-floated, USS Pompano spotted her on radar and managed to gain two torpedo hits. She was subsequently abandoned a few days later. [4] [7]
USS Gudgeon (SS-211) was the first American submarine to sink an enemy warship in World War II. She was the last of the long-range Tambor-class vessels commissioned for the United States Navy in the years before the country entered World War II. Gudgeon scored 14 confirmed kills, placing her 15th on the honor roll of American submarines. She was declared overdue, presumed lost with all hands, on 7 June 1944. Of the twelve Tambor-class submarines, only five survived the war.
USS Grenadier (SS-210), a Tambor-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grenadier fish, relatives of cod that are very common in bathyal and abyssal habitats.
USS Drum (SS-228) is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, a type of fish. Drum is a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park.
USS Skipjack (SS-184), was a Salmon-class submarine, the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the skipjack tuna. She earned multiple battle stars during World War II and then was sunk, remarkably, by an atomic bomb during post-World War II testing in Operation Crossroads. Among the most "thoroughly sunk" ships, she was refloated and then sunk a second time as a target ship two years later.
USS Haddock (SS-231), a Gato-class submarine, was the second submarine of the United States Navy to be named for the haddock, a small edible Atlantic fish related to the cod. A previous submarine had been named Haddock (SS-32), but was renamed K-1 prior to her launching, so Haddock (SS-231) was the first to actually bear the name.
USS Rasher (SS/SSR/AGSS/IXSS-269), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the rasher, or vermilion rockfish, a fish found along the California coast.
USS Raton (SS/SSR/AGSS-270), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the raton, a polynemoid fish inhabiting semitropical waters off the Pacific coast of the Americas.
USS Seahorse (SS-304), a Balao-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seahorse, a small fish whose head and the fore part of its body suggest the head and neck of a horse.
Convoy Hi-81 (ヒ-81) was the designation for a formation of Japanese transports that carried soldiers bound for Singapore and the Philippines during World War II. The transports were escorted by a large force of surface combatants including the escort carriers Shinyo and Akitsu Maru which were sunk in the Yellow Sea by American submarines. Over the course of a four-day convoy battle in November 1944 nearly 7,000 Japanese were killed in action while the Americans sustained no casualties.
Gokoku Maru (護國丸) was an armed merchant cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, the last ship of the Hōkoku Maru class ocean liners. The ship entered service in 1942 and was employed mainly as a troop transport. She came under attack several times during her service career, and was sunk in a submarine attack in November 1944.
Sakito Maru was a 7,126-ton Japanese troop transport that operated during World War II. She was sunk on 1 March 1944 with great loss of life.
CH-17 was a No.13-class submarine chaser of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
Tama Maru No. 6 was an auxiliary minesweeper of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She was later reclassified as a submarine chaser.
Hokkai Maru was a Kinai Maru-class auxiliary transport of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She participated in the Japanese occupation of British Borneo and was part of ill-fated convoy HI-71.
Fukuei Maru No. 15 was a Japanese cargo ship that was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and converted into an auxiliary netlayer.
Nagara Maru was a Japanese cargo ship that was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and converted into an auxiliary netlayer.
Aso Maru was a Japanese cargo ship that was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and converted into an auxiliary gunboat.
Sanuki Maru (Japanese:讃岐丸) was a 1939-built cargo ship, requisitioned as a seaplane tender by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.
Shonan Maru No. 17 was a Japanese fishing vessel that was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and converted into an auxiliary subchaser.
Notoro (能登呂) was an oiler of the Imperial Japanese Navy commissioned in 1920, which was rebuilt in 1924 into a seaplane tender and in 1941 back into an oiler. She participated in the First Shanghai Incident in 1932 and the Second Sino-Japanese War since 1937. In the fall of 1941, she was rebuilt back into an oiler. On 9 January and 20 September 1943, she was damaged by US Navy submarines but returned to service after repairs. On 29 June 1944, she was hit by two torpedoes launched by submarine USS Flasher. During repairs in Singapore Notoro was again damaged on 5 November 1944, this time by B-29 bombers. No further repairs were made until the end of the war and she was probably scrapped in 1947.