The MV ''Krait'' is a wooden-hulled vessel famous for its use during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
by the
Z Special Unit
Z Special Unit () was a joint Allied special forces unit formed during the Second World War to operate behind Japanese lines in South East Asia. Predominantly Australian, Z Special Unit was a specialist reconnaissance and sabotage unit that in ...
(Z Force) of
Australia during the raid against Japanese ships anchored in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
Harbour. The raid was known as
Operation Jaywick
Operation Jaywick was a special operation undertaken in World War II. In September 1943, 14 commandos and sailors from the Allied Z Special Unit raided Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbour, sinking six ships.
Background
Special Operation ...
.
The MV ''Krait'' is on display at the
Australian National Maritime Museum
The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a national maritime museum wou ...
(ANMM) in
Sydney.
History
''Krait'' was originally a Japanese fishing vessel based in Singapore named ''Kofuku Maru''. Following the outbreak of war, the ship was taken over by the American destroyer
USS ''Edsall'' and used to evacuate over 1,100 people from ships sunk along the east coast of
Sumatra. The ship eventually reached Australia via
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...
in 1942, and was handed over to the Australian military. In Australian service, she wa