The was a Japanese cargo ship owned by

Nippon Yusen Kaisha The , also known as NYK Line, is a Japanese shipping company. The company headquarters are located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It operates a fleet of over 820 ships, which includes container ships, tankers, bulk and woodchip carriers, roll-on/ro ...

, Tokyo. The ship entered service in 1937. The name ''Nagata Maru'' derives from

Nagata jinja is a Shinto shrine in Nagata-ku, Kobe, Japan. At Nagata, Kotoshironushi-no-Okami is enshrined. The shrine is associated with Amaterasu, who is said to have told Empress Jingū that a shrine was wanted at Nagata. History According to the ''Nih ...

, a

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

in Nagata Ward,

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

.Richard, Ponsonby-Fane. (1964) ''Visiting Famous Shrines in Japan,'' pp. 324-328; from 1871 through 1946, the Nagata Shrine stood in the second tier of government-supported shrines which were especially venerated by the imperial family. She was the third ship in the ''Ikuta Maru''-class, consisting of ''Ikuta Maru'', ''Taiko Maru'', ''Nagata Maru'', ''Senyo Maru'', ''Manyo Maru'', ''Okuyo Maru'', ''Tsuneshima Maru'' and ''Yamadori Maru''.

History

Nagata Maru was the name of several Japanese vessels. In 1900,

Fujinagata Shipyards was a shipyard and railroad car manufacturer in Osaka, Japan. History Fujinagata claimed to have been founded in 1689, making it one of the oldest shipbuilders in Japan. Originally called ''Hyōgo-ya'', and located in central Osaka, it was cont ...

completed its first all-metal construction merchant vessel; the No.2 ''Nagata Maru''.

List of ships named ''Nagata Maru''

* ''Nagata Maru'' No. 1 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 2 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 3 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 4 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 5 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 6 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 7 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 8Lloyd's Register of Shipping (1907) * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 9 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 10 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 11 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 12 * ''Nagata Maru'' No. 13 * ''Nagata Maru'' (1937)

Pacific War

In 1939, ''Nagata Maru'' was requisitioned by the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

for use as an

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typic ...

. During the Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands, she installed within 2 days the

seaplane base An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

in Makin lagoon. In transporting Allied prisoners, it was amongst those vessels which earned the epithet "

hell ship A hell ship is a ship with extremely inhumane living conditions or with a reputation for cruelty among the crew. It now generally refers to the ships used by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army to transport Allied prisoners of w ...

s." On 22 April 1944, ''Nagata Maru'' was part of a Singapore-to-Saigon convoy anchored off Cape St. Jacques in French Indochina. The ship was bombed and sunk.

Notes

References

* Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1964). ''Visiting Famous Shrines in Japan.'' Kyoto: Ponsonby-Fane Memorial Society.

External links

* Ship's List
Ships of Nippon Yusen Kaisha K.K
1937 ships Ships of the NYK Line Nagata Maru World War II merchant ships of Japan Ships sunk by aircraft World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Japanese hell ships {{ship-stub