RIKUGUN BYOINSEN
(HARBIN MARU, prewar)
HARBIN MARU
Tabular Record of Movement
© 2014-2017 Bob Hackett
20 December 1913:
Kobe. Laid down at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. as Yard
No. 371, a 5,169-ton passenger cargo ship for Osaka Shosen Kaisha K. K. (OSK)
Line of Osaka.
25 July 1914:
Launched and named HARBIN MARU.
6 February 1915:
Completed and placed on OSK’s Kobe~Dairen, Manchuria
route.
8 February 1934:
HARBIN MARU departs Kobe for Dairen.
21 September 1934:
Kobe. A typhoon srikes the waterfront. Although
sheltered by breakwaters from mountainous seas running outside the harbor,
ocean-going liners berthed alongside Kobe’s piers suffer severe damage. AMERICA
MARU lashed to a wharf, and with two anchors down, breaks away and collides with
TAKUSAN MARU. The Blue Funnel freighter PHEMIUS breaks its moorings and drifts
across the harbor to collide with HARBIN MARU. Both ships are damaged above the
waterline. Many smaller vessels are wrecked and lighters lifted onto the
wharves. Cargo is strewn about the docks.
9 August 1937:
Sold to Kita Nippon Kisen K.K. of Otaru.
1937: Second Sino – Japanese War:
Chartered to the Imperial Army (IJA).
29 November 1937:
Departs Ujina.
30 November 1937:
Arrives at Moji. Embarks hospital personnel and
supplies and departs.
2 December 1937:
Arrives at Shanghai.
6 December 1937:
Departs Shanghai.
8 December 1937:
Arrives at Moji. Disembarks wounded.
9 December 1937:
Arrives at Ujina.
E 1938:
Returned to her owners.
30 January 1940:
Transferred to Nipponkai Kisen K. K., Tokyo
28 March 1941:
HARBIN MARU arrives at Tsuruga from Vladivostok, Siberia, USSR, but Japanese authorities bar entry to a group of Jewish refugees who boarded the ship in Lithuania.
24 November 1941:
Requisitioned by the IJA. Allotted Army No. 380.
8 December 1941:
The Pacific War begins.
10 January 1942:
HARBIN MARU departs Cap St. Jacques, Vichy French Indochina for Samah, Hainan, China.
South China Sea. 40 miles S of Hainan. At about 0900, Lt.Cdr Raymond J. Moore’s (USNA '27) USS STINGRAY (SS-186) torpedoes and sinks HARBIN MARU at 17-40N, 109-20E. Two passengers and four crewmen are KIA.[1]
Authors' Notes:
[1] At the time of her sinking, the Allies considered HARBIN MARU a cargo ship.
Thanks go to Erich Muehlthaler of Germany.
- Bob Hackett.
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IJA Transports
