Hitachi Maru

The Hitachi Maru (Japanese常 陆 丸) was a Japanese freighter. It is considered the first modern ocean-going steamship of a Japanese shipyard.

Particulars

1884 Mitsubishi leased by the government, the shipyard Nagasaki Shipyard & Iron Works. Three years later, Mitsubishi acquired the shipyard and built here the first iron steamer Japan, the Yugao - Maru. In 1890 followed Japan's first built of steel steamer, Chikugogawa - Maru.

Another eight years later, in June 1898, delivered from the shipyard funded by the Shipbuilding Promotion Law Hitachi Maru. With this ship, the shipyard was the first major seagoing steamship with steel hull of a Japanese shipyard built and shipbuilding technology caught up with the technological state of Western shipyards.

The Hitachi Maru was measured by 6172 gross tons and was powered by two triple expansion steam engines with a combined capacity of 3847 hp. It reached a speed of around 14 knots.

1904, the Hitachi Maru was sunk on a trip from Shimonoseki to Manchurian coast with about 1,000 soldiers on board by the Russian cruiser Gromoboi. Only 152 people survived the sinking. No other sinking of a Japanese ship, more people died during the Russo -Japanese War.