Tango Maru

History
Name: Rendsburg
Operator: Deutsche Australische Dampfschiffs Gesellschaft and Hamburg-Amerika Linie
Builder: Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft, Hamburg, Germany[1]
Yard number: 639[1]
Laid down: 1925[1]
Launched: 1925[1]
Fate: Confiscated by the Netherlands on 10 May 1940 in the Dutch East Indies upon the German invasion of the Netherlands
History
Name: Toendjoek
Operator: Nederlandsch Indische Maatschappij Voor Zeevaart N. V.[1]
Fate: Scuttled as a block ship on 2 March 1942 off Port of Tanjung Priok, Batavia.[1] Later refloated on 12 August 1942.
History
Name: Tango Maru
Operator: Japanese Imperial Steamship Co (Teikoku Senpaku Kaisha)[1]
Fate: Sunk by USS Rasher on 25 February 1944[1]
General characteristics
Type: Cargo ship
Tonnage: 6,200 DWT[1]

Tango Maru (丹後丸), originally named Rendsburg, was a cargo ship built in Germany in 1925. It was sunk by an American submarine on February 25, 1944, while in the service of the Imperial Steamship Co., a Japanese government-owned company. The sinking cost about 3,000 passengers and crew their lives.

History

The 6,200 ton cargo ship was built for the Deutsche Australische Dampfschiffs Gesellschaft (German-Australian Line) of Hamburg at the Vulcan-Werke, in Hamburg, Germany. She was launched in 1925 and named Rendsburg. On November 10, 1940 she was confiscated by the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies and renamed Toendjoek. She was scuttled on March 2, 1942 as a blockship off the port of Trandjung Priok. Refloated by the IJN on August 12, 1942, she was repaired and put into service with the Imperial Steamship Co, a Japanese government company.[1]

On February 25, 1944, crammed with 3,500 Javanese labourers (rōmusha) and hundreds of Allied POWs, Tango Maru,was traveling between Java and Ambon. The American submarine USS Rasher sank the ship 25 miles north of Bali Island with three torpedo hits.[2] Only about 500 Javanese survived. On the same day USS Rasher also sank Ryusei Maru, killing some 5,000 Japanese soldiers.

Another Japanese ship named Tango Maru, a 2,046 ton tanker, was also sunk by Rasher, on November 8, 1943 in the Makassar Strait.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Ex-German Merchants in Japanese Service". Combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Chronological List of Japanese Merchant Vessel Losses". Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (February 1947). Retrieved 2008-09-14.

Coordinates: 7°41′N 115°10′E / 7.683°N 115.167°E / 7.683; 115.167

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