Wreck of Yamazuki Maru

 Second World War 1939-1945  Add category

Yamazuki Maru was built in the early 1930's as a combination passenger/cargo steamship for Yamashita Lines and served in the commercial trades until she was placed into service with the Imperial Japanese Navy for use as a troop and transport ship. Called to the Shortland Islands by the American Invasion of Guadalcanal in August 1942, the Yamazuki Maru joined in making supply runs to and from Guadalcanal as part of the "Tokyo Express".

One such run saw the Yamazuki Maru join up with a convoy of eleven other cargo ships and their escorts at New Georgia Island, from where they proceeded towards Guadalcanal on November 13th, 1942. Sighted by an American recon plane on the morning of November 14th, the convoy came under concentrated air attack in the early afternoon by planes flying from the USS Enterprise. Despite the presence of several escort Destroyers, the American attack took a heavy toll; seven of the cargo ships in the convoy were sunk and half the escort ships were forced to return to the Shortlands. Now steaming with the remaining cargo ships and a small escort of Destroyers, the Yamazuki Maru and her crew made hasty preparations to unload their cargo of over a thousand troops and supplies onto Guadalcanal as quickly as possible during the coming night.

Arrivng at her designated point off Doma Cove, the Yamazuki Maru began offloading her troops and supplies, but a low tide and nearshore reefs prevented the use of her boats to bring heavy cargo ashore. Forced to use a bucket-brigade method to get her cargo to the shoreline, the crew of the Yamazuki Maru knew there was little chance for the ship to be empty by daybreak. Nonetheless, daybreak on November 15th found the crew diligently offloading their ship, though they were now able to use the ships boats thanks to a higher tide. Lookouts nervously watched for the enemy in the sea and the air, and didn’t have to wait long before US Marine shore batteries opened fire on the stationary transports to her South, setting two ablaze. Planes soon followed and within 20 minutes the Yamazuki Maru was under heavy fire from American aircraft.

Incendiary 'tracer' shells from the planes guns tore through the unarmored hull of the ship and started fires in her volatile cargo of dry food stores, ammunition and gasoline which were soon burning out of control and obscuring her crew's attempts to fight back. After divebombers dropped at least two bombs into her hull the Yamazuki Maru settled onto the shallow bottom and stuck fast. As her crew worked to pump the ship out enough to get her off the bottom and also control the fires onboard, the Destroyer USS Meade came running up the coastline and began shelling the defenseless Yamazuki Maru with 5-inch rounds and sealed her fate. Aground, afire and under constant attack from air and sea, the Yamazuki Maru was abandoned by her crew and was consumed by flames during the afternoon and into the night of the 15th.

The wreck remained onsite for the duration of the war and was used for as a target for weapons testing by US forces. Postwar, much of her hulk was scrapped and salvaged, leaving only small traces of her onsite today.

www.pacificwrecks.com/ships/maru/yamazuki/1944/yamatsuk...