Kōshū (survey ship)
History | |
---|---|
Japan | |
Name |
|
Namesake | |
Owner |
|
Launched | 1904 |
Renamed | August 23, 1915 |
Reclassified | 1922 |
Refit | 1921, as a surveyor |
Fate | Broken up 1 April 1940 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Survey ship |
Displacement | 2,270 metric tons |
Length | 76.53 meters |
Beam | 11.00 meters |
Draught | 3.73 meters |
Propulsion | 250 tons of coal |
Speed | 10.3 knots |
Crew | 101 people |
Kōshū (膠州) was a
History
The ship was originally constructed by
Kōshū was refitted to have surveying equipment in 1921, and formally had its classification changed to survey ship in 1922. From 1921 to 1926, the Kōshū surveyed the South Seas, where the Japanese Empire had acquired a number of islands taken from the Germans and been given a League of Nations mandate to rule them as part of the South Seas Mandate. On April 1, 1940, the ship was dismantled due to its old age and removed from service.
Oddities
At some point in the service of Kōshū during the late 1920s or early 1930s, it likely visited Jaluit Harbor in Japan's South Seas Mandate for the Marshall Islands. A photograph of Jaluit Harbor shows a ship flying the Japanese flag in the background and Kōshū written on the ship, although several ships had this somewhere in its name. This would normally not be terribly interesting, but the identity of the ship in the photograph became a dispute after the airing of Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence, which claimed the ship was the Kōshū Maru, a military ship that had been sent to capture Amelia Earhart, and that the photograph had likely been taken in 1937 or 1938.[1] Japanese blogger Kota Yamano, who discredited a number of other claims the documentary made, said he believed the ship in the photograph to be the old survey ship Kōshū instead; other analysts believed that the photograph, based on other clues, likely was taken in the late 1920s or early 1930s.[2][3]
References
- ^ "Exploring the Lost Evidence". History. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
- ^ Domonoske, Camila. "Japanese Blogger Points Out Timeline Flaw In Supposed Earhart Photo". NPR. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
- ^ @baron_yamaneko (July 11, 2017). "On photo is IJN Koshu (膠州) , not SS Koshu maru. IJN Koshu was ex. German SS Michael Jebsen launched 1904, captured in WW1 at Tsingtau" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- Japan Official Gazette (Kanpo) of Naval History, volumes 9 and 10