Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard 274 by Harima Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. in Aioi, Japan for NKK, but before completing transferred to Toa Kaiun KK.
Launched as HSING YA MARU.
Tonnage 3,365 grt, 1,924 net, dim. 98.2 x 15.2 m.
Two triple expansion steam engines, ?hp, speed 16.5 knots.
December 1939 completed.
She survived World War II, can not find her war career.
After the war taken over by China and allocated to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co., renamed in CHIANG YA also referred to as KIANG YA.
During the evening of 3 December 1948 she sailed from Shanghai for Ningbo, she was overloaded with passengers, mostly refugees fleeing the advancing Communist Army during the Chinese Civil War
Shortly after she had left port there was a massive explosion in the after part of the ship, and she sank in a matter of minutes upright in the shallow Huangpu River estuary off Tungsha.
The cause of the explosion is believed a mine left by the Japanese Navy during World War II.
There is not know how many people have lost their life but the reports are between 2,750 and 4,000.
The explosion destroyed her radio, and it took three hours before the HWAFOO discovered the wreck and an other four hours before the first rescue ships reached the wreck.
The passenger rescued were standing on the upper deck waist deep in the water, only 700 to 1,000 survivors were rescued by other vessels.
October 1956 was she raised and repaired and re-entered service for China People’s SN Co Ltd. (CPSNC).
1967 renamed by the company in DONG FANG HONG 8.
1992 Was she deleted from Lloyds Register.
Chinese Republic 1948 sg1046/47, scott802/03
Source: Lloyds Register 1940. http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz Beancaker to Boxboat, Steamship Companies in Chinese Waters by Dick and Kentwell. Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the age of steam by Charles Hocking. Wikipedia