Built as a passenger- cargo ship under yard No750 by Mitsubishi, Nagasaki for the Nippon Yusen KK, Tokyo.
09 May 1938 keel laid down.
20 May 1939 launched as the NITTA MARU, named after an important Shinto shrine. Two sisters.
Tonnage 17,163 gross, 9,380 net, dim. 170 x 22.5m.
Powered by two geared stem turbines manufactured by Mitsubishi/Jukogyo K.K., 25,200 shp. Twin shafts. Speed 19 knots.
Accommodation for 115 first class, 100 second class and 70 third class.
23 March 1940 completed.
She was intended for the service between Yokohama and Hamburg but due to the Second World War she was put in the service between Yokohama to San Francisco.
March 1940 requisitioned as a military transport.
She made a few voyages including the transport of American Prisoners of War from Wake Island to Japan.
Late December 1941 she left Wake Island with the 1,187 American POW’s and arrived Yokohama 11 days later .During the voyage 5 POW’s were to “honor their bravery” tortured and beheaded and the bodies thrown overboard.
01 May 1942 she arrived at the shipyard at Kure and entered dry-dock on 10 August for a refit in an escort aircraft carrier.
25 November 1942 work completed and commissioned as the CHUYO named after a heaven bound hawk.
Displacement 18,120 ton standard, 19,800 tons full load. Dim. 180.4 x 22.5 x 7.74m. (draught).
Armament when completed 8 – 127mm AA guns, 30 – 25mm AA guns.
Carried 27 aircraft.
Crew850
12 December 1942 she sailed from Yokosuka bound for Truk the first of thirteen voyages ferrying aircraft and supplies and passengers to the Caroline Islands.
30 November 1943 after delivering her supplies and aircraft at Truk she sailed in a task force with other Japanese warships bound for Yokosuka.
On board was cargo and passengers under which 21 American POW’s from the USS SCULPIN which was sunk by a Japanese destroyer.
04 December 1943 at 00.10 the American submarine USS SAILFISH sighted the task force and he fired his torpedoes on the CHUYO. One torpedo hit the CHUYO at the bow, collapsing the forward part of the flight deck. The same day at 05.55 the SAILFISH fired again some torpedoes of which two hit her in the vicinity at the port engine room, and the CHUYO became dead in the water without power.
The cruiser MAYA, destroyer URAKAZE and after daylight land-based aircraft from Japan attempted to protect the CHUYO while her crew tried to restore power.
At 09.42 SAILFISH launched her third strike in which one or two torpedoes hit the vessel on the port side.
She was lost taken in water with a fast rate and she sank on 09.48, taken with her 513 officers and crew under which the Captain Tomasaborou, 737 passengers and 21 American POW’s, only 160 people survived.
Guyana 1993 sgMS?, scott? (In margin of sheet)
Source: Wikipedia. Great Passengers Ships of the World Volume 4 by Arnold Kludas. Lloyds Register 1940. http://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=18