Edogawa Maru

Edogawa Maru

History
Japan
Launched	1944
Completed	20 May 1944
Fate	Sunk by USS Sunfish, 18 November 1944
General characteristics
Type	Troop transport
Tonnage	6,968 tons
Length	128 m (419 ft 11 in)
Beam	18.2 m (59 ft 9 in)
Draft	11.1 m (36 ft 5 in)
Propulsion	Steam turbine

Edogawa Maru (Kanji:江戸川丸) was a 6,968-ton Japanese Type 2A Wartime Standard cargo ship that was sunk by USS Sunfish on 18 November 1944 with 2,114 lives lost.

Edogawa Maru sailed as part of convoy MI-27 with seven other ships from Moji to Miri, Borneo, on 15 November 1944. Escorted by a converted minesweeper (W-101) and three smaller escorts (Type D escort ship CD-134 and two No.1-class auxiliary submarine chasers, Cha-156 and CHa-157), the convoy hugged the coast of the Korean peninsula to try to avoid American submarines.^[1] Nevertheless, a group of three submarines—Peto, Spadefish, and Sunfish—found and attacked the convoy on the night of 17/18 November. At 22:00 a torpedo from Sunfish struck and crippled Edogawa Maru. In the early hours of 18 November a second torpedo from Sunfish finished off Edogawa Maru. The ship had not been evacuated in the meantime and 1,998 soldiers and 116 crewmen died when the ship sunk.^[2]

The ships Seisho Maru, Osakasan Maru, and Chinaki Maru were also sunk that night.

• List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines

• David L Williams (2012). In the Shadow of the Titanic: Merchant Ships Lost With Greater Fatalities The History Press