Qualla: The Ship of Four Names https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: The Ship of Four Names https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru The Ship of Four Names: Introduction https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru/ She was thirty-three years old and on her fourth name when she went down. Built on the River Tyne as Bra-Kar, renamed Havo under Norwegian colors, then Mabuhay II in the Philippines, the cargo steamer had lived the ordinary life of a working freighter for three decades before the Japanese military requisitioned her and rechristened her Ryusei Maru. By February 1944, the ship that had spent most of her existence hauling cargo between quiet ports was packed with 6,600 human beings and sailing into the crosshairs of an American submarine. What happened in the waters north of Bali on the night of February 25 remains one of the deadliest single ship sinkings in maritime history, and one of the war's cruelest paradoxes: thousands of prisoners died at the hands of the very forces trying to liberate them.

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/w/9/v/ss-ryusei-maru-wp/qw9v-the-ship-of-four-names-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Ship of Four Names: From the Tyne to the Tropics https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru/ The Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Company launched her on Valentine's Day 1911 from Willington Quay, yard number 177. She was a plain vessel, fitted with a single screw driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine built by John Dickinson and Sons of Sunderland. The engine gave her...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/w/9/v/ss-ryusei-maru-wp/qw9v-the-ship-of-four-names-from-the-tyne-to-the-tropics.mp3 0:06 2 full The Ship of Four Names: Cargo of Lives https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru/ On February 24, 1944, Ryusei Maru departed Surabaya bound for Ambon in the Maluku Islands. She carried 1,244 Japanese Army soldiers, 2,865 Indian prisoners of war captured during Japan's conquest of Southeast Asia, and 2,559 romusha, the Indonesian laborers conscripted by the Jap...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/w/9/v/ss-ryusei-maru-wp/qw9v-the-ship-of-four-names-cargo-of-lives.mp3 0:06 3 full The Ship of Four Names: Torpedoes in the Dark https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru/ The convoy sailed with escorts: minesweepers W-8 and W-11, and the auxiliary submarine chaser Takunan Maru No. 5. It was not enough. The USS Rasher, a Gato-class submarine under the command of Commander Willard Laughon, had received an Ultra intelligence intercept directing her t...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/w/9/v/ss-ryusei-maru-wp/qw9v-the-ship-of-four-names-torpedoes-in-the-dark.mp3 0:06 4 full The Ship of Four Names: The Weight of Forgotten Names https://qualla.com/ss-ryusei-maru/ The sinking of Ryusei Maru ranks among the deadliest maritime disasters in history, yet it occupies a small footnote in most accounts of the Pacific War. The Indian POWs who died were largely soldiers of the British Indian Army, captured during the fall of Singapore and Malaya. T...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/w/9/v/ss-ryusei-maru-wp/qw9v-the-ship-of-four-names-the-weight-of-forgotten-names.mp3 0:06 5 full