SS Tenyo Maru
{{Short description|Ocean liner (1908–1933)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
| {{Infobox ship begin
}} {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Tenyo maru and chiyo maru of the toyo kisen kasisha.jpg |Ship image size= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship name =
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Mitsubishi Dockyard & Engine Works, Nagasaki |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1908 |Ship completed= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Scrapped in 1933 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type= |Ship tonnage=
|Ship displacement= |Ship length= |Ship beam={{convert|63|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship height= |Ship draught={{convert|31|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= |Ship depth=
|Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship sail plan= |Ship power=
|Ship propulsion= *3 x Parsons steam turbines
|Ship speed={{convert|20|knots|kph}} |Ship capacity=
|Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
{{Nihongo|SS Tenyo Maru|天洋丸|Tenyōmaru}} was a Japanese ocean-going passenger liner of the Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha (Japanese Oriental Steamship Co.; TKK) completed in 1908 by the Mitsubishi Dockyard & Engine Works, Nagasaki, Japan. Its sister ships were {{SS|Chiyo Maru}} and {{SS|Shinyō Maru (1911)}}. It had accommodation for 275 first-class, 54 second-class, and 800 steerage passengers, and could carry over 8,000 tons of cargo. The steerage class had an opium den for Chinese passengers.{{Cite web |url=http://staff.haas.berkeley.edu/barde/_public/immigration/phr%20essay%20review.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=19 October 2017 |archive-date=27 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827211222/http://staff.haas.berkeley.edu/barde/_public/immigration/phr%20essay%20review.pdf |url-status=dead }} The ship had the following dimensions: length overall 575 ft., between perpendiculars 558 ft., breadth 63 ft., depth to shelter deck 46 ft. 6 in., to upper deck 38 ft. 6 in., gross tonnage 14,700 tons; displacement 21,500 tons at 31 ft. 8 in. draught.Ensign W.S. Anderson, U.S. Navy, "S. S. TENYO MARU.: TURBINE MACHINERY AND OIL-BURNING BOILERS", Journal of the American Society for Naval Engineers, Volume 20, 1908, pp. 670-673. {{PD-notice}}
The ship's turbines were built by the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company, Wallsend, England, in 1907, and were capable of delivering a total 17,000 hp at 270 revolutions per minute. It had three 12-inch hollow-steel shafts, each carrying one propeller, with pitch of 105 inches, diameter of 115 inches. Steam was supplied by 13 cylindrical boilers, working at 180 lb pressure and fired by oil fuel only. The ships attained 21.6 knots on trial and 20 knots on ocean service.{{cite EB1911|volume=24|page=887 |wstitle=Ship#PacificLiners |display=Ship § Pacific Liners |first=Philip |last=Watts}}
History
Tenyo Maru was designed with shipbuilding ideas of contemporary naval architecture throughout the world; its Japanese engineers visited shipyards internationally and adopted the best ideas they found. It took the place of the Nippon Maru,San Francisco Call, Volume 103, Number 83, 21 February 1908 built in England in 1898.San Francisco Call, Volume 84, Number 94, 2 September 1898
Tenyo Maru was launched in 1908 from Nagasaki, Japan, as the first Turbine Steam Ship built for trans-Pacific passenger service. It first arrived in San Francisco on June 30, 1909, from Manchuria.{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/files/research/microfilm/m1410.pdf |title=Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1891-1957, Record Group 85|website=archives.gov|access-date=7 July 2023}} This was the first of many crossings which brought immigrants from Asia through the United States Immigration Station, Angel Island. Tenyo Maru was the first turbine-driven steamship ever in the port of San Francisco.San Francisco Call, Volume 104, Number 3, 3 June 1908 A model of the ship was on display at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, where it was that museum's largest steamship scale model.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wJ0GAQAAIAAJ&dq|title=The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California: Story of Its Foundation and the Objects of Its Founder. Description of Its Various Galleries. Brief Sketches of the Most Notable Exhibits, with Accounts of Their Origin and of the Periods of History and Industries Represented by Them|first=M. H. De Young Memorial|last=Museum|date=7 July 1921|publisher=Published under the auspices of the Park Commission|accessdate=7 July 2023|via=Google Books}}
On September 27, 1910, while en route from Hong Kong to San Francisco, via Yokohama and Honolulu, Tenyo Maru ran aground thirty miles from Shanghai. The ship was floated at high tide with the aid of tugboats, without serious damage, and was able to continue its voyage.Sacramento Union, Number 37, 28 September 1910 In February 1913, Tenyo Maru weathered a storm which began three days into the voyage and lasted six days; the storm destroyed the ship's gangway and smashed its rails; at times, the waves dashed over the smoke stacks. The 115 first and second class passengers were kept below decks while the captain made the decision to ride out the storm by heaving to, which was very unusual in a large steamship.Sacramento Union, Number 45, 14 February 1913
In 1921, the ship was fumigated due to a first-class passenger who became suddenly ill and died June 28 while en route from Nagasaki to Kobe. The passenger had bubonic plague. The cause was determined to be exposure to infected fleas from rats aboard the vessel.Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health service of the United States, for the fiscal year 1922. Page 166.
Tenyo Maru carried the Japanese Friendship Dolls from Yokohama to San Francisco in 1927.{{cite web |url=http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/dolls/exch1927/prepjapan/tenyomaru.htm |title=Steamship Tenyo Maru |first=Bill |last=Gordon |website=wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu}} It also carried opium and contraband. When Tenyo Maru arrived in San Francisco on July 9, 1929, passenger Sui'e Ying Kao, wife of the Chinese Vice Consul, requested that her baggage be passed and delivered at once, claiming diplomatic immunity from Customs inspection. The agents did not agree, broke the seals, opened the trunks, and found 2,300 cans of opium (about 1,000 pounds), worth about $600,000, making it a very large seizure by contemporary standards."National Affairs: Mrs. Kao's Catastrophe," Time, Monday, July 22, 1929
The ship was scrapped in 1933.{{cite web |url=http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/ss-tenyo-maru-scrapped-in-1933 |title=The SS Tenyo Maru, scrapped in 1933. |author1=RBCM Archives |website=search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca}} The similarly named Japanese fishing vessel Tenyo Maru which collided with the Chinese freighter Tuo Hai, in Canadian territorial waters on July 22, 1991, was a different vessel.{{cite web |title=F/V Tenyo Maru Fuel Oil, Diesel, and Lube Oil Spill |url=https://www.cerc.usgs.gov/orda_docs/CaseDetails?ID=908 |website=www.cerc.usgs.gov |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI) Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration Program (NRDAR Program) |accessdate=6 October 2017 |language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{commons category-inline|Tenyo Maru (ship, 1908)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenyo Maru}}