LIFE AS A FEPOW · HELLSHIPS, 1944

 

The Junyo Maru

 

On 18 September 1944 the Junyo Maru was torpedoed off Sumatra with Allied prisoners and Javanese labourers aboard. More than 5,000 people died.

 

 

 

Built on the Clyde

 

The ship that became the Junyo Maru was built in Scotland. She was launched by Robert Duncan & Co at Port Glasgow on 30 October 1913 as the Ardgorm, a 5,131-ton cargo steamer.

 

Over the next few years she sailed under British owners as the Hartland Point, the Hartmore and the Sureway. In 1927 she was sold to Japan and renamed Junyo Maru.

 

 

 

 

Bound for Sumatra

 

On 16 September 1944 she left Tanjung Priok, the port of Batavia on Java, bound for Padang on Sumatra. On board were around 2,300 prisoners of war, most of them Dutch but including British, Australian, Indonesian and a few American men, and about 4,200 romusha, Javanese labourers forced to work for the Japanese.

 

They were being sent to build the railway between Pekanbaru and Muaro. Bamboo platforms had been built between the decks with bunks three or four high. There were almost no latrines, too little drinking water, and only two lifeboats.

 

 

 

 

Torpedoed off Sumatra

 

At about four in the afternoon on 18 September 1944 the British submarine HMS Tradewind, commanded by Lieutenant Commander S.L.C. Maydon, sighted the ship off the west coast of Sumatra. Her crew had no way of knowing who was aboard.

 

Tradewind fired four torpedoes and two struck the Junyo Maru, one forward and one aft. She sank by the stern in around fifteen minutes. With so few boats and rafts, thousands of men were left in the sea.

 

 

 

 

After the Sinking

 

The escorts picked up Japanese survivors first. The next morning a Japanese vessel returned and rescued around 680 prisoners, who were taken on to Sumatra to work on the railway.

 

More than 5,000 people died in the sinking, around 1,450 prisoners of war and an estimated 4,000 romusha. Many of those who survived the sea later died on the Pekanbaru railway.

 

 

 

 

Remembering the Junyo Maru

 

The loss of the Junyo Maru is the largest disaster in Dutch maritime history and one of the highest death tolls of any ship sunk in the Second World War.

 

She was built on the Clyde, and among those who died aboard her were British prisoners alongside Dutch, Australian, Indonesian and American men and thousands of Javanese labourers. Their sacrifice must never be forgotten.

 

Their story is one of many told on our Hellships page.