Toya Maru

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Toya Maru (洞爺丸) was a Japanese freightliner that sank during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait between the Japanese islands of Hokkaido and Honshu in 1954 with the loss of 1,155 lives.

Typhoon No.15, which came ashore at the southern end of Kyushu at around 01:00 hours on September 26 1954, proceeded NE through the Sea of Japan and reached the southern extremity of Hokkaido at midnight on the same day. The steamship Toya Maru, a 4,337 gross tonnage rail ferry plying between Aomori and Hakodate, under the ownership of the Japanese National Railways, encountered the typhoon and capsized off the coast of Hakodate with 1,314 persons (including passengers and crew members) on board. 159 persons were rescued, but the remaining 1,155 (1,041 passengers, 73 crew and 41 others) died, an unprecedented marine casualty in the history of marine accidents off the coast of Japan.

Four other ferries sank in the same typhoon. Including the Toya Maru, 1430 passengers were killed.

See also

• 1954 Pacific typhoon season

References