Kaiwo Maru I

Built for the Japanese Ministry of Transport as a merchant navy school ship to a British design; the four-masted barque was built at the Kawasaki Dockyard in Kobe and launched on 27 January 1930. Her sister ship is Nippon Maru I.

She sailed regular training voyages in the Pacific until the Second World War. During the war she went on training officers although the yards of her rigging were removed and she worked under power alone; she was also used to repatriate Japanese troops and civilians and remained under Japanese ownership.

She was re-rigged and recommissioned in 1955 and continued regular training voyages, usually in the Pacific, occasionally taking part in international tall ship events such as Seattle in 1976 and Sail Osaka in 1983.

Decommissioned in 1989 and replaced by Kaiwo Maru II, she is kept in Tokyo harbour as a stationary training ship.

The word Kaiwo means "sea king"; Maru is appended to most Japanese merchant vessels and is a term of endearment that also conveys the idea of endeavour.