Nippon 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 Kaiwo 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 1952 and continued regular training voyages, usually in the Pacific, occasionally attending international tall ship events: she visited New York in 1960 for the 100th anniversary of Japan's first delegation to the USA, took part in the American bicentennial celebrations in New York in 1976 and joined the international tall ship gathering at Osaka in 1983.

Decommissioned in September 1984 and replaced by Nippon Maru II, she is retired as a floating museum at Yokohama under the management of the Nippon Maru Commemorative Foundation.

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