Raifuku Maru
Encyclopedia
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
ship that allegedly "vanished" during a voyage from Boston to Hamburg, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, with a cargo of wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
and a crew of thirty-eight, in April 1925 (some reports erroneously say 1921 or 1924). This case is usually cited as a part of the Bermuda Triangle
Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....
mystery, but in reality there has been proven to be a much more mundane explanation.
The “Disappearance”
According to the popular story, the RMS Homeric, a vessel of the White Star LineWhite Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
, received a cryptic SOS
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
from the Raifuku Maru on April 21st, 1925, which read, in broken English: “Danger like a dagger now! Come quick!” Reportedly, the Homeric traveled to where the vessel had given the SOS, but found not a trace of the ship. There was much speculation over what the “dagger” was (popular opinion seems to be divided between waterspout
Waterspout
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud. In the common form, it is a non-supercell tornado over water. While it is often weaker than most of its land counterparts, stronger versions spawned by mesocyclones do occur...
s and UFOs), and this was regarded as a genuine mystery of the sea by many. Popular writers on the Bermuda Triangle, specifically Charles Berlitz
Charles Berlitz
Charles Frambach Berlitz was an American linguist and language teacher known for his books on anomalous phenomena, as well as his language-learning courses. He is listed in The People's Almanac as one of the fifteen most eminent linguists in the world.-Life:Berlitz was born in New York City...
and Vincent Gaddis
Vincent Gaddis
Vincent Hayes Gaddis was an American author who coined the phrase "Bermuda Triangle" in a February 1964 Argosy cover piece. He popularized many stories about anomalous phenomena in a style similar to that of Charles Fort.Gaddis was born in Ohio to Tilden H. and Alice M. Gaddis. He married...
, propagated the myth of the vessel’s “mysterious” sinking, and it entered the lexicon along with such other well-known incidents as the Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste
The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned , despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able...
, the Carroll A. Deering
Carroll A. Deering
Carroll A. Deering was a five-masted commercial schooner that was found run aground off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in 1921. Its crew was mysteriously missing...
, and Flight 19
Flight 19
Flight 19 was the designation of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5, 1945 during a United States Navy-authorized overwater navigation training flight from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen on the flight were lost, as were all 13 crew members of a...
.
Explanation
However, there has been proven to be a much more rational explanation of the mystery. The Raifuku Maru had sailed out of Boston on April 18th, into a heavy storm. The Homeric and several other vessels received the following communication from the Japanese ship’s wirelessWireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
operator, Masao Hiwatari: “Now very danger! Come quick!” Despite the broken English of the Japanese crewmen, it was obvious that the vessel was in trouble. The Homeric (along with the British vessel King Alexander) tried desperately to reach the Raifuku Maru, but was unable to get close enough to rescue any crew due to the rough seas. The vessel was listing at a 30-degree angle, and sunk with all hands while the Homeric watched. The Homeric sent the following message to the Camperdown
Camperdown
-Places:Australia* Camperdown, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney* Camperdown, Victoria, a rural townshipEngland* Camperdown, Tyne and Wear, a village in the Metropolitan Borough of North TynesideNetherlands...
Coast Guard station: “OBSERVED STEAMER RAIFUKU MARU SINK IN LAT 4143N LONG 6139W REGRET UNABLE TO SAVE ANY LIVES.” Several vessels attempted to locate bodies or survivors from the ship in the days after the sinking, but found none.
The incident was quite controversial at the time; the Japanese government accused the English captains of racism for not saving their crewmen, though this accusation appears unfounded.
Conclusion
It is very interesting in the eyes of skeptics of the Bermuda Triangle phenomenon that such a mundane story was spun off into one of the great mysteries of the sea. It is unclear who the first author to mention the Raifuku Maru in a mysterious context was, though Vincent Gaddis’s Invisible Horizons (1965) was the first popular book to feature the story. Many other books and articles on the Triangle have repeated the story almost verbatim, though as mentioned above the date of the vessel’s sinking seemed to vary from author to author. Larry KuscheLarry Kusche
Lawrence David Kusche is an American author and pilot. He had been a commercial pilot, flight instructor, instrument-rated pilot, instrument instructor and librarian by the time he wrote The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved and The Disappearance of Flight 19 .Larry Kusche was born in Racine,...
, in his Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved (1975), pointed out this case as being nothing more than the routine sinking of a merchant vessel, blown up (perhaps by the frantic final message of the wireless operator) into a mysterious incident with possibly supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
overtones, its place in history being cemented by continual repetition by various credulous authors.
Newspaper References
- “Japanese Ships Sinks With A Crew Of 38; Liners Unable To Aid,” New York Times, April 22, 1925.
- “Passengers Differ On Homeric Effort To Save Sinking Ship,” New York Times, April 23, 1925.
- “Homeric Captain Upheld By Skippers,” New York Times, April 24, 1925.
- “Liner Is Battered In Rescue Attempt,” New York Times, April 25, 1925.