was a cargo motor ship that was built in Germany in 1926 and sunk off the coast of Bali in 1944. She was launched as Rendsburg for the Deutsch-Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft (DADG), which in 1926 merged with Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG).
When Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch authorities seized Rendsburg in the Dutch East Indies and renamed her Toendjoek. In March 1942, during the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch scuttled her as a blockship.
In August 1942 the Japanese re-floated her and renamed her Tango Maru. In 1944 she was serving as a hell ship when the submarine torpedoed her, sinking her with the loss of about 3,000 lives.
Other Japanese ships in the Second World War were also called Tango Maru. One was the British-built, Dutch-owned tanker Talang Akar, which was sunk in the Makassar Strait in November 1943, coincidentally also by Rasher. Another was a Japanese-built steamship operated by Nippon Yusen KK, which was sunk in the East China Sea by US aircraft only five days later.
Rendsburg and her sisters
In the mid-1920s DADG ordered its first three motor ships. All were built by shipyards in Hamburg. Vulcan-Werke completed Duisburg in July 1925 and Rendsburg in February 1926; and Blohm+Voss completed Magdeburg in December 1925.
Rendsburg was launched on 1 September 1925 and completed on 2 February 1926. Her registered length was , her beam was and her depth was . Her tonnages were and .
Each of the three sister ships had a single screw. Blohm+Voss equipped Magdeburg with one six-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine, but Duisburg and Rendsburg each had a pair of eight-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines, driving the single propeller shaft via "hydraulic oil transformers" and single-reduction gearing. MAN pioneered this transmission system to allow high-speed Diesel engines to be used in marine propulsion. The combined power of Rendsburgs twin engines was rated at 993 NHP or 4,100 bhp, and gave her a speed of . By 1933 she was equipped with wireless direction finding. By 1934 the call sign DIET had superseded her code letters.
Toendjoek
When the Second World War began in September 1939, German merchant ships sought refuge in neutral ports. Rendsburg sheltered in Tanjung Priok in the Dutch East Indies. On 10 May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands, and the Dutch authorities seized all German ships in Dutch ports.
See also
- List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines