October 2011’s Mystery Ship Answer

The October mystery ship is either Nachiharu Maru or her sister Shikiharu Maru. They were built in the early 1950s for Shinnihon Kisen Kaisha at the Hitachi Dockyard Innoshima, and measured 142.5m by 18m, with a gross tonnage of 7,025. These two cargo liners had considerable refrigerated space and operated a service from Japan to the west and east coast of the USA. Shinnihon merged with Japan Line in 1964. I will opt for the ship being Nachiharu purely due the fact that I know she served the company from 1952 until 1970, and she was scrapped at Kaohsiung in 1972.Peter Sommerville, Greenock