{{Short description|Japanese steamship}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox ship |display_title=''Nunobiki Maru'' |section1={{Infobox ship/image |image_caption= |image= }}
|section2={{Infobox ship/career |hide_header= |country=Japan |flag=[[File:Naval Ensign of Japan.svg|50px|]] |name=''Nunobiki Maru'' |namesake= |ordered= |builder=[[Caird & Company]], [[Greenock]], Scotland |laid_down= |launched= 30 November 1874 |completed=1874 |acquired= |commissioned= |decommissioned= |in_service= |out_of_service= |struck= |homeport= |honours= |fate= Foundered 21 July 1899 |notes= }}
|section3={{Infobox ship/characteristics |hide_header= |header_caption= |type= [[Steamship]] |tonnage=1,336 [[gross register tonnage|grt]] |length= {{convert|79.3|m|ftin|abbr=on}} overall |beam= {{convert|9.2|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |height= |draught= |decks= |propulsion=[[compound steam engine]] |speed= |range= |capacity= |crew= |armament= |aircraft= |notes= }} }}
{{nihongo|'''''Nunobiki Maru'''''|布引丸|literally, '''Drawn Fabric'''}} was a Japanese [[steamship]] known mainly for her attempted delivery of arms, most notably powerful [[Murata rifle]]s, from Japan to the Philippines, a key event in [[Japan–Philippines relations|Japanese–Filipino relations]] during the [[Philippine–American War]].
==History== [[File:Nakamura Yaroku.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Yaroku Nakamura was instrumental in the delivery of arms to the Philippines.]] In 1874, the [[steamship]] ''Nunobiki Maru'' was built by [[Caird & Company]] in [[Greenock]], Scotland.<ref name="wrecksite1">{{cite web|title=Nunobiki Maru (+1899)|url=http://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?208824|website=The Wrecksite|accessdate=25 October 2016}}</ref> The ship was first operated by the [[Netherland Line|Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland]] as ''SS Sindoro''. In 1896, it was acquired by [[Mitsui & Co.|Mitsui Bussan]].<ref name="wrecksite2">{{cite web|title=Sindoro SS (1874~1896)|url=http://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?208825|website=The Wrecksite|accessdate=25 October 2016}}</ref> The ship was best known for her delivery of arms. In 1899, Filipino diplomat [[Mariano Ponce]] gained the aid of Chinese revolutionary [[Sun Yat-sen]] in finding a way to procure arms. Sun sympathized with the Filipino cause during the [[Philippine–American War]] and may have seen the Philippines as a staging point for his revolution in China.<ref name="lb">{{cite book|last1=Ocampo|first1=Ambeth|title=Looking Back 2|date=2010|publisher=Anvil Publishing|location=Pasig|pages=8–11}}</ref> With Sun's help, Ponce was able to meet [[pan-Asian]] Japanese philosopher [[Tōten Miyazaki]] and Japanese [[Silviculture|silviculturist]] Yaroku Nakamura.<ref name="sven">{{cite book|last1=Matthiessen|first1=Sven|title=Japanese Pan-Asianism and the Philippines from the Late Nineteenth Century to the End of World War II: Going to the Philippines Is Like Coming Home?|date=2015|publisher=BRILL|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=llPeCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|accessdate=25 October 2016|isbn=9789004305724}}</ref> Sympathizing with the Filipino cause as well, Miyazaki and Nakamura managed to make an arms purchase amounting to 155,000 [[Japanese yen|yen]] with Japanese trader Kihatiro Okura. This amount included the 18,000 [[Japanese yen|yen]] used to purchase ''Nunobiki Maru'', the ship used to deliver the arms. With the grant given by Nakamura's brother, [[Ministry of War of Japan|Vice Minister of War]] Yujiro Nakamura, the deal was made.<ref name="inq">{{cite web|last1=Ocampo|first1=Ambeth|title=Japanese with a different face|url=http://opinion.inquirer.net/86364/japanese-with-a-different-face|website=Inquirer.net|accessdate=25 October 2016}}</ref>
On 20 June 1899, the ship sailed off from [[Nagasaki]]. The delivery was composed of 10,000 [[Murata rifle|rifles]], six million Murata rounds, a single fixed [[cannon]], ten [[field guns]], seven [[field glasses]], equipment for [[handloading]] Murata cartridges including presses and dies, and other [[military]] supplies.<ref name="lb"/><ref name="kahimyang">{{cite web|title=Today in Philippine History, June 20, 1899, Nonubiki Maru leaves Nagasaki for the Philippines loaded with rifles and ammunition|url=https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/1192/today-in-philippine-history-june-20-1899-nonubiki-maru-leaves-nagasaki-for-the-philippines-loaded-with-rifles-and-ammunition|website=Kahimyang Project|accessdate=25 October 2016}}</ref><ref name="anderson">{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=Benedict|title=[[Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination]]|date=2005|publisher=Anvil Publishing|location=Pasig}}</ref> In order to avoid the American blockade, the ship was supposed to anchor off Taiwan first before arriving in the Philippines.<ref name="lb"/> However, she foundered in a [[List of Pacific typhoons before 1900|typhoon]] between Taihoku and Shanghai,<ref name="toten">{{cite book|last1=Miyasaki|first1=Toten|title=My Thirty-Three Year's Dream: The Autobiography of Miyazaki Toten|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OeL_AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA195|accessdate=25 October 2016|isbn=9781400857258}}</ref> and the ship was lost on 21 July 1899. ''Nunobiki Maru'' was foundered when she was {{convert|60|nmi|km|abbr=in|lk=out|order=flip}} from the Saddle Islands at the mouth of [[Yangtze|Yangtze River]].<ref name="wrecksite1"/> Despite the sinking of the ''Nunobiki Maru'', Nakamura pressed on for a second delivery which included 2.5 million rounds of ammunition. However, the remaining crew of the ''Nunobiki Maru'' revealed the purpose of the cargo. This resulted in a diplomatic dispute between Japan and the United States. The second delivery never went through.<ref name="sven"/> Meanwhile, after the disaster that struck ''Nunobiki Maru'', Miyazaki expressed his suspicion that Nakamura's intentions were driven more by profit than altruism, and came to state to Sun that the arms were defective and that ship herself might have been in bad condition when she set sail. In addition, after the incident, it became more difficult to deliver arms out of Japan.<ref name="toten"/>
==Technical details== ''Nunobiki Maru'' had a [[compound engine]], a [[drive shaft]], and a [[propeller]]. It was a [[ship transport]] protected by [[wrought iron|iron]]. She was 79.3 meters long, and her beam was 9.2 meters. Her [[hull number]] was 183.<ref name="wrecksite1"/>
==See also== *[[SS John Grafton]] *[[List of shipwrecks in 1899]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|title=The Nunobiki-Maru affair|date=1998|publisher=National Historical Institute|location=National Library of the Philippines Government Publication}}
{{1899 shipwrecks}}
[[Category:1874 ships]] [[Category:Ships built on the River Clyde]] [[Category:Steamships of Japan]] [[Category:Maritime incidents in 1899]] [[Category:Shipwrecks in the East China Sea]]