The appearance of the vessel's name on a Japanese Government list in 1939 prior to the formal entry of Japan into the Pacific War, gives weight to this contention. It has been suggested that the vessel may have been used at this time by an agency of the Japanese Government as a reconnaissance or intelligence gathering vessel. In this later capacity the vessel operated in the Singapore area servicing a fleet of fishing vessels working offshore while in the ownership of the Fugisawa family. ![]() It may have originally been rigged for fishing or fitted out as a fish carrier, without fishing gear but larger hold space for fish as cargo. Krait appears to have been one of a class of ships constructed for the fishing industry to fulfil various roles. It was named KOFUKU MARU meaning ‘happiness’ or ‘good fortune’. It was one of three sister boats built in 1934 for Kotaro Fugisawa, a Japanese fisherman based in Singapore. It is understood to have been built in Nagahama, on the Island of Shikoku in Japan's Inland Sea with its construction thought to be typical of the type of vessel made at the Hamagami shipyards. This view is supported in the design of Krait, a distinctly English looking ship. Yet for all their technical developments, Japanese maritime output in naval architecture, marine engineering, navigation and refrigeration remained derivative of western types rather than innovative. The adoption of the diesel engine as standard propulsion for small vessels and also from incentives in the form of subsidies paid by the Government to encourage the fitting of radios, exploration of new fishing grounds and the construction of steel vessels over 100 tons encouraged the opportunity for this to happen. In spite of the frequent references to these covert activities the results gained by Japanese craft in this way have been questioned, given that most captured Japanese charts were basic copies of old Admiralty charts with no subsequent corrections or soundings, or even older German charts. This change saw Japanese luggers moving down from Palau and Okinawa, where at the time more than 90% of Australia's pearl shell was fished in grounds from 5 to 50 miles offshore, well outside the three-mile limit and thus allowing the Japanese opportunities for charting of coastal waters and intelligence gathering. Around 1930 conditions in these pearling grounds had changed with the Japanese no longer prepared to work as employees of Australian master pearlers. This may have given them some advantages when they successfully invaded the Aleutian Islands in June 1942, as a diversionary prelude to Midway.Īt the same time, correspondents drew attention to the activities of Japanese fishing craft operating on the northern approaches to Australia. ![]() From early in the 20 century until 1938 Japanese fishing fleets operated in the grounds off Alaska, allegedly commanded by naval officers posing as fishermen taking soundings and gathering intelligence of local conditions. ![]() Japanese expansion into distant waters was noted from Kamchatka in the northern Pacific Ocean to the Mexican coast, and from the China Sea to the Bay of Bengal with the Japanese whaling fleet rivalling those of other traditional whaling nations in the Antarctic Ocean. The fleet was also used as an instrument of national policy and aggressively pushed with particular consequences for all countries around the Pacific Rim. The consequent acquisition of a huge and modern domestic fishing fleet delivered parallel opportunities for intelligence gathering and crew familiarisation of foreign waters. It was noted that in the pre-Second World War days the Japanese fishing fleet was the world's largest (400,000 vessels) with an estimated output in 1936 in excess of 4million tonnes more than the combined production of the United States, Britain and Norway. Driven by a need to support a population where fish alongside rice is a basic staple, modernisation to achieve self-sufficiency followed. The inter-war years saw Japanese expansion in all sectors of ship construction, with particular emphasis on merchant ship types. Krait’s background begins with the story of Japanese fishing industry after World War I. The 21.33 metre long vessel is carvel planked in teak with holds forward of the engine room, and wheelhouse on deck. It was originally called the KOFUKU MARU and had been a fishing vessel built in Japan around 1934 for a Japanese firm in Singapore. ![]() Description KRAIT, the name for a venomous snake in South East Asia, was pronounced "Krate' by the crew but is a properly pronounced 'Krite'.
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