naturaldiasaster

"Meiji Maru" ashore after typhoon in Japan (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• 5 older comments, and then…
• Art Siegel said:

  looks like you can still see this if you go to japan
  www.metropolis.co.jp/tokyoculturearchive349/329/tokyocult...

• Rob Ketcherside said:

  Is it possible this was really 1917?
  
  The Wikipedia Japanese typhoon page lists October 1, 1917 as the only memorable typhoon from the 1910s. It hit Tokyo Bay directly, and 3000 people died.
  
  Meiji Maru was tied up at the (predecessor to) the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology at this time, and used for training. A history of the ship on the university's site mentions that the bowsprit was broken in 1917 during the typhoon.
  
  Unfortunately this is an aft photo.
  
  [edit: fixed a URL; Kaiyodai changed it]

• Rob Ketcherside said:

  Still trying to figure out when this was, and learning how to research typhoons online :P
  
  The 1910s were a bad decade for typhoons in Japan, despite Wikipedia's lonely mention (surprise!).
  
  1917 still seems like the most likely candidate, with a storm surge that was so huge that it is referred to as a tsunami (tidal wave, caused by earthquake). It would take something significant to lift all of the ships up onto land. This photo is part of a series depicting beached ships and boats.
  
  Other possibilities: 1910, 1911, 1914.
  
  Sources:
  Review of photo collection held by Tokyo Fire Department. Singles out 1917 but also mentions August 1910 and July 1911 as particularly bad storms.
  History of Tama River.
  The Great Tsunami of Taisho Year 6, part of the series "Fighting Disaster". Includes an excerpt from a paper describing a ship up against JR Tsudanuma station in the 1917 typhoon, which like the maritime academy is on the north shore of Tokyo Bay.
  Missionary Review of the World, which discusses the damage to St. Luke's Hospital in the 1917 typhoon. St. Luke's is on the other side of Tsukishima at the mouth of the Sumida River from the maritime academy where the Meiji Maru was docked.
  List of major natural disasters in history mentions the 1917 typhoon but no other for the 1910s in the Tokyo area.
  Another list of major natural disasters includes 1911 and 1914 as well as 1917 for the Tokyo area.

• Rob Ketcherside said:

  This photo is discussed in The Commons research thread.
  
  If my assumption that it was tied up at home was correct, the merchant marine academy is here.

• BigBean said:

  Hi, as this photo features in a research projects in the Flickr Commons group, we'd love to have this added to the group pool!