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The Japanese Antarctic Expedition's ship Kainan Maru, photographed in the Bay of Whales, January 1912

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[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Kainan_Maru_ship_1912.jpg]

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Japanese Antarctic expedition 1910-1912

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Kainan Maru

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Japanese wooden fishing sailboat weighing 204 tons and equipped with an 18-horsepower auxiliary engine that was converted for use in the Japanese Antarctic Expedition in 1910-1912. Only 30 metres long, the ship was thought by many to be too small to make the voyage. It was renamed for the expedition, one of the English translations of 'Kainan Maru' being 'Opener-up of the South’.

Japanese Antarctic expedition 1910-1912

Exploratory expedition to the Antarctic led by Lieutenant Naoshi Shirase. The expedition sailed on a 204 ton, 100 feet long converted wooden fishing boat with an 18-horse-power auxiliary engine, the Kainan Maru, that was captained by Naokichi Nomura. The ship left Tokyo in November 1910, later than had first been planned. Unable to reach the Antarctic mainland due to ice as the southern winter drew in, the expedition harboured in Sydney from 4 May 1911 until the following summer, departing on 19 May 1911. While they did not reach the South Pole, the explorers reached 80° 5 south, and were the first non-Europeans to explore Antarctica.

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