Daigo Fukuryū Maru
Daigo Fukuryū Maru on display in Tokyo
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| History | |
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 Japan
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| Name: |
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| Launched: | 1947 |
| Status: | Museum ship since 1976 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Fishing boat |
| Displacement: | 140.86 t (139 long tons) |
| Length: | 28.56 m (93.7 ft) |
| Beam: | 5.9 m (19 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 250 hp (186 kW) engine |
| Speed: | 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) |
| Crew: | 23 |
Daigo Fukuryū Maru (第五福龍丸?, F/V Lucky Dragon 5) was a Japanese tuna fishing boat, with a crew of 23 men, which was exposed to and contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954.
The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS) for a number of weeks after the Bravo test in March but all later recovered except for Aikichi Kuboyama, the boat's chief radioman, who died some seven months later on September 23, 1954, from an underlying liver cirrhosis compounded by a secondary Hepatitis C infection. During their ARS treatment, the crew of 23 were inadvertently infected with hepatitis C through blood transfusions. According to certain activists, Kuboyama is considered to be the first victim of the hydrogen bomb and of test shot Castle Bravo.
Built in March 1947, and launched from Koza, Wakayama, the boat's name was originally Dainana Kotoshiro Maru (第七事代丸?, Kotoshiro Maru No. 7)/Kotoyo Maru No. 7. Under this title it was a bonito boat and moored in Misaki Fishing Harbor, Kanagawa Prefecture.
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Wikipedia