Mashu Maru Audio Guide

Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru

   Welcome to Hakodate, where a real ocean-going ferry sits quietly at the waterfront, ready for you to walk aboard. This is the Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru, known in Japanese as Hakodate-shi Seikan Renrakusen Kinenkan Mashumaru. It is a museum ship, and its hull is that of the second Mashu-maru, a ferry of the Tsugaru-maru class that once sailed the Seikan route between Aomori and Hakodate. The ship is moored at the former Hakodate 2 berth, and the gangway you cross is in the same place it was when the ferry was in service. Inside, part of the interior is still as it was in the ferry's working days. Over the next few minutes I will tell you where the ship came from, what it carried, what you can see on each deck, and why it still matters here in Hakodate.

2. 02

   Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru: A Working Life on the Seikan Route

   Let's go back to June of 1965, when this ship was completed at the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. She was built for Japanese National Railways as a railway ferry that could carry passengers and also railway freight cars, and she went into service on the Seikan route linking Aomori and Hakodate. The numbers give you a feel for her. She was 132 meters long and 17.9 meters wide, and at completion her gross tonnage was 8,327.71 tons. Her diesel engines produced 12,800 horsepower and gave her a cruising speed of 18.2 knots. She could carry 1,200 passengers with a crew of about 50, along with 48 freight cars, counted in the railway's standard wagon units, and 12 passenger cars. Her story follows the history of the railway itself. In April 1987, when Japanese National Railways was divided and privatized, she passed to Hokkaido Railway Company. In March 1988 the Seikan Tunnel opened, the ferry route was closed, and she retired after more than two decades of crossings.

3. 03

   Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru: Clever Details of a Railway Ferry

   A railway ferry had a problem that an ordinary ship does not: keeping the vehicles on deck from toppling over in rough water. The answer was a securing device that lashed each vehicle down, and its design was refined over the years. From the time the Tsugaru-maru class entered service, the old scissor-type turnbuckle weighing 20 kilograms was replaced by a hook-on-both-sides type weighing 13 kilograms. The designers then went further and developed a chain lever-block system that was lighter still. It was tried first on the car ferry Hiyama-maru, the first of that name, and from Mashu-maru onward it was adopted for the forward 25 meters of the passenger-car ferries and car ferries. It is a small detail, but it shows how much thought went into the daily routine of loading a ship that crossed the strait again and again. The ship room on the third floor, the Ship Mechanism Exhibition Room, picks up this theme. It explains the structure of a large ship through models, real parts and video, so you can see how the machinery worked before you walk up to the wheelhouse.

4. 04

   Ferry Memorial Ship Mashu-maru: Decks, Wheelhouse and Harbor Views

   Your visit begins on the second floor, in the entrance and welcome lobby. The third floor holds the History of the Seikan Ferries corner, the Ship Mechanism Exhibition Room, a library corner, a rope-knotting corner and a seaside salon. Restored first-class reserved seats and ordinary seats are also on display, so you can sit where passengers once settled in for the crossing. The fourth floor is the highlight for many visitors. The wheelhouse, where the captain commanded the ship, and the radio room are kept in the state of the ferry's working days, and you are even allowed to touch the navigation instruments. Those heavy dials and controls make it easy to imagine the strait at night. The salon occupies rooms that were once used by the captain and the officers, and from here you have a sweeping view of Hakodate harbor and Mount Hakodate. Mashu-maru was one of the ferries that closed the Seikan era, together with Hachikoda-maru, Daisetsu-maru, Yotei-maru, Towada-maru, Sorachi-maru, Hiyama-maru and Ishikari-maru, and standing at that window you are looking at the same harbor those ships once crossed to reach.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Mashu-maru was preserved after the route closed. In 1989 a company called Hakodate Seaport Plaza took on the job of keeping and operating her, backed by Japan Railways Hokkaido, the city of Hakodate and the chamber of commerce. Today she is moored afloat at the Wakamatsu wharf in Hakodate port, and a nonprofit group devoted to passing on the story of the Seikan ferries now runs the museum. A few practical pointers. Parking at the Hakodate Station plaza lot and the Wakamatsu lot is free for up to two hours for museum visitors. Before you leave, take one more look across the water from the salon. Aomori lies on the far side of that strait, and its own memorial ferry, Hakkoda-maru, is the sister story waiting for you if you ever cross over.