After a hearty breakfast, Verbay and Henry left the rented hotel. The British were going to take a look around the docklands and buy some travel equipment, because according to the plan, they would have to go on a long journey at sea.

At that time, the most common means of transportation from the United States to Japan was an ocean liner, which usually took 15 to 20 days from San Francisco to the port of Yokohama in Japan.

With the expansion of the scale of the war of aggression against China, Japan's demand for imported raw materials has increased rapidly, and now there are hundreds of passenger and cargo ships every day, cleaving the waves across the vast Pacific Ocean, sailing on this golden route.

In this year, if you have enough financial means, it is best to choose a first-class or second-class cabin, not only to ensure the quality of food and accommodation, but also to get a certain priority in case of an accident escape. Of course, the two spy bosses will not be short of money, and their cover identity is that they are successful businessmen, and they are fully qualified to enjoy a comfortable journey.

Nippon Cruise Line's Kamakura maru is docked at the San Francisco pier, with first-class tickets starting at $320 and guests in the Superior Suites with champagne and canapés.

This 17,500-ton cruise ship was originally called the Chichibu Maru, the second of three cruise ships of the same class customized by Japan Cruises, the other two being the Asama Maru and the Tatsuda Maru.

Because the ship's powertrain was made in Denmark for marine diesel engines, Kawasaki Shipyard changed the original design so that when the ship was built, it was more than 500 tons heavier than its sisters, and there was a noticeable difference in appearance, with only one large separate chimney, and the other two were still the original double chimney layout.

As the largest ocean-going cruise ship in Japan after the thirties, the interior decoration of this ship is also the most luxurious, not only boldly adopting the design of British and French styles, but also reaching the world's top level in terms of materials and craftsmanship, and the Japanese media proudly call it "the queen of the Pacific" and regard it as the pride of the Yamato nation.

However, few people in the outside world knew at that time that from the beginning of design and construction, this high-speed mixed passenger and cargo ship was favored by the Imperial Japanese Navy and became part of the "combat power multiplication strategy". In order to circumvent the restrictions of the "Washington Naval Treaty," the Japanese Navy really racked its already modest brains, and as a result, it came up with a "combined fleet combat strength multiplication strategy." To put it bluntly, it was a plan to urgently convert Japan's large civilian ships into military warships in the event of a war with the United States.

It is important to know that the difference between warships and civilian ships is not only whether they are equipped with weapons, but also in terms of structural design, production and manufacturing processes, or the selection of raw materials. The design of warships revolves around the ability to fight at sea, while civilian ships consider obtaining economic benefits.

However, as long as the brain hole of the "genius" staff officers of the Imperial Navy is opened, it will be difficult to close it, and once this group of naval octopuses gets into the tip of the horns, even if the entire combined fleet is activated, it will not be able to drag it out.

How to more conveniently and effectively transform a civilian ship that cannot be compared with the military eight poles into a warship, these people came up with the solution that is to take into account the possible future military modifications when designing civilian ships. For example, in terms of hull structure and compartment layout, the design scheme close to that of a military ship should be adopted as much as possible, so as to avoid large changes to the structure during the renovation and reduce the materials and man-hours required for naval construction in the future.

In order to achieve this goal, the Japanese Navy has promoted the government cabinet to promulgate a "subsidy measure for excellent ship construction", which provides financial subsidies for the construction, maintenance and operation of high-performance civilian ships, so as to encourage shipping companies and shipbuilders to build high-performance ships with a tonnage of more than 6,000 tons and a speed of more than 19 knots. Correspondingly, these ships are designed with elements of military use in mind, so that the Navy can meet the Navy's goal of converting them into military ships within three months.

The money is not so easy to get, and there are a lot of messy conditions linked to the policy, such as not allowing foreigners to work on the ship, using domestic raw materials as much as possible, and recruiting retired naval personnel for the crew, all of which are preparations for war.

For the construction of this "Chichibu Maru", the Japanese government injected half of the construction funds into the Japanese cruise line, and the Japanese Navy's Ship Administration Headquarters was directly involved in the design of passenger and cargo ships.

Even the direction of the ship's transformation has been predetermined, and the navy plans that she and her two sisters will be quickly transformed into a special aircraft carrier if the war requires it.

The Navy designed a huge cargo handling hatch for this cruise ship, which is actually reserved for aircraft lifts, and only the superstructure needs to be removed and the flight deck laid, and this "Queen of the Pacific" can immediately be transformed and become a new member of the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Corps.

Interestingly, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Navy seemed to have forgotten about it, and after these three cruise ships were requisitioned, they have been active as transport ships on Southeast Asian routes.

At the beginning of 1942, the Chichibu Maru (renamed the Kamakura Maru in 39) as a naval transport ship was given a special mission by the Japanese government to become a "hostage exchange ship".

Her black hull was painted with a large white cross, transforming it into a medical ship. Immediately, 900 British diplomats, students, and ordinary expatriates detained by Japan in Shanghai, Singapore and other places were loaded in Kaohsiung, and headed for the port of Maputo, Mozambique, which was still a Portuguese colony at that time.

After handing over the detainees to the Portuguese, she returned to the port of Yokohama, completing a rare humanitarian exchange between Japan and the West, with an equal number of Japanese, Thai, and German diplomats and expatriates held by the British, as well as the remains of some fallen Japanese naval soldiers, as well as a large number of supplies for Allied prisoners of war.

In history, with the fiasco of the Battle of Midway, the Japanese Navy finally remembered these three ships, but the Navy Shipyard had a limited 10,000-ton slipway, and the maintenance of the active ships had to queue up, and they were busy refitting three [Okagi]-class aircraft carriers at that time, and the [Chichibu Maru] renovation plan could only be ranked behind them.

The main body of the Otaka class is the 18,000-ton Nitta Maru-class cruise ship, which is also a member of the shipbuilding subsidy program, and the three ships are the Kasuga Maru, which is planned to be transformed into Otaka, the Nitta Maru, which is planned to be transformed into Okitaka, and the Yawatamaru, which is planned to be transformed into Unbundaka.

The Chichibu Maru was also planned to be transformed into a Okaka-class aircraft carrier, but before she could be put on the slipway, on April 28, 1943, she was sunk by the U.S. Navy submarine SS-211 off the coast six miles southwest of Panay Island in the Philippines.

But at this moment, the Pacific queen of the NYK shipping company was quietly moored by the docks in San Francisco, Ling Ling's light reflected on the shiny black hull, completely unaware of what fate awaited her in the future.

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