From Wikipedia.
On the Sealion's Second War Patrol, she sank this ship which, unfortunately was carrying British and Australian prisoners of war.
I was a passenger ship built in Japan in 1921 and was part of Convoy HI-72 and transporting 1,317 prisoners from Singapore to Formosa. Another ship in the convoy was the SS Kachidoki Maru with another 950 Allied POWs and 1,095 Japanese on board.
On the morning of 12 September 1844,te convoy was attacked in the Luzon Strait by an American submarine wolfpack consisting of the Growler, Pampanito and Sealion. The Rakuyu Maru was torpedoes by the Sealion and sank towards evening.
The Kachidoki was also sunk with 488 people killed, mostly POWs. The Japanese survivors of the Rakuyu were rescued by an escort vessel which left the POWs in the water with rafts and some abandoned boats.
A total of 1,159 POWs died in the attack. A Japanese navy vessel shot and killed 350of the survivors in the boats the next day as they were rowing to shore.
The three American submarines returned the next day and rescued 149 surviving POWs on the rafts.
A Sad Turn of Events. --GreGen
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