Kamikaze Maru No. 7 was laid down at the
Sasebo shipyard of Matsuura Shipbuilding (松浦造船所) at the behest of Kojiro Linuma (飯沼耕次郎). She was wood-hulled.
Kamikaze Maru No. 7 was launched and named in December 1940. On 24 February 1942, she was requisitioned by the
Imperial Japanese Navy for service as a salvage ship and assigned to the
Sasebo Naval District. On 1 April 1942, she departed
Sasebo arriving on 13 April 1942 at
Hong Kong where she assisted in salvaging the many vessels scuttled by the fleeing British forces during the
Battle of Hong Kong. In May 1943, she departed Hong Kong for patrol duty in the
Sunda Strait and before arriving at various ports to conduct further salvage operations:
Jakarta (20 July 1943),
Surabaya (18 August 1943),
Lingayen Gulf (22 September 1943) where she repaired the general cargo ship
Nisui Maru which had hit a mine,
Manila (27 November 1943) where she assisted in salvaging the many vessels scuttled by the fleeing American forces after the
Battle of Corregidor,
Batangas (7 March 1944) where she conducted salvage work on the cargo ship
Urayasu Maru. Thereafter she visited various ports in the Philippines and Indonesia before returning to Manila on 25 April 1944 where she met up with her fellow salvage ship
Kamikaze Maru No. 5 and attempted to raise the
USS Canopus which had been scuttled in Mariveles Bay on the
Bataan peninsula across from
Corregidor. She survived the war; her ultimate fate is unknown. ==References==