HIKAWA MARU Decked! (History and Top-to-Bottom Tour of Japan's Last Surviving Art Deco Ocean Liner)

CORRECTION: The best site for ocean liner ephemera is Nautiques.net, not .com, which I mentioned in the video. Apologies to Nautiques for my gaffe! This is a detailed history and top-to-bottom tour of the only surviving ship with a link to the great French Art Deco liners of the late 1920s and early 1930s , the NYK HIKAWA MARU, which was built in 1930 and decorated by preeminent French designer Marc Simon. HIKAWA MARU is also the only major Japanese liner to survive World War Two, where she served heroically as a hospital ship. Built for the Asia to Vancouver and Seattle run for NYK, the HIKAWA MARU had two sisters, the HIYE MARU and the HEIAN MARU, both of which were sunk while serving as submarine escorts in World War Two. In her prime, HIKAWA carried Charlie Chaplin, Prince and Princess Chichibu and other notables on the transpacific run and after the war, continued on that service until retired at the end of 1960. She was opened up as a museum ship and youth hostel at Yokohama in 1961 and was almost lost in 2006, when her owners could no longer afford to maintain her. Her former owners, NYK Line, now a major container ship operator (and owner of deluxe NYK Cruises, which operates the former CRYSTAL HARMONY as the ASUKA II) funded her full restoration and reopened her as the NYK HIKAWA MARU in 2008. In 2024, NYK began conducting tests on the ship's hull and infrastructure and will soon be giving the ship another full restoration to keep her with us for many more years. All of that and much more can be seen in this 43 minute video. Music licensed from Artlist: "Hikaru To SHine" Roie Shpigler; Isshol Together" and "Chevalet" by Idokay; "Tokyo Ondo" by Isaku Kageyama; "Heroes" by Piotr Hummei; "Water Under The Bridge" by OK; "Folkarama" by Slpstrm; "Cou Cou" by Oded Distilman; "Cafe Francais" by Evert Z; "Vacanze a Vaccarro" by Bottega Baltazar; "Aiz u Bandaisan" by Isaku Kageyama; "With You In Montmartre" by Retrophonic and "Feel Inspired" by Ben Fox. #nykhikawamaru #hikawamaru #hiyemaru #heianmaru #charliechaplin #artdeco #artdecooceanliner #frenchartdeco #marcsimon