her reports the battleships were directed to various merchant vessels, which were then sunk. On 9 September 1942 she left France for Japan with a cargo of vegetable oil and fuel, supplying the auxiliary cruiser on the way, arriving at Yokohama on 24 November 1942. Uckermark was then intended as the replenishment ship for the German raider , which was raiding merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean areas. On 30 November 1942, Uckermark was anchored in Yokohama, Japan, next to Thor and the Australian passenger liner SS Nankin, carrying a load of explosives, which Thor had captured in March five days out from Fremantle, Australia, en route to Colombo, Ceylon. While the crew was at lunch, Uckermark suffered an explosion and fire which spread to the Nankin resulting in a larger explosion that sunk the Uckermark, Thor, and Nankin and destroyed a portion of the docks. The cause of the fire and explosions was thought to be a spark from tools used by a repair gang working near the cargo tanks igniting residual gasoline. The Uckermark had delivered 5000 tons of gasoline to Yokohama. It is unknown if the ship had an inerting system for its cargo tanks installed, but as tanker vessels with inerting systems were uncommon at the time the ship was built it is likely that combined with wartime stresses the lack of (or inoperability of) an inerting system contributed significantly to the power of the initial explosion. A comparable incident was the explosion of the MS Bidwell at Marcus Hook, PA in 1932. 53 crewmen from Uckermark died in the explosion. The severely damaged ship was beyond repair and was scrapped. Some of the survivors of the ship were sent to France on the blockade runner Doggerbank and perished when the ship was mistakenly sunk by the on 3 March 1943 with all but one of the 365 strong crew lost at sea. References External links Uckermark : Operational History World War II auxiliary ships of Germany 1937 ships Oil tankers World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean Tankers of Germany Maritime incidents in February 1940 Maritime incidents in November 1942