Muroton / Broughton Bay

Thanks a lot Flyer!

Dear Martin !

I have sent You 2 private messages via LAAHS Forum, but You did not answer. So, I answer You here:

1) Yes, the Island Shimushiru (in Japanese spelling), or Simushir (in Russian spelling) is situated in the chain of Kurile Islands. See the Kurile map (note the Islands, circled on map with red colour):

First of all You need to read the following article, with special attention to geographical names:

http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19310608-1.2.136.aspx – check the “I agree to the terms and conditions” box and click “I agree” button to read the “Japan’s lone Eagle forced down” article.

2) Simushir Island have not so many bays to mix the bay’s names. Highly detailed map from year 1984 shows only 8 large bays with own name each. This is possibly, there are some smaller unnamed bays on Simushir – but I do not know about this fact. The second largest bay after Milna Bay (“Zaliv Milna” in Russian) is “Bukhta Broutona” (in Russian). This bay was named in Honour of W. R. Broughton, British officer and explorer. See the article about him here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Robert_Broughton

See the Simushir map (note the red arrow to Bay of Broughton):

So, Russian name “Bukhta Broutona” means exactly “Bay of Broughton” (or “Broughton Bay”, if You want). This bay is very good suitable for naval plane’s landings – it have length of 5,7 kilometers and depth over 200 meters; the bay is surrounded with earth from each side, excluding bay entrance (it have the width about 250 meters).

3) I feel sure, in cases with Seiji Yoshihara and C. Lindberg we have usual error in geographic names, that occurred during transmission of the information to press. Even today, despite of high progress in devices for the communications, we can see many errors in names of people, towns, villages, cities and other places in books, magazines, radio reports, articles, etc. And at that far-far time all communications were in the beginning of progress. And second – this is obviously, the authors of all those articles obtain the information from one or two sources, and thus the error is the same everywhere.

4) We can check exactly the statement “Muroton Bay is Bay of Broughton in reality” !
See the link:

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/17033911/

You need one phrase from there:
“Finally, the fliers brought their plane safely down on the lee of the rockbounc Island of Ketoi, 15 miles from Muroton bay“.

Looking at map, we can see small Island to the northeast of Simushir Island – this is Ketoi Island. When I have measured the direct distance between center of Bay of Broughton and closest point of Ketoi Island, I got the result of 25,2 kilometers, or 13,6 naval miles. This is about 14 miles, and this is very close to “15 miles” in article.
See the map of Simushir and Ketoi Islands with my marks on it:

On this basis I conclude, that “Muroton Bay” in articles is Bay of Broughton exactly in real life.

Thank You, Martin, for such very interesting question for amazing research !

My suggested link was supposed to be MUROTOU Bay! :confused:

Thanks a lot!

My suggested link was supposed to be MUROTOU Bay! :confused:

47* 08′ 40″ N and 152* 14′ 29″ E links to Bukhta Broutona, Broutona Bay – maybe you’re right!

edit: you’re right!
Now I just found this:
“The Lindberghs spent a rough night in the wave-rocked Sirius, waking in the morning to find the ship Shinshuru Maru, sent by the Japanese government, standing by to assist them. Sailors helped Lindbergh repair the plane and then towed it to the calm waters of Brouton Bay.”

God, that place is BARREN like DESOLATE! You might need a Russian to help with that search. The most likely ‘bay’ would be at 47* 08′ 40″ N and 152* 14′ 29″ E. Watch out for submarines.

Couple of links here of interest.

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/12814394/

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1734079/