 Shinano Maru in 1905 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Empire of Japan | |
| Name | Shinano Maru |
| Ordered | 1904 Fiscal Year |
| Builder | W. Henderson Co,Glasgow |
| Launched | 31 January 1900 |
| Completed | April 1900 |
| Stricken | 1951 |
| Fate | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 6,388long tons (6,491 t) |
| Length | 135.635 m (445 ft 0 in)w/l |
| Beam | 14.996 m (49 ft 2.4 in) |
| Draught | 7.89 m (25 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 15.4knots (28.5 km/h; 17.7 mph) |
| Complement | 238 |
| Armament | 2 × 6 in (152 mm) guns |
Shinano Maru (信濃丸) was a 6,388 GRT merchantman operated by theNippon Yusen K.K Shipping Company (NYK). She was built byW. Henderson Co inGlasgow, for the express purpose of serving NYK's Japan toSeattle route. NYK originally intended that she be built at theMitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards in Japan; however, Mitsubishi had experienced problems in the completion ofHitachi Maru, which had led to considerable delays. NYK chose not to wait, andShinano Maru was ordered to Scotland. She was completed in April 1900. During theRusso-Japanese WarShinano Maru was converted into anarmed merchantman. She has the distinction of discovering theRussian Fleet nearTsushima Strait on the eve of theBattle of Tsushima. After the warShinano Maru reverted to civilian use, being scrapped in 1951.
Shinano Maru, with a length of 135.6 metres (444 ft 11 in), was designed to carry 238 passenger (26 first class, 20 second class, 193 third class), and her accommodations were regarded as modern and comfortable at the time of her completion. Initially,Shinano Maru was placed in service on Nippon Yusen routes between Australia and Japan.[1]
Later in her early service with Nippon Yusen,Shinano Maru was reassigned to North Pacific routes to North America, making regular voyages betweenYokohama andSeattle. She was involved in a collision offVictoria, British Columbia with theSSEmpress of Japan on June 3, 1902. The novelistKafū Nagai was a passenger in 1903.
With the start of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904,Shinano Maru was one of the first ships requisitioned by theImperial Japanese Army for use as atroopship and military transport to convey troops and supplies toKorea andManchuria. In March 1905,[2]Shinano Maru was armed and converted into anauxiliary cruiser atKure Naval Arsenal, mounting two 6-inch (152 mm) guns (one fore and one aft), and was commissioned into theImperial Japanese Navy under the command of Captain Morikawa.[3] Shortly before theBattle of Tsushima she was assigned to the Auxiliary Squadron of theCombined Fleet along with six other armed merchantmen and threetorpedo boat tenders[4] assigned to patrols of theTsushima Strait to search for theRussian Baltic Fleet, which had been dispatched around the world to relieve theJapanese blockade of Port Arthur.
On the night of May 26–27Shinano Maru,America Maru,Sado Maru andManshu Maru were deployed as a lookout screen in the strait betweenGotō Islands andJeju-do.[5] At 2:45Shinano Maru sighted a suspicious ship, but the rising moon prevented proper identification.[3]Shinano Maru steamed ahead and properly sighted the opponent at 4:30.[3] It was an apparently unarmedhospital ship, communicating signals to other enemy ships, invisible in the morning haze.[3] The sighted ship turned out to be the Russian hospital transportOrel.[6] The rest of the Russian fleet had already sailed pastOrel, undetected by the Japanese.[3] Morikawa settled to search and seizeOrel and closed in, only to notice half a dozen other Russian ships nearby.[7] He fled the scene and broadcast the report of the sighting on the wireless.[7] However, grid coordinates reported byShinano Maru were incorrect by 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km), owing either to Morikawa's errors indead reckoning or to his misunderstanding ofOrel's position in the Russian order of battle.[7] The Japanese Third Squadron hurried to the grid square reported by Morikawa, but could not find the trace of the enemy.[8]
At 6:05Shinano Maru reestablished visual contact with the Russian fleet, and continued shadowing it at 4 to 5 miles (6.4 to 8.0 km) distance.[7] Russian officers advised admiralZinovy Rozhestvensky to interfere but Rozhestvensky refused, insisting on continuing his course in strictradio silence.[8] At 6:40Shinano Maru was relieved by the Japanese cruiserIzumi.[9] Confusion caused by Morikawa's first report was resolved, and now the Combined Fleet had precise information on the Russian advance.[10] This intelligence ultimately led to the decisiveBattle of Tsushima.
In the aftermath of the battleShinano Maru andDainan Maru located the sinkingSissoi Veliky and forced the captain to surrender it.[11]Shinano Maru took the Russian survivors to captivity inSasebo.
Shinano Maru returned to civilian service in 1906, on Nippon Yusen's routes toSeattle. After more modern vessels were available,Shinano Maru was transferred to regional services, especially theKobe –Keelung route. In 1913,Kuomintang leaderSun Yat-sen sought refuge in Japan, and travelled to Kobe onShinano Maru. In 1923, the ship was transferred to Kinkai Yusen, a subsidiary company of Nippon Yusen. In 1929, the ship was sold to Hokushin Kisen, and sold again in 1930 to the fisheries companyNichiro, which converted it into a floating factory ship supporting the fishing fleets in the North Pacific processingsalmon off the coast ofKamchatka Peninsula.
Pressed back into service as a transport in thePacific War,Shinano Maru was torpedoed January 18, 1944 with moderate damage, then slightly damaged by anaval mine on June 1, 1945, and again by an airstrike on July 14, 1945, which killed two crewmen. She was docked atNagasaki during the final days of the war.
Shinano Maru was so obsolete and rusted that notedmanga artistShigeru Mizuki wrote in his diary that the iron of the hull was so rusted and thin that he considered it miraculous that the ship remained afloat, and that even the wake of a torpedo would be enough to sink it. After thesurrender of Japan, it was used as a repatriation vessel bringing back Japanese former prisoners-of-war fromSiberia. One of those returning to Japan onShinano Maru was the future novelistShōhei Ōoka. At the beginning of theKorean War, the ship was used as a mother ship for landing operations of the U.S. Navy.[12]Shinano Maru was sold for scrap in 1951.
