Built under yard no 450 as a passenger- cargo vessel by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Nagasaki for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha of Tokyo.
10 September 1928 keel laid down
30 October 1928 launched under the name ASAMA MARU. Two sisters.
Tonnage 16,975 gross, 10,017 net, 8,100 dwt., dim. 583 x 72 x 42.2ft. Length between pp. 560ft, draught 28.5ft.
Powered by four 8-cyl. Mitsubishi Sulzers diesels, 4,008 nhp., speed 21 knots, four screws.
Passenger accommodation for 222 first, 96 second and 504 third.
15 September 1929 completed.
Built for the cross Pacific service between Japan and San Francisco. She was the first Japanese vessel fitted out with diesel engines that crossed the Pacific. She and her two sisters were very modern fitted out with the latest technical findings. Her nickname was the Queen of the Pacific.
10 October 1929 sailed for her maiden voyage from Yokahama to San Francisco. She set the record for the fastest Yokahama-San Francisco crossing.
21 January 1940 the British cruiser HMS LIVERPOOL off the coast of Japan stopped her, and 21 German passengers were forcibly removed from the ASAMA MARU.
06 November 1941 she evacuated Japans civilians from Singapore.
When war broke out she was requisitioned by the Japanese Government, used as a transport.
In July 1942 she provided transport for exchange of US, British and Japanese diplomats, the exchange took place at Lorenco Marques (Maputo) when she rendezvoused with the Swedish passenger vessel GRIPSHOLM.
01 November 1944 She was sunk by the American submarine USS ATULE (SS403) in a position of 20 17N 117 38E about 100 mile South of the Pratas Reef in the South China Sea.
Dictionary of American naval fighting ships gives on the sinking:
Over the next few days ATULE made but lost several ship contacts. Shortly after midnight on 1 November
(1944), she established surface radar contact on a fast moving escorted transport and moved in for the kill.
Despite rainsqualls and heavy seas, ATULE was able to close the transport and fire six torpedoes. The first hit caused a terrific explosion which threw flaming material high in the air. When one of the transport escorts began to close the submarine, she began a crash dive but still managed to hear a second explosion as she submerged. Nine depth charges exploded in the vicinity but none was close enough to damage ATULE.
The crew in the submarine heard loud breaking up noises and upon surfacing, found a large oil slick and much debris. ATULE was later credited with sinking ASMA MARU, a 16.975-ton Japanese transport.
Sources:
http://rasputin.physics.uiuc.edu/~wirin ... aMaru.html. Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1929. Navicula.
