Asama Maru

Asama Maru was a Japanese ocean liner owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha, built in 1927 to 1929 by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Engineering at Nagasaki and named after an important Shinto shrine. She and her sister ships Tatsuta Maru and Chichibu Maru were built for the company premier high-speed trans-Pacific service between Japan and California, and she set a record on her maiden voyage that she bettered on her fourth. The 16,975-ton ship was 583 feet long, with four Mitsubishi-Sulzer diesel engines, two funnels and a service speed of 21 knots, and she carried 222 first-class, 96 second-class and up to 504 third-class passengers. In January 1940 the British cruiser HMS Liverpool stopped her off Japan and removed 21 German passengers, an event known as the Asama Maru incident. She was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy in November 1941, served as a troopship and as a diplomatic exchange vessel, and was sunk by the American submarine USS Atule on 1 November 1944.