Shinano Maru ( 1900 ) Early civilian service . " Shinano Maru " , with a length of , 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 . Later in her early service with Nippon Yusen , " Shinano Maru " was reassigned to North Pacific routes to North America , making regular voyages between Yokohama and Seattle . She was involved in a collision off Victoria , British Columbia with the SS " Empress of Japan " on June 3 , 1902 . The novelist Kafū Nagai was a passenger in 1903 . Battle of Tsushima . With the start of the Russo - Japanese War in February 1904 , " Shinano Maru " was one of the first ships requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Army for use as a troopship and military transport to convey troops and supplies to Korea and Manchuria . In March 1905 , the " Shinano " was armed and converted into an auxiliary cruiser at Kure Naval Arsenal , mounting 2 x 6 inch guns ( one fore and one aft ) , and was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy under the command of Captain Morikawa ) . Shortly before the Battle of Tsushima she was assigned to the Auxiliary Squadron of the Combined Fleet along with six other armed merchantmen and three torpedo boat tender s assigned to patrols of the Tsushima Strait to search for the Russian Baltic Fleet , which had been dispatched around the world to relieve the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur . On the night of May 26 – 27 " Shinano Maru " , " America Maru " , " Sado Maru " and " Manshu Maru " were deployed as a lookout screen in the strait between Gotō Islands and Jeju - do . At 2 : 45 " Shinano " sighted a suspicious ship , but the rising moon prevented proper identification . " Shinano " steamed ahead and properly sighted the opponent at 4 : 30 . It was an unarmed , apparently hospital ship , communicating signals to other enemy ships , invisible in the morning haze . It turned out to be the Russian hospital transport " Orel " . The rest of the Russian fleet had already sailed past " Orel " , undetected by the Japanese . Morikawa settled to search and seize " Orel " and closed in , only to notice half a dozen other Russian ships nearby . He fled the scene and broadcast the report of the sighting on the wireless . However , grid coordinates reported by " Shinano " were incorrect by 10 to 20 miles , owing either to Morikawa ' s errors in dead reckoning or to his misunderstanding of " Orel " ' s position in the Russian order of battle . The Japanese Third Division hurried to the grid square reported by Morikawa , but could not find the trace of the enemy . At 6 : 05 " Shinano Maru " reestablished visual contact with the Russians , and continued shadowing it at four to five miles distance . Russian officers advised admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky to interfere but Rozhestvensky refused , insisting on continuing his course in strict radio silence . At 6 : 40 " Shinano " was relieved by . Confusion caused by Morikawa ' s first report was resolved , and now the Combined Fleet had precise information on the Russian advance . This intelligence ultimately led to the decisive Battle of Tsushima . In the aftermath of the battle " Shinano Maru " and " Dainan Maru " located the sinking and forced the captain to surrender it . " Shinano Maru " took the Russian survivors to captivity in Sasebo . Post - war civilian service . " Shinano Maru " returned to civilian service in 1906 , on Nippon Yusen ' s routes to Seattle , Washington . After more modern vessels were available , " Shinano Maru " was transferred to regional services , especially the Kobe - Keelung route . In 1913 , Kuomingtang leader Sun Yat - sen sought refuge in Japan , and travelled to Kobe on " Shinano 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 company Nichiro , which converted it into a floating factory ship supporting the fishing fleets in the North Pacific processing salmon off the coast of Kamchatka Peninsula . Pressed back into service as a transport in the Pacific War , " Shinano Maru " was torpedoed January 18 , 1944 with moderate damage , then slightly damaged by a naval mine on June 1 , 1945 , and again by an airstrike on July 14 , 1945 , which killed two crewmen . She was docked at Nagasaki during the final days of the war . " Shinano Maru " was so obsolete and rusted that noted " mangaka " Shigeru 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 the surrender of Japan , it was used as a repatriation vessel bringing back Japanese former prisoners - of - war from Siberia . One of those returning to Japan on " Shinano Maru " was the future novelist Shōhei Ōoka . " Shinano Maru " was sold for scrap in 1951 .