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Lot Essay
The Asama Maru was ordered by Nippon Yusen KK of Tokyo and built by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki and launched on 30th October 1928 and completed on 15th September the next year, she cleared Yokohama for her maiden voyage to San Francisco on 10th October 1929 and arrived at the Golden Gate on the 21st having turned in an excellent passage. She had principal dimensions of: LOA: 583ft, Beam: 72ft, and registered tonnage of 16,975. She could make 21 knots at maximum speed and she could accommodate 822 passengers in three classes watched over by a crew of 330. She was undergoing routine repairs in 1937 when the colony received a hurricane warning. The hurricane struck with such force on 2nd September that the ship's starboard anchor chain broke; with her port anchor unable to hold her, Asama Maru was literally tossed ashore and left stranded on the rocky coast. Following extensive repairs, she operated for a further three years prior to being requisitioned by the Japanese Navy as a transport on their entry into the Second World War in December 1941. After three years as a naval auxiliary, she was torpedoed and sunk by the U.S. submarine Atule south of Pratas Island in the South China on 1st November 1944.