was a merchantman operated by the Nippon Yusen K.K Shipping Company (NYK). She was built by W. Henderson Co in Glasgow, for the express purpose of serving NYK's Japan to Seattle route. NYK originally intended that she be built at the Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards in Japan; however, Mitsubishi had experienced problems in the completion of Hitachi Maru, which had led to considerable delays. NYK chose not to wait, and Shinano Maru was ordered to Scotland. She was completed in April 1900. During the Russo-Japanese War Shinano Maru was converted into an armed merchantman. She has the distinction of discovering the Russian Fleet near Tsushima Strait on the eve of the Battle of Tsushima. After the war Shinano Maru reverted to civilian use, being scrapped in 1951. 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, Shinano Maru was armed and converted into an auxiliary cruiser at Kure Naval Arsenal, mounting two 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 tenders 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, , and were deployed as a lookout screen in the strait between Gotō Islands and Jeju-do.