SS Scharnhorst (1934)

History
Germany
Name	Scharnhorst
Owner	Norddeutscher Lloyd[1]
Operator	Norddeutscher Lloyd
Port of registry	Bremen
Route	Bremen – Far East
Builder	DeSchiMAG, Bremen[1]
Yard number	891[3]
Launched	14 December 1934[2]
Completed	1935[1]
In service	3 May 1935[3]
Homeport	Bremen
Identification	Call sign DOQO[1]
Fate	Sold
Japan
Name	Shin'yō
Operator	Imperial Japanese Navy
Acquired	1942
Commissioned	15 December 1943[3]
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk on 17 November 1944[4]
General characteristics as built
Tonnage	18,184 GRT[1] 10,712 NRT[1]
Length	625.6 ft (190.7 m)[1] p/p 652 ft (198.7 m)[3] o/a
Beam	74.1 ft (22.6 m)[1]
Depth	41 ft (12 m)[1]
Installed power	26,000 shp (19,000 kW)[citation needed]
Propulsion	twin steam turbines, turbo-electric transmission, twin screw[1]
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)[5]
Sensors and processing systems	direction finding equipment, echo sounding device, gyrocompass[1]

SS Scharnhorst was a Norddeutscher Lloyd ocean liner, launched in 1934, completed in 1935 and made her maiden voyage on 8 May 1935.^[6] She was the first big passenger liner built by the Third Reich. Under the German merchant flag, she was the second liner named after General Gerhard J. D. von Scharnhorst. She was one of three ships on the Far Eastern route between Bremen and Yokohama; her sister ships were Potsdam and Gneisenau. These three ships were planned to shorten the journey time between Bremen and Shanghai from the usual 50 days to 34. She was trapped in Japan in September 1939 and later converted into an Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier named Shin'yō in 1942 and sunk by the US submarine USS Spadefish in 1944.