Dante Alighieri (ship, 1915)
 As the Japanese hospital ship Asahi Maru (1938)
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The Dante Alighieri was a 1915 passenger ship of the Italian shipping company Transatlantica Italiana , which was used for the transatlantic passenger and cargo traffic between Italy and New York . In 1928 she was sold to Japan and served as a hospital ship under the name Asahi Maru ( Japanese 朝日 丸 ) during the Second World War . In 1949 the steamer was scrapped.
Italian passenger ship
The 9754 GRT steamship was built at the Società Esercizio Bacini shipyard in Riva Trigoso near Genoa and was launched on November 28, 1914. The 135.5 meter long and 18.1 meter wide passenger and cargo ship was built for the shipping company Transatlantica Italiana Società Anonima di Navigazione (mostly just called Transatlantica Italiana ), founded in Genoa in 1897 , and for their passenger and goods traffic between Genoa and New York City used. She had an identical sister ship , the 9757 GRT Giuseppe Verdi , which was completed in November 1915 at the same shipyard.
The Dante Alighieri had like most ocean liner of its time a black hull and white superstructure. She had two funnels and two masts and was powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that ran on two propellers and could accelerate the ship up to 16 knots. In the passenger accommodation, 100 passengers could be carried in first, 260 in second and 1825 in third class.
On February 10, 1915, the Dante Alighieri ran from Genoa on her maiden voyage via Palermo to New York. After the United States entered the war in 1917, the steamer was chartered by the United States Navy and assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force as a troop transport . After the war ended, the Dante Alighieri returned to the transatlantic passenger service and operated her usual route from Genoa to New York until October 1927.
Under the Japanese flag
On February 15, 1928, the ship was sold to the Japanese shipping company Nippon Yūsen Kaisha (NYK) and renamed Asahi Maru . On July 23, 1928, the ship began its service on the route from Kobe to Keelung in Taiwan .
In August 1937 it was converted into a hospital ship . From September 5, 1937, the Asahi Maru was assigned to the Japanese fleet under the registration number 734. From November 15, 1937, there were 14 crossings as troop transports between Shanghai and Japan, with around 10,000 people being transported. In 1940 one of the two chimneys was removed (it was only an optical dummy ).
On January 24, 1942, the ship was hit by gunfire from the American destroyer USS John D. Ford during the sea battle off Balikpapan . On February 5, 1944, it was damaged by a collision in the Seto Inland Sea .
In 1949 the 34-year-old ship was finally scrapped.