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 SS Potsdam (1935) and SS Gneisenau (1935). 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 JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Shin'yō in 1942 and sunk by the US submarine USS Spadefish (SS-411) in 1944.
Construction and career
DeSchiMAG in Bremen built Scharnhorst and her sister ship SS Gneisenau (1935) for Norddeutscher Lloyd