As Japanese lighthouse tender
with our thanks to Lazer_one
An item referred to the Jap. Chr. dated 17 March 1938 reporting that at Nagasaki 3-2.600 icebreakers were lying built for Soviet account but still not accepted by the Soviet cabinet and forced to anchor outside the harbour. The Koyakishima shipyard had no idea what to do with ships regarded the strained relations between Japan and the Soviet Union.(1)
Note
1. Ordered 18 September 1936 by the Russia as a compensation for the transfer of the North Southern Manchuria Railway to Russia. None of the ships were ever delivered to the Soviet Union. It were the Volochaevets (renamed Chiryo Maru, renamed Soya in 1940 and still existing), the Boshevik (renamed Minryo Maru) and the Komsomolets (renamed Tenryo Maru). The Soya was laid down 31 October 1936 at the Kawaminami yard (other source said Koyakajima), launched 16 February 1938 as the Volochaevets (other websites called her Borochavets) but taken over by the yard caused by the disturbed relations between both countries. She was completed 10 June 1948 as a freighter with ice-breaking capacities for the Tatsunan Kisen Co. and renamed Chiryo Maru. In November 1939 purchased by the Imperial Japanese navy as an auxiliary ammunition ship and survey vessel on 20 February 1940 renamed as Soya. In 1949 after being repaired and refitted as a lighthouse tender taken over by the maritime Safety Agency. Became in 1978 part of the Museum of maritime Science at Tokyo, Japan.
