Philippines:
In 1889, the
steamship Compania de Filipinas was built by
Lobnitz in
Renfrew,
Scotland, and was acquired by the
Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas the following year.
In 1898, while serving as an inter-island
steamship, the Revolutionary Navy (later the
Philippine Navy) acquired her as their flagship. The Revolutionary Navy was initially composed of a small fleet of eight captured Spanish steam launches refitted with Gonzalez Hontoria de 9 cm (mod 1879)
guns, and then received a donation of five merchant ships, namely the
Taaleño, the
Balayan, the
Bulusan, the
Taal and the
Purísima Concepción, prior to having the
Filipinas.
The acquisition was made possible by the Filipino crew of the ship, who launched a mutiny under the Cuban Vicente Catalan. Catalan, in turn, proclaimed himself "admiral." When the Filipino flag was hoisted by the ship, the
East Asia Squadron contested it and claimed the ship for Germany. Despite an impending naval incident, the ship remained under Filipino control until the
Philippine-American War proved the naval superiority of the American
Asiatic Squadron and decimated the Revolutionary Navy.
The vessel continued to be in the service of the
Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas until 1942, when
World War II opened in the
Pacific theatre. During the war,
Compania de Filipinas was incorporated by the Japanese government to the nation's merchant marine as a
cargo ship. She was renamed
Hoei Maru. On 3 July 1945, it was sunk by an
aerial mine near
Jindo Island
