开往中国的先驱轮船他国家的公司
PIONEERING STEAMSHIPS and COMPANIES of JAPAN SAILING to CHINA
Steamships Acquired by Japan up to 1870
NISSHIN
A primary reason why the United States forced the opening of Japan to the outside world in 1858 was its strategic location for transpacific steam voyages, especially for coaling. As a reactive and protective measure, the Tokugawa government and the Han (clan) Daimyo strongholds then very actively acquired steamships both old and new. The ships - usually armed with modern guns - strengthened the Daimyo and helped lead to the Meiji Restoration. The late T.M. Milne researched and published a List of Steamships Acquired by Japan up to 1870, of which many had been in service on the China coast. Mr Milne was a correspondent of both Howard and Stephen, and sought Stephen's assistance in disseminating his work in Japan. While the late Goro Yamataka published some of Milne's work in tabular form, it has tended to be forgotten. The PDF therefore revives Milne's studies, with a few additions which are clearly marked, mainly in the form of illustrations. The steamship above, which would have flown the newly introduced Japanese national flag in China on her delivery voyage, is the sloop-of-war NISSHIN, completed at Dordrecht for the Hizen Han in 1869 (Umi to Sora 6/58).
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Pacific Mail S.S. Co.
COLORADO
The first regular steamship service across the Pacific was one commenced from Sydney to Panama in June 1866, but this was soon followed by a service started by the major U.S. operator, Pacific Mail S.S. Co. from San Francisco to Yokohama and Hong Kong in January 1867. The Peabody Museum image aboveshows the COLORADO after she arrived in Hong Kong that month. To supplement this service, at the same time, Pacific Mail introduced a Branch Line from Yokohama to Nagasaki and Shanghai. The second photograph, taken by Felix Beato at Nagasaki in 1871, shows the Shanghai route feeder ships COSTA RICA (left) and OREGONIAN (right). An illustrated fleet list of the Pacific Mail steamers that served Japan and China up until the 1920s (but not other routes) is in the PDF.
COSTA RICA OREGONIAN
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Mitsubishi Mail S.S. Co.
TAKASAGO MARU
In Japan a merchant from the Tosa Han, Iwasaki Yataro began to build up Japan's largest fleet of steamships from about 1870, which came to be known as the Mitsubishi Mail S.S. Co., the first company in the now world-famous Mitsubishi conglomerate. Cooperating closely with the Japanese government, in January 1875 Mitsubishi commenced a four-ship service to Shanghai with the aim of closing down the Pacific Mail Branch Service which was, in effect a cross trade, an outside line that was not operated by Chinese or Japanese ships. Mitsubishi soon won this battle and purchased the four Pacific Mail Branch Line ships. In 1876 year P.&O. commenced a two-ship branch line between China and Japan but this effort too was defeated by Mitsubishi. Shown above is Mitsubishi's TAKASAGO MARU (formerly P&O's DELTA) at London where it was sent in 1877 for a training cruise and major reconstruction (Nautical Photo Agency). An undergraduate thesis by Stephen in 1972, particularly analysing interactions between the Japanese government and Mitsubishi is in the first PDF. His detailed illustrated fleet list of Mitsubishi, kindly checked and updated by the late T.M. Milne, and a bibliography are in the second PDF.
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Kiodo Unyu K.K.
YAMASHIRO MARU
In the early 1880s a new company, Kiodo Unyu K.K. was formed in Japan to challenge the Mitsubishi monopoly with major shareholdings by Mitsui and the Japanese government. It also ran a four-ship service between Japan and Shanghai. An illustrated fleet list of its steamships is in the PDF. The combination of the Milne, Mitsubishi and Kiodo lists covers 80-90% of all major Japanese steamships until the establishment of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha in 1884 and the merger of Mitsubishi and Kiodo into Nippon Yusen Kaisha in 1885, companies which are well recorded. We note that histories of individual Japanese merchant ships and companies from around that time until the present day are recorded at Fumio Nagasawa's website - the third horizontal clickable item 船名索引 accesses the alphabetical list.
The above photograph of Kiodo Unyu's largest ship, YAMASHIRO MARU, with a sail furled on a forward yard, was taken in Sydney Harbour by the photographer Alfred William Buchanan Dufty (1858–1924). The Royal Navy ensign on the foremast signifies that the vessel is headed for a British port, and possibly that the British master is qualified as a Royal Navy officer. The houseflag on the mainmast is that of Nippon Yusen Kaisha, formed by the merger, each of two red stripes signifying one of the companies in the merger.
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HARADA MARU
The Harada Fleets is a study of now-defunct steamship companies founded by former Satsuma han samurai Harada Jujiro from 1894 including Harada Shoko, Harada Kisen and Nanyo Yusen. These companies initiated services from Osaka to Kyushu, northern Korea, Qingdao (Tsingtao), ports in the Bohai Gulf and notably to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies via Hong Kong. Harada also founded shipyard Harada Zosen, later incorporated into Osaka Iron Works, and Harada's son eventually became CEO of the latter and was implicated in this company's transformation to Hitachi Zosen. This rather diverse story is detailed by Stephen in a short history in the PDF file, followed by well-illustrated fleet lists of the ships of the Harada shipping comanies including the jointly owned Nanyo Yusen. The illustrations shown here are from a postcard in Stephen's collection of the Qingdao express steamer HARADA MARU, formerly British India's BHARATA, and the newly built Nanyo Yusen steamer SAMARANG MARU, based on a U.S. standard design, but with additional passenger capacity (photo from Imai collection).
SAMARANG MARU
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