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2 oe (From Engineering, London.) Ship owning in Japan, on a scale comparable with the shipping work _ of western lands, is necessarily a mat- ter of very modern development. Whatever the country may have done or attempted to do in its earlier his- tory, the year 1639 marked a com- plete cessation of foreign trade; the size of home-built ships was, about that time, limited by law in order to prevent them from venturing too far from their own shores; and among the other countries of the world, China, Korea and Holland were alone permitted to trade with Japan by sending their ships to Japanese ports. The prohibition of foreign trade thus enacted extended over a period of. fully 220 years; the reopening of the country in 1853 necessitated an en- tire change of policy, which, keenly desired, was not so readily effected; the need, however, was emphatically declared by the Shogun's government in 1861, when permission was first given for the engagement of Japanese ships in foreign trade. This permis- sion was so far taken advantage of that, in 1868, just after the commence- ment of the present era of Meiji,* there existed 46 merchant vessels, of 17,000 tons, and of "foreign" con- struction; some of these vessels were steamers, the others sailing vessels; some were built in Japan, and the rest purchased from abroad. Professor Terano, in a recent note,t gives an interesting account of the beginning of the ship building indus- try in Japan in "foreign" style: "A Russian war vessel, the Diana, lying at anchor at the port of Shi- moda, and demanding a treaty with Japan, was washed ashore and sunk by tidal waves, following the great earthquake of Nov. 4, 1854. Captain Putiatin, cammanding the expedition, having decided to build new ships to take his men home, selected a place on Heda Bay, in the Province of Kimisawa, in Idzu, not very far from Shimoda, and started the construc- tion of two wooden schooners with timber grown in that district. Heem- ployed many Japanese ship carpen- ters to assist his crew in the build- ing of these ships. Thus they became acquainted with the construction of "Meiji commenced with the restoration of the present emperor in 1867. tAmerican Society of Civil Engin : r ¢ y eers . _ternational Engineering Congress, 1904, in PROGRESS OF SHIP OWNING IN in different places throughout Japan. The vessels were known for some time as the Kimisawa type, after the place where the first schooners were built. Proper methods ship building were thus introduced and spread over Japan." In the early days of Meiji an inti- mation was repeatedly made by the government that such "foreign" ves- sels were allowed, and that protection would be afforded by the government to Japanese shipping enterprises with foreign countries. In 1870 the first large steamship company was estab- lished, under the name of the Kwaiso Kwaisha (the Transport Company); this company, under government aus- pices, underwent various changes, its name in time becoming Nihonkoku Yubin Jokisen Kwaisha (Japan Mail Steamship Co.). In 1871 a rival com- pany appeared on the scene, organ- ized by the late Baron Yataro Iwasaki, under the name of the Kwaisha (Three Diamonds Co., so called from the crest and flag adopt- ed by the new organization). company did such excellent work for the government. during the military expedition to Formosa in 1873-4 that it was deemed advisable by the au- thorities to lean largely upon it for support, wind up the affairs of the officially directed company, and close the keen competition that had sprung up between the two; the ships of the Nikonkoku Yubin Jokisen Kwaisha were, therefore, in 1876, transferred to the Mitsu Bishi Kwaisha, and the latter company strengthened in other ways. The combined fleet of this company then consisted of 42 ships, six of them sailing vessels, and the remainder steamers of various sizes, 12 exceeding 1,000 in gross tonnage. In 1882 the company further strength- ened itself and added steamers capa- ble of performirg the functions of both transports and cruisers, a stipu- lation being made by the government, in return for privileges conceded, that it was to have the use of the ships, in case*'of need, on payment of some 5 yen per ton per month. In 1882 the gross tonnage owned by the Mitsu Bishi Kwaisha was 22,000. In the same year, with the object of increasing the mercantile marine, gov- ernment support was afforded to a new company, the Kyodo Unyu Kwaisha (Union Transportation Co), so that two companies, rivals along certain lines, were again in the field, ships of the western type, and, after the conclusion of the Russian schoon- ers, they built many of similar type of western Mitsu Bishi - This both obtaining assistance fr state funds. This lasted until 1 the | 885, when an amalgamation was made, and the now powerful Nippon Yusen Ka- bushikit Kwaisha (Japan Mail Steam- ship Co.) formed by the combination of the two. : To the newly formed Nippon Yusen Co. a dividend of 8 per cent was guaranteed by the state; but this was commuted, in 1887, to an annual sub- sidy of 800,000 yen. In the years previous to the war with China this enterprising company made steady progress, doing most of the coastwise trade, and also the trade with the nearer foreign ports; in 1892 it es. tablished a line to Bombay, and 'per- formed, moreover, frequent servicesto Australia in the one direction, and to Hawaii in the other. In the Chinese war of 1894 the large steamers of the company were all requisitioned by the government, and many more were pur- chased by the company both for the government needs and to maintain its own trade; the services were very efficiently rendered and the company became correspondingly stronger. On the conclusion of the war, and en- couraged by the new bounties, to which reference will be made in a subsequent article, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha resolved on a large expan- sion of its work and influence; it raised its capital to 22,000,000 yen, and established regular services to America, Europe and Australia, in ad- dition to the existing line to Bombay. Large steamers, 12 of them exceed- ing 6,000 tons, were ordered, mostly from the Clyde, though with the re- serve of a sufficient number for Jap- anese construction to develop and ad- vance the art of ship building at home. Since that date the company has frequently added to its fleet, its new ships being, in recent years, all built at home--i: e., in Japan--al- though these have been supplemented by the ships purchased during the war with Russia and the captured ships taken over from the government after the termination of the war. Among those recently built in Japan, the Hitachi Maru (second of the name), 6,715 gross tons, for the European service; the Nikko Maru, 5,539 tons, for the Australian service; the Tango Maru, 7,463 tons, for the American service; and the six ships of the Kamo class, each of 8,770 tons, now com- pleting, and to be employed as gen- eral traders, may be specially men- tioned. Summarizing the holding of tKabu = share; kabushiki = limited.