SS City of Tokio
| History | |
|---|---|
 US
|
|
| Name: | City of Tokio |
| Namesake: | Tokyo, Japan |
| Owner: |
 Pacific Mail Steamship Company
|
| Operator: |
Pacific Mail Steamship Company |
| Port of registry: |
 New York City, United States of America
|
| Route: | San Francisco to Yokohama and Hong Kong |
| Builder: | John Roach & Sons |
| Yard number: | 131 |
| Launched: | May 13, 1874 |
| Maiden voyage: | April 1875 |
| Fate: | Wrecked off Tokyo Bay, June 1885 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Passenger freighter |
| Tonnage: | 5,079 gross |
| Length: | 423 ft |
| Beam: | 47 ft 4 in |
| Draft: | 38 ft 6 in |
| Propulsion: | 5,000 horsepower compound steam engine, screw propeller, auxiliary sails |
| Speed: | 14.5 knots |
| Capacity: | 120 1st class, 250 2nd class, 1000 steerage class passengers |
SS City of Tokio (sometimes spelled City of Tokyo) was an iron steamship built in 1874 by John Roach & Sons for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. City of Tokio and her sister ship City of Peking were at the time of construction the largest vessels ever built in the United States, and the second largest in the world behind the British leviathan Great Eastern.
Like Great Eastern, construction of the two Pacific Mail ships was to be plagued with financial difficulties, which threatened to bankrupt the shipbuilder. Unlike Great Eastern, however, which was a commercial failure, City of Tokio was to enjoy a successful commercial career until being wrecked at the entrance of Tokyo Bay in 1885.
City of Tokio holds the distinction of being the first ship to bring members of the Issei, or first-generation Japanese migrants, to the United States.
City of Tokio and City of Peking were ordered by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in order to take advantage of a new $500,000 congressional subsidy for the company's steam packet service to the Far East. After contracting with the shipyard of John Roach and Sons for construction, Pacific Mail ran into financial difficulties after two company directors squandered the company's cash reserves in a stock speculation scheme and then fled the country with the balance.
Pacific Mail's woes were exacerbated after the stock speculator Jay Gould, in a clandestine attempt to acquire the company's stock cheaply, persuaded the U.S. Congress to rescind its $500,000 annual subsidy. Pacific Mail's inability to meet its financial obligations threatened in turn the survival of the shipbuilder John Roach and Sons, which had already invested more than a million dollars in constructing the two ships, but Roach was able to hold off his own creditors. Roach eventually renegotiated the Pacific Mail contract, reducing the latter's monthly obligations from $75,000 to $35,000, and the two vessels were launched in 1874.
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Wikipedia