Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

EFFECTS ON COMMUNICATIONS

229

ADDITIONS TO MERCHANT MARINE, I904-I905
New vessels Purchased vessels Total
Class
Number Tonnage Number Tonnage Number Tonnage
Tons
Under I,OOO... 193 27,352 29 19,488 222 46,840
I,000-2,000.... 7 II,IIO 45 68,III 52 79,221
2,000-3,000.... I 2,029 45 108,o32 46 110,06I
3,000-4,000........... 24 80,253 24 80,253
4,000-5,000............ 6 26,144 6 26,144
Above 5,000.. 2 12,53 I 5,248 3 17,779
Total..... 198 53,022 150 307,278 353 360,298

break of war in I904, many of the established routes were on
the brink of suspending business, owing to the fact that most
vessels were commandeered, while foreign ships were not yet
chartered or purchased.
Next to the shortage of vessels, the danger on the sea
affected the shipping trade most severely. Not a few of our
coastal lines were closed on account of the danger of the enemy
warships making their appearance near our shores and capturing or attacking our merchant marine. Of the lines between Osaka, Kobe, Chugoku (on the Inland Sea), and
Kyushu, the calling at the western ports of Kyushu was
suspended for a time; while the Tosa coastal line had its
service decreased from a daily to a once-in-three-days service.
The Sea of Japan and Hokkaido lines were often suspended,
much to the inconvenience of the public. In the Sea of Japan,
the steamship service was discontinued for days or months at
a time, after the steamships Nagoura Maru and Takashima
Maru were sunk by the enemy cruisers, in February, 1904,
one in the Sea of Japan and the other at the Straits of Tsugaru;
and again in June, when the enemy fleet came out of Vladivostok, and in July, when the Vladivostok fleet raided the
Pacific through the Tsugaru Straits; and yet again in I905,
when the Baltic fleet entered the Sea of Japan. Even when
the lines were not closed, the steamship service in the Sea
of Japan was greatly handicapped through the danger of