The Fleets

Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha / Toyo Kisen Kaisha / Oriental Steamship Company, Yokohama

Around 1896-1897 Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha (TKK) was founded with the aim to enter the transpacific trade and three ships were ordered in Great Britain.
The first of the new vessels the NIPPON MARU started the service from Yokohama to San Francisco in 1899, later followed by the AMERICA MARU and HONG KONG MARU.

Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha saw the first five years run smoothly until in 1902 Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co. introduced the steamers KOREA and SIBERIA which outclassed everything else in the Pacific Trade. About the same time the Russo Japanese War broke out and the ships of Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha were taken over for military purposes.
The AMERICA MARU was the first ship to return to the San Francisco run in October 1905.
Also in 1905 TKK established a South American service which continued after the amalgamation of TKK with Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and begins making regular voyages to South America. The first of these voyages arrives in Iquique in February of 1906

Meanwhile, Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co. had ordered two more even larger ships and TKK decided to built three modern ships of 13,000gt on a Japanese yard. The first vessel the TENYO MARU was ready to start her first voyage in 1908. When the last vessel the SHINYO MARU was completed, the AMERICA MARU was sold to Osaka Shosen K.K. (OSK).

In 1915 the PERSIA MARU (ex Coptic, ex Persia) was purchased from Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co.
TKK suffered on 1 April 1916 its first major loss as the CHIYU MARU struck a reef and had to be abandoned.
To replace the loss of the CHIYU MARU the KOREA and SIBERIA were purchased from Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co., they were reconditioned, refurbished and renamed KOREA MARU and SIBERIA MARU respectively.
In 1920 the Allied Council on surplus shipping assigned to Japan the former Cap Finisterre built for Hamburg Sud Amerika Linie, she was refitted and chartered to TKK and renamed TAIYO MARU.

Even with five good ships on the Transpacific Route, TKK suffered from severe competition in the early 1920s. The United States Shipping Board placed five new 14,000gt ships on the San Francisco - Manila run under the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Co. and five more from Seattle to the Orient.
Also, Canadian Pacific and the Dollar Steamship Company were stiff competitors and in 1926 negotiations were begun to amalgamate TKK with Nippon Yusen Kaisha backed by the Japanese Government and on 10 March 1926 TKK was taken over by Nippon Yusen Kaisha.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for his assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

• Routes:
  • Hong Kong-Amoy-Shanghai-Nagasaki-Kobe-Yokohama-Honolulu-San Francisco
  • Yokohama-Iquigue-Valparaiso

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Last updated: November 10, 2007 and maintained by and M. Kohli