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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 . 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. ==Construction== (詳細は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.〔Swann pp. 79–82.〕 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.〔Swann pp. 82–92.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「SS City of Tokio」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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