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ments of ships, schemes of mobilization, etc., in consultation with the chief of the Admiralty Staff Department.
The Admiralty Staff Department is independent of the Ministry of Marine, its chief being under the direct control of H.I.M. the Emperor.
To avoid a long explanation a table is here inserted which shows the organization and the relative positions of all the officers of the Imperial navy.
The coast of the empire is divided into five naval districts, and the headquarters of each district is placed at the chief naval port of that district, and is called Chinjufu (naval station). Headquarters of the 1st naval district are at Yokohama; of the 2nd, Kure; of the 3rd, Sasebo; of the 4th, Maizuru; of the 5th, Muroran.
The above naval stations, with the exception of Muroran, have dockyards and ordnance depots supplied with all necessary stores. There are also the following secondary naval stations where small repairs of ships and ordnance can be undertaken:
- Takeshiki naval station (Tsushima Islands).
- Bake naval station (Pescadores Islands).
- Ominate torpedo division (Bay of Awemori).
Yokosuka dockyard being the only dockyard which was established at the time of the Tokugawa Administration in 1864, all others having been constructed since 1885, a description of it is of interest.
Yokosuka dockyard covers upwards of seventy acres of ground with its docks, ships, factories, workshops, and storehouses. For the construction of the different parts of ships, engines, etc., there are drawing rooms, pattern shops, iron and brass foundries, shops with machinery for bending, shaping, and piercing steel plates, machine, boiler and copper shops, smithies and forging shops—the largest steam-hammer installed being of twenty tons; also several carpenter shops and boat-making houses with storehouses for shipbuilding material.
There are four docks, two of which are capable of taking first-class battleships, and the number of workmen varies from 4,000 to 6,000, according to the amount of work being carried on.
The Yokosuka ordnance depot and stores are in the adjoining bays, and cover some sixty acres of ground exclusive of magazines, etc.
The naval arsenal at Kure, being the largest and most important one, gives a good idea of the ordnance works now existing. The foundation was laid in 1894, at the time of the