Considering today's truck and/or plane delivery vs train in 1904; only five days to cross the continent (give or take a few hours processing time)is very good mail service for 112 years ago.
I am not sure what the question is, but this is an example of a PAAQUEBOT cover. Paquebot means the cover was mailed on board a ship at sea. If the ship is Japanese, then Japanese stamps are used. If it is British, then British stamps are used, if it is South African then South African stamps are used, etc. When the ship docks at a port, this mail if off loaded and put into the local mail stream. It is normally cancelled, such as this one is, by that local post office and sent on its destination. It is treated as if it was mailed in the country in which that ship is flagged. They are relatively common and can be a fun way to collect covers. Most of them are marked with either a rubber stamp marking reading "PAQUEBOT" or wording along the lines of "POSTED AT SEA". Sometimes this is in the cancelling post office's cancellation.
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