Posted on 05/31/2017 9:56:34 PM PDT by Theoria
Fresh translations of samurai accounts of ‘barbarian’ ship arriving at the height of Japan’s feudal isolation corroborate a story long dismissed as fantasy
An amateur historian has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates on an audacious escape from Tasmania almost two centuries ago.
Fresh translations of samurai accounts of a “barbarian” ship in 1830 give startling corroboration to a story modern scholars had long dismissed as convict fantasy: that a ragtag crew of criminals encountered a forbidden Japan at the height of its feudal isolation.
The brig Cyprus was hijacked by convicts bound from Hobart to Macquarie Harbour in 1829, in a mutiny that took them all the way to China.
Its maverick skipper was William Swallow, a onetime British cargo ship apprentice and naval conscript in the Napoleonic wars, who in a piracy trial in London the following year told of a samurai cannonball in Japan knocking a telescope from his hand.
Swallow’s fellow mutineers, two of whom were the last men hanged for piracy in Britain, backed his account of having been to Japan.
Western researchers, citing the lack of any Japanese record of the Cyprus, had since ruled the convicts’ story a fabrication.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Very interesting.
Really interesting article. Thank you for posting it.
“that a ragtag crew of criminals encountered a forbidden Japan at the height of its feudal isolation.”
Bet that went well.
What is so difficult about calculating 2017-1830 and coming up with 187?
If we go through the simple math, http://www.geteasysolution.com/187-is-what-percent-of-200, we find that 187 is only 93.5% of 200.
I would say “almost” should be closer to > 95%.
Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
Just wow.
Odd the story would have been treated with such suspicion. Hard to see what they gained by making it up, and they were obviously able to get to China.
Anyone remember that 70’s miniseries The Thorn Birds? Very similar plot...
That’s a cool story, thanks for posting it!
Makita Hamaguchi, a samurai sent disguised as a fisherman to check the ship for weapons, noted an “unbearable stench in the vicinity of the ship”.
Ah... that was the pirates.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.