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Japanese Shipwrecks in British Columbia - Myths and Facts
The Question of Cultural Exchanges with the Northwest Coast of America.
by Grant Keddie
Curator of Archaeology
THE MANILA/JAPAN NEW WORLD CONNECTION
For 244 years between 1565 and 1815 the trade between South-East Asia and Mexico involved nearly a thousand ship voyages, some of which made landings in present-day California and may have landed further north along the Northwest Coast. Out of these numerous voyages the galleon San Francisco Xavier, commanded by Santiago Zabalburu was the only ship that failed to reach port on its return voyage from Manila in 1705. Others were wrecked but accounted for on the western side of the Pacific (Cook 1973; Cutter 1989). This 1705, wreck was most likely that reported as occurring in Nehelem Bay Oregon and in the past mistakenly assumed to be a Japanese wreck on the bases of the finding of large quantities of bees wax along the shore in this general area. Beeswax has been documented as cargo on Spanish ships coming from Manila as well as on Japanese vessels. Many survivors of this wreck lived on shore and some intermarried with local aboriginal populations (Cook 1973; Keddie 1990 and references).
A large quantity of iron and other European goods from this wreck would have likely been traded to the north. Other pre-contact Northwest Coast iron sources are likely from further European landings and wrecks to the south of this area. The latter would include: the abandoning in 1542, of a vessel of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in the San Diego area; the 1579, visit of Francis Drake to unknown locations between Alaska and the San Francisco bay area (Suden 1990); the 1588 visit of Cavendish with his ship Content which disappeared on is way north; the 1587 visit of Pedro de Unamuno to Morro Bay California; and the 1595 running aground of Sebastian Rodriguez de Ceremeno?s ship the San Agustin in Drakes Bay on the return trip from Manila (Heizer 1941; Cutter 1989).
Further research of European documents is necessary to determine if other landings were made along the Northwest Coast. Regular landings might be suggested in the letter of Fray Andres de Aguirre writing to the Archbishop of Mexico in 1584. Andres makes a request for: ?the exploration of that coast and region beyond the forty-first degree of latitude, is of great importance and very necessary in connection with the return voyage of vessels from the Philippines and all parts of the west, ? Although the ships which come every year from the west to the port of Acapulco make a landfall on that coast and sail within sight of it for more than five hundred leagues [about 1500 miles or 2400 km], to the present time it is not known what harbors or places where repairs can be made it has.?
The Manila galleons usually departed from Acapulco each January and sailed due west near the 13th parallel pushed by steady trade winds. They changed course to reach the Mariana Islands and then headed above 35 degrees N. latitude to get to the Philippines before the contrary winds of the autumn monsoon.
In 1565 the navigator Andre de Urdaneta in the San Pablo and shortly after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in the San Lucas sailed north from the Philippines parallel to the Japanese coast. They were swept in the Kurosio current and found the westerlies to carry them back across the ocean at about 37 degrees north. This eastern route to Acapulco beyond the East to West trade winds was subsequently used by hundreds of ships returning to Mexico. The first landfall was often near Cape Mendocino in Northern California (Mountfield 1997). It is not known if any of these ships made emergency landings for water, food or repairs to the north of California. If any loss or transfer of goods to aboriginal peoples along the Northern Coast did occur these items could include Chinese artifacts, which were being shipped to Acapulco by 1573, and iron from Spanish ships that was produced in China and Japan.
The Spanish may have found out about this northern route from the Japanese traders whom they met in the Philippines. Maps of the route to North America may have become available to the Japanese near this time as some of them traveled to Mexico. In 1579 Francis Drake obtained maps for the voyage from Panama to the Philippines from a captured Spanish frigate (Irving 1927 p. 178-179). On November 17, 1587 Thomas Cavendish captured two Japanese from the Spanish ship Santa Anna at 23 3/4 degrees N.: "He tooke out of the great shippe two young lads borne in Japan, which could both wright and reade their own language, the eldest being about 20 years olde was named Christopher, the other was called Cosmus, about 17 yeeres of age, both of very good capacitie" (Irving 1927, p. 216).
In 1608 there were fifteen thousand Japanese residing in the Philippines, ?some of whom were probably employed in the Crews of the galleons, eight of which came to Acapulco each year" (Nuttall 1906, p. 46). Another source of information for the Japanese came after the arrival of the Portuguese in 1543. By 1571 the Portuguese claimed 30,000 Japanese converts to Christianity and 150,000 by 1581 (Smith 1964).
Brooks?s (1876) first account on his shipwreck list of 60 cases refers to Bancroft?s mention of ?several Japanese vessels reported in some of the Spanish-American ports on the Pacific. In 1617, a Japanese junk belonging to Magome was at Acapulco.? Brooks seemed to be unaware that intentional voyages were made to Spanish ports during the Manila trade period. In 1598, the Shogun Ieyasu took the first steps towards establishing official relations with Mexico (56 years after the first Portuguese trading vessels visited Japan) by writing to the Spanish Governor of the Philippines. This was an attempt to bypass Manila and open direct trade with Mexico.
The Japanese authorities were well aware of the coast of North America in 1600 as William Adams, one of two Englishmen shipwrecked from a Dutch vessel on April 19 of that year was teaching Geography to the Emperor (Nuttall 1906). Under the guidance of William Adams, the Japanese learned to build ships in the European manner, and undertook voyages to foreign lands ? including Spain in 1582(Saito 1912:157).
On August 1, 1610 "twenty three Japanese merchants, who were under the leadership of two noblemen named Tanaka Shosake and Shuya Ryusai accompanied the Spanish to Mexico City where they arrived towards the end of the year". Vivero, the retiring viceroy of the Philippines introduced them to Don Luis de Velasco the second viceroy of Mexico. A Spanish Ambassador was sent from New Spain to Japan on March 22, 1611 with a Japanese who had been given the name Don Francisco de Velasco and 22 Japanese merchants. They arrived June 10, 1611 and returned to Japan in 1612 Nuttall 1906).
On October 26, 1613 a Japanese built trading vessel, with Spanish as passengers, was sent to Mexico for Masumare, the Japanese Lord of Oxo. It Arrived in Zacatulu Mexico January 22, 1614. The two co-ambassadors in charge of the ship were a nobleman Hasekura Rokuyeman and Friar Luis Sotelo "with a suite of one hundred and eighty Japanese, including sixty Samurai and several merchants. They were provided with letters not only to the Viceroy of Mexico, but also to the King of Spain and to Pope Paul V" (Nutall 1906, p. 40). Part of the embassy stayed in Mexico and the rest went to Spain and to Rome before returning in 1620.
Mercantile relations between Japan and Mexico continued until 1636 when they were brought to an end in part by the foreigner exclusions edict of 1624 and finally by the massacre of Japanese Christian traders in 1637-38.
The Japanese government forbade the construction of deep sea going vessels based on a European design or enlarging the scale of traditional vessels. It has been suggested that this law may have had the effect of increasing the number of disabled ships causing an increase in the number of wrecks that may have drifted across the Pacific Ocean (Brooks 1876). However, the traditional smaller trading and fishing boats continued to be made and would be lost at sea at the same rate as they had in previous centuries before European contact.
The English, French and Dutch continued to prey on the Spanish ships. As late as 1762, the British Commodore George Anson seized a Spanish galleon returning from Manila (Williams 1999).
Japanese Shipwrecks in British Columbia - Myths and Facts
The Question of Cultural Exchanges with the Northwest Coast of America.
by Grant Keddie
Curator of Archaeology
THE MANILA/JAPAN NEW WORLD CONNECTION
For 244 years between 1565 and 1815 the trade between South-East Asia and Mexico involved nearly a thousand ship voyages, some of which made landings in present-day California and may have landed further north along the Northwest Coast. Out of these numerous voyages the galleon San Francisco Xavier, commanded by Santiago Zabalburu was the only ship that failed to reach port on its return voyage from Manila in 1705. Others were wrecked but accounted for on the western side of the Pacific (Cook 1973; Cutter 1989). This 1705, wreck was most likely that reported as occurring in Nehelem Bay Oregon and in the past mistakenly assumed to be a Japanese wreck on the bases of the finding of large quantities of bees wax along the shore in this general area. Beeswax has been documented as cargo on Spanish ships coming from Manila as well as on Japanese vessels. Many survivors of this wreck lived on shore and some intermarried with local aboriginal populations (Cook 1973; Keddie 1990 and references).
A large quantity of iron and other European goods from this wreck would have likely been traded to the north. Other pre-contact Northwest Coast iron sources are likely from further European landings and wrecks to the south of this area. The latter would include: the abandoning in 1542, of a vessel of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in the San Diego area; the 1579, visit of Francis Drake to unknown locations between Alaska and the San Francisco bay area (Suden 1990); the 1588 visit of Cavendish with his ship Content which disappeared on is way north; the 1587 visit of Pedro de Unamuno to Morro Bay California; and the 1595 running aground of Sebastian Rodriguez de Ceremeno?s ship the San Agustin in Drakes Bay on the return trip from Manila (Heizer 1941; Cutter 1989).
Further research of European documents is necessary to determine if other landings were made along the Northwest Coast. Regular landings might be suggested in the letter of Fray Andres de Aguirre writing to the Archbishop of Mexico in 1584. Andres makes a request for: ?the exploration of that coast and region beyond the forty-first degree of latitude, is of great importance and very necessary in connection with the return voyage of vessels from the Philippines and all parts of the west, ? Although the ships which come every year from the west to the port of Acapulco make a landfall on that coast and sail within sight of it for more than five hundred leagues [about 1500 miles or 2400 km], to the present time it is not known what harbors or places where repairs can be made it has.?
The Manila galleons usually departed from Acapulco each January and sailed due west near the 13th parallel pushed by steady trade winds. They changed course to reach the Mariana Islands and then headed above 35 degrees N. latitude to get to the Philippines before the contrary winds of the autumn monsoon.
In 1565 the navigator Andre de Urdaneta in the San Pablo and shortly after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi in the San Lucas sailed north from the Philippines parallel to the Japanese coast. They were swept in the Kurosio current and found the westerlies to carry them back across the ocean at about 37 degrees north. This eastern route to Acapulco beyond the East to West trade winds was subsequently used by hundreds of ships returning to Mexico. The first landfall was often near Cape Mendocino in Northern California (Mountfield 1997). It is not known if any of these ships made emergency landings for water, food or repairs to the north of California. If any loss or transfer of goods to aboriginal peoples along the Northern Coast did occur these items could include Chinese artifacts, which were being shipped to Acapulco by 1573, and iron from Spanish ships that was produced in China and Japan.
The Spanish may have found out about this northern route from the Japanese traders whom they met in the Philippines. Maps of the route to North America may have become available to the Japanese near this time as some of them traveled to Mexico. In 1579 Francis Drake obtained maps for the voyage from Panama to the Philippines from a captured Spanish frigate (Irving 1927 p. 178-179). On November 17, 1587 Thomas Cavendish captured two Japanese from the Spanish ship Santa Anna at 23 3/4 degrees N.: "He tooke out of the great shippe two young lads borne in Japan, which could both wright and reade their own language, the eldest being about 20 years olde was named Christopher, the other was called Cosmus, about 17 yeeres of age, both of very good capacitie" (Irving 1927, p. 216).
In 1608 there were fifteen thousand Japanese residing in the Philippines, ?some of whom were probably employed in the Crews of the galleons, eight of which came to Acapulco each year" (Nuttall 1906, p. 46). Another source of information for the Japanese came after the arrival of the Portuguese in 1543. By 1571 the Portuguese claimed 30,000 Japanese converts to Christianity and 150,000 by 1581 (Smith 1964).
Brooks?s (1876) first account on his shipwreck list of 60 cases refers to Bancroft?s mention of ?several Japanese vessels reported in some of the Spanish-American ports on the Pacific. In 1617, a Japanese junk belonging to Magome was at Acapulco.? Brooks seemed to be unaware that intentional voyages were made to Spanish ports during the Manila trade period. In 1598, the Shogun Ieyasu took the first steps towards establishing official relations with Mexico (56 years after the first Portuguese trading vessels visited Japan) by writing to the Spanish Governor of the Philippines. This was an attempt to bypass Manila and open direct trade with Mexico.
The Japanese authorities were well aware of the coast of North America in 1600 as William Adams, one of two Englishmen shipwrecked from a Dutch vessel on April 19 of that year was teaching Geography to the Emperor (Nuttall 1906). Under the guidance of William Adams, the Japanese learned to build ships in the European manner, and undertook voyages to foreign lands ? including Spain in 1582(Saito 1912:157).
On August 1, 1610 "twenty three Japanese merchants, who were under the leadership of two noblemen named Tanaka Shosake and Shuya Ryusai accompanied the Spanish to Mexico City where they arrived towards the end of the year". Vivero, the retiring viceroy of the Philippines introduced them to Don Luis de Velasco the second viceroy of Mexico. A Spanish Ambassador was sent from New Spain to Japan on March 22, 1611 with a Japanese who had been given the name Don Francisco de Velasco and 22 Japanese merchants. They arrived June 10, 1611 and returned to Japan in 1612 Nuttall 1906).
On October 26, 1613 a Japanese built trading vessel, with Spanish as passengers, was sent to Mexico for Masumare, the Japanese Lord of Oxo. It Arrived in Zacatulu Mexico January 22, 1614. The two co-ambassadors in charge of the ship were a nobleman Hasekura Rokuyeman and Friar Luis Sotelo "with a suite of one hundred and eighty Japanese, including sixty Samurai and several merchants. They were provided with letters not only to the Viceroy of Mexico, but also to the King of Spain and to Pope Paul V" (Nutall 1906, p. 40). Part of the embassy stayed in Mexico and the rest went to Spain and to Rome before returning in 1620.
Mercantile relations between Japan and Mexico continued until 1636 when they were brought to an end in part by the foreigner exclusions edict of 1624 and finally by the massacre of Japanese Christian traders in 1637-38.
The Japanese government forbade the construction of deep sea going vessels based on a European design or enlarging the scale of traditional vessels. It has been suggested that this law may have had the effect of increasing the number of disabled ships causing an increase in the number of wrecks that may have drifted across the Pacific Ocean (Brooks 1876). However, the traditional smaller trading and fishing boats continued to be made and would be lost at sea at the same rate as they had in previous centuries before European contact.
The English, French and Dutch continued to prey on the Spanish ships. As late as 1762, the British Commodore George Anson seized a Spanish galleon returning from Manila (Williams 1999).
