Master Mariner

THE LIFE AND VOYAGES OF

AMASA DELANO

Captain Amasa Delano, 1763-1823



BY
JAMES B. CONNOLLY

1943

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CHAPTER XXI

Shipwrecked Japanese

A FRESH SUPPLY OF WOOD and water being in order, and being curious to know how his friends in the Sandwich Islands were doing, Amasa swung off his course for a look-in.

Before he had let go his anchor off Oahu his old ship carpenter of the Hector, George McClay, was alongside with the word that the king was preparing a great reception for him.

"It's on account of your taking the boy Stewart to Canton," explained McClay. "The people are already baking pigs for you. Where is Stewart? I don't see him."

Amasa told him of how the boy Stewart had shipped with the East Indiaman in Canton and sailed for England in her.

"That will be bad tidings for the king," said McClay, and went on to explain that though the king had paid Stewart no open attention while the boy was in the islands, he was all the while meaning to set him up as his successor. He expected Captain Delano to put Stewart in the way of acquiring knowledge of the outer world that would better fit him to succeed him as king.

Amasa stood a painful watch with the king when he met him ashore. He admitted that perhaps he blundered in allowing the boy to have his own way in Canton; but his blunder came of not rating properly the feeling of the king for the boy. That the king showed more grief than anger did not make Amasa feel any better. The baked pig and hot yams did not go too well with Amasa when he turned to them after his talk with the king.

Amasa found no change in the islands since his visit of several years before. Despite the increasing numbers of white residents, the natives were still wearing only a narrow strip of cloth around their loins, and the women only a square piece from waist to the calves of their legs. "Men and women both were still eating dogs, fowl, fish, and all kinds of vegetables and fruit, but only the men were still eating pork. And nobody was yet allowed to eat beef. Their favored drinks were cocoa-milk, sugared water, and a powerful liquor distilled from some sort of a root and sugar cane."

That distilled drink smelled powerfully, and it tasted worse than it smelled when Amasa had one; yet natives were preferring it for drink when setting forth for a very good time. It was killing off plenty of natives; and the white residents who were careless in the use of it were being killed off too.

Oahu was a great place of call for American whalers. Amasa met with some old friends: Captain Hills of the brig Lydia, Captain Ebbets of the ship Pearl, and Captain Jonathan of the ship O'Cain, all of Boston. There was a Captain Hudson, who kept his own house ashore. These four captains and Amasa regularly breakfasted, dined, and supped at Hudson's house, each one bringing his share to the general mess. Whaling captains were noted for their rough sense of humor. Being asked by Captain Hudson if he had ever eaten a cooked dog, Amasa answered that he never had and never would. Hudson retorted that he must have a squeamish stomach; to which Amasa, piqued into bragging, said: "I have eaten skunks in America, rats in China, snakes on the coast of New Holland, and a number of other animals, all to be able to report on the taste, but I never had a desire to taste a cooked dog and never shall."

Captain Hudson and his three colleagues joined in telling Amasa that he would not know the difference between a dog and a pig when it was cooked--no white man would know.

"No?" said Amasa, and passed them a wise smile. Next day at dinner Captain Hills helped Amasa to what he said was a pig baked in the island style. Amasa ate heartily of it and, able trencherman that he was, stood for a second noble helping.

"How she go?" asked Captain Hudson.

"Never tasted anything better in all my life," said Amasa. When they judged it safe, they broke it to him that the baked pig was baked dog.

Amasa laughed, but not immediately.

Some time before this second visit of Amasa's to the Sandwiches (1806) eight Japanese had been landed there by Captain Cornelius Sole of the American ship Tabour. He was America-bound from China when he fell in with the wreck of a Japanese ship. He picked eight men off the wreck, all that remained of the crew. They were all suffering terribly, and Captain Sole brought them to Oahu, that port being on his way home, and placed them in the care of the king. To compensate the king for his care of the wrecked men, Captain Sole left an anchor, forty axes, and various other useful articles he had taken off the wrecked ship. He also left a letter containing an account of the rescue and a hope that some easterly-bound captain would give the rescued men a passage to Japan or somewhere near to it.

Amasa was the first visiting eastbound captain after Sole sailed, and the king by then had grown weary of looking after the wrecked Japanese. They weren't his people, they had lived out more than the worth of what was left by Captain Sole for their support, and if somebody did not arrive soon to take them off his hands he was going to turn them loose amongst the islands to get their own living. Being told of the king's intentions for the Japanese, Amasa went to see them. They gave him Captain Sole's letter: "A grand letter and worthy of the grand man who wrote it," said Amasa, who had known Sole in the East.

Amasa sailed with the eight Japanese, accepting them as passengers without charge, and meaning to take them to their native city of Osaca on the island of Niphon.

On his road to the East, Amasa passed through the Ladrone Islands (Marianas Islands now).

Captains of that day avoided the Ladrones when they could, rating them as difficult of navigation; but they weren't far off a direct course to Japan from the Sandwiches, and Amasa was for having a look at them. He found only clear sailing through them, no dangerous rocks or shoals being met with.

At one place in the Ladrones he noted an island on his port (south) hand in the shape of a high, round loaf of bread. A closer look showed his loaf of bread to be a volcano. The land was green and fertile at the base of the volcano, but higher up were only craggy rocks and no sign of people living there.

Those eastern islands were like that, full of surprises. Farther on in the Ladrone passage he spied two islets that, seen at a distance, looked like a ship. Drawing nearer to them, they lost their ship shape; and drawing yet closer to the larger one he saw that what had been the shape of a ship was a space between the two islets.

Amasa took the latitude and longitude of the two islands and found his charts incorrect:

"As I had a very good set of sights on each side of the moon the night before we passed them, and they agreed so very well together, I think my position must be right. They are laid down erroneously in the charts."

Further:

"The passages between the islands [Ladrones] both to the north and south, for two degrees either side of where we passed, are good, and if any vessel should be very much distressed on account of scorbutic complaints, it may haul to the southward to latitude 12 north, and run down for the island of Guam, where it may get suitable refreshments without much difficulty, as the island affords fruit, vegetables, and water, which can be procured very conveniently."

Guam in Delano's era

That Guam of Amasa's log is the same Guam that our marines so gallantly defended after Pearl Harbor.

Amasa swung north from the Ladrones, meaning to land the wrecked Japanese in their homeport of Osaca; but as he drew more easterly he met with severe gales of wind, one gale after another. It was during the change of monsoons, breeding time for typhoons, and Japan was a strange coast to him--he hadn't even a chart of it to guide him--and so, a strange coast and his ship in her fourth year of her voyage, her sails and rigging pretty well worn out, gale after gale heading him, Amasa decided that the greater duty lay with his much-racked ship and her worn gear and the shareholders of the expedition. What would be their portion if he were to lose the ship? The insurance, yes. But the insurance did not cover the full cost; no insurance ever did. And what of the earnings on their investment, after their four years of waiting? And his own earnings? He decided on shifting to a more southerly course and making for Canton. From Canton his Japanese would be able to secure a passage home.

The law of China still held that a Canton-bound foreign ship had to enter by way of Macao. For Amasa now, that meant making Macao by way of the northern passage through the Strait of Formosa. He had taken a ship through the Formosa Strait before--the Endeavour that time Commodore McCluer had sent her from the Pelews with dispatches. She was commanded by one of McCluer's officers, but Amasa had acted as pilot for the passage of the Strait, which called for cautious navigation. Thus:

"I here recommend it as highly requisite to bear in mind on making this passage through the Straits, that it is necessary to caution the navigator against running too near their entrance in stormy weather, as I have known a gale of wind to continue with a thick heavy atmosphere for many days together, when I was about to enter the China sea by this passage, and always a strong current setting to leeward, which, considering all circumstances, would render it very dangerous to fall in with, till there was clear weather enough to obtain observations sufficient to ascertain the latitude and longitude. As this passage is made only in the north east monsoon ft is always to be calculated on having excessively bad weather, and a very rough sea, for many degrees to the eastward of Formosa, till entering the Bay of Canton. A ship in the north east monsoon, when coming from the eastward, should enter between the Grand Lama island and the small islands to the northward of it, for the benefit of a more easy wind down to Macao, and at the same time will be found a plainer passage than any other for a stranger."

Arrived at Macao, Amasa took a Chinese pilot to Canton, as the law compelled, but, knowing those Chinese pilots of old and not caring to see his ship running into shoal water, or into any other danger, he kept a sharp watch on his man. While passing between the two ports during his loafing time in China, he had been aboard two ships that were run aground by Chinese pilots, and he had the gossip from other ship captains who had been pained witnesses to their ships' being run ashore; and so:

"It is a matter of consequence to be vigilant after them [the native pilots]. And it should be the business of every master on any coast whatever; to look after the pilot he has on board and see that he does not neglect his duty. If the question should be suggested, whether I mean to insinuate that the captain of a vessel should take it on himself to dictate to. a European or an American pilot, I answer, certainly not; but having a constant care and look out himself, he may sometimes prevent very serious accidents from taking place, as all pilots are not men of abilities or of competent knowledge in their profession, and putting them in mind, when they appear any way deficient, has most commonly a beneficial tendency."

Amasa also knew that though Chinese pilots were usually expert in the handling of their fore- and aft-rigged junks, they were not always wise to the ways of square-rigged ships.

On arrival at Canton, Amasa hunted up a linguist who knew Japanese. He found one of a sort, a Chinese, and through him he questioned the Japanese, being curious to get their story of the wreck. The Japanese could not understand the Chinese linguist's Japanese speech, but they could read his Japanese writing, and he could read theirs; so it was question and answer on pieces of rice paper, which Amasa took over and kept for his own information later:

QUESTION:   What place did you leave last, previous to your being shipwrecked?
ANSWER:      The town or city of Osaca, on the island of Niphon.
QUESTION:   How many men were there of you on board, when you left Osaca?
ANSWER:      Twenty-two.
QUESTION:   What happened to the other fourteen?
ANSWER:      Some were washed overboard in the gale of wind in which we lost our masts, rudder, and were otherwise materially injured, and a number were killed and eaten for food to save life; all of which died by lot, fairly drawn.
QUESTION:   How were you treated by Captain Sole?
ANSWER:      We acknowledge him as our saviour. He not only took us away from that death which stared us in the face; but he gave us victuals, and carried us safe to land; after which he befriended and provided for us.

The rescued Japanese must have had good words for Captain Delano too; if so, and almost surely so, modest Amasa did not quote them in his log.

Amasa the curious wasn't letting a bunch of Japanese go without learning about more than the wreck from them:

"They were very religious, after their own manner. They seemed to pay some adoration to the sun, the moon, and some of the stars; but not in so great a degree as I have seen in the Gentoos and some other natives of India. I observed them at their devotions every night; and particularly about the rising of the planet Venus or Morning Star; and sometimes at the appearance of the New Moon. They kept a religious and constant care over all their actions towards each other."

Amasa turned his Japanese over to the Canton authorities, and then called on his Dutch and English supercargo friends to see what price sealskins in the open market. While waiting for offers he roamed Canton, which by now he knew pretty well.

During his previous unemployed days in China, months on end at times, Amasa had gathered much first-hand knowledge of the Chinese people. He liked the Chinese. It was true; he liked whatever people he found himself with. But American captains of his acquaintance who did business with the Chinese also had good words for them; and, like him, they were all for upholding the Chinese for their increasing distrust of foreigners. And so from Amasa, speaking up for the Chinese:

"When the European traders first visited China they were received by the Chinese with great kindness and hospitality, they were granted every indulgence in the pursuits of commerce. They at first had full liberty to go where they pleased; but they soon began to abuse this indulgence, and conduct themselves in such a manner, by taking liberties with their women, and other gross improprieties which a Chinese can never overlook, that the governing officials were obliged to curtail their liberties and confine them to the port of Canton only, where they are permitted to trade for the express purpose of commerce. Foreigners are not allowed to reside within the city of Canton, but are allowed to erect their factories (offices and warehouses) in the suburbs (river front) and there transact their business."

A story that aroused Amasa's wrath was the one so current in the Western world that Chinese mothers habitually drowned their girl babies. Amasa looked carefully into this matter and was able to report: "The story probably originated from the circumstance of the lower class of women in the suburbs of Canton having children by white foreigners. A half caste child was an immense disgrace to a Chinese woman; and so the mother of such an outcast infant would sometimes make away with it."

Amasa himself once saw two infants floating down the river in his Canton days, but investigation discovered them to be half-caste infants.

It was the law in Amasa's day that a foreign woman found in China was subject to the death penalty. White foreigners shouted against that law, especially ship captains who had their wives or other women aboard their ships. "Without considering," says Amasa, "that the Chinese people had the right to make their own laws."

The captain of an English ship, who liked to have his wife with him at all times, dressed her in men's clothes and took her to Canton in his ship. He invited several friends and acquaintances to a dinner in the cabin of his ship. Two Chinese merchants were among the guests. His wife insisted on attending the dinner. She came dressed in men's clothes and was introduced as a friend of the captain's who had made the passage with him from Macao.

The young woman was doing all right until she carelessly removed a kerchief she had been wearing around her neck. It was a warm evening, and without replacing the handkerchief she threw her head back to say something over her shoulder to the table boy. The Chinese guest who sat next to her noted no protuberance (Adam's apple) in the throat, "which no man was without and no woman with" (linguist's translation, that last phrase). This particular guest was specially friendly to the English captain, and, noting that the other and less friendly Chinese guest was eying the passenger from Macao with more than idle curiosity, he led the captain into the cabin passageway and said: "No good keep woman in Canton long now."

The husband signed his wife to leave the table, brought her to a gun port, lowered her into a fast boat (a water taxi boat with at least eight oarsmen), and started with her for Macao, which was a hundred miles or so by the inside passage. He showed the oarsmen a hatful of Spanish dollars. If they made good speed the dollars were for them.

Customs officers guarding the ship to prevent smuggling took note of the fast boat speeding away from the ship in the night. They sounded loud gongs, commandeered two fast boats, and put after the first fast boat. They kept up the chase for forty miles on the passage to Macao before they gave up.

Late autumn came on while Amasa waited in Canton for his sealskin market. The province of Canton was hard by the tropic line, but it could go cold enough in wintertime in the hinterland, and especially cold in the hills from where the tea planters came. Some of the big planters would cash in on their harvest and then made much noise in the nightlife of the port. They were great customers for the winter furs, as were also the mandarins and merchants thereabouts. Amasa sold his sealskins at a good price, bade his factory friends farewell, and set sail for home while the north monsoon wind would still be holding fair for him on his run through the China Sea and the waters south and so to the Cape of Good Hope.

"After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, any ship will of course take a fair wind to make her westing with; but if it is in the season likely to have bad weather, then he should not come to the northward of the latitude of the Cape till one degree or more to the westward of it, on account of the westerly gales of wind she will be likely to meet with and which in such cases drives a ship on shore to the northward of the Cape. I have known this to be done, and they have been lost from no other circumstance than standing to the northward before she had secured sufficient westing to bear the effects of a gale of wind on a lee shore."

To the westward of the Cape, and not a great distance from it, Amasa was hailed by an armed French brig. Her commander turned out to be a Breton merchant Captain Amasa had known in the Île de France. Amasa boarded him and they had a friendly gam. The Frenchman was laying for English shipping in and out of Cape Town. He reported the privateering business as being not bad, and less hazardous than having fifty-gun English frigates chasing his merchant brig. He also told Amasa that some English prisoners of his had told him of the United States and England being on the verge of war, and that the American Congress was debating the matter of laying an embargo on all shipping to and from French and English ports. That last was bad news for Amasa, he thinking of his good English seafaring friends as well as what it would mean--if true-- to his own maritime future.

Speaking a vessel off the Cape of Good Hope, early 1800's

Amasa followed his own advice of making plenty of westing before heading north from the Cape of Good Hope. He then ran for St. Helena, held to the eastward of the Caribbean islands, thence to the eastward also of Bermuda, and from there to the eastward of Nantucket shoals. And why to the eastward--outside--when most Boston-bound captains were for the westward passage?

"After passing to the westward of Bermuda, I have been kept for several days together hemmed on to the westward of the Nantucket shoals with a northeast wind and avoided this delay, which is so extremely disagreeable when returning from a long voyage, to be kept out of port and fatigued with bad weather and contrary winds."

Being anxious to get along home and get the war news-- if any--Amasa took the easterly passage.