Help support TMP


"Australian convict pirates in Japan: evidence of 1830..." Topic


9 Posts

All members in good standing are free to post here. Opinions expressed here are solely those of the posters, and have not been cleared with nor are they endorsed by The Miniatures Page.

Please remember that some of our members are children, and act appropriately.

For more information, see the TMP FAQ.


Back to the 19th Century Discussion Message Board

Back to the Classical Asian Warfare Message Board

Back to the Pirates Message Board

Back to the Age of Sail Message Board


Areas of Interest

Ancients
Medieval
Renaissance
18th Century
Napoleonic
19th Century

Featured Hobby News Article


Featured Link


Top-Rated Ruleset

Battles in the Age of War


Rating: gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star 


Featured Showcase Article

28mm Babylonian Spearmen from Castaway Arts

We look at spearmen from Castaway Arts' new Babylonian line.


Featured Workbench Article


Featured Book Review


1,734 hits since 13 Jun 2017
©1994-2025 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?

Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP13 Jun 2017 12:12 p.m. PST

…voyage unearthed

"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.

But that conclusion has been shattered by Nick Russell, a Japan-based English teacher and history buff, in a remarkable piece of sleuthing that has won the endorsement of Australian diplomatic officials and Japanese and Australian archival experts.

Russell, after almost three years of puzzling over an obscure but meticulous record of an early samurai encounter with western interlopers, finally joined the dots with the Cyprus through a speculative Google search last month…"
Main page
link

Interesting idea for wargaming? (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

robert piepenbrink Supporting Member of TMP13 Jun 2017 12:25 p.m. PST

Nice work! I think all the necessary castings are available, too.

Cacique Caribe13 Jun 2017 1:25 p.m. PST

In 1830 they "the last men hanged for piracy in Britain"? Wow, I would have expected capital punishment to have been applied for piracy for much longer than that.

And the ship lies 900m from the man's house! Amazing.

Yeah, I can see this being a very interesting game of cat and mouse on the high seas. :)

Dan

robert piepenbrink Supporting Member of TMP13 Jun 2017 2:21 p.m. PST

Cacique, I bet it was--but locally. I doubt Chinese pirates caught in the Straits went further than Hong Kong or Singapore.

I was thinking more of the crew of the Swallow vs samurai. Foraging expeditions ashore? Attempts at boarding? All kinds of possibilities for the wargamer with some samurai castings, a handful of more or less Napoleonic sailors a small ship and a longboat or so.

Cacique Caribe13 Jun 2017 3:08 p.m. PST

Indeed!

Dan

Henry Martini13 Jun 2017 10:12 p.m. PST

Some escaped convicts turned river pirate within the colony of New South Wales, too.

Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP14 Jun 2017 10:43 a.m. PST

Happy you enjoyed it boys!. (smile)


Amicalement
Armand

Beaumap22 Jun 2017 1:24 a.m. PST

Very interesting indeed. Although a bit of 'back-filling' of history going on here. A British Scholar discovers details of a British ship flying the Union Jack, hi-jacked by a British captain, but a-ha it has sailed from Tasmania. So everybody's suddenly Australian. It's like saying Julius Caesar was British because he left Britain! Although I am glad the Australian press took up the story, otherwise I probably wouldn't be reading it today!

Tango01 Supporting Member of TMP22 Jun 2017 11:21 a.m. PST

Glad you like it too my friend! (smile9

Amicalement
Armand

Sorry - only verified members can post on the forums.