by Galloglaich » Fri Nov 04, 2011 2:26 pm
Well of course in fact, it is quite interesting to read about... in history books. Because of course, it did indeed happen many times. During the early Euriopean exploration of the Pacific, European soldiers, sailors, merchants, missionaries, explorers and indeed pirates of many European nationalities crossed paths with Japanese numerous times, often coming to blows. Throughout the 16th Century due to their harsh acts in the past, the Japanese were banned from China, but they had a huge demand for Chinese silk. The trade town of Nagasaki in Japan was built up by Portuguese silk traders. The Dutch meanwhile, used Ronin samurai as hired muscle by the tens of thousands primarily in Indonesia, as did Chinese Waco pirates operating especially out of the Philippines, which were also falling under the control of the Spanish. Duels and even pitched land and naval battles in the Pacific took place numerous times between Japanese Samurai and Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch sailors and soldiers, and even occasionally with the English and French.
One of the earliest violent encounters betweenn the British and the Japanese occured in 1603 AD, when a pirate vessel comprised of Ronin Samurai encountered a British vessel commanded by a rogue British Captain named Sir Edward Michelborne who, due to being snubbed by the recently formed British East India company, had himself become a pirate who had been busy ravaging the "spice islands" around Malaysia and Borneo.
here is the first part of their encounter, transcribed from the book Nathaniels Nutmeg , by Giles Milton:
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As the ship drifted in the calm waters off the Malay Peninsula, a cry was suddenly raised from the look-out. A mysterious ship was approaching, a huge junk, whose decks were lined with more than eighty men. They were strange-looking fellows: short, squat, and with an almost total lack of expression on their faces. Sir Edward despatched a heavily armed boat to discover if these people were friend or foe and, after a breif exchange in which theEnglish learned that the vessel was 'a junke of the Japons', they were invited on board and shown around. When they enquired of the Japanese as to their line of business the men made no bones about their trade.
The Junk, like the Tiger, was a pirate ship and the men were proud of her devastating progresss through the waters of South-East Asia. She had pillaged the coasts of China and Cambodia, plundered half a dozen ships off Borneo, and was now heading back to Japan laden with spoils.
When the English party were safely back on the Tiger, Sir-Edward weighed up his options. Trusting to his previous good fortune, he decided to ransack the junk and, to this end, seent a second band of Englishmen on board to stake her out.
Although it was clear to the Japanese that Michelbourne's buccaneering sailors were assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the vessel, they welcomed the English with open arms and allowed them free access to the ship's hold. They even pointed to the choicest items on board, astonishing the crew of the tiger who had never met with such an odd race of men. 'They were most of them too gallant a habit for sailors,' wrote one, 'and such an equalitie of bheavior among them that they all seemed fellows.' When they asked to visit the English vessel, all agreed that it would be impolite to refuse.
Next: what happend when the Samurai boarded the Tiger...
So here is the rest of the story:
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Here Michelborne's inexeperience told for the first time. He was unaware that the Japanese had the reputation in the Indes for being a 'people so desperate and daring that they are feared in all places' and was ignorrant of the fact that all eastern ports demanded that any Japanese sailor coming ashore must first be disarmed.
I have to interject here, those familiar with Japanese fencing systems or the martial art Iaido, or who are familiar with the Codex system, know that one of the most effective and popular attacks in Japanese fencing is the Nukutsuke, cutting from a sheathed sword... anyway, Giles Milton continues the story:
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Davis [the navigator] too was 'beguiled by their humble semblance'. Not only was he of the opinion that disarming them was unnnecessary, he offered them the run of the ship and let them freely fraternise with the crew. As more and more Japanese clambered aboard, beakers were raised and the two crews joked and chatted among themselves.
Milton does not specify what language they were using the communicate.
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In a flash everything changed: unbeknown to the English, the Japanese had, in the words of Michelborne, 'resolved with themselves either to gaine my shippe or to lose their lives'. The smiles vanished, the laughter died and the Japanese suddenly transformed themselves into brutal 'rogues' who stabbed and slashed (Nukitsuke!) at their English adversaries. The crew of the Tiger had never faced such hostility (which seems odd for Milton to say since they had been operating as pirates for several months already) and scarcely had a chance to resist before the deck was swarming with Japanese weilding (sic) long swords (katanas) and hacking men to pieces. Soon they reached the gun room where they found Davis desperately loading muskets. 'They pulled [him] into the cabbin and giving him sixe or seven mortall wounds, they thrust him out of the cabbin.' He stumbled on deck but the sword wounds had severed one of his arteries and he bled to death. Others too, were in their final death throes and it seemed inevitable that the Tiger would shortly be lost.
It was Michelborne who saved the day. Thrusting pikes [probably Bills or boarding pikes which may be like half-sized pikes or something like a bill] into the hands of his best fighters he launched a last-ditch attack on the Japanese soldiers 'and killed three or four of their leaders'. This disheartened the Japanese who slowly found themselves at a disadvantage. Armed with knives and swords, they were unable to compete with Michelborne's pikemen (sic) and found themselves driven down the deck until they stood en masse by the entrance to the cabin. Sensing their predicament, they let out a terrific scream and dashed headlong into the heart of the ship.
The English were at a loss as to know how to evict them. Not one man volunteered to follow them into the cabin for to do so would be to court certain death. It was equally hopeless to send a large group down. The passageway was low and narrow and the men would end up wounding themselves rather than the Japanese.
Eventually a bright spark on board had a simple but devastating solution. Two thirty-two-pound demi-culverins were loaded with 'crosse-bars, bullets, and case-shot' and fired at point-blank range into the most exposed side of the cabin. There was a deafening crash as the shrapnel tore through the woodwork and 'violently marred therwith boords and splinters'., A terrible shriek followed, a cry of agony, and then there was silence. When the smoke cleared and the dust settled, the cabin was entered and it was found that only one of the twenty-two japanese had survived. 'Their legs, armes and bodies were so torne, as it was strange to see how the shot had massacred them.'
It was now time for Michelborne to have his revenge. Training every last cannon on the Japanese junk, he fired shot after shot into her sides until the men on board begged for mercy. When this was refused they vowed to go down fighting and the battle raged until all resistance was quelled and the junk fell silent. Only one Japanese attempted to surrender. Diving into the water he swam across to the Tiger and was hauled aboard. When quizzed by Sir Edward [Michelborne] as to the motive for the attack he 'told us that htey meant to take our shippe and cut all our throates'. Having said this, and terrified by the crowd of hostile onlookers, he told Michelborne that his one desire was 'that hee might be cut in pieces'. Michelborne preferred a less bloody method of execution and ordered the man to be strung up at the yardarm. This sentence was duly carried out but the rope snapped and the man dropped into the sea. No one could be bothered to haul him in and as the coast was not far away it was presumed that he escaped with his life.
An interesting, and in a gallows humor sense, quite amusing story. Tells us a lot and makes for an interesting scene particularly if you read between the lines a little. There is no doubt at least some of these Japanese 'pirates' were Ronin Samurai. The English vessel probably had both sailors and at least some professional soldiers on board. The Japanese were probably armed with katana or tachi and tanto knives.
The English would have been armed with bills, (or boarding pikes), axes, sabers, cutlasses, rapiers, cut-thrust swords, hangers, possibly even a longsword or two, as well as wheellock or flintlock muskets, musketoons and pistols, maybe longbows or arbalests (crossbows), and quite possibly grenades. Just maybe even a 17th Century grenade launcher (probably not though because these don't show up in records much until the 18th Century)
It is likely that some of the English soldiers from the original English boarding party were wearing armor. Cuirass, half armor and three quarters harness were mentioned in many period documents, as well as (surprisingly) mail quite often. Probably some of the Ronin as well had armor, though the Japanese boarding party may not have had any on (it would have made the English suspicious) which may have been a factor in how the battle went.
This was by no means the only such encounter nor did it always go this way. Ronin Samurai were hired in the thousands or tens of thousands by the Dutch, who used them to help conquer Malaysia, Indonesia and the 'Spiceries', along with mercenaries from Europe (reportedly German 'landsknechts' though it is unclear what that really meant in the 17th Century). Samurai were involved in fighting between the Dutch, the English, the Portuguese, the Spanish, as well as the ferocious Moro of the Philippines, Chinese Waco pirates and various local tribes such as the headhunting Dayak. Then later the French showed up....
The East indies in the 17th Century was an interesting place.
and about the shouting at onset, what does that remind you of? Maybe just ordinary yelling, maybe what the Japanese called KAKE GOE (or the Kiai in Kendo) i.e. yelling to get extra energy when you strike. This also existed in Europe going back to the Greeks. 