William Adams

William Adams (September 24, 1564–May 16, 1620), also known in Japanese as Anjin-sama (???, "Mr Pilot") and Miura Anjin (????, "the pilot of Miura"), was an English navigator who went to Japan, and is believed to be the first Briton ever to reach Japan.

Participation in Asian trade

Adams later engaged in various exploratory and commercial ventures. He tried to organize the exploration of the Northern Passage from the East, which would have greatly reduced the traveling distance between Japan and Europe. Ieyasu asked him if "our countrimen could not find the northwest passage" and Adams contacted the East India Company to organize manpower and supplies. The project never materialized however.

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The latter part of his life was spent in the service of the English trading company. He undertook a number of voyages to Siam in 1616, and Cochin China in 1617 and 1618, sometimes for the English East India Company, sometimes for his own account. He is recorded in Japanese sources as the owner of a Red Seal Ship of 500 tons.

Related Topics:
Siam - 1616 - Cochin China - 1617 - 1618 - Red Seal Ship

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Given the small number of the ships coming from England (four ships in ten years, the Clove, the Hosiander in 1615, the Thomas and the Advice in 1616) and the poor value of their cargoes (broadcloth, knives, looking classes, Indian cotton...), William Adams played a key role in having the company partipate in the Red Seal system, by obtaining trading certificates from the Shogun. Altogether seven junk voyages were made with destination Southeast Asia, with mixed results, four of them headed by William Adams as Captain. Adams also owned the "Gift of God", a junk he used on an expedition to Cochinchina.

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1614 Siam expedition

Adams wished to organize a trade expedition to Siam to bolster the factory's activity. He bought for the factory and upgraded a 200-ton Japanese junk, renamed her the Sea Adventure, hired about 120 Japanese sailors and merchants, as well as several Chinese traders, and an Italian and a Castillan trader, and left on November 1614, during the typhoon season. The merchants Richard Wickham and Edmund Sayers of the English factory's staff also particpated to the voyage.

Related Topics:
Siam - Junk - Typhoon

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The ship was to purchase raw silk, Chinese goods, sappan wood, deer skins and ray skins (used for the scabbards of Japanese swords), and essentially carried silver (£1250) and only £175 of merchandise (Indian cottons, Japanese weapons and lacquerware).

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His ship met with a typhoon near the Ry?ky? Islands (modern Okinawa), and he had to stop there to repair his ship from 27 December 1614 until May 1615, before returning to Japan in June 1615 without having been able to purchase anything.

Related Topics:
Ry?ky? Islands - Okinawa

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1615 Siam expedition

Adams again left Hirado in November 1615 for Ayutthaya in Siam on the refit Sea Adventure, intending to bring sappanwood for resale in Japan. Again the cargo consisted mainly of silver (£600), with the Japanese and Indian goods unsold on the previous voyage.

Related Topics:
Ayutthaya - Sappanwood

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He managed to buy vast quantities of the profitable products, buying two additional ships in Siam to transport everything. Adams sailed the Sea Adventure back to Japan with 143 tonnes of sappanwood and 3,700 deer skins, returning to Hirado in 47 days, between 5 June and 22 July 1616. Sayers, on a hired Chinese junk, reached Hirado in October 1616, with 44 tons of wood. The third ship, a Japanese junk, brought 4,560 deer skins to Nagasaki in June 1617, after having missed the monsoon.

Related Topics:
1616 - Monsoon

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Adams's voyage had taken eight months altogether. He returned to Japan less than a week after the death of Ieyasu, and accompanied Cocks and Eaton to court to offer presents to the new ruler Hidetada. Although the death of Ieyasu in 1616 seems to have weakened Adams's political influence, Hidetada aggreed to maintain the trading privileges of the English, and issued a Red Seal permit (Shuinj?) to Adams, allowing him to continue trade activities overseas under the Shogun's protection. His position as hatamoto was also renewed.

Related Topics:
Hidetada - 1616 - Hatamoto

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On this occasion, Adams and Cocks also visited the Japanese Admiral Mukai Shogen Tadakatsu, who lived near Adams's estate, and they discussed plans about a possible invasion of the Catholic Philippines.

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1617 Cochinchina expedition

In March 1617, Adams set sail to Cochinchina, having purchased the junk Sayers had brought from Siam and renamed it the Gift of God. He intended to find two English factors that had left Hirado two years before to explore commercial opportunities (the first voyage to South East Asia by the Hirado English Factory). He returned to Japan with the knowledge that both had been killed and robbed of their silver.

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The ship also sold a small cargo of broadcloth, Indian piece goods and

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ivory, for the modest amount of £351.

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1618 Cochinchina expedition

In 1618, Adams is recorded as having organized his last Red Seal trade expedition to Cochinchina and Tonkin (modern Vietnam), and the last expedition of the English Hirado Factory to Southeast Asia. The ship, a chartered Chinese junk, left Hirado on 11 March 1618, but met with bad weather that forced it to stop at ?shima in the northern Ryukyus. The ship sailed back to Hirado in May.

Related Topics:
Tonkin - Vietnam - ?shima - Ryukyus

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The expeditions helped the factory survive for some time (sappanwood resold in Japan with a 200% profit), until the factory fell into bankruptcy due to high expenditures.

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