All at Sea

Milton, Giles. Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. (pgs. 57-82)

The author, Giles Milton, used a number of personal diaries and Dutch manuscripts to complete this actual account of life at sea and encounters with native populations in the earliest days of exploration.

“All at Sea” William Adams did not travel alone to Rotterdam. His brother Thomas also signed up for the expedition, along with eleven other adventurers. One of these, Timothy Shotten, had already sailed around the globe, having accompanied Thomas Cavendish on his 1586 voyage. He provided a spur to the little band heading to Holland, for he brought a wealth of information about the faraway lands of the East. The Dutch organizers of the expedition welcomed Adams and company and were more than willing to offer them employment. They were rather less forthcoming when it came to explaining its purpose. Rotterdam was rife with rumors that the fleet’s financiers had little interest in trade with the East and that talk of spices was merely a cover. Instead, these hardnosed merchants were said to have instructed their captains to emulate Drake’s spectacular successes in the Golden Hind, ransacking Spanish settlements in South America and plundering their stockpiles of gold. The assembled fleet made a most impressive sight as it rode at anchor in Goereesche Gap, a deep channel of water that linked Rotterdam with the North Sea. There were five shops in total – the Hoop, Geloof, Liefde, Trouw, and Blijde Boodschop – which an English chronicler of the expedition would later translate (not altogether accurately) as the Hope, Faith, Love, Fidelity, and Merry Messenger. They were singularly inappropriate names: hope and faith were in short supply, love was nonexistent, and fidelity proved elusive. When the surviving crew of the Merry Messenger eventually returned home, they brought tales that would provoke tears and sighs rather than chuckles of laughter. The admiral...