San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-15
RECORD OF JAPANESE WRECKS IN
THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN.

A List of Oriental Castaways That Runs
from 1917 to 1SS1-Tales of Awful Suf-
fering by the Shipwrecked-A Voyage of
Seventeen Months.
Among the wany theories that are set up
to explain the original settlement of the
North American continent that which as
C:ib2s it to the enforced visitation of some
storm driven Japanese fishermen meets with
much favor. Without recounting the vari-
Gus arguments that are based on architect
ur2l, physical and pathological similarities
between the abOrigines of the Pacific coast of
the New World and the old races of the
Orient, it may be said that the shipwrecked
sailor idea has many plausible features to
recommend it.
Charles Walcott Brooks, who was a firm
believer in this theory, devoted much atten-
ton to the subject, and certainly proved
three things: First, that the number of
wrecked junks that have been. reported in
one way or another exceeded hundred; Sec
Ond, that every junk found adrift or stranded
on the North American coast has proved to
be Japanese third, that their presence is due
to the existence of the Kuro Shiwo or Japan
csc stream which sweeps nOrtheaSterly past
japan toward the Aleutian Islands, thence
curving around and passing south along the
coast of Alaska, Oregon and California.
The first record of storm driven junks goes
as far back as 1917, when mention is made in
an old Spanish book Of a japanese boat being
at Acapulco. Usually, however, the junks
were driven north rather than south, stranded
japanese vessels being reported on the coast
of Kamchatka in 1894, 1896, ITO and 1929
So, too, in 1882 japanese junk was wrecked
upon the Aleutian Islands; in 1905 Japanese
Junk was wrecked on the coast Of Alaska and
in 1912 and 1913 two others were run across
by Russian sloops in similarly high ATTITUDES.
HEADED UP IN FIRKINs
The first reported wreck of the sort which
came to the California coast occurred in 1915.
On the oath of March in that year the brig
Forester, Capt PiggOtt, was cruising off
Santa Barbara, when he sighted japanese
junk drifting at the mercy Of the winds and
waves. Her rudder and masts were gone.
Although blowing a gale, he boarded the
junk, and found fourteen dead bodies in the
hold, the captain, carpenter and one seaman
alone surviving. They were on voyage from
Osaka 70 Yeddo and were seventeen months
out. In 1920 a junk was cast upon Point
Adams, the southern shore of the mouth of
tie Columbia, and in 1888 another was
wrecked on the coast Of Washington terri
tory, in the immediate vicinity of Cape Flat
terry.
Many of her crew had persisted and several
dead bodies were headed up in tirkins in the
customary japanese style, ready for burial
In 1910 japanese junk of about forty tons
in iSla Hxhi in
1915 the United States frigate ST. Louis took
from Mexico to Ningpo three shipwricked
japanese, survivors Of a junks crew which
had drifted from the coast of Japan entirely
across the Pacific ocean.
In 1915 Capt. Cooper, of the whaleship
Manhattan, rescued eleven shipwrecked Jap
anese from q little island near Niphon, and
few days after rescued several more from
sinking junk. Rescuespf similar character
were made in 1S47, 1913 and 1850, and then
in February, 1851, seventeen shipwrecked
japanese were brought to San Francisco by
Capt. Jennings, of the bark Auckland, the
junk from which they were taken having
fall of the previous year.
So the record goes on to 1876, until sixty
cases are enumerated. Of these four were
IIOHl lOlo W lOJt, IuTee lTOn lIlU 10 lIS2, SIX
from 1904 to 1920, eleven from 1881 to 1S4S,
and thirty-six from 1850 to 1876. This APP
parent increase during the last mentioned
period is not owing to th.ir increased num-
Der, but solely to the fact that the increase of
commerce on the Pacific has distributed there
q large feet whose presence has materially
increased the chances of rescue to disabled
vessels and the likelihood of receiving reports
from stranded wrecks.
Taking up the record from where Mr..
Brooks dropped in 1876, it is seen that since
and including that year only six cases have
been reported, and none at all since 1881 The
reason for this decrease lies in the fact that
Japan has recently awakened to the necessity
Of improving the models of her vessels and
adopting those with sea going qualities
ONLY TWO ALIVE.
The Chronicle of Wednesday, Aug I6, 1876,
contains the following story, which was well
entitled "A Horror of the Sea-
THE Emma Utter arrived in port yester-
day evening Aug. Is, 1916, bringing a state
ment made by Capt Nelson, master of the
British bark Abbey Cowper, which described
an encounter he had had with phantom
chi, -