The First Sea Battle between the English and the Japanese

Abstract

In 1605, the British vessel 240 ton Tiger and the pinnace, Tiger's Whelp met Japanese swordsmen aboard a junk off the coast of Bintam Island in the Straits of Malacca. The British boats were commamded by Sir Edward Michelborne and the captain of the Tiger was John Davis. Sir Michelborne was determined to find a route to the Far East, including Japan.
The meeting of two groups remained peaceful for two days or so. But the Japanese, having lost their original vessel on the Borneo coast because of a storm, started planning to hijack the British vessel after their second boat, a Chinese junk sprang a leak. Fighting broke out when several British sailors boarded the junk and tried to inspect its cargo. Two groups of Japanese, one on the junk and the other on the Tiger, suddenly attaked the British with swords. Captain Davis was killed immediately after the fighting started. The British finally used demi-culverin guns to destroy all the Japanese as well as their own cabin.
The incident caused Sir Michelborne to give up the expedition and return to England via India and Africa. Captain Davis is famous for his discovery of the Falkland Islands, the scene of the Argentine-British War of 1982. An account of the incident, presumably written by Michaelborne's secretary, appears in “Hukluytus Postumes, or His Pilgrims”, but the story has been mistold in Japan. I have tried to describe the events as they actually took place.