Japan_1834

British Southern Voyage

WRIBV046710
VesselJapan
MasterWilliam Edmund Hill
Departure1834-12-17
Return (days)1837-08-02 (960)
Port (dock)London
DestinationTimor
East/ WestEast
Owner (Agent)Bennett & Co.
Cargo550 casks + 4 tanks
SourcesSST1; SST2; SST3; LOG SHERMAN 2513
ReportsAt Sutranha 5 May 1835; of Battogada 18 June 1835; sighted New Guinea 8 August 1835; at Wyhee [an India Company settlement] 24 August 1835; spoken by the Argus 7 September 1835 near Goram out 9 months with 200 b; at Coupang 30 September 1835; at Sutranha 6 January 1836; at Copang 4 March 1836; at Battagoda 7 June 1836; reported 23 August 1836 in the Timor Strait with 1100 barrels; reported 6 December 1836 at Timor June 1836 with 1600 barrels; vessel appears to have been on the lower Western Australian coast in late 1836 and early 1837; set course for London 25 March 1837 via the Cape of Good Hope; reported 14 April 1837 with 2300 barrels; reported 18 July 1837 at St Helena 29 May 1837 with 2600 barrels
NotesCommercial Journal , 25 May 1836 reports that the London whaler Japan was trading with natives off an island near Timor, when there was an exchange of gunfire in which the ship's carpenter was killed. A member of the crew on his voyage was Robert Jarman, keeper of an journal on an earlier voyage which became the basis of 'A Voyage to the South Seas'. A scrimshaw tooth depicting the Japan is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum Greenwich (http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/26.html). A Journal kept by the Surgeon James Brown records on 29 June 1835 that he was told over 300 people had died from ysentry or 'diaorreha' on Timor [presume Europeans] and on 2 November 1835 sighted Halleys Comet. Brown also mentions a process of boiling out the 'stink'following usual trying,out , appears to make an extra 10% of oil. Entry for 2 February 1837 off Batchian records informed of the death of Captain Monro of the Vigilant and the loss of the Falcon (Inkson) in the Carolinas.

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