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Street, Silverwater, NSW 2128. ISSN 2205-0515. Distributed by Gordon & Gotch. Printed by Bluestar Web, 83 Derby Street, Silverwater, NSW. ISSN 2205-Imagine what it would be like to land on the
moon and live the rest of your life without
anybody believing you.
That probably gives some indication as to
how William Swallow felt after his 1830 visit to
Japan, which had been closed to foreign visitors
for over 200 years.
Of course, the process leading up to this
Japanese sojourn didn’t do much for the
credibility of the tale. Swallows’ ship, The Cyprus,
was captured in a convict mutiny off the coast
of Tasmania in 1829.
The crew of miscreant sailors eventually
turned up in China, where they scuttled the
ship and claimed to be castaways. Nice try.
Two were convicted of piracy and hanged, but
Swallow convinced the judge he’d been coercedinto participating and was convicted with the
lesser crime of escaping.
When he later gave his account of the
mutiny, Swallow outlined the details of a stop
off in Japan, including an anecdote where a
Japanese cannon ball knocked a telescope from
his hand. This was written off as make-believe
all the way up until 2017, when an amateur
historian uncovered records in Japan that
corroborated the story.
It’s easy to imagine Swallow flaunting his
vindication if he were alive today – that is,
aside from the part of the account that paints
his crew as a desperate group of dishonest
foreigners and describes their ship as having an
‘unbearable stench’. History, it seems, may not
always favour the victor.SEADOGSOF YORE
The Story Nobody SwallowedEditorial
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Trade-a-Boat is printed in Australia with a
total print run of 8250 copies.Japanese watercolour painting believed to depict
William Swallow: Tokushima prefectural archive