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| The entrance to Yokohama Port circa early 1900s. |
By Robert Neff
In the late 1860s, Yokohama was the economic hub of Japan. Every year hundreds of foreign vessels visited the port unloading cargoes of meat, oils, foreign-made goods and machinery while taking on cargoes of Japanese silks and teas.
There were several hundred Westerners living and working in this port ― a large number of them were young men with wild dreams and equally wild needs.
One early Western visitor described the foreign population as "the scum of Europe."
They helped make the port the "wild west" in the Far East, with its houses of ill-repute that catered to the baser needs of sailors and merchants ― mainly cheap drink and short-term female companionship.
One contemporary writer claims that "prostitutes were often kept in street-front cages on display for customers."
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| Women of an infamous house of ill-repute in Yokohama circa early 1900s. |
It was not the decadence that caused Captain Patrick Hodnett to move to Yokohama in 1867; it was the lucrative opportunities brought about by the increase of trade with the West.
Hodnett was a pilot ― a person who guided ships safely into the harbor ― and seems to have been very successful in Yokohama. So successful that he was able to purchase a small schooner, Roderick Dhu, which he used to explore the northern part of Japan.
"There is something interesting in running along an unsurveyed and … unexplored shore," he wrote, but this interest was dangerous ― especially during the Japanese civil war ― and almost cost him his schooner and his life.
In the summer of 1868, while exploring the northern part of the country, the Roderick Dhu encountered a violent storm and sought shelter in a small harbor about 260 kilometers north of Yokohama. The appearance of a strange ship naturally caused concern among the Japanese villagers.
"We were a rakish looking craft and had been taken for a man-of-war," explained Hodnett. Wanting to ease the tension, Hodnett sent one of his men (with the exception of an alcoholic English sailor named Jerry, his crew was Japanese) ashore with a box of Huntley and Palmer's biscuits and a message that the ship was not a warship but merely "a merchant vessel, driven thither by stress of weather."
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| A Japanese port circa early 1900s. |
Relieved, the villagers welcomed Hodnett into the village and showered him with gifts, and he, in turn, gave small gifts including brass buttons, loaves of sugar and cheap knickknacks. But his need for adventure was not sated with merely visiting the village ― he desired to call on the prince at his residence in the interior. It was a bad mistake.
Hodnett claims that a crowd of 5,000 gathered to see him off but his attempt at a noble departure was foiled by the mischievousness of his horse, which promptly threw him off and "badly injured" him. The pain was more spiritual than physical and he wondered if perhaps this was not an "ill omen" warning to give up.
But Hodnett was stubborn and with gifts of a music box and loaves of sugar, he began trekking inland toward the prince's residence. His passage through the countryside was greeted with astonishment by farmers who dropped their ploughs to stare at him while the children ran away crying.
Arriving at his destination, he was given a frosty welcome from the prince who demanded to know why a foreigner was in his reign. Hodnett explained that the storm had caused him to come ashore to seek shelter, water and wood for fuel and that he wished to give to the prince several small gifts as a sign of his gratitude. The prince refused his gifts and replied that none of these wants (fuel and water) required the Irish sailor to trek inland.
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| Calm waters circa early 1900s |
The prince then demanded that all the gifts be returned to the foreigner and that he be escorted directly to his ship and leave immediately. He made it clear to the Westerner that he was lucky to be leaving with his head but if any other visitors should appear, they would not so lucky.
The walk back to the ship, in the dark and the rain, was terrifying. His two escorts, both armed with two swords, were becoming "sulky" and, Hodnett wryly observed, "a weapon in those days that had shed blood was enhanced in value."
His perilous situation was made even clearer when he arrived at his ship ― his Japanese crew had deserted him. He and Jerry were all alone. Fortunately for them, Jerry had shared a bottle or two the previous evening with a group of sailors on a visiting junk and they took pity on the foreigners. They helped raise the anchor and set the sails and guided the Roderick Dhu into the current before they returned to their own ship and sailed away.
The Roderick Dhu was at the mercy of the stormy sea and if it should be blown back to shore they would surely be killed. But fortune smiled on them and they were eventually able to make their way to a safe port. Nearly three weeks later they returned to Yokohama.
What became of the Roderick Dhu is unclear but it wasn't Hodnett's only ship, nor was this his only harrowing experience while "running along an unsurveyed and unexplored shore."
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| Farmers circa 1900s. |
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