Shipwrecks
Pat Luczai asked: What are the cultural, historic or physical attractions (beside surf shacks) in your town?
Mainly shipwrecks. Here is a rundown of the major shipwrecks that have occurred on or near Tanegashima.
1543 – A Portuguese vessel drifted ashore introducing modern firearms to Japan. The specifics of this major event are pretty heavily disputed. Some claim that famed Portuguese explorer Mendes Pinto was traveling aboard the ship but that is far from certain. Local legend has it that the people of Tanegashima traded a young virgin princess, named Princess Wakasa, to one of the sailors for the technical knowhow required to locally produce the firearms. The legend goes on to say that the princess was so upset about the trade that she went on to take her own life.
1885 – An American bark sailing out of Philadelphia named the “Cashmere” was struck by a typhoon that capsized the ship. After a harrowing ordeal, thirteen of the original sixteen crew members (including the captain’s young son – but not the captain) washed up on the eastern shores of Tanegashima where they were cared for by the locals before being sent on their way back to America. The story was big news in America where it made the front page of the New York Tribune on Sunday, November 29, 1885. In 1889 the United States Congress thanked the islanders by appropriating $5,000 to the villages of Iseki and Anjo, who in turn used the money for the construction of two schools.
1894 – A British freighter named the Dramerton ran aground. The net result of this shipwreck was the introduction of a special kind of chicken and some unidentified flowers.
1990’s – While details are sketchy, sometime during the 1970’s or 1980’s early 1990’s the ship in the picture above ran aground in rather spectacular fashion. The story goes that some sailors from the Philippines bought a boat in China, and while piloting it home got caught up in a typhoon and were planted high and dry on the east coast of Tanegashima, so high in fact that nothing could be done to save the ship.
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