Ch 14 - Western Contacts

Wreck of the Sparrow Hawk

The Dutch yacht de Sperwer, the Sparrow Hawk, shipwrecked on Cheju Island in July 1653, leaving 36 Dutch sailors stranded in Choson. The journal of their thirteen year stay provided a remarkable picture of life in 17th century Korea.

On July 30, 1653, the Dutch yacht de Sperwer, the Sparrow Hawk, of the United East Indian Company (VOC) set sail from Taijoan (modern Tainan), Formosa, to Deshima in Nagasaki Bay. Under normal circumstances, the ship would have reached Nagasaki by the end of November at the latest. It never arrived. It never returned to Formosa. To anyone's knowledge, de Sperwer had simply disappeared without trace. Almost thirteen years later, Lord Willem Volger, the VOC factory chief on Deshima, received a startling message. On the evening of September 7, 1666, Japanese sailors picked up a small, primitive ship carrying eight exotically dressed Dutchmen near an island in the Goto-Archipelago. Exactly one week later, the Dutchmen stepped onto the dock at Nagasaki, ending a journey that marked Choson's first significant encounter with the West and gave the western world its first real look inside the Hermit Kingdom.

The Netherlands, Europe's foremost commercial and maritime power by the middle of the seventeenth century, derived much of its economic strength from the financial engine that was the Dutch East India Company. Governor-General Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the true founder of the VOC's Dutch empire in Southeast Asia, had been in Batavia less than three years when the VOC ship de Hond sailed into Korean waters in 1622 - officially because of a "navigation error" - and was immediately engaged by no less than 36 war junks that attacked with cannons, firelocks, bows and wooden lances. In his report to Batavia, de Hond's captain advised authorities "to warn all skippers to be well aware of these kind of encounters." In 1636, VOC Governor-General Anthony van Diemen ordered a second attempt to discover "the land of Coree." Before Commander Quast's small Dutch fleet ever saw the mainland however, units of the Choson war fleet intercepted the Dutch and drove them away. With a strong foothold in Japan at Hirado, the Dutch made no further attempts to set foot on Korean soil.

In late April 1653, Mr. Nicolaes Verburgh, Governor of Formosa, submitted his resignation to Batavia. Formosa was a highly valued property and Verburgh's replacement had to be a man of extraordinary wisdom, discretion and boldness. Ordinary Counselor Carel Hartsingh, who had experience working on Formosa, was considered for the post, but Governor-General Carel Renierszoon's sudden death on May 18 stopped the appointment. Joan Maetsuyker, who had served the VOC for twelve years as Extraordinary Advisor of the Dutch-Indies, assumed the post of governor-general in Batavia. Counselor Hartsingh, who preferred to serve under Maetsuyker as VOC Director-General, refused the appointment to Formosa. As a result, Extraordinary Counselor Cornelis Caesar became the next governor of Formosa.

Formosa's new governor-designate was scheduled to sail to his new post aboard the Dutch yacht de Sperwer, the Sparrow Hawk, which had recently arrived in Batavia from Holland. Yachts like de Sperwer sailed from Holland to the East-Indies only once in their lifetime and were commonly used as "shuttles" to transport people and messages among the VOC factories and settlements.

Voyages to Amsterdam, Holland, were made by so-called "return ships," which were often twice the size of the smaller yachts. With a maximum length of 40 m (130 ft) and a width of 7.5 m (25 ft), the typical yacht (derived from the Dutch word, jacht) ranged in size from 7 to 37 tons. Launched in Amsterdam in 1648, the Sparrow Hawk was a fully-rigged three-masted merchant ship armed with thirty cannon . One well-known example of a Dutch yacht was the ship Halve Maen (Half Moon), which Henry Hudson sailed to North America.

The sailing date for de Sperwer had been postponed waiting for the expected arrival of troops from Holland who were to be stationed at the Zeelandia fortress on Formosa. The favorable sailing season for such journeys was almost at an end, so Governor-General Maetsuycker decided to proceed without them. He held a farewell dinner party in honor of Mr. Cornelis Caesar on the evening of June 16, 1653. The next day, Formosa's new governor and his family boarded de Sperwer along with a local contingent of 50 troops assigned to Zeelandia. The ship's hold carried deerskins, sugar, alum and other goods for delivery to Japan. By order of the Governor-General and the Council of the Indies, de Sperwer departed Batavia on June 18, bound for Taijoan (modern Tainan), Formosa, and ultimately, Nagasaki, Japan.

Captain Reijnier Egberse anchored the Sparrow Hawk at Taijoan on July 16, where Mr. Caesar and his family departed for their new home on Formosa and the Dutch troops marched off toward Zeelandia. After a brief layover, the Sparrow Hawk and its 64-man crew departed Taijoan on July 30 for the port of Nagasaki. Hendrick Hamel, a twenty-three-year-old writer from Gorkum, Holland, was assigned to the Sparrow Hawk as the ship's bookkeeper/accountant, responsible for maintaining the ship's log and managing its finances .

Proceeding north then northeast from Taijoan, de Sperwer entered the Formosa Strait in a moderate wind under fair skies. On the evening of July 31, a storm moved into the strait and intensified during the night. By dawn, strong winds and heavy seas churned the Formosa Strait and pushed the Sparrow Hawk dangerously close to a small island among the Pescadores. Staring aft from his cabin through visibility less than "a musket shot far," Captain Egberse caught a glimpse of land beyond the heavy surf that pounding a massive reef close astern. The ship's crew quickly set anchor with a short line to keep the Sparrow Hawk from being driven into the rocks. Just after dawn, the crew could see armed Chinese along the beach waiting like "hungry wolves" for the ship to flounder. The Sparrow Hawk remained anchored on the leeward side of that small island throughout the day and the following night.

Leaving their sheltered anchorage on the morning of August 2, the Sparrow Hawk's crew set sail for the open sea, tracking westward in gentle winds towards the Chinese coast. After easy sailing for nine days, the winds began increasing from the southeast in advance of another approaching storm. Captain Egberse turned northeast, then north-northeast to ride the wind up the Formosa Strait and sailed into steadily deteriorating weather over the next three days. Strong variable winds shrieked through the rigging as turbulent seas pounded the Sparrow Hawk with enough force to spring leaks in several places along the hull. The solid gray and sodden skies made it impossible for Chief Pilot Hendrick Janse to take the ship's bearings and de Sperwer pitched and rolled through the storm-tossed sea wherever the winds would take her.

By August 15, the howling winds made it nearly impossible for crewmen to understand each other on deck. While the helmsman struggled to keep the Sparrow Hawk headed straight into the massive waves breaking over the decks and pouring water into the ship's hold, the crew was busy pumping to keep the ship from going under. At dusk, a wave as "high as a house" slammed the ship, tearing off the bowsprit supports and part of the stern transom. With the crew busy fighting to keep the badly wounded ship afloat, Captain Egberse shouted:" Men, we are in Gods hand. Because one or two more of these waves and we will be scuppered. We can't do anything anymore."

A few hours past midnight on the morning of August 16, 1653, the ship's lookout yelled, "Land ashore! ... less than a musket shot away." Unable to see anything in the darkness and driving rain, the crew turned the rudder hard over and immediately dropped both anchors, neither of which caught bottom. Riding a storm tide at high speed, de Sperwer careened into the rocky shore and, after three hard jolts, ended its tortured journey in the pounding surf on an unknown land. A number of the men below decks never had a chance and died in their bunks. Several men jumped overboard, while others were swept away by waves that washed the broken decks free of anything that wasn't secured. Initially, fifteen men managed to crawl onto the nearby rocks, some still wearing their nightshirts, others badly wounded, all of them cold, wet and terrified.

At dawn, those who could still walk searched the beach for survivors and any bodies that had washed ashore. Only 36 of the 64-man survived the disaster, some of whom were badly injured. Captain Reijnier Egberse's body was found about 20 yards above the waterline, lying face down with one arm under his head. The survivors buried the captain and seven other crewmen nearby that morning, then returned to the wreckage to search for food and anything salvageable that may have washed ashore during the night. They found only a bag of flour, a barrel filled with meat, a barrel of bacon, and a small keg of sweet Spanish wine. The survivors put up a tent using remnants of torn sails to protect themselves from the rain. They didn't see another living soul all day and feared they had been stranded on a deserted island.

Just before noon on the morning of August 17, a lone man appeared briefly in the distance, but he fled as soon as the Dutch beckoned to him. Shortly after noon, three men appeared in the distance and approached to within "a musket shot's distance." Dressed like Chinese, but wearing horsehair hats, one man carried a musket and the other two carried bow and arrows. Despite being beckoned to approach the Dutch camp, the three men moved no closer. Around dusk, a contingent of about 100 armed men surrounded the Dutch and kept close watch on their camp throughout the night. The men behaved in a friendly manner and even started a fire started to warm the Dutch and dry their soaked clothing.

While the Dutch were busy putting up a larger tent on the morning of the August 18, between 1,000 and 2,000 armed warriors, some mounted on horseback, approached and surrounded the camp. On orders from their commanding officer, Hendrick Hamel, Hendrick Janse, the ship's petty officer, and a cabin boy were grabbed and bound together with iron chain looped around their necks. The four were roughly pushed to the ground and made to crawl on their hands and knees before the commander. Shouting loudly, warriors pushed the men's faces against the ground. The Dutch feared they would soon be killed. The warriors then signaled for the men to sit on their knees facing the commander, who asked a series of questions. The Dutch tried to explain they wanted to go to Nagasaki, Japan, but it was apparent that neither side could communicate with the other. Tensions eased somewhat after the bedraggled sailors were released from their chains and fed boiled rice and tea.

That afternoon, another wave of fear swept through the camp when a group of men arrived carrying ropes. The Dutch fear of being hanged quickly disappeared as the men scurried down to the shipwreck and nosily picked through the debris for anything could be saved from the cargo. Taking advantage of the much improved weather, Hendrick Janse determined their position to be at 33° 32' North Latitude. They were on Quelpaert Island (modern Cheju-do) in the land of Coree.

The Koreans burned the wreckage on August 20, including pieces that had washed ashore, to recover every scrap of iron for later use. As flames consumed the remains of the Sparrow Hawk, two of the ship's thirty cannons, which were loaded with powder, suddenly detonated and caused a minor panic. After the Dutch made it clear there would be no more explosions, the salvage crew returned to work. The following morning, the Korean commander - through sign language - ordered everything in the Dutch camp brought before him to be sealed for protection. Once that had been done, a few of the salvage workers were dragged before the commander and accused of stealing furs and iron from the shipwreck for personal use. The men were forced to lie on the ground as warriors, armed with sticks about six feet in length and as thick as an average boy's forearm, administered between 30 and 40 blows to each man. The beatings were so severe that some of the victims had the toes torn from their feet. The brutal punishment convinced the Dutch their possessions would be safe.

On the afternoon of August 21, the Dutch were moved about four miles from from their camp to the village of Taejong, where they were fed and housed overnight. The next day, they were taken under close guard to the Chindo District governor's residence. The frightened Dutch were lined up in a field in front of the governor, who sat beneath a large canopy, and surrounded by heavily armed men wearing armor unlike anything they had ever seen. In small groups, the Dutch were dragged before the governor and roughly forced to lie face down on the ground, after which they were allowed to sit on their knees. The governor, nearly seventy years old and highly regarded by the royal court in Seoul, asked every man just where they had come from and where they wanted to go. Every Dutch survivor repeated the same answer;  Nagasaki. After being questioned, the Dutch were moved into a small house nearby, where they were closely guarded and given daily rations of rice and wheat flour.

With the Dutch under protective custody, the governor wrote a letter to King Hyojong that reported the presence of 36 strange men in the Chindo District who had survived a shipwreck on the coast of Cheju Island. They had high noses and deeply sunken eyes, wore remarkable clothes and were unable to read, speak or understand the Korean language. The governor politely asked just what he should do with these foreigners. Isolated on Cheju Island for several months while they waited for the king's reply, the Dutch were well cared for under the governor's watchful eye. Meat and fish were added to their daily rations of rice and salt and they were given fresh water to bathe and wash their clothes. The governor also provided medicine and treatment for the wounded and granted the men a limited amount of freedom to walk about in small groups of six. He even organized a party for the men to keep their spirits up and suggested they could leave for Nagasaki as soon as King Hyojong answered his letter. Hendrick Hamel later noted that, "He also took such care of our sick, that we may affirm we were better treated by that idolater, than we should have been among Christians."

In time, the Dutch learned that Quelpaert, called Scheluo (Cheju) by the local residents, was a very fertile, densely populated island about 15 miles in circumference located about 10 or 12 miles south of the southernmost point of the Korean peninsula. The island was surrounded by numerous cliffs and reefs and ships sailed for the mainland from a bay on the north side of the island. The large mountain in the center of the island was covered with a dense forest, surrounded by numerous bare mountains and valleys in which rice was cultivated. The Dutch noticed a sizeable population of poor, simple people on the island along with an abundance of cattle and horses.

On October 29, Hendrick Hamel, Hendrick Janse and Mattheus Eibokken, the ship's nineteen-year-old junior surgeon, were brought to the governor's residence for a remarkable meeting. They were stunned to see an impressive looking figure of a man sporting a great red beard and dressed in the attire of a Choson official seated beside the governor. The three men thought he was probably a Hollander like themselves, but the governor laughed at that notion and introduced the man as Pak Yon, a Korean. The sight of his three countrymen and the familiar sounds of his native language moved Pak Yon to tears. Speaking in very broken Dutch, he asked what kind of men they were and where they were from. Thrilled to hear their own language, they replied they were Hollanders from Amsterdam who had been sailing from Taijoan, Formosa, to Nagasaki, Japan, when they were blown off course and ended up on the island. They added they had high hopes of leaving soon.

When the Dutch asked Pak Yon what kind of man he was and how he got to Korea, he replied:

"My name is Jan Janse Weltevree from De Rijp. I came in 1626 with the ship Hollandia, from the fatherland. In 1626 I was on my way to Japan with the yacht Ouwerkerck, when we, due to the unfavorable wind, stranded at the coast of Coree. Because we had a need for sweet water, we rowed with the barge ashore, where I and two of my mates were overpowered and captured. My other companions succeeded in getting away and rowed back to the yacht which floated in the meantime again. It turned around immediately and returned to the deep blue sea. So we were doomed to stay in Coree. My companions, Dirk Gijsbertszoon from De Rijp and Jan Pieterse Verbaest from Amsterdam, died some 17 or 18 years ago when the Tartars [Manchus] occupied this country."

Jan Weltevree explained that he lived well in Seoul, the king's city, and had been sent to Cheju Island by the king to act as an interpreter to find out just what kind of men the shipwreck survivors were and how they got to the island. He added that on many occasions he had asked the king and other high administrators to be sent to Japan, but his request was always denied. The Koreans, he added, did not return foreigners who arrived in their country.

The governor ordered every conversation in that meeting written down, which Jan Weltevree read and translated, and a report of the meeting was sent to Seoul for action by the king. The governor told the Dutch he expected an answer soon and that it would certainly contain permission for them to leave for Japan on short notice. In the meantime, the governor ordered Weltevree and one of his inspectors to visit the Dutch daily and to inform him of their actions. Jan Janse Weltevree, now almost fifty-eight years old, had not heard his native language for nearly twenty-seven years, and it took nearly a month before he could speak fluently with his fellow countrymen.

The Dutch became very worried when the learned the governor's three year term of office expired in December and that he would be returning to Seoul. They knew that new lords usually meant new laws. So long as the governor remained on the island however, he continued to show friendship toward the Dutch. With winter approaching, each man received a long, lined robe, a pair of leather socks and a pair of shoes. They also got a big jar of heating oil and books salvaged from de Sperwer. Before his departure, the governor invited the Dutch to a farewell dinner, where he told them, through Weltevree, that he regretted he could not allow them to go to Japan. They should not be sad, he told them, because he would exert his influence on their behalf at the royal court.

Cheju Island's new governor took office in January 1654 and quickly made it known he did not favor the presence of the foreigners. Almost immediately he cut the Dutchmen's food rations down to small portions of salted rice and a few sips of water. The Dutch complained to the former governor, who had yet to leave for Seoul, but he explained he could do nothing since his tour of duty was over. He did write a letter to the new governor requesting better food rations, and so long as he remained on Cheju Island the Dutch situation improved somewhat, but just enough to keep them from complaining. Conditions became noticeably worse after the old governor finally left. The Dutch were fed millet instead of rice and a small amount of barley flour instead of wheat. If they wanted meat or fish, they had to sell their millet ration. Fortunately, the new governor did not restrict their freedom of movement.

Months passed without a response from King Hyojong. The Dutch, fearing they would spend the rest of their lives on Cheju Island, spent the remainder of the winter planning an escape. In early May, with improving weather and favorable spring winds approaching, Hendrick Janse and five others spotted a rigged ship in a village not far from their residence. One of the men returned to camp for the food and ropes which had been readied for just such an opportunity. While the villagers watched in surprise, the six Dutch sailors darted for the small boat and began dragging it over the sand towards the water. One of the Dutchmen, after loosening the mooring rope, was too weak to climb aboard and dropped out. The five men who managed to climb aboard fumbled with the unfamiliar rigging. While trying to hoist the sail, they snapped the mast pin and toppled the mast and sail into the water. Slowly drifting back to shore, they were approached by some of the villagers in another boat. The Dutch unexpectedly jumped into the other boat intent on throwing the passengers overboard, but after they saw it was half filled with water, they realized it would be impossible to sail it to Japan and surrendered.

The six Dutchmen were taken to the governor's residence, each with a heavy plank chained around his neck, and forced to bow face down before the governor. In the presence of the other Dutchmen, the governor asked if anyone at the house knew of their escape attempt. All six men answered that no one knew anything about it. When the governor demanded to know just what they had in mind by stealing a boat, the six men said they intended to sail east across the Tsushima Strait to Nagasaki, Japan and the Dutch settlement at Deshima. The governor then asked if they understood the impossibility of such a voyage in a small boat with so few provisions. The Dutch admitted they had little chance of succeeding, but anything was better than living as exiles on Quelpaert for the rest of their lives. On the governor's orders, each man was given 25 blows across the bare buttocks with a thin rod. The severity of the beatings kept the men bed-ridden for about a month and the all the Dutch were put under a curfew and tightly guarded around the clock.

As the months passed, the VOC governors in Batavia gave up all hope of ever hearing from de Sperwer or its crew again. In October 1653, the ship, her crew and her precious cargo were officially declared lost at sea. Shortly afterward, Governor-General Joan Maetsuyker issued orders that explicitly forbid sending ships into the waters north of Taijoan after July 1 to avoid the hurricanes which raged after that date in the seas between China and Japan.