Colonial Despatches

Captain Winchester was a British captain of the Caribbean. In 1858, he rescued twelve Japanese sailors from a disabled ship floating in the Pacific Ocean.1 While on his way to China, he stopped in Victoria to take on tradeable cargo.2 Winchester departed from Victoria for China with the rescued sailors on September 20, 1858.3 He transferred the Japanese men to a British ship off the coast of Japan and they were then safely returned home.4 The Daily Alta California, however, reported that Winchester detained these men although not against their will. But they saw his persistence in retaining these people as part of a selfish policy of the British to obtain commercial advantages with Japan for the British flag.5

• 1. Grant Keddie, Human History: Japanese Shipwrecks in British Columbia - Myths and Facts. Royal BC Museum.
• 2. Rowlandson to Lytton, 21 September 1858, 11053, CO 60/3, 579.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Keddie, Human History: Japanese Shipwrecks in British Columbia.
• 5. Daily Alta California, August 27, 1858. The Wrecked Japanese, California Digital Newspaper Collection.