Caroline Foote

• Japanese: カロライン・フート (Karorain fuuto)

The Caroline Foote was an American merchant ship which was hired in 1855 by Yevfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin to carry a portion of his crew home to Russia while he remained temporarily in Japan.

Captained by A.J. Worth, the Caroline Foote entered Shimoda harbor on 1855/1/27. Putyatin arrived a few days later, on 2/2, from Heda-mura (Izu province) where a new ship was being constructed for his crew following the loss of the Diana. Putyatin then negotiated for the use of the Caroline Foote.

Leaving eleven members of its crew behind in Shimoda, the Caroline Foote, with Putyatin and 17 other Russians aboard, left Shimoda for Heda-mura on 1855/2/9.

The ship stopped at Hakodate on 3/4 to receive food, water, and firewood, and then left on 3/7.

On 4/12, the Caroline Foote returned to Shimoda, and then to Hedamura on 4/14 to pick up Russians to transport; however, negotiations for a contract for hiring the ship did not go well, and so the Caroline Foote returned to Shimoda again on 4/17 without entering into a contract.

A month later, on 5/14, the Caroline Foote (at Hakodate at that time) was persuaded to take a number of Americans from the USS Vincennes onboard and to take them from Japan.

References

• Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要, vol 2 (1937), 7, 13, 26, 46, 65.