Samarang

The Samarang was an English vessel which visited the Ryûkyû Kingdom several times in 1843 to 1845. Captained by Edward Belcher, it surveyed and mapped sections of the Ryukyu Islands, and repeatedly made port to ask for supplies, causing difficulties for the Ryukyuan royal government.

Shuri responded by dispatching additional officials to the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands, where the Samarang had been sighted. These officials were ordered to report to Shuri any further sightings of Western ships.

References

• Marco Tinello, "The termination of the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo : an investigation of the bakumatsu period through the lens of a tripartite power relationship and its world," PhD thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia (2014), 129, 138.