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Famous sailors
In 1564, William Adams was born in
Gillingham. Nothing is known about his family but at the age of 12
he was apprenticed to a shipbuilder on the Thames at Limehouse. In
adult life he became an adventurous seaman and got a job as a pilot
on a Dutch expedition to the Pacific. In 1600 his ship was wrecked
on the coast of Japan. He entered the service of the Shogun
Tokugawa Ieyasu, learnt Japanese and became an interpreter and
advisor to the Shogun in his dealings with the European powers.
Adams also used his shipbuilding knowledge to help Ieyasu build an
80-ton merchant ship. He was awarded the title of Anjin-Sama (Lord
Pilot) and in due course married a Japanese woman. Will Adams died
in Japan in 1620 and is commemorated by a shrine erected to his
memory at Hemimura.
The name of Sir John Hawkins, another famous Elizabethan
mariner, remains associated with Medway because of the almshouse on
Chatham High Street which bears his name. This was granted a
charter by the Queen in 1594 to provide for poor sailors and
shipwrights of the royal dockyards (and their wives or widows). The
almshouse still stands on its original site, although the present
buildings date from 1791. It continues to carry out its original
function as its founder intended.
Sir Francis Drake, famous for sailing round the world and for
fighting the Spanish Armada, spent part of his childhood in Medway.
Many stories obscure the true circumstances of his early life but
it seems clear that his father, Edmund, came to live in the Medway
area around 1550. Edmund began to make a living preaching and
ministering to sailors working on the ships anchored in the river.
It was here that the young Francis learned his seamanship.
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