Adams the pilot : the life and times of Captain William Adams : 1564-1620

A comprehensive biography of William Adams, believed to have been the first English speaker to live in Japan, from his birth in Gillingham in 1564 to his death in Japan in 1620. Adams spent a decade in the service of the Dutch, with time aboard the ill-fated Mahu and de Cordes fleet which in 1598 set out to circumnavigate the world but ended in disaster with only Adams's ship the Liefde reaching Japan in 1600. Later Adams acted as an unofficial advisor to shogun Togukawa Ieyasu, and worked as a shipwright and cartographer.