Here is a list of all British ships that visited Okinawa between 1613 and 1900. I am indebted to my very learned friend Michael Nabholz for compiling this list. There is endless fun to be had looking up these ships on Wikipedia.
Michael is also an expert on Italian Scooters. He has my total respect.
A TV 175 in San Francisco. Ben’s Yamaha in background.
I included this list in the original draft for my article in Marine Quarterly. Maybe the article was a bit long at 83 pages but I am surprised they did not publish this excellent research. Wikipedia, which I love above all things, gives a wealth of info about both boats and captains.
British Ships in The Ryukyu Isles
-1613, June 2. (Passing) Clove. Captain John Saris (ca 1580 – 1643).
-1614, December 27 ~ 1615, May 21. British ship – Sea Adventurer. Captain William Adams (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620). One man killed at Naha.
-1618, April. Sea Adventurer. Captain William Eaton.
-1618. April 6 – May 2. Chinese Junk – Belonging to Fingo Shinquan. Captain Chimpow.
-1793. (Passing) HMS Lion. Captain Sir Erasmus Gower.
-1797, May 16 – July. H.M.S. Providence. Commander William Robert Broughton (Died Florence 1821).
-1803. HMS Frederick, of Calcutta. Captain James Torry.
-1816, September 15 ~ November 9. British Navy ships – H.M.S. Alceste and Lyra.
Under Captain Sir Murray Maxwell (10 September 1775 – 26 June 1831). One man died buried at Tomari.
-1818, November 19 – 21. British Brig – Brothers. Captain William Upton Eddis (1788-1850)
-1822, October 20 ~ November 4. British merchant ship / whaler – Tuscan. Captain Thomas Reed Stavers (Born Deptford County Kent, September, 19 1798).
-1824. Unknown British Vessel. Unknown Captain.
-1826. Unknown Whaling Vessel. Unknown Captain. (Likely British)
-1827 May 16 – 25. H.M.S. Blossom. Captain F. W. Beechey (Born London 17 February 1796 – 29 November1856).
-1832, February. English Whaler – Partridge and two other ships. Captain
Francis Stavers.
-1832, August 22 ~ 27. British ship – Lord Amhurst. Captain M. Hugh Hamilton Lindsay (1802-1881).
-1837. July 14 – 16. British warship – H.M.S. Raligh. Captain Michael Quin.
-1837-1838. Unknown ships from England, America, and France reported.
Great White Egret hunting
-1839, March. Unknown Mariner (Likely a British Naval ship). Unknown Captain.
-1840, August 14 ~ September 29. English ship of the East India Company – H.M.S. Indian Oak. Captain Grainger. Shipwrecked in Chatan. None lost.
-1840, September 16 – 29. H.M.S. Cruzier and Nimrod. Captain Barlow.
-1840, H.M.S. Nemesis. Captain William Hucheon Hall.
-1842. Unknown British Ships. Unknown Captains.
-1843, November 31 – Dec. 20 British Ship (26 gun) – H.M.S. Samarang. Admiral Sir
Edward Belcher (27 February 1799 Halifax– 18 March 1877 London).
-1845 June. British Ship (26 gun) – H.M.S. Samarang. Admiral Sir Edward Belcher (27 February 1799 Halifax– 18 March 1877 London) and Lieutenant Anderson.
– 1845, June 19 ~ Jun 21. H.M.S. Samarang. Sir Edward Belcher.
-1845, August 18 ~ Aug 22. H.M.S. Samarang. Sir Edward Belcher.
-1845. H.M.S. Loyalists.
-1846. HMS Daedelus. Captain McQuoid.
-1846, April 30 ~ ca May 4. British merchant / trading schooner – Starling. Captain McCheyne. Delivered Missionary Dr. Bernard Jean Beetleheim to Naha.
-1846, October. Unknown Ship of the British China Station [Possibly the HMS Vestal
(See below)].
-1846. HMS Vestal. Captain Talbot and Sir John Charles Dalrymple Hay.
-Dalrymple was a Scottish hydrographer, historian and publisher of maritime materials who worked in India and was involved in the British fur trade at Nootka. He turned down an offer to captain what would become James Cooks first voyage.
Mrs Pintail
-1848. Unknown Vessels. Unknown Captains.
-1849, February 10. English bark – Elizabeth and Henry. Captain Clark. Shipwrecked off Kume-jima.
-1849, March 8. British Navy – HMS Mariner. Captain Matheson and Robertson.
-1849, May 22 – 27. British Yacht – Nancy Dawson. Captain Robert Shedden.
-1849, December 20. British Navy Ship HMS Pilot. Captain Lyons.
-1850, October 3 – 10. Steam Sloop – HMS Reynard. Captain Cracroft.
-1851. Unknown ship. Unknown Captain.
-1852, February 6 – 17. British Navy – H.M.S. Sphinx. Admiral Sir Charles Frederick Alexander Shadwell (31 January 1814 – 1 March 1886).
-1853, October U.S.S. Saratoga, H.M.S. Riley and Contest.
-1853, ca late June or July 1. British ship – Brenda.
-1854, February 14 ~ 20. H.M.S. Robina. Delivered George Harman Moreton (Buckinghamshire 1826 – July 3 1902 Burwood) and family of the Loo Choo Mission to Naha.
-1856. Unknown Vessel. Removed G.H. Moreton and family.
Shoveler checks his tie
-1871, September 10-12. Gunship – H.M.S. Dwarf. Captain Bonham Ward Bax.
-1873, October 8. British merchant ship – Benares. Captain James Anderson. Shipwrecked with 13 lost, 4 buried in Ginama, Okinawa.
-1873, January 7. Gunboat – H.M.S. Curlew. Temporary Captain Nathanial Cotton.
-1875, December 11 ~ 13 or 14. S.S. Thabor. Richard Henry Brunton (December 26, 1841 Edinburgh –April 24, 1901 Kinsington), Sir Ernest Mason Satow (30 June 1843 Wismar – 26 August 1929), and Sir Harry Parkes (1828 Staffordshire – March 21, 1885 Peking).
-Brunton, was a Scottish civil engineer and the so-called “Father of Japanese lighthouses”, building 26 western style lighthouses in Japan between 1868 and 1876.
Parkes was a British diplomat in China and Japan, related through marriage to Karl Gutzlaff. He wrote several articles about the islands including ‘The Loochooan Tribute’ and ‘Loochooan Envoys’. He would later help facilitate Ryukyu France treaty arrangements. Satow was a naturalized British citizen who acted as a diplomat during the Bakumatsu and Meiji periods. They departed Kagoshima on Dec. 9th arriving in Naha Okinawa Shima on the 11th. Together they explored Naha remarking on the port, houses, tombs, people, and Tomari cemetery. It was mentioned in Guillemard,1886 that, “Mr. Brunton, who seems to have been the latest visitor to the islands who has published any account of them, found the gates (to Shuri) closed”.
-1876, April 10. British Bark Liberator. Captain Vandervord or Martin.
-1876, September 11. British Transport Barque – Theseus. Captain Alexander Matthew (Died at sea prior to wreck). Shipwrecked in Kikai near Amami. 10 lost
-1881. November 6 – 7 (Planned). “The Flying Squadron”: Steam Frigate HMS Inconstant (Flag Ship), Captain Charles Cooper Penrose-Fitzgerald. Corvette HMS Cleopatra, Captain Francis Durrant. HMS Bacchante, Lord Charles Montagu Douglas Scott. HMS Tourmaline, Robert Peel Dennistoun, and HMS Carysfort, Henry Frederick Stephenson.
-1882, May. HMS Daring.
-1882, May 3 – May 11. “The China Station Fleet”: HMS Iron Duke, Curacoa, Encounter, Albatross, Foxhound, Vigilant, and Zephyr. Captain Tracy.
-1882, May 11. HMS Swift.
-1882, June 28 – July? British Schooner Yacht – Marchesa. Captain Francis Henry Hill Guillemard
-1891. Unknown Vessel. Rev. Robert A. Thomas.
Mrs Moorhen gets ready
-Thomas was a Scottish Baptist Missionary financed by a Presbyterian woman from Glasgow.
He was accompanied by two Japanese evangelists who became the first Baptists in Okinawa.
-1892, November. Unknown Vessel. British Rev. Edward Bickersteth (27 June 1850,Banningham – 5 August 1897 Chiselton).
-1893, March. Unknown British Vessel. Basil Hall Chamberlain.
-ca1894. Unknown Vessel. Henry Evington, Bishop of Kyushu and Bickersteths successor.
-1898 December ~ 1899 January. Likely the three-masted schooner – Traveler. Walter John Clutterbuck (1853-1937).
-1900. Unknown Vessel. Henry Butler Schwartz D.D. (Died September 28, 1912 Manchester).
Huge round of applause for Michael.
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
A fascinating list. Our forefathers were full of adventure, and managed without engines. I suppose that the Father of Japanese lighthouses, is likely to be the same chap who gave his name to a boatyard and hotel in Cochin.
The idea of sailing clumsy square rigged ships around the reef strewn East China Sea with no charts is terrifying. Made of sterner stuff.