1902 - "On the Coasts of Cathay and Cipango Forty Years Ago"

In an 1902 book entitled On the Coasts of Cathy and Cipango Forty Years Ago, Englishman William Blakeney recounts his experiences traveling in the Far East between 1857 and 1862 on the British ship Actœon. On page 191, he describes his ship's visit to "Dagelet Island" (Ulleungdo) in June 1859 as follows:

   The Actœon hove to for a few hours off Dagelet Island, which emerges in solitary grandeur from the floor (2,000 feet deep) of the Japanese Sea, and rises to 4,000 feet above it. It lies 100 miles distant from the mainland of Korea, is clothed with forest from the verge of perpendicular cliffs of 500 feet, and is 20 miles in circumference. On every side were herds of seals, filling the air with sorrowful sounding cries, perhaps from terror at our appearing. We could make no headway through the dense undergrowth. La Perouse discovered this island in 1786, but there is no record of his landing.

A few half-starved Korean fishermen were collecting seaslugs, etc., for Chinese epicureans, but had only a ramshackle old junk in which to make the passage across a stormy sea in almost perpetual fog. A weird and lonely spot is Dagelet Island.