True enough, Charlatan, but remember, Half Cocked Jack had a Samurai as part of his crew.
Slavakion, funny you should mention the western trained weapons expert. Just today, I ran across a link that discusses at extreme length why a fight between a medieval knight and a samurai is an undecidable proposition, and, poking around that site, found another essay regarding a fight between a samurai and an italian renaissance fencer, but, since the knight/samurai essay is quite exhaustive, I didn't have time to read the fencer/samurai essay. It might actually be germane to the samurai vs. pirate debate, though. They're at the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts web page at <a href="http://www.thearma.org/">http://www.thearma.org/</a>, in the Articles and Essays section.
Direct links to: <a href="http://www.thearma.org/essays/knightvs.htm">Knight vs Samurai</a> and <a href="http://www.thearma.org/essays/katanavs.htm">Katana vs Rapier</a>