KOREAN ADMIRAL 

YI SUN-SIN

ADMIRAL WHO NEVER LOST AN WAR

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

 

Let’s assume you have 13 warships. They’re nice ships. They’re strong and they have good armaments.

You have to beat a fleet of 130 warships plus 200 more transport ships. The warships are all loaded with cannons and the transports are loaded with soldiers and marines. Their ships aren’t quite as good as yours, but there’s a lot more of them. You have to defeat this fleet, or else it’s over, and you have to face it directly.

This was the dilemma Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin found himself in during the fall of 1597. He had commanded the Korean navy against a Japanese invasion of his country for years, ever since they first crossed the sea in 1592. Through hard fighting and ingenious strategy, Yi succeeded in stalemating the massive Japanese army and navy in 1596. However, a renewed attack hit the Korean peninsula in 1597.

Unfortunately for Yi, he had enemies in the imperial court, and one of them got him demoted in favour of one of his subordinates. He was nearly kicked out of the navy over false accusations, and he stood idly by, helpless, as his incompetent replacement blundered the entire Korean navy away in a single surprise attack.

Thus was his predicament. Restored to command of the navy in desperation, given the remaining thirteen friendly ships in all of Korea, and told to win an impossible victory.

Yi chose his battle site: the Pyeongyang Strait.

Early in the morning of October 26, the Japanese fleet spotted Korean ships at the south entrance of the Pyeongyang Strait. The Korean ships swiftly retreated and formed a perimeter protecting the northern exit of the strait. The tide was flowing in the Japanese favour, pushing their ships into the strait. They followed it into the fray.

Yi’s flagship was the only ship willing to fight. The other Korean sailors were demoralized by defeat and awed by the size of the Japanese fleet, standing back and holding fire. Cannons, arquebus shots, and arrows fell upon Yi’s flagship, which stood alone like a fortress under siege.

The narrow strait only allowed a certain number of Japanese ships to line up, limiting the effectiveness of sheer numbers and preventing the Koreans from being overwhelmed. The determination of Yi’s flagship emboldened his comrades, and the rest of the ships joined in. Nevertheless, the Koreans were still vastly outnumbered, the tide was still pushing the Japanese farther forward, and the distance between the fleets was closing fast.

However, Yi knew something the Japanese did not: the exact nature of the strait’s currents. Around midday, he knew that high tides would change the direction of the water and give the Koreans the initiative instead.

This is exactly what happened. At precisely the calculated time, the tides shifted the current and the Japanese ships began drifting backwards. The Japanese were unprepared for this, and their tightly packed battle formations began to crash into one another.

Yi took full advantage. He ordered a heavy barrage on the vulnerable Japanese ships. Many of them were sunk, and many others limped away heavily damaged as the current swept them out of the strait. In the chaos, as many as half of the Japanese sailors ended up in the sea as prisoners or dead men.

With this one victory, Yi defended Korea’s waters from Japanese naval encroachment. Japanese soldiers in Korea were unable to be resupplied, greatly decreasing their morale.

A year later, Yi would win a final victory against the Japanese navy at the nor yang Strait. He died in the fighting, shot by a Japanese gunner while beating the war drum and pursuing the enemy fleet in his flagship. He never suffered a defeat in naval combat, nor did he ever lose a single ship.

Yi Sun-sin was the greatest admiral of all time. His ingenious use of the strait, both as a bottleneck and as a literal turn of the tide, earned him perhaps the greatest naval victory of all time.

SOURCE:-- WHEN I VISITED SEOUL, COLLECTED THE DETAILS FROM A NAVAL MUSEUM.

IMAGE:-- GOOGLE.