⑤ The Disgrace of Chilcheollyang, and His Reinstatement as Naval Commander

On April 19, 1597, unable even to properly bury his mother, Admiral Yi set out once more as a disgraced soldier. After a journey of nearly two months, he reached his destination on June 4: the camp of Kwon Yul, the Supreme Field Commander, in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. About a month and a half after his arrival, news struck him like a thunderclap.

The Annihilation of the Joseon Navy: "The Disgrace of Chilcheollyang"

At dawn on July 18, word arrived of a catastrophe: the Joseon navy had been wiped out at Chilcheollyang, the narrow strait between Geoje Island and its neighboring island of Chilcheondo. It had happened barely five months after Won Gyun — the man who had slandered Yi Sun-sin and taken his post as Naval Commander of the Three Provinces — assumed command.

When Admiral Yi had been taken away to the Uigeumbu prison, the fleet he handed over to the new commander, Won Gyun, was the strongest Joseon had ever fielded: three turtle ships, one hundred and thirty-four panokseon (Korea's main warship of the era), and a battle-tested force of some seventeen thousand men who had never once lost a battle. Yet Commander Won Gyun sank nearly the entire fleet at Chilcheollyang — sparing only the twelve panokseon that Bae Seol, a naval commander, managed to slip away with — and was killed fleeing his own ship, abandoning it. Can this even be called a battle? It was nothing less than "the disgrace of Chilcheollyang."

Rising from Torture and Despair to Return to the Sea

The very day the news reached him, Admiral Yi told Kwon Yul, the Supreme Field Commander, who was still reeling from the shock, that he himself would go and assess the situation along the southern coast — and he set out the very next day. His own king had tortured him nearly to death, and Won Gyun had just sunk the strongest navy Joseon had ever had — and still, without a moment's hesitation, Admiral Yi set out to rebuild the fleet.

What could have made Admiral Yi rise to his feet again so quickly? It was not loyalty to King Seonjo, the ruler who had ordered his torture. It was not any office the court might grant him. It was not a wish to leave his name behind in glory. What, then, made him rise, without hesitation, from a body still marked by torture?

A Joseon Navy Rebuilding Route sign in front of Hoeryeongpo Historical Park

"Your Servant Still Has Twelve..." — The Truth Behind the Report from Yeolseollu Pavilion

Setting out on the road, Admiral Yi received King Seonjo's decree reinstating him as Naval Commander of the Three Provinces on August 3, at the house of Son Gyeong-rye in Wongye-ri, Sugok-myeon, Jinju. But the decree the king handed down was, in truth, shamefully callous and irresponsible. Grand as the title "Naval Commander of the Three Provinces" sounded, all Seonjo had actually given him was a single sheet of paper.

And Seonjo's incompetence and obstruction did not end there. On August 15, as the Admiral moved along the empty coastline gathering refugees and rallying what men he could, yet another royal decree reached him — this time at Yeolseollu Pavilion in Boseong, South Jeolla Province. It ordered: "Since the navy is too weak to matter, disband it and fold the men into the army under Kwon Yul's command."

In this moment of absolute crisis, Admiral Yi staked his life and wrote the report that would go on to change the fate of Joseon. Consider: what had he been tortured and disgraced for in the first place, if not for supposedly defying the king's command and showing contempt for the court? And now, here he was, writing a report that defied the king's order to disband the navy.

"Your servant still has twelve ships remaining."

It is easy to assume that when Admiral Yi wrote this report, he actually had twelve panokseon under his command. He did not. On August 15, when he wrote these words, he had not a single ship in his hands. All he had was a single piece of information: that Bae Seol, the naval commissioner of Gyeongsang Province, had slipped twelve ships away from Chilcheollyang and hidden them somewhere.

Twelve Panokseon Recovered at Hoeryeongpo, and the Prelude to Myeongnyang

Three days later, on August 18, at Hoeryeongpo in Jangheung, South Jeolla Province, he finally took actual possession of the twelve panokseon Bae Seol had hidden away.

With those twelve ships, plus one more he managed to secure and repair, Admiral Yi now had a total of just thirteen panokseon — and with them, he would fight the unavoidable battle on which the fate of Joseon itself would hang.

Let us move now to the eve of the Battle of Myeongnyang.

👉 Next post: ⑥ The Battle of Myeongnyang — How Was It Won?

— Momcheolhak