④ The Turtle Ship's Shipbuilding Supervisor: Na Dae-yong

His Career Before 1591

General Na Dae-yong belonged to the Geumseong (錦城) Na clan. His courtesy name was Simang (時望), and his pen name was Che-am (遞菴).

He was born in 1556, the 11th year of King Myeongjong's reign, in Naju, South Jeolla Province (today Oryong-ri, Munpyeong-myeon, Naju City), the son of Na Hang (羅亢), a cheomchu (a senior official title). He was eleven years younger than Admiral Yi Sun-sin, the commander who saved Joseon at sea during the Imjin War.

In 1583, the 16th year of King Seonjo's reign, at the age of twenty-eight, he passed a special military examination held at the Hullyeonwon (the military training office), in the third tier.

The Annals of King Seonjo contain the line that after passing the examination "he defended the north for six years." In other words, before the Imjin War broke out, he first built his career as a soldier on the northern frontier.

1591: He Becomes Admiral Yi's Shipbuilding Supervisor

The decisive moment in General Na Dae-yong's life came in 1591 (the sinmyo year).

His biographical account, the Cheamseonsaeng Haengjang, says this:

"In the sinmyo year (1591), when Chungmugong (Admiral Yi) was at the Left Naval Headquarters of this province (Jeolla), Na Dae-yong was at home as a jubu (a junior official). Knowing that the Japanese would invade before long, he went with his cousin Chi-yong to see Chungmugong and spoke at length about plans to prepare the defense. Chungmugong was greatly pleased and kept him on his staff."

It is said that Admiral Yi then made General Na Dae-yong a gamjo jeonseon chullap gunbyeong gungwan (監造戰船出納軍兵軍官; hereafter "shipbuilding supervisor") — in plain words, "an officer who supervises the building of warships and handles the issue and receipt of soldiers and supplies." Only a year before the war broke out, General Na Dae-yong thus became one of Admiral Yi's men.

It is said that even before becoming shipbuilding supervisor, General Na Dae-yong already had specialized knowledge of building warships. The turtle ship was a panokseon (the standard Joseon warship of the time) covered with a roof, with sharp spikes driven into the roof to stop the Japanese from boarding. It was a ship that could only be made by someone who understood Japanese tactics well. I cannot know whether it was Admiral Yi or General Na Dae-yong who first thought of this ship, which neutralized the Japanese strengths and maximized those of the Joseon navy. But what is certain is that General Na Dae-yong, as shipbuilding supervisor, played a large role in building the turtle ship.

Even supposing that Admiral Yi gave General Na Dae-yong the concept of the turtle ship, I want to draw attention to the fact that the person who actually built the turtle ship was General Na Dae-yong. So rather than calling General Na Dae-yong the inventor of the turtle ship, I would like to call him the turtle ship's shipbuilding supervisor.

Portrait of General Na Dae-yong

That General Na Dae-yong was the shipbuilding supervisor who helped Admiral Yi build the turtle ship is an unchanging fact — and isn't that fact alone honor enough?

According to the Nanjung Ilgi, Admiral Yi's war diary, the day before the Imjin War broke out, Admiral Yi mounted cannons on the turtle ship and held a final test firing. As the officer in charge of the actual work, General Na Dae-yong must have been extremely busy building and testing the turtle ship right up until the eve of the war.

After the Outbreak of the Imjin War

The Nanjung Ilgi entry for the 18th day of the 4th month of 1592, just a few days after the Imjin War broke out, contains this passage:

"Since the commander of Balpo has already been dismissed, appoint an acting commander (假將) and send him... So I appointed the officer Na Dae-yong (羅大用) that very day and sent him."

When the commander's post at Balpo became vacant, Admiral Yi put General Na Dae-yong in that post temporarily.

This was just twenty days before the Battle of Okpo (7th day of the 5th month).

And at the Battle of Okpo, General Na Dae-yong, as acting commander of Balpo, charged at the front and earned merit by capturing two enemy ships.

The Battle of Sacheon: Struck by Bullets Alongside Admiral Yi

On the 29th day of the 5th month of 1592 (the imjin year), the Joseon navy advanced on the Japanese ships anchored at the Sacheon wharf. The Japanese had already gone ashore, set up camp on a hill, and moored their ships below, ready to resist. Admiral Yi urged his commanders on to pour arrows and cannon fire upon them, and in this battle the Joseon navy burned thirteen enemy ships.

But that day's diary entry says this:

"In this fight the officer Na Dae-yong (羅大用) was struck by a bullet, and I too was struck by a bullet above my left shoulder, which went through to my back, but it was not a serious wound."

Admiral Yi's famous wound — the bullet that struck his left shoulder and passed through to his back — is recorded side by side with General Na Dae-yong being struck by a bullet. Admiral Yi wrote briefly, as if it were nothing, that "it was not a serious wound," but in fact it was a grave injury, and even a year later he suffered greatly from its aftereffects.

The records of the time do not say in detail how serious General Na Dae-yong's wound was, but it is said that the wounds he received on the battlefield, beginning with this day, troubled him for many years as well.

It is said that General Na Dae-yong fought alongside Admiral Yi at the Battle of Okpo, the Battle of Sacheon, the Battle of Hansan Island, and on through the Battle of Myeongnyang and the Battle of Noryang. General Na Dae-yong was on the battlefield with Admiral Yi until the Admiral's very end.

Building New Ships Even After the War

Even after the war ended, General Na Dae-yong did not give up building ships. In 1606 he developed the changseon (鎗船, "spear ship"), bristling with swords and spears so that enemies could not leap aboard. It was designed so that it could be operated by a small crew (forty-two men). In 1610, while serving as magistrate of Namhae County, he devised a fast ship called the haechuseon (海鰌船) and built three of them.

But General Na Dae-yong's career as an official in this period was not always smooth. He was dismissed while serving as magistrate of Gangjin County, and of the posts that followed, magistrate of Geumgu and Neungseong, he was dismissed again at Neungseong. Later, while serving as magistrate of Gonyang and of Namhae, he was impeached by the Office of the Censor-General and the Office of the Inspector-General, and it is said that excessive drinking was named as one of the reasons. It is a somewhat regrettable part of his life.

In 1611, General Na Dae-yong was appointed Gyodong Naval Commander, a senior third-rank post. But he was unable to take up the post.

It is said that this was because the wounds he had received on the battlefields of the past flared up again. In the end, General Na Dae-yong died the following year, on the 29th day of the 1st month of 1612, at the age of fifty-seven.

Remembering General Na Dae-yong Today

In Oryong-ri, Munpyeong-myeon, Naju City, where General Na Dae-yong was born and where he died, both his birthplace and his tomb still remain. They were designated South Jeolla Province (now Naju City) Monument No. 26 in 1977, and in 1978 a shrine in his honor, Sochungsa (昭忠祠), was built there.

Around 1999 to 2000, the Navy gave his name to a Jang Bogo-class submarine, naming it the Na Daeyong (SS-069). The name of a man who braved bullets to fight at sea, and who after the war devoted his life to building better ships, lives on today as the name of a submarine guarding the southern seas.

👉 Next post: ⑤ Admiral Yi's Center Guard Commander and Close Friend: Kwon Jun

— Momcheolhak