⑮ Why Did the Turtle Ship Fight for Only Three Months? (Part 1)

I've personally had a long-standing question about the turtle ship.

If the turtle ship was the world's first ironclad warship, and it was as devastating as everyone says, why did it fight for only three months out of the whole seven-year war -- and only in 1592 at that, from the Battle of Sacheon to the Battle of Busanpo?

As far as I know, the turtle ship fought at Sacheon, Dangpo, Danghangpo, Hansan Island, and Busanpo -- and I've never seen or heard of any record of it after that. Either my knowledge was mistaken, or there was clearly something about the turtle ship I didn't know. To settle the question, I had to go back and look closely at the relevant records again.

I should say up front that for this post, I've relied on the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo -- the collected writings of Admiral Yi.

Admiral Yi's First Sortie -- the Report “Okpo pawoe byeongjang”

On May 7–8, 1592, Admiral Yi set out on his first sortie of the Imjin War, and won victories in three places: Okpo, Hapo, and Jeokjinpo. Afterward, he reported the results to the court in a dispatch titled “Okpo pawoe byeongjang.”

Reading through the Okpo pawoe byeongjang in the Yi Chungmugong Jeonseo, you find the individual achievements of every officer listed in detail -- who destroyed which ship, whose head was taken, names and numbers laid out meticulously.

But nowhere in this dispatch does the word “turtle ship” appear.

Why is the turtle ship missing from this first sortie?

At the time of the first sortie, the turtle ship was not yet fully ready

An entry in the Nanjung Ilgi from February 8, 1592, notes: “Received sailcloth for the turtle ship.”

On March 27: “Tested firing the cannon aboard the turtle ship.” And on April 12 -- one day before the Imjin War broke out on April 13 -- the entry reads: “Boarded the ship and test-fired the jija and hyeonja cannons on the turtle ship.”

Right up to the day before the Imjin War began, Admiral Yi was still testing the turtle ship.

According to the Nanjung Ilgi, word of the outbreak of the Imjin War didn't even reach Admiral Yi until two days later, on April 15.

Given how urgent the situation must have been, the roughly twenty days between April 15, when he learned of the invasion, and May 7, his first sortie, would have been too little time to get the turtle ship ready to sail.

And so the turtle ship finally makes its first appearance on May 29, 1592, during Admiral Yi's second sortie.

👉 Next post: ⑯ Why Did the Turtle Ship Fight for Only Three Months? (Part 2)

— Momcheolhak.