Battle of Myeongnyang

In the narrow, fast-flowing Myeongnyang Strait off Jindo Island, at the south-western tip of Korea, Admiral Yi Sun-sin fought a vastly larger Japanese fleet with just 13 warships on 26 October 1597. Using the strait's fierce tidal currents, his ships sank or crippled 31 Japanese vessels without losing one of their own. The victory, during the second Japanese invasion of the Imjin War, stopped the Japanese navy from breaking into the Yellow Sea to supply its armies.

Yi had built up the fleet of the Joseon dynasty in the early years of the war, and in 1592 he had kept Japanese ships penned in at Busan. But factional intrigue at court led to his impeachment; he was tortured and reduced to the ranks of a common soldier. His rival Wŏn Kyun took command of a fleet that had grown from 63 to 166 heavy warships, and lost almost all of it at the Battle of Chilcheollyang. Wŏn Kyun was killed.

With the Korean navy apparently gone, the Japanese launched their second invasion, took Namwon and fought the Ming Chinese army to a standstill at Jiksan. They now planned to send their fleet round into the Yellow Sea to support a renewed drive on Hanyang, today's Seoul.

Yi was hastily reinstated as naval commander. He found only ten panokseon warships, saved by a commander who had fled Chilcheollyang early, and gathered a few more to reach 13. When King Seonjo proposed disbanding the navy and sending its men to fight on land, Yi famously replied that he still had twelve warships, and that while he lived the enemy would not dare to look down on them. Survivors drifted back to him, and by late September he had at least 1,500 sailors and marines. In October his small fleet beat off Japanese scouting raids, and on 25 October he withdrew to the northern side of the strait.

The Myeongnyang Strait was narrow, and its currents ran at about ten knots, reversing every few hours. Yi reasoned that the narrows would stop the enemy from surrounding him and that the current would break up their formation, forcing them to come at him in small groups. When the tide turned, it would push the Japanese back on themselves.

On the morning of 26 October Yi's scouts saw the Japanese fleet gathering at the southern end of the strait. Korean sources suggest 120 to 133 ships attacked, with perhaps up to 330 in all; every account agrees the Koreans were outnumbered at least ten to one. Yi anchored his fleet across the northern exit and advanced alone in his flagship against the Japanese vanguard under Kurushima Michifusa. For a time his ship fought by itself while his shaken captains hung back. Gradually they joined him, beginning with the ship of An Wi.

When the tide turned, the Japanese ships began drifting backwards and colliding. Yi ordered a general attack, ramming 31 enemy ships, and the crowded vessels made easy targets for Korean cannon. Many Japanese sailors drowned in the strong currents. Kurushima was killed and the commander Tōdō Takatora wounded. Still heavily outnumbered, Yi withdrew at nightfall.

Yi pulled back to the north to resupply, and sailors and ships that had been in hiding since Chilcheollyang rallied to him. The Japanese made a brief raid up the western coast but soon fell back to their bases in the south, and never again tried to force their way into the Yellow Sea. Encouraged by the victory, Ming China sent a fleet to join Yi in 1598. In reprisal, Japanese troops burned Yi's home village of Asan in November 1597 and killed his youngest son. Later claims that Yi stretched iron chains across the strait do not appear in his own war diary.

Our 1600 map shows Joseon Korea shortly after the war, with the Ming empire to the north and Japan across the sea; the battlefield lies in today's South Korea.