“Historically, Korea has long been known as a land of great mineral wealth. Gold was, and still is, found scattered throughout the peninsula. But it is not only the wealth found on land that has attracted fortune hunters but also the fabled wealth that lies hidden in the seas. Over the past couple of years, there have been several accounts of “gold ships” discovered around Korea. Except for their archaeological value, none of these ships have yielded much wealth; in fact, they have proven detrimental to their discoverers. One such treasure ship was the Kowshing.”
The Kowshing was sunk on the opening day of the undeclared war between Japan and China in July 1894. I say undeclared because the formal declaration of war was not issued until nearly a week later. It appears that Japan had a history of “undeclared wars/attacks” - examples are this one, the Russo-Japanese War and of course the attack on Pearl Harbor, but there are more if one wishes to search.
The story of the Kowshing and how it was sent to the bottom by Captain (later Admiral) Togo Heihachiro is an interesting one, not only because of the attack itself, but because of the British government’s reaction to the sinking of one of its British-flagged ships by the Japanese.
Equally intriguing is the salvaging of the ship that took place about a hundred years later. The Korean company involved with the salvage operation asserted that they would soon be in possession of the ship’s treasure worth up to 10 trillion won [valued at US$7.6 billion in 2001] - the optimum words are “up to.”
To read the story go to Rediscovering the Kowshing
7 Comments
“… the optimum words are “up to.”
Think you were looking for operant here…
What can I say? Stupidity is my middle name.
Thanks for catching it
No worries. Very interesting article, by the way!
By the way, did you catch the JoongAng Daily’s article today about the Seoul Union Church/100th Anniversary Church/Yanghwajin Foreigners’ Cemetery controversy? I posted a link to it on one of the old on-topic threads, but it quickly disappeared from the “recent posts.” Here’s the link again, in case you missed it:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2880139
Thanks -
Yes, I did read that and was kind of surprised. I went by the cemetery this Sunday (didn’t actually go in, but walked by) and noticed that the HAC seemed to be holding some type of service - because I didn’t actually look in - I can’t say 100% for sure if they were holding services in the Chapel or in the building that they have recently constructed. Nonetheless - they still managed to make the cemetery into their parking lot with guides guiding traffic through the cemetery. It is such a shame that they profess to trying to save and honor the cemetery and yet they treat it with such disrespect and disdain
A fascinating story about the details of the sinking, thanks for the link.
It’s not surprising that the British ultimately decided not to forcefully protest the Japanese naval action, given their own status as “the” traditional naval power dependent upon “cruiser rules” (right to stop and search) to enforce a blockade. And there was no such thing as a submarine yet in 1894.
Paul, You know I love nitpicking the niggling details, but “no such thing as a submarine yet in 1894″? I believe the operative name here would be “CSS Huntley”. (OK, none in any naval O/B of the time.)
Sorry, couldn’t resist it.
Ok, wise guy, I meant “operational submarines.
Also it was the “Hunley”, better drop that superfluous “t” as people who live in glass houses should be more careful with their consonants.
If you want to retaliate, just call me anything you want in the Oriental language of your choice, I’ll never catch on to any errors there.
That’s quite an interesting detail about Admiral Togo, I enjoy these historical vignettes that are new to me but yet remind us how much times have changed. Togo went on to fame and glory in the eyes of his countrymen, while the captain of the UK submarine Conqueror took equally vigorous action to sink the General Belgrano (with an approx equal loss of life? will have to check) — yet he went home to public disapproval.
Those bones of the Chinese soldiers retrieved from the ocean deserved some kind of commenorative ceremony at the hands of their own countrymen, maybe even from Koreans (depending upon what the current Korean political outlook is towards the cause they served). If disapproval, then at least the ROK could acknowledge they wanted to fight the Japanese unrelentingly (if unwisely, assuming of course the Japanese would have treated them as POW’s instead of just executing or enslaving them).
And even though they served the cause of a now long-gone and forgotten Chinese empire; I wonder if the disgruntled Korean salvage company just dumped the bones back into the ocean. May God have mercy upon their souls.