Korean Turtle Ship: Dragon-Head Smoke, Iron Spikes and the Ironclad Myth

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The geobukseon, or turtle ship, first appears in the annals of the Joseon dynasty in 1413 and 1415, in a mock battle against a Japanese warship, before peace let the costly design lapse. Admiral Yi Sun-sin revived and redesigned it against Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of 1592 to 1598, starting at the Battle of Sacheon. Oars and sails freed it from the wind, raised bulwarks gave room for gun ports and vents for black powder smoke, and a dragon head at the bow could pour out sulfurous smoke. Its cheonja, jija, hyeonja and hwangja cannons reached up to about 1,200 meters, and Japanese commanders at Angolpo on July 9, 1592 described close-range barrages at 18 to 30 feet.

An interlocking red pine hull flexed under recoil, and an iron-spiked roof defeated Japanese boarding tactics. No Korean source from the 1590s calls the ship ironclad, though one Japanese chronicle from August 1592 describes ships covered in iron, and Stephen Turnbull notes Japan ordered iron plating for its own ships in February 1593. Samuel Hawley traces the full ironclad label to Western writers in the 1880s, and later Korean attempts to build iron-covered turtle ships failed, one sinking under its own weight.

Won Kyun, not Yi, commanded when the Joseon navy was crushed at Chilcheollyang.
Historians doubt the tale of spikes hidden under rice mats, since dry straw would have burned under fire arrows.
A turtle ship improvised against the General Sherman with metal sheeting and cowhide could not damage its hull.
Full-scale replicas used in The Immortal Admiral Yi Sun-sin are moored at Yeosu and Tongyeong.
The turtle ship appears on South Korea's five won coin.

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