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| Battle of Myeongnyang | |
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| Hangul | 명량대첩 |
| Hanja | 鳴梁大捷 |
| Revised Romanization | Myeongnyang Daecheop |
| McCune–Reischauer | Myŏngnyang Taech'ŏp |
In the Battle of Myeongnyang, on October 26, 1597, the Joseon admiral Yi Sun-sin fought the Japanese navy in the Myeongnyang Strait, near Jindo Island. With only the 13 ships remaining from Won Gyun's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chilchonryang, Admiral Yi Sunsin held the strait against a fleet of 133 Japanese warships and at least 200 logistical support ships. Many Japanese warships were sunk or disabled during the battle and the Japanese were forced to retreat. Given the disparity in numbers, the battle is regarded as one of Admiral Yi's most remarkable victories.
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Due to Japanese intrigue taking advantage of the fractious politics of the Joseon Dynasty court, Admiral Yi Sunsin was impeached and almost put to death. Yi was instead tortured and demoted to the rank of a common soldier. Yi's rival, Admiral Won Gyun, took command of the Joseon fleet, which under Yi's careful management had grown from 63 heavy warships to 166.
Won Gyun was an incompetent military commander who immediately began squandering the Joseon Navy's strength through ill-conceived maneuvers against the Japanese naval base at Pusan. In the Battle of Chilchonryang, the Japanese navy, with Todo Takatora in overall command, outmaneuvered the Korean navy and virtually wiped it out. Soon afterwards, the Japanese reinforced their garrisons in Pusan and various forts in the southern coast of Korea, and began the second invasion.
With the Joseon Navy taken out of the scene, the Japanese believed that they now had access to the Yellow Sea and could resupply their troops through this sea route as they advanced northward. In the 1592 campaigns, Admiral Yi prevented the Japanese from resupplying their troops in this manner and kept their ships holed up at their main bases in Pusan Harbor.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin was hastily reinstated as Supreme Commander of the Regional Navies after Won Gyun was killed at the Battle of Chilchonryang. Yi only had 12 panokseon ships at his disposal, which had been saved by Bae Seol, a Joseon officer who escaped early in the Battle of Chilchonryang. At that time, King Seonjo, who judged that the Joseon navy had lost its power and would never be restored again, sent a letter to abolish the navy and join the ground forces under General Gwon Yul. Admiral Yi famously responded with a letter written "...I still have twelve battle ships...and I am still alive, the enemy shall never be safe in the Western Sea." Later, one more ship joined with Yi and his small fleet numbered 13. Although Yi only found 100 sailors initially, some of the survivors of Chilchonryang flocked to him, and he had at least 1,500 sailors and marines by the end of September.
After studying numerous arenas for his last stand with the Japanese navy, Admiral Yi decided on the Myeongnyang Strait. It had very strong currents that flowed at approximately 10 knots, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction, in three hour intervals. Admiral Yi realized he could use this unique condition as a force multiplier. The narrowness of the strait would prevent the Joseon fleet from being flanked by the numerically superior enemy fleet, and the roughness of the tide prevented the Japanese from effectively enveloping them. By using the shadows of the surrounding hillsides, Yi would be able to establish a visibility advantage for his fleet. And finally, the strait was sufficiently narrow that steel wire could be strategically tightened across its whole width.
On the morning of 26 October, Admiral Yi sent a single battleship to the Japanese navy's base to draw them into his trap. It was a misty day, to the advantage of the Koreans. The Japanese surged into the strait on a favorable tide, and Admiral Yi was waiting for them at the opposite end, using the shadows of the hills to obscure his ships. As the Japanese ships came close to the end of the strait, Admiral Yi ordered his ships to open fire.
Using double salvo cannon fire, the Koreans threw a fierce barrage which quickly began damaging Japanese vessels. In the shadow of the hillsides, Yi's ships were difficult to target. The Joseon ships had flat bottoms that provided more stable and accurate cannon firing platforms than the Japanese ships, which had keel bottoms. To further hamper the enemy ships, Yi had steel ropes tightened across the channel between Japanese fleet groups, which severely dampened the Japanese numerical advantage.[13]
Floating in the water and moving towards the Koreans along the current was a body with the ornate armor of a Japanese daimyo. The body was hauled aboard by Admiral Yi's men and identified as Kurushima Michifusa, the commander of the vanguard units of the Japanese fleet and the brother of the late Kurushima Michiyuki, killed in 1592 by Admiral Yi at the Dangpo Battle. Yi ordered Kurushima's head cut off and posted on the mast of his flagship. At the sight of their commander's head, Japanese morale dropped.[13]
The tide soon shifted and the Japanese ships began to drift backwards and collide with each other. In the confusion, Admiral Yi ordered his ships to advance and press the attack, destroying ships out of all proportion to their relative numbers. The dense formation of Japanese ships crowded in the narrow strait made a perfect target for Joseon cannon fire. The strong tides prevented those in the water from swimming to shore, and many Japanese sailors who abandoned sinking or damaged ships drowned. After the Japanese lost 31 warships and many others received significant damage, their fleet was no longer combat effective, and thus they retreated.
This victory prevented the Japanese from entering the Yellow Sea and resupplying their army, which had recently fought against Joseon and Chinese armies in the Battle of Jiksan (Cheonan) and was headed towards the capital city of Hanseong (Seoul). With their supplies and reinforcements cut off via the sea route, the Japanese had to halt their advance and begin a general retreat.[14]
The immediate results of the battle were a terrible shock to the entire Japanese command. Without being resupplied or relieved with fresh troops, the morale of the Japanese soldiers declined. Joseon and Chinese armies were able to regroup and push the Japanese back to their network of fortresses on the southeastern coast of Korea.
The victory also freed up the Chinese navy to join Admiral Yi in early 1598. After the destruction of most of the Joseon fleet at Chilchonryang, the Ming kept their navy stationed at important port cities to guard against possible Japanese naval attacks. The victory at Myeongnyang convinced the Ming government that they could ease security at their major ports and mobilize a fleet to Joseon's aid.
The Japanese navy was heavily damaged (at least 31 battleships destroyed and 91 other ships damaged beyond repair). As previously mentioned, Kurushima was killed, and Todo Takatora (the hero of Chilchonryang) was wounded. The Japanese navy retreated to Pusan to rest and refit and would not be in fighting condition for several months , providing time for the Koreans to rebuild their fleet and the Chinese to bring naval reinforcements.
The unique tidal conditions of the strait, which Admiral Yi was careful to study beforehand, affected the Japanese in several ways. The Japanese were not incompetent sailors however, and also were not unaware of nor inexperienced in sailing in rough tides as similar conditions existed in Japan. They counted on the rapid tides of the strait and their vastly superior numbers to break through the Korean line. This turned out to be a miscalculation.
First of all, when attacking the Koreans, the Japanese had to do so in smaller groups. The Japanese could not advance all their ships into the channel at the same time; although the current was moving north, it was still unpredictable, with isolated eddies and whirlpools, and sending a mass of ships into the channel would cause them to collide with each other.
Secondly, when the current reversed and flowed south at the end of three hours, the Japanese ships not only drifted away from the battle, but could not maneuver and ended up colliding with each other even if they avoided the eddy problems. This is probably the major reason why there were so many damaged Japanese ships.
Lastly, the rough currents of Myeongnyang made it difficult for anybody who fell overboard or jumped from sinking or burning ships to swim to shore; most of the Japanese in the water ended up drowning.