Joseon Age of Sail Naval Shipbuilding

Prior to 1725, Joseon's native shipwrights built traditional panokseon designs. These craft used junk rigs and native hullforms, incorporating pine and fir found in relative abundance in Akaina. Cannon were introduced early, and in the 1600s, the "Turtle Ship" with an iron-covered deck was invented.

By the 1700s, though, traditional panokseon were no longer militarily competitive by the standard of Velravin shipbuilding. The small cannons used aboard the panokseon lacked the power to penetrate the thicker wooden hulls of foreign warships, which grew larger in size and carried more numerous heavy guns. Admiral Yoon Dae-yeon, the commander of the Joseon Navy from 1714 to 1728, spearheaded the modernization of ship design, working in concert with his more famous subordinate, Park Sung-keun.

### Initial Experiments

Beginning in 1718, the Wangsil Haegun bought three square-rigged merchant ships of indeterminate origin (Firocco and Liotain being the most likely source). These ships were armed with 28, 26, and 32 guns respectively, albeit firing a light weight of shot; these served as templates for Joseon designers to study.

In 1723, the first transitional ship emerged, which some observers called the "junk-rigged frigate." Elements of Velravian hull designs and the use of headsails were matched with a four-masted junk rig. In 1725, the ship (unnamed in records) was re-rigged in Firocco using three masts and square yards (as was the standard practice in the south) and performed quite well. The ship remained under-armed, however, with only 24 guns. Two other transitional designs were built in 1727, both intended to carry 54 guns; but stability problems proved so bad that their armament was immediately reduced to 30 guns before their completion.

#### The Song Department

Song Taek-yul, a native Joseon shipwright trained in Eirenn and Firocco, was named Chief Naval Constructor in 1730. Song demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in his designs, and he is directly responsible for every Joseon warship built between 1732 and 1764.

Starting in 1733, Song trained a cadre of nineteen draftsmen, who he organized into three divisions of five men, each progressing the work on a particular set of shipbuilding blueprints. The remaining four men were subject experts in carpentry, sail-handling, and other specialties. Song Taek-yul himself worked as the master draftsman for each division, directing the overall work.

### Ships-of-the-Line

*Main article: Ships-of-the-line of Joseon*

The need for ships-of-the-line to oppose Bolish naval growth became acute from 1725 onwards. The Wangsil Haegun bought the 44-gun ship-of-the-line *Arkangelas Remielis* from Liotain in 1725. Renamed *Haechi*, she became the first Joseon ship-of-the-line. Upon Joseon's entry into the Great Northern War in 1727, they possessed a total of four ships-of-the-line, all built by foreign shipyards:

* *Haechi*: 44 guns (Liotain)
* *Dokkaebi*: 70 guns (Firocco)
* *Ji-hoon*: 50 guns (Eirenn)
* *Imjon*: 50 guns (Liotain)

The officers of these first ships were usually foreigners, being more skilled in the handling of these much larger and more complicated ships. Of the Joseon fleet which won the Battle of Choryangmok in May 1728, five of the six senior captains were foreigners.

Although adopting ships-of-the-line, the Joseon fleet remained quite heterogeneous up until the 1740s. Traditional panokseon were still cheaper to purchase and construct (particularly in the small coastal shipyards), and Joseon sailors were more used to handling junk-rigged vessels. At the Battle of Yeongpyong in 1735, Admiral Park Sung-hyun commanded one ship-of-the-line, five frigates and thirty junks, which he employed effectively in an unusual tactical formation.

Joseon's entry into the Great Northern War brought an influx of funding from the allied Pictish Federation. This allowed Joseon to effectively upsize its main shipyard at Wonsan, opening the possibility of locally-built ships-of-the-line. The first local example was the fifty-gun *Kumiho*, completed in 1735, just in time for the Battle of Yeongpyong. More ships followed. Song designed a class of three 74-gun two-deckers (the *Daegun* class) and four 50-gun two-deckers (the *Gunbuin* class). Some Bolish-built vessels were adopted following their capture. By 1737, just prior to the Battle of Changrin-do, Joseon fielded no less than twelve line-of-battle ships.

The defeat at Changrin-do, however, drastically reduced the fleet. Four ships survived to fight in the Battle of Yeosu, where one was burnt to avoid capture. A replacement ship (*Wang Ji-hoon*) was completed prior to the Battle of Noryang in 1740, but Admiral Park's fleet was still outnumbered two to one by the combined Bolish flotillas.

In the aftermath of the victory at Noryang, Joseon struggled to fund more ships, and those ships still in the navy were used hard. Between 1740 and the final naval battle at Pomorie in 1752, Joseon built only two ships-of-the-line, both 74-gun ships of the *Heughae*-class. These two vessels provided important but ultimately unremarkable service. A total of four ships remained in service for the Battle of Telika in 1750. At the Battle of Pomorie in October 1752, the Joseon ships formed the rear-guard of the allied fleet, and were lightly engaged.

With the final end of the war in 1754, the financial situation was dire enough that nearly the entire navy was laid up for almost a decade, aside from minimal training cruises. Not until 1782 would a new ship-of-the-line be added to the fleet, with a single 74-gun ship (the *Geumjeong*) constructed. It would be the last ship-of-the-line built in Joseon, with all warships thereafter being frigates.

### Frigates

Particularly over the course of the 1730s and 40s, Joseon shipyards became very well-practiced in the design and construction of frigates.

Toward the beginning of the era, a number of foreign-built frigates or heavily-armed merchant ships were purchased into Joseon service; twelve were listed on the naval rolls in 1730, with only two being built in Joseon. However, that year, six vessels were ordered to a design put forth by Song Taek-yul, with the first ship probably being named *Yeouiju*. Period records on frigate construction are disorganized, however. The names of the final two ships of this six-vessel order are completely unknown, and they may have been cancelled and replaced by the larger *Chilgok*-class frigates.

According to surviving records, *Yeouiju* served as the template for the standard Joseon frigate. Aukustian documentation from this period identifies the frigate "*Yeo-wejew*" as a 36-gun ship armed with iron 12-pounder guns "of inferior design." In contrast to this, in 1735 the *Yeouiju* sailed to the Anitkabir coast on a mission to deliver ambassadors and negotiate for the release of six Joseon merchants captured by pirates. The Kabirite officials, in a letter preserved in Anitkabir's archives, commented favorably on the "brass 16-pounders" that armed the ship, concluding that Joseon must be a very rich and very strong naval power to possess cannon with the degree of ornamentation they observed.

Historically, the *Yeouiju* represents perhaps the first great success of Joseon shipbuilders at imitating Velravian warship designs and philosophies, being the first design produced by Chief Architect Song Taek-yul after the establishment of his shipbuilding office. The other known ships of this design are *Anyang* and *Seongnam*. A possible fourth vessel named *Boryeong* is mentioned twice in Joseon's archives but was out of service by 1734 - potentially being transferred to the Confederation of Fusou, either to pay debts or to raise capital for other construction.

In 1730, Joseon shipyards turned the Firoccan-built ship-of-the-line *Dokkaebi* (purchased in 1725) into a razee frigate, removing her upper gun deck. Prior to her modifications, *Dokkaebi* carried 26 32-pounders on her lower deck, 24 12-pounders on her upper deck, 12 8-pounders on her spar deck, and 8 6-pounders on her forecastle. After modification, she dropped to 44 guns (26 32-pounders and 18 6-pounders). The ship showed excellent performance characteristics, and Joseon shipyards built two approximate copies, *Chilgok* and *Cheonma*, armed with 24-pounders. Both ships completed in 1733 and served with distinction as 'pocket line-of-battle ships' at battles such as Yeosu and Noryang.

Beginning in 1735, the most noteworthy of Joseon's frigate classes made its appearance - the *Choryangmok* class of 32 guns. In contrast to the very heavily-armed *Chilgok* and *Cheonma*, these frigates were lighter ships pierced for only thirty-two guns, usually identified in period literature as "10-pounders." Lighter than the *Yeouiju*, at least ten ships were launched between 1735 and 1755. They took on innumerable duties, ranging from raids on the Bolish coast, suppression of pirates in Fusan waters, trade missions, and numerous other tasks. One ship named *Geoje* reportedly sailed as far afield as southern Drakenstaat in 1750.

Following the end of the Great Northern War, Joseon spent a long hiatus before returning to frigate construction in 1770. An attempt to revive Joseon naval power in 1782 envisioned a fleet of four ships-of-the-line and twelve frigates. Only one of the ships-of-the-line (*Geumjeong*) was actually built, but eight 36-gun frigates were ordered. Only six of these ships were completed, however. The remaining two hulls were completed in 1788 but were not launched as a matter of economy, remaining on the slipways until 1830 when they were massively rebuilt as flush-decked 24-gun corvettes.

Beginning with the brief reign of King Ryu Jong-su (1826-1834) and his son Tae-joon (sometimes called Tae-joon the Great), the Wangsil Haegun regained a measure of its neglected glory, although tight budgets remained a constant concern. Joseon built four 50-gun frigates, widely recognized as some of the finest sailing frigates of their era. These ships, named the *Wangbi Eun-Jeong* class, carried a broadside of 30-pound long guns and carronades, and served as the centerpiece for the Wangsil Haegun's fleet during the War of 1835. Although rated as frigates, the four *Wangbi Eun-Jeong* class vessels boasted firepower approaching that of small ships-of-the-line from a century earlier. Most of the vessels remained in service through the 1880s, and one vessel (*Cheonma*, completed 1830) remains afloat as a barracks ship for a fishing cannery in northern Joseon.

This small force of "super-frigates" was supplemented in 1844 by Joseon's first steam-frigate, the *Yeosu*, equipped with side paddle-wheels. Although only equipped with 28 guns, *Yeosu* mounted very powerful shell-firing guns as her main battery. The ship was disarmed in 1860 and used as a civilian-owned steamship, disappearing from official registrations in 1873.

Two more steam frigates, *Noryang* and *Chilgok*, would be constructed in 1855. Armed with 42 guns including fourteen shell-firing guns, these two screw-powered warships served as the ultimate examples of the frigate in Joseon service, but only saw combat against Zakiri pirates. *Noryang* was broken up in 1882, but *Chilgok* survives as a storage hulk.

Following the completion of *Noryang* and *Chilgok*, the Wangsil Haegun turned to the steam-powered ironclad as their primary ship of war, although minor gunboats and sloops were built of wood all the way until the 1880s.

### Design Traits

The frigates and ships-of-the-line built in Joseon yards, while they largely reflected designs used in Velravin, incorporated their own distinctive features.

The hulls of most Joseon ships had a comparatively plain appearance. The primary paint mixed for the Joseon shipyards had a dark red or maroon coloration. Joseon's shipbuilders often skipped painting any trim-work onto the ships aside from white railing on the uppermost deck. Absent was the stripe used by Velravin navies with the painted portholes for cannon.

Due to the cost of glass and the relative asperity of the naval budget, Joseon almost completely rejected the use of stern-galleries, instead building their ships with simple rounded sterns, marked only by a few portholes for fresh air or cannon. Similarly, the builders adopted finer bow-forms with much less decoration around the bowsprit.

However, Joseon shipwrights made an exception for the figurehead itself, which was a highly ornate dragon (specifically, the maned dragon of Akainan culture). The dragon figurehead served as one of the symbols of Joseon and the Ryu Dynasty, and the ship's dragon figurehead was viewed as an emblem of the ship's 'guardian spirit'. According to popular legend, when the ship-of-the-line *Daegun Sang-hyeok* surrendered at the First Battle of Changrin-do without firing a shot, the ship's dragon figurehead immediately fell off the ship rather than be further shamed by the ship's surrender. (Other sources imply a pair of Joseon sailors cut the restraining bolts in order to protest the ship's surrender.)

The figurehead of several ships allegedly included a primitive flamethrower, operated by a hand-pump from inside the bow, and capable of spitting a stream of pressurized liquid fire for some distance. There are no records of this actually being successfully used as a weapon in battle, and both Joseon and Bolish accounts record only two cases where the flame was used at all, both times by the frigate *Chilgok*. The rarity of use suggests that the designers and crews may have found it too difficult to keep operational.

Rigging also differed slightly compared to Velravin and Bolish-built ships. The spanker sail on the mizzen, the mainsail, and foresail all retained battens, giving some design continuity with earlier junks. Some of the smaller Joseon frigates even followed a barque rig in order to use a full junk-rigged sail on the mizzenmast.

Construction details, particularly in the interior of the ships, were quite unique. Carpenters used wooden pegs with interlocking teeth, combined with traditional Joseonite joinery, to construct the hull. Joseon shipwrights also earned a reputation as "masters of glue." Construction records kept by a Liotainian shipwright working in Joseon state that *Chilgok* "used less than a tenth as many nails as a comparable ship." This eliminated a source of rust.

Almost all of Joseon's wooden warships saw heavy use of Akaina spruce in all major elements of the ship's hull. This evergreen wood native to the continent of Akaina mixed certain elements of softwoods and hardwoods, and served as a suitable alternative to oak (which was not locally available in significant quantity). Although not as damage-resistant as the well-regarded Pictish oak or Liotainian teak, the Akaina spruce had comparable water-resistance, a faster growing time, and easier capability to cut.

When used in hulls, a natural chemical in the sap of the Akaina spruce served as a natural anti-fouling mechanism, inhibiting marine growth in a similar fashion to the copper sheathing that came into practice in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Joseon ships thus had a reputation in the mid 1700s for excellent speed, largely because the hulls remained 'clean' of fouling much longer than many of their contemporaries.

As an attempt to prevent splinters from cannon fire (one of the downsides of using Akaina spruce rather than oak), Song Taek-yul used a second thinner interior layer of wood with a void space in between, filled with 'bricks' of compacted evergreen needles. This additional interior layer was focused around the gun-decks to offer additional protection to the gun-crews. Records are unclear about whether or not this system had any benefits.

Due to their expertise with natural glues, Joseon shipbuilders made heavy use of laminated curves in ship framing. This process carried over from the panokseon built in the 17th Century. Carpenters cut thin, wide strips of spruce which were then bent into molds and glued together to create thicker sections. Joseon also made excellent use of multi-piece masts, placing several smaller pieces of spruce together to create a single thicker mast or spar. These pieces of rigging performed quite well.

Armament largely imitated cannon used in Velravin and elsewhere. Joseon adopted cannon quite early in history, and arguably was the first nation on the Encircled Sea to use gunpowder and cannon in naval combat. Iron cannon were cast at three different foundries established by the Wangsil Haegun, working from standardized molds established by Admiral Yoon Dae-yeon. Attempts to keep the navy standardized, however, broke down during the Great Northern War. Bronze cannon captured from Aukustia or purchased from Firocco, Eirenn, and Liotain ended up mixed in with native-built Joseon guns.

During the 1820s, Joseon's naval armaments foundry managed to produce a small number of early shell-firing guns, a feat largely ignored in popular naval histories. These 30-pounder guns were fairly successful in service, although they were somewhat short-ranged

Joseon produced an outstanding blackpowder mix at the gunpowder mill of Wonsan, which was noteworthy for its even burn-rate and its odd blue smoke. Unfortunately, during the Great Northern War, production consistently lagged behind requirements, forcing the Wangsil Haegun to import sub-optimal powder from Astyria and elsewhere.

### Foreign Assessments and Comparisons

Due in large part to the chaos of the Great Northern War and the economic asperity of the following century, Joseon rarely sent warships abroad. Foreign assessments of their native shipbuilding, therefore, was limited mostly to foreigners visiting Joseon, or the Bolish and Aukustian evaluations of captured Joseon warships.

Following the First Battle of Changrin-do, the Bolish captured the *Daegun*-class ship-of-the-line *Daegun Sang-hyeok*. One of the Bolish commanders, Prince-Admiral Alexander Bozhkov, wrote a letter to the Bolish king in which he catalogued an extensive list of the ship's strengths, remarking particularly on the ship's sharper lines and good sailing qualities in heavy weather.

The chief naval architect of Prem-Bol, however, produced his own report cataloging a series of mistakes and errors he found in the design. The laminated hull ribs and the wooden peg construction were both viewed with particular disdain and derided as a sign of desperation amongst Joseon ship designers. As a result of this analysis, the Bolish believed that Joseon lacked enough trees suitable for shipbuilding, and enough iron for nails.

The smaller *Wang Tae-hoi* ("King Tae-hoi"), one of the *Gunbuin*-class 50-gun ships, was also captured at Changrin-do, becoming the *General Toshevo*. A detailed report on the *Toshevo* was referenced in a letter by Prince-Admiral Bozhkov, but the actual report itself has been lost. The *Toshevo* had a short career in Bolish service before disappearing in the January Storm of 1741. Bolish commanders initially identified *Toshevo* as a desirable ship to command. However, in the aftermath of her disappearance, numerous letters written by Bolish officers and seamen conspiratorily linked her loss to her construction, claiming that her frames "were known to be weak, and probably came un-glued in the heavy seas."

In 1742, Joseon transferred a 32-gun frigate to the navy of Eirenn in compensation for financial loans. The frigate, named *Aifric* in Eirennach service, was built to the same designs as the *Choryangmok*, with only minor changes to remove the batten rigging. In personal letters preserved to the modern day, *Aifric*'s second captain noted that the frigate had been thought of as a "dog" under her previous captain, but significant changes to the ballast scheme and rigging, particularly on the foremast, improved her performance markedly. The Eirennach officers had no qualms about the use of glue and pegs in construction and felt the ship's laminated frames were particularly sturdy. The only negative remark on glue was when *Aifric* visited the tropics (Liotain and Celtica) during the summer, and the initial heat caused glue to "weep" from some of the timbers, although this process ended after several days. Despite concerns, inspections revealed no particular damage to the ship.