An engraving published in the Illustrated London News (1896) of a ship battered by a violent storm / Robert Neff Collection
For many, sea travel is viewed as a romantic adventure, but in the 19th century it was a necessary evil, filled with danger and uncertainty. This was especially true in August 1889, when the waters around the Korean Peninsula, Japan and China were plagued by a series of powerful storms.
Off the coast of Japan, one steamship captain reported passing “through large quantities of pine trees and bamboos, the former broken off midway and both torn up with roots, with leaves quite green, and a vast quantity of wreckage and deeply discoloured water” extended nearly 50 kilometers out to sea.
He was fortunate, as there were many nearby ports where he could find sanctuary. However, other steamships were not as fortunate and were forced to plow through the storm or seek safety in small sheltered coves — many of these steamers were damaged.
Smaller fishing boats and junks were truly at the mercy of the sea, and many did not survive their encounters with Mother Nature’s fury. The regional newspapers reported numerous accounts of these lost vessels. One steamship had several encounters with victims of the storm. At dawn, it rescued five Chinese fishers from a waterlogged fishing boat and then, a couple of hours later, rescued another man clinging to the rudder of a wrecked junk — he was the only survivor of that junk’s crew. Later in that afternoon, the steamship encountered another “large water-logged junk, with no one on board.” Apparently, they had been swept away by the “heavy rains and unsettled weather.” Other steamships reported similar encounters. Sometimes, sailors were rescued from floating debris, but more often than not, the half-sunken ships were devoid of any survivors.
Korean ships in the late 19th century / Robert Neff Collection
In the West Sea, not all of these........