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My colleague at BYU, Kirk Larsen, recently made a presentation on the destruction of the ship, the General Sherman, delivered at a conference co-sponsored by the University of Utah and Seoul National University. I've been claiming that some of my views are like that of the frog that is outside the well. Prof. Larsen's presentation was exactly that ― a new look at the sinking of the General Sherman that tells us we have been getting it wrong in several ways.
The first point Prof. Larsen makes is about the name of the ship. Often in the history books it is referred to as the SS General Sherman or the USS General Sherman. It was neither. It is only the "General Sherman" ― a privately-owned vessel on an exploratory trading venture in Korean waters in 1866, when the Joseon dynasty had a closed-door policy. The prefix SS indicates "Steam Ship" meaning it was not merely a sailing vessel, but had a steam engine as well. The USS indicates "United States Ship" meaning a part of the U.S. Navy, a warship.
There has been some historical confusion on the ship with another ship, formerly known as the Princess Royal, but renamed the US General Sherman which was sailing in the Atlantic at the same time that the General Sherman was in the Pacific. The US General Sherman sank off the South Carolina coast in 1874, a few years after the General Sherman was attacked and destroyed on the outskirts of Pyongyang. The confusion runs so deeply that old photos of the Princess Royal/US General Sherman, with a clear smokestack in the center of the ship, between masts and sails to the fore and to the aft, are often presented as a representation of the General Sherman that was destroyed in Korea. In fact, the official North Korean photographs and even a postage stamp commemorating the sinking of the ship show the ship as the US General Sherman with a smokestack in the middle.
The General Sherman did not have a steam engine but rather, on sail power alone, sailed up the Taedong River to the outskirts of Pyongyang. It was not known to the Koreans at the time that it was an American ship. Its disappearance prompted official American inquiries into the whereabouts of the ship. It was barely an American ship. The owner was American, and he was on board, and the captain was American, but most of the crew were Chinese or Southeast Asian. And one missionary from Wales, Robert Jermain Thomas, who is much revered by the Protestant community in Korea as a pioneer missionary in Korea.
Prof. Larsen pointed out how the story of the sinking of the General Sherman has huge significance in North Korea, but hardly appears in the American narrative about the beginnings of relations with Korea. In North Korea the unhappy General Sherman story is presented as the beginning of an unhappy relationship between the two countries.
The story is unhappy for Americans, and North Korea portrays the story as evidence of ill-will on the part of Americans from the beginning. But the story is also heroic for the North Koreans, becoming even more so after the 1960s. The General Sherman had run aground on a sandbar and the crew eventually panicked and starting shooting their cannons. It was a trading ship, but was heavily armed. The aroused locals, seeing the ship as a threat, attacked the ship by cleverly floating smaller boats, loaded with brush set aflame, into the hull of the foreign vessel. Some of the crew perished on the burning ship, and others were caught and killed while fleeing the ship.
The "battle" was led by mostly unknown locals. At least that was the case until some point in the 1960s when the North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung saw an opportunity to bolster his credentials as an heir to a patriotic, military tradition. Suddenly, we find out that the leader of the assault on the Americans was none other than Kim Il-sung's great grandfather, Kim Eung-u. Now, that's the official history. And Kim Il-sung is not only the anti-imperialist fighter in the 20th century, but he is the heir to a tradition from the 19 century, don'tcha know.
By stark contrast, Larsen reports giving a briefing at the State Department in Washington where he asked the diplomats what they knew of the sinking of the General Sherman. His summary: "crickets."
A glaring contrast in national histories. An essential story in North Korea depicting the evil conduct of the ne'er-to-be-trusted Americans. And a complete non-story in America.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
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