Did you know that ... (42) Getting to the front

By Robert Neff

Jack London, an American author and journalist, spent a short time in Korea at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. London’s sojourn to Korea was marred by numerous transportation problems that may have stopped a lesser man.

While traveling from the United States to Japan, he injured his leg which left him on crutches until he arrived in Japan. Once there he ran afoul of the Japanese authorities for taking unauthorized pictures. It wasn’t until after war had been declared that he was able to resolve his problems with the Japanese authorities and board a small Japanese steamship to Fusan (modern Busan).

Accommodations were poor and he was forced to spend the night on deck. But things would get much worse.

From Busan he was able to board another steamship — this one bound for Jemulpo (modern Incheon) — but near Mokpo the ship was commandeered by the Japanese military and London was set ashore.

Undaunted, London was able to purchase a small Korean junk with crew and promptly set sail. That night they battled sea-sickness, howling winds, and an intense cold that London claimed froze the salt water. They arrived at Gunsan — missing a mast — and with little other recourse, hired another boat, even smaller and more open than the Korean junk

Over the next couple of days they sailed up the west coast — several times nearly sinking under the pounding waves.

At one point they stopped at a small village where they found shelter in a small Korean inn. As exhausted as he was London should have slept soundly but he couldn’t due to the curiosity of one of his fellow patrons who desired to see London’s false teeth.

Finally, on Feb. 16, London and his boat made it to Jemulpo. London was so cold and frozen that he was nearly unrecognizable to his friends. But he was determined to get to the frontlines.

One of the first things he did was look for a steed but unfortunately for him, there weren’t that many choices. He did manage to purchase a Chinese pony but was alarmed at its ferociousness. London complained in a letter, “Other horses bit at mine. He bit back, reared on his hind legs, his teeth snapping, striking with his forelegs and pawing the air.”

The horse was a four-legged demon and it was determined not to let a mere mortal ride it. London’s attempts to control the pony only provided him with vexation and entertainment for a crowd of Koreans who watched with open amusement.

London, however, would not be put off. In Seoul, he enlisted the aid of an English hotel proprietor and managed to buy a horse from the head of the Korean Customs Department — the indomitable John McLeavy Brown, an Englishman that was as shrewd as he was stubborn. London was extremely pleased with his new horse that he described as having the “prettiest head and gentlest eyes” that he had ever seen.

This admiration soon turned into disappointment. As London galloped through the streets of Seoul he was amazed at his mount’s fearlessness. It literally knocked over anyone and anything that got in its way. It was only after London aimed the horse at a wall did he realize that it was completely “stone blind.”

London quickly switched that horse for Belle, a huge horse that had been part of the Russian Minister to Korea’s stable. Belle “was gigantic [when] compared with all the other horses in Korea — Chinese, Japanese and Korean horses — and excited universal wonder and admiration.” Despite having a wonderful horse, it wasn’t until much later that London managed to get to the battle but that is another story.

Robert Neff is a contributing writer for The Korea Times.