Contributor
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
On the rainy morning of May 1, 1886, the French warship Primauguet sailed into Jemulpo (modern Incheon) harbor. On board was Francois George Cogordan, the French plenipotentiary, and his staff, who had come to negotiate the French-Korean Treaty. Over the next couple of days, the harbor was filled with the booming of cannons as courtesy visits were made to the French warship by the captains of the other foreign warships.
Darkness once ruled the nights of Seoul. During the winter of 1883-84, Percival Lowell, a young American guest to the capital, was captivated by Seoul’s dark nights where women were allowed free rein on the streets and men (unless they were blind) were confined to their homes.
On February 24, 1893, the British warship, HMS Caroline, sailed along the coast of Korea near Geomundo Islands. On board was 32-year-old Sub-Lieutenant William Stanley Lambert – an officer who was definitely not happy. He had been temporarily assigned to this ship to replace a lieutenant who, “in an evil moment,” had become too ill to go to sea.
In early 1890, the Eastern Whaling Company was established in Yokohama, Japan. It was a foreign venture and began operations with a single small steamer named the Nautilus which was soon joined by a brand new steamer named the Narwhal. The company began with grand goals and a promising future but its reality was bad luck, financial ruin and death.
Narwhals have always been viewed with a sense of wonder tinged with supernatural mysticism. They were bearers of the great unicorn horns, and symbols of purity and good fortune. It was fortune that brought the "wooden narwhals" to Korea.
Spring has long been the season for contentious encounters between the Korean Coast Guard and Chinese fishing boats and this year is no exception. As the demand for fish increases and the supply dwindles, the number of violent incidents involving fishing boats will continue to increase. But this is not a new problem.
In the early 1920s, an American gold miner working at Oriental Consolidated Mining Company in northern Korea wrote:
“You often read about the falcon hunts of the days before the invention of sporting guns and smokeless powder, but these hunts must have been tame compared to a modern Korean wolf hunt with trained eagles,” declared a writer in the early 1920s.
As mentioned in the previous article, Captain Philo McGiffin has become a folk hero — especially to naval buffs — mainly because of his firsthand account of events surrounding the naval aspects of the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.
Over the years, Captain Philo McGiffin has become a folk hero — especially at the American Naval Academy. Many articles and books have been written about him, but they often have conflicting information. In 1968, Lee McGiffin — whose husband was Captain McGiffin’s nephew — wrote an interesting, but informal, biography about the captain, titled "Yankee of the Yalu."