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Mon, December 10, 2018 | 13:38

Opinion > Blogs > About the past >

The adventures of Captain Patrick Hodnett: An Irishman in 19th century Asia (part 3)

Sometime in the late 1870s or early 1880, Captain Patrick Hodnett purchased a small schooner he christened Zephyr. It was his pride and joy and he often referred to it as his yacht. We already know that Hodnett found great pleasure in “running along an unsurveyed and unexplored shore” but these ventures weren't often prosperous. So, when he declared in the summer of 1881 that...

About the past | 2018-12-09 09:40

The adventures of Captain Patrick Hodnett: An Irishman in 19th century Asia (part 2)

In the late 1860s, Yokohama was the economic hub of Japan. Every year hundreds of foreign vessels visited the port unloading cargoes of meat, oils, foreign-made goods and machinery while taking on cargoes of Japanese silks and teas. There were several hundred Westerners living and working in this port - a large number of them were young men with wild dreams and equally wild n...

About the past | 2018-12-08 10:00

The adventures of Captain Patrick Hodnett: An Irishman in 19th century Asia (part 1)

“The habit of 'swapping yarns' about those voyages of byegone [sic] years grows stronger as the comrades who shared the trails, joys and perils of such journeyings becoming fewer and dearer…,” wrote Captain Patrick Hodnett in the beginning of his memoirs. Even he acknowledged that some of his memories “almost suggest fairy tales at this more civilized end of the century” - he...

About the past | 2018-12-02 09:39

The drudgery of laundry in Joseon Korea

In the late 19th century, Joseon Korea was often described in less than flattering ways - especially in regards to cleanliness. The streets were often described as muddy mires - contaminated with human and animal waste - and the homes (the exteriors) as run-down and hovel-like.

About the past | 2018-12-01 10:12

Walking in the footsteps of the past: Naju in 1884 (Part Two)

As Foulk and the governor of Jeolla Province entered Naju, a large number of minor officials and government employees rushed ahead and drove the population back into their homes “as well as they could, yet every doorway was filled with curious people, all pleasant enough looking.” Foulk and Park ascended the South Gate and looked upon the city. Foulk was told that the city ha...

About the past | 2018-11-25 10:01

Walking in the footsteps of the past: Naju in 1884 (Part One)

Walking in the footsteps of the past: Naju in 1884 (Part One)

In the fall of 1884, George C. Foulk, an American naval officer, traveled throughout the southern part of the Korean peninsula in a palanquin. He was accompanied by a small number of Koreans who acted as his servants, guards and chair bearers. His diaries provide us with some of the earliest and most fascinating first-hand descriptions of the Joseon countryside as witnessed b...

About the past | 2018-11-24 09:59

Walking in the footsteps of the past: Naju in 1884 (Part Two)

Friedrich A. Kalitzky: “An old offender” (Part 2)

Judging from circumstantial evidence (scant reports here and there), Friedrich Kalitzky was fond of three things: bicycles, alcohol and trouble. In the 1890s, when the bicycle craze was sweeping through Korea, his shop was one of the first to sell bicycles and parts. He was also an avid bicyclist and enjoyed taking to the streets and speeding through the crowds of people, dog...

About the past | 2018-11-18 11:02

Friedrich A. Kalitzky: A Polish or German Mystery (Part 1)

Friedrich A. Kalitzky: A Polish or German Mystery (Part 1)

One of the more interesting and puzzling gravestones at Incheon's Foreigner Cemetery is that of Friedrich A. Kalitzky. We can see that he was born in Konigsberg on September 10, 1872, and died on March 19, 1934, in Seoul but the stone was not placed until nearly four and a half years later by Emily. It isn't clear who Emily was - perhaps she was his wife or daughter.

About the past | 2018-11-17 20:46

Friedrich A. Kalitzky: “An old offender” (Part 2)

Troubled waters: Chinese fishing fleets in Joseon Korea

In the 1880s, they congregated in large numbers off the coast of Gunsan. Their nets were incessant, their crews were often violent and they were outsiders - they were the Chinese fishing fleets.

About the past | 2018-11-11 10:07

Walking in the footsteps of the past: The Standing Buddhas of Yongmi-ri

In the early 1890s, three Western missionaries, while traveling from Seoul to Pyongyang, rounded a corner of a rocky hill and were suddenly confronted by “two immense stone figures representing a Korean man and a Korean woman” perched high above them - they were the Standing Buddhas of Yongmi-ri.

About the past | 2018-11-10 12:28

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