Posted on 07/03/2015 9:45:02 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a Mongolian ship that was part of a fleet dispatched by Kublai Khan to invade Japan in the 13th century.
The ship is the second to be located off southern Japan from two massive armadas – each reputedly made up of more than 4,000 ships and with an invasion force of 140,000 men – sent by the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281.
Both invasion fleets were destroyed by devastating typhoons, with the storms going down in Japanese history as "kamikaze", or divine wind, that saved the nation from foreign invasion. The kamikaze were again invoked in the dying days of the Second World War, with the crew of aircraft and miniature submarines carrying out suicide missions against the Allies.
A 1921 illustration by Sir Henry Yule depicts Kublai Khan's fleet passing through the Indian Archipelago (Alamy) The Mongolian vessel has been located in a bay close to the city of Matsuura, on the west coast of the island of Kyushu, and archaeologists believe it was taking shelter from the storm when it foundered.
Part of the hull of the ship was found beneath a thin layer of sediment around 75 feet beneath the surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
GGG ping.
Pretty close to Sasebo, about halfway between Nagasaki and Fukuoka.
Pity that they had to wait until 1951 for the BBQ named after them to be discovered.
ping
And they haven’t found the Stately Pleasure Dome either. :P
Wow. So it sounds like the Mongolians were literally at Japan when the storm destroyed the Mongol’s ships. If they had been a few hours earlier or the storm had been a few hours later they would have landed and begun their invasion.
Well after all those Mongolians were known as great sailors and shipbuilders.
Excellent. It appears to be in good condition, and I’ll be interested in knowing what more they discover.
Ah, must be where John Wayne got his inspiration for all of his multifaceted character portrayals.
Thanks Fractal Trader. Who better to build an invasion fleet than *Mongolians*. I mean, what could go wrong?
What a coincidence. During WWII, Admiral Halsey, during actions against Japan, took his fleet into not one, but two typhoons, narrowly escaping courts-martial.
I think the way it happened was that some of the Mongols landed, then the storm hit, they went back to their ships, but the ships then sunk.
The only other time, IIRC, that a similar-sized typhoon hit the area was in October 1945, at precisely the time that MacArthur planned his invasion of Kyushu. Unlike D-Day, the ships going to the landing would have to have left days earlier, and would have been right in the path of the storm; the carnage would have been incredible.
One of my ancestors was one of the heroes during the first invasion. Legen in our family is he attacked one of the ships and cut off a few heads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takezaki_Suenaga
Reminds me of something I saw on the History Channel once. It might have been baloney, but, if I remember correctly, the contention was that they had evidence that the Chinese/Mongolian Armada basically fell apart due to shoddy workmanship. Basically, instead of 8 nails per unit plank length, they only used 2. And instead of using good water sealant material, they went with water soluble stuff (probably melamine ... they seem to have an abundance of that crap in China). So once they hit rough waters - end of the fleet.
Again, I don't know if this tale was fictitious, or not, but it had the ring of truth about it. The Chinese are smart, hard working, and they can produce excellent product. But once you try to make it in mass production - some cost cutting gene kicks into place, and you better be very careful on your quality controls - or you won't be getting the product that you thought you were getting. And I suspect Khan found this out the hard way. Or at least his sailors did.
I got one word
KHANNNNNN!!!
The Mongols didn’t have a clue about ships, but their Korean and Chinese subjects sure did.
The Koreans, a few centuries after this, defeated a massive Japanese invasion by superlative naval innovation.
A century or two before that, the Ming sent huge fleets all over the Indian Ocean, including quite possibly into the Red Sea. Possibly they also reached Australia.
MONGORIAAAAAAAANS!
Yeah I forgot about that South Park episode
Damn Monoglians broke my s***** wall
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