13th century Mongolian ship Kublai Khan sent to invade Japan found

Telegraph ^ | 3 July 2015 | Julian Ryall

[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.

[Wilhelm Tell]

That is neat you have a story like that in your family, at a pivotal point in Japanese history! And he commissioned a painting and it still exists.

[SunkenCiv]

“Making Sense of Piles of Junks”
Archaeology of the Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan
https://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/randall/