Shipwreck

 

  There are few things worse than surviving a storm at sea and a shipwreck only to be robbed and murdered by pirates or killed and eaten by cannibals as you drag yourself up the beach.. Nautical history is filled with such stories. Robinson Crusoe might have been eaten if he had landed on a day the cannibals were home. Fortunately for him he was able to get on his feet and get organized, so it was he who killed the cannibals. 

  Crusoe's adventure took place in the early 1700s.  In 1488 the Korean official Choe Bu was serving as Commissioner of Registers on the island of Jeju when he received news that his father had died. Choe Bu set off immediately for the mainland to begin the period of mourning.

  Jeju Island lies fifty miles south of the Korean peninsula. To the east is Japan and China is to the west. This area is known for its strong winds and as soon as the ship set sail it was hit by a storm that lasted 14 days. In his diary Choe Bu described mountainous waves that lifted the ship into the sky before plunging it into the abyss. The noise of the waves split heaven and earth. I admire people who keep writing their diaries even when they expect to be drowned at any moment.

  Eventually the ship reached a group of islands near the Chinese coast. No one aboard the ship rejoiced because Korea had its own Robinson Crusoe stories. Sure enough a gang of Chinese pirates soon robbed the ship of its valuables including oars and anchor. At least they didn't kill the crew.

  A few days later the ship reached the Chinese coast. It was quickly surrounded by several merchant ships. Choe Bu didn't speak Chinese but the Chinese and the Koreans used the same characters for writing. Despite his efforts Choe Bu realized that the Chinese sailors thought he and his crew were Japanese pirates. 

  The sailors took whatever the pirates had left behind and were on the verge of killing the Koreans when a heavy rainstorm drove the Chinese back to their ships. The Koreans took this opportunity to get ashore. Now they fell into the hands of Chinese soldiers. Ah, safe at last. Not really. The first instinct of the soldiers was to kill these strangers. Choe Bu got out his brushes and ink and furiously wrote "Soldiers good. Choe Bu good. No kill". It worked and the Koreans were taken to headquarters. 

 From local headquarters the Koreans were escorted on their long march north to Korea via Beijing, a trip of 1450 miles over 49 days. Part of the time they traveled on boats on the Grand Canal. Choe Bu kept a careful record of his travels which gives historians a picture of life during the Ming Dynasty. On July 12, 1488, Choe Bu and the others crew members crossed the border into Korea. The Korean government sent official thanks to Beijing for the safe return of its citizens.

  Ten years after his return home, the government changed hands and Choe Bu was banished to the north. In 1508 after another purge, he was executed. Two years later the original government returned to power and Choe Bu was exonerated and given posthumous honors at court, so that was good. Thanks to his diary, his name remains alive among those interested in such things. An English translation of the diary was published by the University of Arizona Press in 1965.

Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep...