[KS] the General Sherman

[Robert Neff]

I am familiar with the role it played as a "pirate" but I am still at a
loss as to how this ship was returned to the United States.  I would love
to see the citations used by the blogger and by Mr. Southerton.

I find it strange that none of the English newspapers in the region -
particularly the North China Herald - do not mention this return of the
ship.  And, I could find no mention of the ship on the shipping rosters for
the region.  Nor does it explain why there were several missions sent to
verify the destruction of the ship and its crew.  Foulk was sent in 1885 to
investigate its destruction.

The only reference I can find of he General Sherman in the papers in 1867
is:

"It is reported from Chefoo that two of the Europeans who were on board the
General Sherman when she was taken by the Coreans, are still alive.  The
information is not certain; but measures will, we believe be at once taken
to sift it.  If it be true, probably one of the survivors is the Rev. Mr.
Thomas who, it will be remembered, spoke the Corean language."
North China Herald, December 9, 1867.

Several years ago I remember reading something about the machinery and
perhaps one of the cannons of the General Sherman being brought to
Norangjin where an attempt was made to construct a "modern" Korean
warship.  Through a great many efforts (including using feathers because
the ship kept sinking - but I am a little skeptical as to the truth of
this) they did manage to get the ship to float but could not arm it and
sent it to Kangwha island just prior to the 1871 war with the United
States.  What became of it is unknown.

Robert Neff



On Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 10:38 AM, Brother Anthony <ansonjae at sogang.ac.kr>wrote:

> There is a recent (June 2011) lengthy blog posting about the full history
> of the General Sherman at
> http://maritimediver.blogspot.com/2011/06/general-sherman-uss-princess-royal.html
>
> The story is somewhat complicated by the existence of a much smaller ship
> also named "General Sherman" during the Civil War but the story told in the
> blog seems to be fully documented
>
> Brother Anthony
> Sogang University etc
>
>
>
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