By John Prigent

Here’s part 2 of the Far Eastern saga of fighting ships. This one covers 1,000 years of naval endeavour in Japan and Korea, including a host of intriguing ship designs. Have you heard of the Korean “turtle ships”? They’re here, with as much information as can be gleaned from the historical sources and even photographs of full-size reconstructions. They were weird-looking efforts, with blunt bows that make them look as though they’re sailing backwards. Armoured roofs with spikes on them (to discourage boarders) add to the strange appearance but they were actually surprisingly effective in battle against the Japanese.

The other side of the coin is, of course, the Japanese naval efforts. Here we’re looking at pirate raids on the Korean coast, gradually developing into full-scale invasions with at least semi-official backing. The Samurai seem at first to have regarded fighting on ships as being merely a move to a battlefield that moved around with the waves, even going so far as to lash the ships together to make more room for hand-to-hand combat in their traditional style. This gradually changed and by the end of this period they were using armoured ships with cannon, and even going in for shore bombardment. Nevertheless their ships, like the Korean’s, hardly look seaworthy so it is a tribute to the professional sailors that they did actually manage to stay afloat in open water!

Like the first volume, this one is highly recommended to anyone interested in ships and the sea, or in Far Eastern warfare. A section of one of these ships would make a splendid diorama display for some unusual figure models, too.