Okay so I know some more detailed figures for the Korean navy than I did four years ago.
The numbers for the fleets are probably on paper, but considering that during the times that Underwood gives figures for Korea was paying good attention to military affairs it's probably pretty close to the accurate amount.
The Korean navy at this time consisted several different ship types in the 17th and 18th centuries (these are based on a variety of records including the Annals of the Choson Dynasty, port garrison rosters, Kakson Tobon, etc.):
Three-province naval station flagship: ~120 ft long, ~24-26 guns, ~190-220 men
Naval station flagship (1-2 per province): ~100 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~180-210 men
Port command/average warship (chonson; "cheunson" in Underwood's work): ~70 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~160-200 men
Turtle ship: ~60-70 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~140-190 men
Single-decked squadron leader warships (pangson): ~50 ft long, ~10-16 guns, and ~80-100 men
Single-decked auxiliary warships (pyongson; "pyungson" in Underwood's work): ~50 ft long, ~2-10 guns, and ~20-50 men
Tenders ("small 4th class" in Underwood's work): unknown length, no guns, and <10 men
The Taejong-era ships were all single decked and had smaller complements than the later ships. They were standardized as large, medium, and small *maengson* (maingson in the text) in the 1460s, but had mostly been converted to two-decked designs by the late 16th century. So the 1675 reference to the crews of the maengson are inaccurate because they're using the 1460s numbers (which are somewhat unclear, btw).
So this would give more accurate figures:
early 1400s: 543 ships and an uncertain number of men
1675: ~538 ships and ~46,000-47,000+ men
1744: ~812 ships and ~40,000-41,000+ men
These complements are average, this doesn't mean that there weren't sometimes ships equipped better (such as those carrying around 300 men in the Hendrick Hamel reference).
The planking of Korean warships was fairly thin, generally around 4 inches but their artillery during the 16th century on was mainly guns equivalent in size to 5-, 9-, and 14-pounders.
The numbers for the fleets are probably on paper, but considering that during the times that Underwood gives figures for Korea was paying good attention to military affairs it's probably pretty close to the accurate amount.
The Korean navy at this time consisted several different ship types in the 17th and 18th centuries (these are based on a variety of records including the Annals of the Choson Dynasty, port garrison rosters, Kakson Tobon, etc.):
Three-province naval station flagship: ~120 ft long, ~24-26 guns, ~190-220 men
Naval station flagship (1-2 per province): ~100 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~180-210 men
Port command/average warship (chonson; "cheunson" in Underwood's work): ~70 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~160-200 men
Turtle ship: ~60-70 ft long, ~24 guns, and ~140-190 men
Single-decked squadron leader warships (pangson): ~50 ft long, ~10-16 guns, and ~80-100 men
Single-decked auxiliary warships (pyongson; "pyungson" in Underwood's work): ~50 ft long, ~2-10 guns, and ~20-50 men
Tenders ("small 4th class" in Underwood's work): unknown length, no guns, and <10 men
The Taejong-era ships were all single decked and had smaller complements than the later ships. They were standardized as large, medium, and small *maengson* (maingson in the text) in the 1460s, but had mostly been converted to two-decked designs by the late 16th century. So the 1675 reference to the crews of the maengson are inaccurate because they're using the 1460s numbers (which are somewhat unclear, btw).
So this would give more accurate figures:
early 1400s: 543 ships and an uncertain number of men
1675: ~538 ships and ~46,000-47,000+ men
1744: ~812 ships and ~40,000-41,000+ men
These complements are average, this doesn't mean that there weren't sometimes ships equipped better (such as those carrying around 300 men in the Hendrick Hamel reference).
The planking of Korean warships was fairly thin, generally around 4 inches but their artillery during the 16th century on was mainly guns equivalent in size to 5-, 9-, and 14-pounders.
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