Prelude

The Battle of Okpo

Okpo

Okpo-dong is dong of the city of Geoje in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. The village is located on the eastern coast of Geoje Island and a center of the island....

 was a 2 day fight around the harbor of Okpo at Geoje Island

Geoje Island

Geojedo or Geoje Island is the principal island of Geoje City, on the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea. It is joined to land by two bridges from nearby Tongyeong. Sinhyeon is the largest town on the island...

 in 1592. It was the first naval battle of the Imjin War and the first victory of Admiral Yi. The Battle of Okpo caused anxiety and nervousness among the Japanese, because afterward Yi began to deploy his navy to attack Japanese supply and carrier vessels.

Yi's headquarters were at Yeosu

Yeosu

Yeosu is a city in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. Old Yeosu City, which was founded in 1949, Yeocheon City, founded in 1986, and Yeocheon County were merged into a new city in 1998....

, which is west of Namhae Island of the southern coast of Korea. The surrounding area of Okpo and Yeosu is dotted with numerous islands and tight straits. It is in this area where many of the naval battles in which Yi defeated the Japanese took place.

Approach of Geoje Island

Admiral Yi set sail on May 5, 1592 at 2:00 am from Yeosu with his 24 panokson and sailed for the entire day and slept on the ships. On May 6, 1592, Admiral Yi arrived at Tangpo, which was the rendezvous point with the other commanders. Yi Eok-gi came with his fleet, but Won Kyun showed up extremely late.

Attack at Okpo

Admiral Yi approached Okpo harbor the next day. He saw around 50 Japanese ships anchored there. The Japanese soldiers were looting and killing Korean civilians. Angered, Yi attacked.

The Japanese panicked and quickly boarded their ships in an attempt to escape. The Koreans encircled the Japanese and commenced firing with their cannons. The Japanese commander Todo Takatora

Todo Takatora

was a Japanese daimyo of the Azuchi-Momoyama period through Edo period. He rose from relatively humble origins as an ashigaru to become a daimyo...

 ordered his men to counterattack with arquebus

Arquebus

The arquebus , or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute...

es but unfortunately for them, did not cause much damage. After desperate fighting, the Japanese threw their weapons and armor overboard and jumped into the water to flee. Yi pulled back into the sea and the next day neared a harbor called Jeokjinpo.

Admiral Yi was again saddened by the Japanese harassing the Koreans and ordered his men to throw a heavy volley of arrows and cannonballs upon the Japanese. 11 out of 13 ships were destroyed.
The Koreans took the treasures from the Japanese wrecks and sailed back to Yeosu.

Aftermath

Yi was promoted to Naval Commander of the Three Provinces (Hangul : 삼도수군통제사, Hanja : 三道水軍統制使) by King Seonjo, a position equivalent to the modern admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

, which gave him authority over the Jeolla Right and Left Navies, the Gyeongsang Right and Left Navies, and the Chungcheong Navy. Yi's view of the Japanese slaughtering and looting local towns made him very determined to protect the Korean people by preventing the Japanese ships from even landing on shore. Later, at the Battle of Sacheon

Battle of Sacheon (1592)

The naval Battle Of Sacheon took place on May 29, 1592 and was the first battle in the Imjin War when the Turtle Ship was used.-Prelude:...

, he first used his "secret weapon", the Turtle Ship

Turtle ship

The Turtle ship, also known as Geobukseon or Kobukson , was a type of large warship belonging to the Panokseon class in Korea that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon Dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century.The first references to older, first...

s and defeat the Japanese again.