General Sherman Incident - Disputed Account

Disputed Account

Although the purported reason for the journey was to conduct trade with Korea, the Koreans contend that the actual intention was to find treasure buried in the royal tombs near Pyongyang. Further, the Americans' trade claim can be called into question as the General Sherman may not have even carried the necessary cargo for trade; the Meadows Company never specified a quantity of cargo in the manifest documents sent to the authorities after the destruction of its vessel. However, the fact that the vessel ran aground in the river suggests that it was laden with cargo of some sort.

There was a feeling among the Koreans that the use of an armed metal-skinned gunboat was suspicious in light of the stated desire for peaceful trade. At the time the only Korean vessels clad in metal were ones that served military purposes, so the General Sherman would have looked like a warship to the Koreans. However, two months before the General Sherman Incident, another armed vessel which was led by a German named Ernst Oppert had already visited Korea and made the same demand of trade. Although trade was denied, the Oppert's party had been well treated by Koreans and returned to China safely. In fact, Oppert came back to Korea in a ship called Emperor and steamed up the river Han near Seoul asking for the trade on the very same day that the General Sherman left the port of Chefoo. Again, the demand was denied by Korean government and Oppert went back to China. In addition, another American ship named Surprise was shipwrecked in Chulsan area in Pyong-an Province in June 24, 1866 and its crews were sent to China safely by Governor Park Gyu-su. The Governor Park was the same person who was in charge of the General Sherman Incident.

From the late 1960s, official historians in North Korea began to insist that the attack on the General Sherman was planned and led by a direct ancestor of the then North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung. Those claims, which had virtually no confirmation in historical records, were part of a campaign to promote the special role allegedly played by Kim Il-sung's family in Korean history, and thus facilitate the transfer of dictatorial power to Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung's eldest son. These statements are still repeated in North Korean publications, including textbooks. North Korea issued a postage stamp commemorating the sinking in 2006.

The USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy intelligence ship captured by North Korea in 1968 and the only U.S. warship still being held in captivity, is currently moored at what is believed to be the spot where the incident took place.