• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.209-215
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• 2015

Miraculous victory of Myeongnyang sea battle turned the tide of the Joseon's entire war against Japan and it is regarded as one of the most remarkable sea victories in the world history. In the sea battle of Myeongnyang, on September 16, 1597(lunar calender), the Joseon navy with 13 battle ships, led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, won the Japanese navy with their fleet of 133 warships. There were several reasons why Admiral Yi decided on this location for battle. Myeongnyang strait is so narrow and had currents so powerful that many ships could not pass strait simultaneously. Therefore, despite being vastly outnumbered, Admiral Yi used terrain and tidal current advantage to defeat Japanese navy's numerical advantage. In order to find out the tidal state of Myeongnyang strait on September 16, 1597, topological phase of sun and moon was studied by orbital period of earth and moon. The tidal state of Myeongnyang strait on September 16, 1597 is estimated based on the theories of tide and tide tables. As a result of this study, time of slack water were found to be 0636, 1248, 1906 and time/speed of maximum tidal current were found to be 0930/8.3kts(NW), 1612/9.9kts(SE).