Korea-Britain First Encounter Monument

Greetings PHG family, it seems crazy but my last time in Korea was 2018, when I made port on Jeju Island while attached to USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). Prior to 2018, I'd visited Korea almost every year, sometimes twice a year, as part of a port call or aircraft detachment. Most of my experience has been in Busan, a busy port city on the southeastern corner of the country. My last time visiting there was ten years ago this October, and I'm really itching to get back.

One place that has caught my eye since I started Pacific History Guide is Sinseondae, near Busan. There is a monument here commemorating the site of the first meeting between the governments of Korea and Great Britain in 1797. Captain William Broughton in the schooner HMS Providence landed near this point and surveyed the harbor, east Asia trip that included stops in Hokkaido and Macau. More on this later on.

The Korea-Britain monument in Sinseondae, courtesy of visitbusan.net

Below the Korean-Britain monument is Busan Harbor, a waterway that saw 86,000 ships transit in and out in 2024.The traffic through Busan accounts for 97% of container throughput in the Republic of Korea; the other ports of Incheon (near Seoul) and Gwangyang (southwest of Busan) make up for the rest. Looking at the map, it's easy to see why. Incheon has a long history of being blockaded, invaded, and otherewise denied use by various foreign powers. The Japanese, Chinese, and Americans have all at one point been in direct control of this port; its proximity to the Demilitarized Zone and a potentially hostile North Korea demand that infrastructure vital to the ROK economy be situated away from this threat. At the same time, Busan is better placed than Gwangyang, and ships coming from Japanese ports (particularly Fukuoka) will find an easy transit here.

At the southern entrance to Busan Harbor is the National Maritime of Korea; this has been on my bucket list for some time. I'm a big believer in the power of Maritime Museums and especially for those who are not deeply involved in the sea services, there is much to learn here. This museum hosts not just your usual maritime museum presentations, but cultural and art exhibits and even an aquarium. This will be my first visit the next time I go to Busan.

Let's go back to Captain Broughton and HMS Providence. As mentioned before, the schooner was at the tail end of an East Asian expedition when it landed near Busan in October 1797. Prior to this, however, she had been purchased while Broughton and his crew were wintering in Portuguese Macau, to accompany the sloop Providence, Broughton's actual command. This was a smart move, as while the sloop was transiting near Miyako-jima in the Ryukyu Islands, she ran aground on a reef and sank. The schooner picked up the wrecked crew, and the expedition continued on. We'll cover Miyako-jima and her various shipwrecks in a later post.

I look forward to visiting Korea, hopefully later this year. If you've been to Busan, or Korea in general, let us know in the comments or on social media! I look forward to visiting the Korea-Britain monument in the near future and I hope you will too.

Happy exploring,

Tony