The Lost Fleet of Kublai Khan

The year is 1281. The world is ruled by a single superpower: the Mongol Horde. Kublai Khan has just conquered China and become the new ruler of Asia. The Mongols attack with unprecedented force and cruelty. Only one conquest eludes them. To complete his empire, Kublai Khan gathers enormous forces to attack not from land, but from sea. Four thousand four hundred ships carrying 140,000 soldiers set sail for Japan.

It was a fleet of incredible size. The frightened Japanese turned to their legendary warriors, the samurai. They are famous for their skill in close combat. They live and die by a sacred code of honour. This is the way of the warrior. But to save their people from such enormous force, even the samurai needed a miracle. Everyone was frightened and began to pray. There was only one hope that some divine power would save them from the Mongol invasion. And their prayers were answered. Under mysterious circumstances, the enemy fleet simply disappeared. This miraculous rescue became an epic myth for the Japanese. They claimed that a divine wind had saved them. The failure of the Mongol invasion seemed like a miracle. The Japanese believed that the wind had been sent from heaven. Now they believed that the gods were protecting them and that no hostile force would ever invade their country.

The first records of the Mongol invasion were made immediately after it happened, but there is no mention of a divine wind or any other natural phenomenon that could explain this event. What happened to Kublai Khan's lost fleet?

Kenzo Hayasada devoted 15 years to this mystery. He is Japan's leading marine archaeologist. It was this man who conducted marine research in search of the reasons for the disappearance of the Mongol fleet. He is perhaps the only person who does not believe that his country was saved by divine intervention.

Like any investigator, Kenzo began his investigation with a motive. Who was Kublai Khan, and what motivated him to conquer Japan more than 700 years ago?

Kublai Khan's ancestors were nomads, tribes of horsemen who roamed Central Asia. At the beginning of the 8th century, his grandfather Genghis Khan united the tribes and led them on a brutal conquest. From the first generation, Genghis Khan created the largest land empire in history. It was a huge empire, formed in a very short time. Kublai Khan expanded his grandfather's legacy. In 1279, he completed the conquest of China. But that was not enough. Kublai conquered the south of the Chinese Empire, but that was not enough. He needed to show the Chinese people and the rest of the world that he was the new emperor of the East and the ruler of the world. He set his generals a task that no Mongol had ever faced before. To cross 500 miles of ocean and conquer Japan. The Mongols were not used to fighting at sea, so Kublai's decision to attack Japan was very unusual. The best horsemen in the world suddenly decided they were sailors. On the coast of China, the Mongols began building the largest fleet the world had ever seen — more than 4,000 ships. The emperor was eager to invade Japan as soon as possible and gave the shipbuilders less than a year to create a powerful armada that would defeat Japan.

Then marine archaeologist Kenzo Hayashida set out to search for the remains of the Mongol fleet. But this is no easy task, as Japan is an archipelago of more than 3,000 islands stretching over 2,000 miles. No one knew where to start looking until a fisherman stumbled upon a metal object covered with strange inscriptions. News of the find led Kenzo to the small Japanese island of Takashima.

The metal object turned out to be a bronze seal, which was fairly well preserved. The inscription on the object indicated that the seal belonged to the commander of a thousand warriors. On the reverse side, it is indicated that it was made in September 1276, that is, five years before the invasion. So, it belonged to one of the military leaders. This discovery allowed Kenzo to narrow the search area from 3,000 islands to just Takashima.

Kenzo soon assembled an international team of divers, archaeologists and marine researchers. Using sonar to map the seabed, the marine researchers found a new clue to the mystery. The sensors registered a group of large objects at a depth of 30 metres. After several months of excavation, the team found a huge wooden structure, which they carefully transported to the laboratory. The find turned out to be a wooden anchor. After preserving the wood in a concentrated sugar solution, Kenzo began his forensic analysis. His findings could put an end to the 700-year search for Kublai Khan's fleet. The results soon showed that the wood from which the anchor was made came from China. And since the Mongols built their ships from Chinese wood, this is the first sign that the anchor belongs to the lost fleet. But unexpectedly, a sensational discovery awaits the marine researchers at the site of the find. One after another, nine more anchors appear. This proves that a large fleet has been found.

Remains discovered by marine archaeologist Kenzo Hayasada

Kenzo's investigation was getting closer to solving the mystery of the lost fleet. Traces of the lost Mongol armada began to emerge from under the water: a Mongol warrior's helmet, sword blades, arrowheads and, finally, the remains of a Mongol warrior — the upper part of his skull.

Without a doubt, marine explorers had found Kublai Khan's lost fleet, the final resting place of one man's dream of empire and the mass grave of thousands of dead Mongols. But the cause of the disaster remained a mystery. And then Kenzo decided to carefully examine the wreckage of the ships. Finding a partition about 4.5 metres wide, the scientist calculated that the ship was more than 80 metres long and twice as wide as European ships of that time. By the standards of the time, it was a large ship. The Chinese then built sturdy ships using the latest 13th-century technology. Each ship had several watertight compartments impregnated with rubber. If the ship was punctured, water would fill only one compartment and the ship would not sink. Chinese ships were in many ways superior to ships from other countries. They were longer and made with iron. The masts were much stronger than those on ships from other countries. But the scientist believes that the reason for the disaster arose before the ships set sail. The fact is that in the spring of 1281, the Mongol khan began to lose patience, because he had given less than a year for preparation, and more time had passed. Food, medicine, weapons and horses were urgently brought in from all over the Mongol Empire, and thousands of undefeated warriors gathered.

In May 1281, 4,400 ships set sail. Nothing could compare to the Mongol fleet. The size and power of the armada were impressive, and Arkhan was confident of victory. But he was entering uncharted waters, and he had never commanded a fleet before. He did not know what traps awaited him. After several weeks at sea, the fleet arrived at the shores of Japan. General Arkhan sent a carrier pigeon to Kublai Khan in China with a message that his troops were preparing to attack and were building a bridgehead on Japanese soil.

Soon, the Mongols were within firing range of Japan. The samurai had never faced such superior firepower before. Under cover of fire, the first wave of Mongols moved ashore. But in fierce combat, the situation changed. In close combat, the Mongol infantry could not match the speed and skill of the samurai. The Mongols failed to establish a beachhead and retreated to their ships. But before Arkhan could launch a new offensive, disaster struck. On 12 August 1281, his fleet disappeared. What had happened in those last few days?

By bringing in elite samurai units, the Japanese forced the Mongol invaders to defend themselves. In the summer of 1281, the Mongol ships spent many weeks at sea. At sea, the Mongols were defenceless against one of Japan's most dangerous phenomena: the violent storms that strike in summer.

Studying their findings, the team of marine researchers made a most important discovery. Plotting the location of the 10 anchors they found on a map, they noticed a pattern. All the anchors were positioned in the same way. The fact that all the anchors were turned southward and the ropes were directed toward the shore indicates that a powerful force threw the ships ashore. This is the first scientific evidence of a typhoon.

To understand how strong the storms are in this region, it is enough to study the recent typhoons that have raged in the area. The wind reached speeds of 240 km/h, raising huge waves up to 20 metres high. A destructive force.

In our case, the Mongol fleet could have been caught in a super typhoon. When the typhoon approached, the Mongol fleet was off the coast of Japan. There were many ships, and General Arkhan needed time to manoeuvre. Apparently, the storm hit the Mongol armada suddenly, and no one knew what to do. But the fleet had little chance of avoiding the storm. The sailors could well have been thrown onto the rocks or drowned.

The destruction of Kublai Khan's Mongol fleet

According to ancient Chinese manuscripts, 4,400 ships and vessels sank. The death toll exceeded 70,000 people. This is the largest loss of life at sea.

However, a careful examination of the wreckage by Kenzo raised some doubts about the shape and construction of the main part of one of the ships — the mast support. The mast support is the part of the ship to which the mast is attached, and it should be in the centre of the ship. A carefully designed mast support is one of the main components of a sailing ship. But the scientist discovered that the masts were not very well made. The mast itself was offset from the centre, which made the ship unstable in rough seas. This discovery took Kenzo's investigation in a new direction.

It turns out that the reasons for the disaster lie with the Chinese shipbuilders themselves. The craftsmen who built ships for Kublai Khan were deliberately careless in their work. The reason was that the Chinese hated their Mongol conquerors. Kublai Khan placed an unbearable burden on the shipbuilders, forcing them to build ships as quickly as possible. It is quite possible that they deliberately built poor-quality ships.

A typical Mongol wooden ship

Thus, the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan himself was to blame for the destruction of his armada. After all, it was he who ordered the construction of a fleet for the invasion in less than a year — a vain goal. It would have taken at least five years to build the planned number of ships. In addition, there is no doubt that all types of vessels, even river boats, were used for the campaign. In order to assemble such a large fleet, Kublai Khan had to seize all the ships that fell into his hands. As for their commander, General Arkhan was an excellent military leader on land, but he had never participated in naval battles. Arkhan was not prepared to defend the fleet when the typhoon struck his ships and vessels. However, for the Japanese, this disaster was a salvation. And over the next 700 years, the typhoon became the legend of ‘The Divine Wind.’ However, the typhoon was only the final blow to a fleet that was doomed from the start. Poor construction, old ships, and poor leadership sealed the fate of the fleet.

Maritime researchers are convinced that the blame for the greatest naval disaster in history lies on the shoulders of one man — Kublai Khan. The loss of the fleet was a huge blow to the prestige of the Mongols and the emperor himself. The myth of the invincibility of the Mongols was dispelled. With one mistake, Kublai Khan sowed the seeds of his empire's demise. He became the last ruler of the united Mongol state. A few years after his death, the empire, like his ill-fated fleet, disappeared without a trace.