Tribute to the ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772)

On 26 March, 2010, the Republic of Korea corvette Cheonan was on routine patrol at the Northern Limit line and was struck by a devastating torpedo blast at night. She sank with the loss of numerous of her crew.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROKS_Cheonan_sinking

Other navies have lost ships and crew, but the Cheonan event's artifacts were the first I've seen in real life, when I visited the Korea War Memorial in Yongsan, South Korea, in 2012. I visited the Memorial several times. It's free, and easily takes 3 hours just to look at things, but took me 4.5 hours my first visit.


I wish not to inappropriately hijack the emotion around the Cheonan disaster, but inevitably, if not already, someone will propose that the name of the Cheonan be memorialized in the form a a new, more potent ship.

However, King Sejong is such an important figure in Korean history (he is one of the few, if ever, Kings smart enough to decree that the public deserved its own language that it could learn quickly, understand, and speak) that few other kings (Korean or otherwise) may equate to his stature. He commissioned his court officers/ministers to devise a language set that could free Korea of dependence on thousands of Hanja and make it easier to eliminate illiteracy and to communicate with the public.

So, obviously, since there is an existing ship named for him, to me, then, it is tough to bring up creation of and commissioning of a new ship superseding his stature. It might work out, though, to designate the design as a Cruiser, and schedule it to be placed into commission and in service after the decommissioning of the DDG-991. Optionally, a new class could be renamed the Sejong. (Just look at how many USS Enterprise ships existed (spelled with the "s"), and all in the USN. Even though the USS Enterprise is already deactivated and being chopped up for official decommissioning, the next Enterprise has already been named! Important ships will always be remembered and their names continued.) However, since Cheonan could, due to normal design, program analysis, procurement, funding, and construction processes take upwards of 15 years, there is a lot of time for the ROKN to find internal or external or blended inspiration for what is an appropriate use of the name Cheonan.

I had since that event decided to posit one of my ship drawings as a potential Cheonan replacement. Even before then, I'd already found some nautical and maritime ship terminology translated into Korean. Once my CAD package seemed able to embed the Korean fonts, I would then save them in the file. In 2011, around 23 April, I decided to tentatively "position" the drawing as "KDX-IV". But, later, I decided there probably will be a day when the ROKS will want to move up to cruisers, if not due to technological capability that exists today, then for political parity with other navies operating cruisers that are called "destroyers", and operating destroyers with more firepower than WW II cruisers. So, I coined (not that it won't be logically arrived at in due course of the advancement of the ROKN): "KCX-I", for Korea Cruiser Experiment. However, these are rather pricey "experiments". Still, Cheonan, some day, will be up for name reuse. A large, powerful, pride-instilling size of ship would someday serve the ROKN well.

Then, because of my visit to Korea, I learned more about the Cheonan, and things in progress around my drawings changed some of my workflow. Upon seeing models of the ROKN's King Sejong Dewang Destroyer (DDG-991), I decided to incorporate in my notional-Cheonan II a second sonar. (If I understand correctly, the smaller, second head allows for certain types of triangulation or clarification of data.)

Also, either in Busan or on Seoul, I found and bought the Korean (English copies were sold out) version of the book about the Cheonan. It was sobering reading, but very instructive and informative.

During my visit to Shanghai, August-September 2012, I stumbled upon a hobby shop in People's Square train station. It led to a not-very-financially-astute move, but I ended up purchasing 5 ship models (ranked by displacement/length/size/power):

-- JMSDF Atago (DDG-177)
-- JMSDF Kongo (DDG-173)
-- USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)
-- PLA Navy Type 052C Lanzhou (DDG-170)
-- PLA Navy Type 054A FFG

Later, when I returned to Korea, I visited a model shop and found

-- USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98)

All were irresistible because they came with very detailed instructions that gave me more insight into the local shapes of the ships. The hulls themselves were very useful to be able to hold, hold up, pore over, and find new insights. These things led to some realizations. Of my notional Cheonan, I wanted/want:

-- the ship to be superior commensurate with the construction timeline
-- the ship to be superior in appearance to the other ships
-- the ship to reflect the likely future position Korea (Reunifcation or not) will be in between the next 10-20 years.

These thoughts and feelings led to:

-- adding the second sonar dome

-- increasing the superstructure deck height by yet another deck (My CGHID-1165 height was increased in the CGHID-1298, and then when that became not as equal in height of eye to the Atagos, I decided to make the CGHID-1298 the a designated CGHID-1298k)

-- the desire to officially find out with permission how to make my notional drawing something that would actually appeal to ROKN officers, despite the reality that, for security reasons, the internal General Arrangement drawings of any ship even if looking like mine externally would be different internally. However, as long as docents control visitors, and visitors do learn probably 70% of a ships internals by sight and often with cameras, it may not be necessary to wholesale modify my drawing, aside from moving the CMS Vault (Cryptographic Material System), the Radio Communications Center, and possibly the Captain's Stateroom's actual locations.

In any case, I am working on my design and want to offer it to Korean Naval Officers as a gesture. I hope to return to Korea, and to work with a small group of people to do this exercise, even though for now it is symbolic in nature.

Maybe I will get to return to Korea, work on the designs, and aid in the building of a 22-foot long model which would be encased in Cheonan. I want to revisit that city, too. My trip to there was much too short.


T R I B U T E T O R O K S C H E O N A N ( P C C - 7 7 2 )

천안의 공물.

천안 함 (PCC-772)를 기억


Cheonan Tribute.

Remember the Cheonan (PCC-772)






More working images (in Free!Ship Plus/Hydronship) of my proposed "Cheonan" replacement:

These additional images are of differing view angles similar to earlier/other screen captures:






================

These are of the 3D mesh model turned into surfaces and solids in Punch! Shark Lt: