SS Meredith Victory
/ Courtesy of www.hopeinhungnam.com | By Kang Hyun-kyung
Miracles took place on the eve of Christmas in 1950, the year when the Korean War (1950-53) broke out after North Korea suddenly launched an attack on the South on June 25.
In an email interview with The Korea Times Wednesday, David Watts, the author of the newly released book “Hope in Hungnam” as well as a technology project manager living in Texas, reflected on some of the hard-to-believe wartime stories that actually happened during the bloody war.
He said a tiny cargo ship, dubbed SS Meredith Victory, carried 14,000 evacuees on a single voyage to South Korea after the U.N. forces were ordered to escape from the North after Chinese forces joined the war to help its ally North Korea.
“This was one voyage, one ship. I’ve toured one of the few remaining Victory class cruise ships before. In comparison, it was absolutely tiny. I imagined it carrying 14,000 while the much larger and much more modern cruise ship might carry two or three thousand,” he said.
SS Meredith Victory, which was then commanded by Philadelphia-native Captain Leonard LaRue, still holds the Guinness World Record for the greatest number of persons evacuated on a single ship.
Watts interviewed all three surviving crew members of the original forty-six and some of the refugees who were aboard the ship for his historical fiction story. Won Dong-hyuck, one of the 14,000 refugees who fled with his father 62 years ago, was also interviewed by the author.
Watts noted the underlying details of the story are true.
“All 14,000 refugees were taken safely to South Korea without loss of life. As a bonus, five babies were born en route,” he said.
The evacuation was part of the amphibious operation which also helped approximately 100,000 civilians, who were under threat from communist forces, escape from the northeastern city of Hungnam in North Korea. The operation lasted for 14 days from Dec. 10, 1950.
During the two-week operation, U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command said over a hundred-thousand military personnel, 17,500 vehicles and 350,000 measurement tons of cargo were pulled out.
“In comparison with the retreat in central and western Korea, little was left behind. Even broken-down vehicles were loaded and lifted out,” it said.
Watts said he was determined to work on the historical fiction after watching a TV program on the Korean War six years ago.
“I learned about the great evacuation from Hungnam from a History Channel special here in the United States. There was a special about U.S. Korean War veterans who return to Korea to visit with their counterparts,” he said.
“In that special, there was a section about the evacuation from Hungnam. As soon as I saw it, I realized I needed to write about it and help preserve this very important history.”
As he has a day-job as a technology project manager and travels a lot for his job, he said he had to use his spare time to meet interviewees and write the story.
The book follows the story of a U.S. Marine, Jack Stiles, in Korea during the war. He is bigoted and hateful toward the Korean people but he changes after he was critically wounded and left for dead. A North Korean woman returns him to health after finding him.
Watts released the book Monday, on the 62nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. |
한국전쟁 당시 벌어진 기적 같은 일들
6.25 전쟁 당시 흥남철수 기간 동안 몇가지 기적 같은 일들이 벌어졌다고 작가 겸 엔지니어인 데이비드 와츠가 최근 코리아 타임스와의 이메일 인터뷰를 통해 공개했다.
와츠에 따르면 평소 수십명의 선원을 태웠던 미국 화물선인 SS 메레딧 빅토리호가 흥남철수 기간 (1950년 12월 10일-24일) 동안 한번에 14,000명의 북한 주민들과 아이들을 태워 무사히 한국으로 피난할 수 있도록 도왔다고 말했다. 이 화물선은 현재 한번에 가장 많은 피난민을 안전하게 대피시킨 것으로 기네스 신기록에 올라있다.
흥남철수는 한국전 당시 중공군의 개입으로 전세가 불리해지자 북한으로 진출했던 유엔군이 남한으로 철수하도록 한 조치였다.
최근 6.26 발발 62주년을 기념하여 흥남의 꿈 (Hope in Hungnam) 이라는 제하의 책을 출간한 와츠는 당시 이 배에서 5명의 신생아도 태어났다고 전했다.
빅토리호와 비슷한 규모의 배로 크루즈 여행을 해 본적이 있다고 밝힌 그는, 본인이 탄 배가 태울수 있는 최대 인원이 2-3천명 정도에 불과한 것을 고려해 볼 때 빅토리호가 흥남철수 당시 1,4000명을 태운 것은 기적에 가깝다고 전했다.
저자는 이 책을 쓰기 위해 당시 메레딧 빅토리호 선원 중 생존선원 4명 전부와 당시 배를 타고 남한으로 피난한 북한 주민들을 인터뷰한 바 있다. 와츠가 인터뷰한 북한 주민 중에는 당시 14세의 원동혁씨도 포함되었으며 원씨는 당시 아버지와 함께 피난길에 올랐다고 진술했다고 와츠는 전했다.
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