CHAPTER IV
THE OUTRAGE ON THE HIGH SEAS
IT will now be necessary to follow up the events relating to theobject of the torpedo-boat destroyer _Frome's_ search.
The scrapped Dreadnought-cruiser Impregnable had been sold by publicauction, the purchaser being Mynheer Van der Coote, shipbreaker, ofRotterdam. According to the usual terms of sale the purchaser wasbound to complete the breaking-up of the ship within six months. Themachinery could be utilised again, and, in consequence, was in fairorder. Owing to the fact that it would be necessary to employ a largeengine-room and stokehold staff to take the ship across to Hollandunder her own steam, Mynheer Van der Coote took the far moreeconomical course of sending two powerful tugs to Portsmouth to towthe _Impregnable_ to her last port.
Directly the cruiser gained Spithead the two dockyard tugs cast offand returned. The last link with Great Britain had been severed; thepurchase money had been paid, and the obsolete craft was now privateproperty.
Before the Warner Lightship was abeam the fog enveloped the ship, sothat her tugs were quite invisible. Captain Stalkart, the master ofthe leading tug, therefore eased down to half speed, reduced thescope of hawser by one half, and steered a compass course towards theEnglish Channel. The tugs' syrens kept up a continuous and discordantbellow--one prolonged blast followed by two short blasts, signifyingthat they had a vessel in tow--for the appalling risks of a collisionin a fog were more than doubled by reason of the fact that theunwieldy craft lumbering astern was almost incapable of beingmanoeuvred with any degree of celerity.
At 4.45 the master of the tug heard the characteristic blast of thereed-horn of the Owers Light vessel, and deeming that the warningcame from a bearing well on his port bow, altered his course a coupleof points to starboard.
Suddenly a black shape, distorted out of its proportion by the wateryatmosphere, loomed up dead ahead. There was no attempt made by thevessel--for such it was--to give warning of her presence. She wassimply forging ahead with bare steerage way.
Signalling to the rearmost tug to go full speed astern, the master ofthe leading tender promptly gave orders for the engines to bestopped. He dared not go astern, otherwise the momentum of the_Impregnable_ would cause the giant vessel to overrun her diminutiveescort. As it was the cruiser forged ahead till the tug was sweptalongside.
Just then the mysterious vessel, that had made no attempt to get outof the way, went astern, and, describing a graceful curve, ranalongside the _Impregnable_. There was a rending of steel as theex-cruiser's torpedonet-booms were shorn from their securing-lashingsby the wall-sided vessel. The next instant fifty men poured upon the_Impregnable's_ upper deck; hawsers were passed out and the two shipswere soon locked in a close embrace.
Captain Stalkart, knowing that something was amiss, but ignorant ofwhat had actually occurred, shouted through his megaphone for theother tug to come alongside. She promptly complied, making fast onthe port side of the _Impregnable_, and slightly astern of the firsttug.
Under the impression that a serious collision had occurred, andwishing to do his best to save the huge vessel he was towing,Stalkart gave orders for the powerful centrifugal pumps to be manned,and the suction-pipes to be led aboard the _Impregnable_; but ere thehoses could be coupled up a score of men armed with revolvers andautomatic pistols lowered themselves over the cruiser's side, and onto the two tugs.
The phlegmatic Dutchmen, finding it useless to resist, promptly ranbelow, their retreat being hastened by a few pistol-shots fired overtheir heads. To do the crews of the tugs personal injury wasevidently not the intention of the assailants.
As for Captain Stalkart, the minute he saw how things were turningout, he ran into the chart-room and seized a revolver. Fortunatelyfor his own sake he did not attempt to fire, nor did the aggressorsfind him for some considerable time. During that interval he wrote ahurried message on one of the lifebuoys, and heaved it over the side.
Meanwhile, in addition to the work of pillaging both tugs ofeverything that might be of service, the modern buccaneers werebusily engaged in transhipping stores, arms, and ammunition from thetramp to the _Impregnable_.
It was soon evident that they had laid their plans carefullybeforehand, and that the capture of the _Impregnable_ was not an acton the spur of the moment. From the hold of the steamer twenty-fiveseven-pounder quick-firers with their mountings were soon hauled up,and placed in position on the captured cruiser. Tons of oil werepumped into her double bottoms; water and provisions were stowed awayin the usual tanks and store-rooms.
Down in the _Impregnable's_ engine-room men--experiencedmechanics--were overhauling the machinery. Only a few weeks beforethe cruiser had been in commission with a nucleus crew, and, as isusually the case, her engines had lacked proper attention, but inless than a couple of hours the filibusters had succeeded in firingthe oil-fuel burners and raising steam.
This done the Dutchmen were ordered to come up from below, and wereplaced in one of the store-rooms of the after-flats of the cruiser.The _Vulkan_ had been scuttled and was sinking fast, but ere shedropped beneath the waves her master, the taciturn Stalkart, rushedfrom the chart-room, where he had been concealed, on to the bridge.Volubly cursing and shaking his fist at the rascally crowd who hadsunk his ship, the captain remained bravely at his post, scorning thegestures that indicated that he should save himself.
The _Vulkan's_ bows rose high in the air as her stern slipped beneaththe surging cauldron of foam. In another instant the loyal skipperwould have gone to his doom, when a lariat whizzed through the air.The noose tightened round Stalkart's portly waist, and, amid a roundof jeers and ironical laughter, the Dutchman was hauled ignominiouslybut effectively on board the _Impregnable_.
The second tug suffered a similar fate; but just then a lifting ofthe fog revealed the presence of the ss. _Wontwash_.
For a few moments all was confusion, the crowd of men on the_Impregnable's_ deck running below to hide themselves from theinquisitive gaze of the undesirable steamer. The Dutchmen, thinkingthat assistance was at hand, began to clamour for aid, till quietedby the silent threat of a revolver being pointed at them.
Seizing a megaphone the leader of the pirates--for that they were toall intents and purposes--sprang upon the fore-bridge.
"You vill clear out of dis!" he shouted. "No vant 'elp; go 'way."
The _Wontwash's_ skipper was completely taken aback. Naturally he wasat first under the impression that the tramp alongside the_Impregnable_ was engaged in salvage work, and did not want outsideinterference that might lead to reduction of the salvage court'saward; but when he saw that the steamer alongside bore no name, andthat the men were far in excess of the number of an ordinary crew,and, in addition, armed, he decided that discretion was the betterpart of valour, and promptly did as he had been peremptorily told--hesheered off.
Directly the _Wontwash_ was lost to view in the still thick haze menwere lowered over the taffrail of the vessel that had effected theseizure of the battle-cruiser, and the words "_Steephill Castle_,Hull," were prominently painted on her stern. Ere this was completedthe final stages of transferring the stores were finished, and the_Impregnable's_ propellers began to revolve slowly.
The vessels then parted company, the pseudo _Steephill Castle_proceeding up Channel, while the _Impregnable_, steaming at a steadyfifteen knots, headed due south.
Forty miles from the Sussex shore she eased down. The word_Impregnable_ was erased from her stern and _Independencia_substituted. Her crew were mustered aft, divided into port andstarboard watches, and told off to their respective quarters. The menwere literally the scum of the Mediterranean ports--Greeks, Italians,Spaniards, Algerines, and Egyptians, with a renegade Englishman(formerly a naval petty officer) as bo'sun. The officers were mostlySpaniards, the captain being a native of Barcelona, and a member of aformidable Anarchist society.
All hands knew that theirs was a desperate and unlawfulenterprise--piracy. The stake was a high one, the inducements great.In a few days all hands wou
ld either be wealthy or doomed to anignominious end.
Juan Cervillo, the leader of the rascally crew, was a Spaniard ofgood family He had served as an officer in the Spanish Navy; but,imbued with revolutionary sentiments, he became mixed up in ananti-monarchist plot. Exposed, he was arrested, brought to trial; andsentenced to a long term of imprisonment.
Before he had done twelve months of his sentence he contrived, withthe assistance of his revolutionary associates, to effect his escapefrom the prison-fortress of Saragossa. For some months he lay hiddenin Barcelona, when his daring, undoubted courage, and vehementdenunciations of all authority, gained him a prominent positionamongst the anarchist community of that city.
As a delegate he attended the secret revolutionary conferences inParis, and London, and the Mediterranean seaports; and in the courseof his wanderings contrived to gather together a band of seafaringrascals in whom the piratical instincts of their forefathers laydormant.
It wanted but a leader, bold, determined, and unscrupulous, to bindthem together into a formidable band--and that leader was forthcomingin Juan Cervillo.
A daring raid upon one of the leading banks in Rome, and an equallysuccessful coup in the commercial quarter of Marseilles, providedJuan Cervillo with ample funds. He could have retired into someremote South American town, and lived a life of luxury; but thedesire for adventure and the lust for gold were too great.
With the money at his disposal he proposed to buy a swift cruiser,prey upon the world's sea-borne commerce, and recoup his outlaytenfold.
Then it was that the possibility of securing a discarded Britishwarship occurred to him. Careful and guarded inquiries revealed theinformation that the _Impregnable_ was leaving Portsmouth forHolland. He resolved to intercept her--and succeeded.
The next few days were to be spent in wholesale depredations; then,as soon as the high seas became too unsafe to continue his nefariousexploits, he meant to convey his booty to some out-of-the-way port,and, temporarily satisfied with his war upon civilisation, he wouldlie low till a favourable opportunity again occurred.
Thus, while the _Frome_, lured on a false scent, was runningwestward, the _Independencia_ ex-_Impregnable_ was steamingsouthward, ready like a beast of prey to pounce down upon the firstunsuspecting merchant ship that came across Cervillo's course.