CHAPTER TWELVE.
AT WORK IN KINCHAU BAY.
Meanwhile, I was spending my days poring over the maps and charts ofKinchau and its neighbourhood with which I had been supplied, leavingCommander Tsuchiya to carry on the work of constructing the long boom,and merely visiting it in a picket boat at the close of each day, to seehow the work was progressing. My study of the maps and charts hadreference to a scheme which had come into my head whereby it might bepossible to determine the ranges of the several Russian positions fromcertain fixed points in the bay with the utmost accuracy, therebygreatly increasing the effectiveness of the naval fire when our flotillashould be called into action. The map in particular which had beenissued to me was drawn upon a scale so large that even comparativelyinsignificant distances could be closely measured upon it, and it was sofull of detail that apparently every building, however unimportant, wasmarked upon it; also it was "contoured"--that is to say, it was coveredall over with wavy lines, each of which represented a definite heightabove sea-level. With such a map before me it was of course the easiestmatter imaginable to determine the position of all the most salientpoints of the landscape, of which there were several, and--assuming themap to be correctly drawn--to measure the distances of these from oneanother.
With such a bountiful fund of at least approximately accurateinformation for a starting-point it was a simple matter for me to fixupon a number of points in the bay--as many as I chose, in fact--whichcould be clearly indicated by buoys bearing different coloured flags,the positions of which could be accurately determined by cross bearings;and my plan was, first to lay down these buoys and determine theirpositions, and then mark them on maps, a copy of which would be handedto each captain, from which, by the employment of a scale and a pair ofdividers, he could immediately measure off with precision the exactrange of any object desired.
Having at length arranged my scheme on the map to my liking, I proceededwith it aboard the _Mikasa_, and submitted it to the Admiral, who, withCaptain Ijichi, the Commander, and several of the officers of the ship,examined it with the utmost interest, asking me several questions inconnection with it. When I had fully explained the scheme, they allagreed that it was an admirable idea, and would undoubtedly be of theutmost value--_if_ it could only be carried out. Togo was of opinionthat it could not; I, on the contrary, was convinced that it could; andat length I managed to get the Admiral's somewhat reluctant consent tomake the experiment.
Armed with this, I went ashore and, making my way to the carpenter'sshop which formed part of our shore establishment among the islands,ordered a certain number of small triangular rafts to be made, of a sizejust sufficient to support a bamboo staff ten feet long, to the top ofwhich a flag six feet long by three feet wide was to be firmly lashed,the flags to be of different colours, arranged in pairs. The rafts wereconstructed merely of rough timber stoutly nailed together, while theflags, being only required to last a day or two, as we hoped, were madeof coloured calico, the edges turned over and hemmed with asewing-machine, that they might not fray or tear. A couple of hours'work sufficed to complete my small requisition, with which I returned tothe _Kasanumi_.
It was within half an hour of sunset when I got aboard with my boatloadof miscellaneous paraphernalia; and as the torpedo flotilla always keptsteam while at the Elliots, excepting when it became necessary to cleanflues or boilers, we at once got our anchor and proceeded to sea at aspeed of twenty knots. I was bound round to Kinchau Bay, the distanceof which from the Elliot group, by sea, was about one hundred andthirteen sea miles; I therefore reckoned on arriving at my destinationabout midnight, which would suit me admirably. The moon was in herthird quarter, and was due to rise, that night, at a few minutes afterone o'clock, which would also suit me excellently.
For a wonder, the night was fine, with a light air out from aboutsouth-east; there was no sea, and not much swell, and as the destroyerwas running well within herself, we went along quite easily andcomfortably, and I seized the opportunity to snatch a few hours' sleep,leaving the navigation of the boat to my chief officer, who was quiteequal to the task.
The trip was uneventful, and at midnight Lieutenant Hiraoka aroused mewith the intimation that we were standing into Kinchau Bay, and werealready near enough to the land to enable the watch-fires on the hillsto be made out; I accordingly turned out and went on deck to take a lookround. I had studied my maps so exhaustively that, dark though thenight was, I was able without difficulty to identify the various heightsin sight, of which Mount Sampson was by far the most conspicuous; thegeneral appearance of the land, indeed, was remarkably like what I hadalready mentally pictured it to be, and I seemed to be gazing on quitefamiliar ground. We were of course running without lights, and therewas hardly a ghost of a chance of our being seen, but I eagerly searchedthe bay for craft, and was gratified to find that it was empty.
But if there were no craft, there might be a good many mines; thereforein order to avoid all possible risk we crossed the bay to its northernshore, keeping well out, and then, going dead slow and feeling our waywith the lead, we hugged the northern shore line as closely as the depthof water would permit, until we arrived abreast a little indentation, orcove, when the engines were stopped, the boat lowered, and, with myrevolvers in my belt, but no sword, a pocketful of cartridges, a waterbottle, a wallet of provisions, an azimuth compass, and a box sextant, Iwas pulled ashore and landed in the cove, the boat immediately returningto the destroyer, which soon vanished in the darkness, making for theoffing.
There were some half-dozen small, crazy-looking fishing-boats drawn upon the beach of the cove, and, groping about, I presently found afootpath leading somewhere inland. This I cautiously followed for alittle distance until the crow of a wakeful cock and the bark of a dogwarned me that I was at no great distance from a human dwelling of somesort, when I struck off the path and waded through a field of millet,heading north-west for the summit of a hill which I easily recognised,even in the dark, as one of the points from which I purposed to take myset of observations. My more immediate anxiety, however, was to getaway from the neighbourhood of all human habitations, for although Iknew pretty well, in a general way, where the Russians might be expectedto be found, there was always the possibility of running unexpectedlyinto a small detachment of them, or of encountering some Korean peasantwho might be disposed to betray me, upon the off-chance of securing areward for so doing.
The low ground at the foot of the range of hills for which I was headingwas all cultivated, as well as the lower slopes, but, higher up, theground was covered pretty thickly with scrub, with here and there a fewpatches of fir trees; and when once I got among these I felt that I wasfairly safe, for I imagined that nobody would be likely to have anybusiness up there, while in the disturbed state of the country nobodywould be likely to wander there for pleasure.
By the time that I reached the lower margin of the belt of scrub, themoon, one-half of her in shadow, had crept up above the crest of MountSampson, and the whole of the country round about me was flooded withher dim, ghostly light, with the help of which I was able to make outthe small walled city of Kinchau, planned in the form of a square, eachside measuring about half a mile long; the Japanese position in thevalley to the south of it; and a few of the Russian positions on theNanshan Heights; I was also able to definitely reassure myself as to myown position.
The point for which I was aiming was about three miles north of thelittle cove in which I had landed, and the intervening ground wasrugged, with many outcrops of rough, jagged rock, and much overgrownwith thick, tangled scrub; the "going," therefore, was a bit toilsome,but that did not greatly matter to me, for the night air was distinctlyraw, I was none too thickly clad, and the exertion kept me warm. When Ireached the belt of fir wood that seemed to completely encircle therange of heights which I was climbing, the obscurity was such that itwas only with the utmost difficulty I was able to make any headway atall; and at length, coming to a spot where the grass was exceptionallythick
and dry, feeling somewhat fatigued with my unwonted exertions, Iflung myself down for a short rest, and before I knew what washappening, fell fast asleep.
I awoke, chill and cramped, at the sound of a distant bugle call, tofind that the sky over the summit of Mount Sampson was just paling tothe approach of dawn. I therefore scrambled to my feet, much refreshedby my nap, and resumed my climb, eager to get a glimpse of mysurroundings with the first of the daylight; for I had a great deal todo, and not very much time in which to do it.
A quarter of an hour of brisk walking brought me to the upper edge ofthe fir wood, and there before me, scarcely a mile distant, stood thepeak which I had chosen as the starting-point for my operations. I hadbeen guided by the map in my selection of it, for the contours showed methat, apart from Mount Sampson, it was one of the most lofty elevationsin the neighbourhood, and also that it rose somewhat abruptly to asmall, well-defined point. My first glance at it assured me that, sofar at least, my map spoke truly, for the summit appeared to consist ofa rocky knoll, the highest point of which was a short, stunted, conicalmass, the top of which seemed scarcely capable of affording standingroom. Nothing could possibly have been better for my purpose, and Ihurried forward and upward, eager now to get at my work.
I will not afflict the reader by attempting to describe in detail myplan of operations, for it involved a mathematical problem of somecomplexity, only interesting to and comprehensible by a mathematician.Suffice it to say that what I had undertaken to do was to make threeseparate sets of observations from as many chosen points, consisting ofcarefully observed compass bearings, and angles taken with my pocketsextant; and the taking of these observations, and the travelling fromone point to another, kept me so busy all day that I was scarcely ableto find time to snatch a couple of hurried meals while walking from onepoint to another. I was not interfered with by anybody, for, with twoopposing armies facing each other at close quarters, the populationseemed scarcely inclined to venture out of doors. Of course I sawplenty of armed men, both Russians and our own troops, moving about inthe plain which surrounds Kinchau, and there was a considerable amountof desultory firing going on; but it was not until well on in theafternoon that I came into close proximity of any of the troops, andthat was when it became necessary for me to cross a road leading intoKinchau from the north. Along this road armed Russians, singly, in twosand threes, and often in large bodies, were passing to and fro; and Ilost nearly an hour of valuable time waiting for an opportunity merelyto cross that road unseen. However, I managed it at last, and reachedmy final observation point just in time to satisfactorily finish my workbefore night fell and the light failed me.
And now my next task was to somehow make my way back to the cove inwhich I had landed some eighteen hours earlier. To do this it wasnecessary for me to recross the road where I had been held up during theafternoon; but now the darkness was in my favour, and I succeeded ingetting across with scarcely any delay, arriving at the cove safely,with a good hour to spare.
It was a weary waiting for the boat which was due to come for me atmidnight, for I was very tired after my unusual exertions throughout theday, and would gladly have slept. But that would not do; for to haveslept would have exposed me to the double risk of being surprised, andof missing my boat; I was therefore by no means sorry when, aboutmidnight, I heard the low whistle which announced her arrival. To steplightly into her and murmur the order to shove off was the work of amoment, and half an hour later I was again safely aboard the _Kasanumi_,to the great joy of young Hiraoka, who, it appeared, had been all dayhaunted with the fear that I might fall into the hands of the Russians.
And now, weary as I was, there were at least two hours' work before me,with pencil, paper, protractor, parallel ruler, and scale, makingcalculations and laying down upon map and chart the result of myobservations. This result was, on the whole, eminently satisfactory,for although I discovered a few trifling errors in the map, here andthere, my observations enabled me to correct them; and when I had atlength finished, map and chart were in a condition which would enable meto proceed with the second part of my task with the assurance ofsuccess. This accomplished, I retired to my cabin with an easy mind,and slept the sleep of the just until midday.
A salt-water douche on deck for a few minutes, skilfully administered bya laughing Japanese seaman, and a brisk rub down with a rough towel leftme fresh and invigorated, quite ready for a meal and the work whichstill lay ahead of me. The first part of this consisted in laying downupon the chart a number of positions corresponding with the varyingdraughts of water of the several units which the Admiral was detailingto assist General Oku in his operations against the Russian forces whowere barring his passage of the Kinchau isthmus. The laying down of thepositions above referred to was a task demanding a considerable amountof thought and care, for it was important that the ships should approachthe shore as nearly as possible, otherwise their guns might beout-ranged, while, on the other hand, they must not be permitted toapproach too near, or they would be exposed to the risk of being leftaground on a falling tide. Also it was imperative that the berthschosen for them should be so situated as to enable them to afford themaximum amount of possible assistance. I devoted the entire afternoonto the consideration of this question, and at length fixed upon a seriesof positions which seemed to me to answer all requirements as nearly asthe tidal conditions would allow. My next task was to accurately fixthese several positions by as complete a series of cross bearings aspossible; having accomplished which, there was nothing more to be doneuntil after midnight. Meanwhile, the _Kasanumi_, with her enginesstopped, was lying hove-to some sixty miles to the westward of Kinchau,in the Gulf of Liaotung, waiting for nightfall.
At four bells in the first watch we got under way and started to runeast at a speed of twenty knots, for I had now to complete my entireplan by placing the buoys, or triangular rafts which I had provided forthe purpose, in the positions in Kinchau Bay which I had alreadyselected for them and marked upon the chart.
Too anxious for the complete success of my scheme to be able to sleep, Ihad ordered a deck chair to be brought up from below, and was sitting inthis on our little navigating bridge, with a midshipman named Uchida,who had been detailed for service with me, pacing softly to and fro fromport to starboard, keeping the lookout; and the cold night air wasbeginning to produce a pleasantly drowsy effect upon me when, as the boyhalted for a moment in turning on his march, he suddenly stiffened, andstared intently out upon our starboard beam. He stood thus, like afigure suddenly turned to stone, for the space of a full minute or more,then came softly to my side and saluted.
"Three craft on our starboard beam, sir, coming up from the south-west,"he reported.
"What do they look like?" I demanded, rising to my feet and staring outin the direction toward which the boy pointed.
"I cannot yet say, sir," he replied. "At present they are too far offto reveal their character; indeed, I doubt if I should have seen them sosoon, but for the fact that I glimpsed the flames issuing from one oftheir funnels."
"Yes," I said. "Thanks, Mr Uchida, I see them too. Have the goodnessto bring me the night-glass from the chart-house. They appear to besteaming with lights out."
The lad hurried away, and quickly returned with the night-glass, which Ifocused and applied to my eye. The night was overcast, but there were afew stars blinking out between the clouds, which were flying fast upfrom the westward, and by their feeble, uncertain light I was presentlyable to distinguish a little more clearly the three small, shapelessblurs that Uchida's keen eyes had detected. They were little more thanshapeless blurs still, even when viewed through the powerful lenses ofthe night-glass; but I was able to distinguish that one of them wasconsiderably bigger than the other two, which were much of a size. Itwas the funnel of the big fellow that was showing the flames, whichseemed to indicate that she was being driven, while the other twoappeared to be running easily. Yet all three were in company. Theappearance of the two smaller craft
seemed to suggest to me that theymight possibly be destroyers; but what the other was, I could not guess.She was not big enough for a cruiser or a transport; and the fact thatshe was evidently being hard driven to enable her to keep pace with herconsorts--or, possibly, escort--led me to doubt whether she was awarship of any kind. One thing was pretty clear, which was that, likeourselves, they were evidently bound for Kinchau Bay. Were they enemiesor friends? If the former, it was eminently undesirable that theyshould be permitted to arrive, and it was for me to look into thematter.
"How's her head?" I demanded of the helmsman.
"East, three degrees south," he replied.
"Shift your helm to east, twenty-five degrees south," I ordered; and thebows of the destroyer swung round until she was heading for a point atwhich we could intercept the strangers. Then: "Mr Uchida," I said,"pass the word to prepare to make the private night signal."
The signal was presently hoisted to the yard-arm and displayed for fullyfive minutes without evoking a response; and then I knew that thestrangers were enemies. We accordingly hauled down the signal again andcleared for action, loading both torpedo tubes as well. This done, wequickened up our pace to full speed; for if we were going to have afight, I wanted it to be out there in the open, so far away from theshore that the sounds of firing would not reach the Russians aboutKinchau, and so apprise them of the presence of an enemy in the adjacentwaters.
As we rapidly neared the enemy I made them out to be two destroyers,evidently escorting the third craft, which was a single-funnelledsteamer of apparently about eighteen hundred tons. She sat deep in thewater, as though loaded to her full capacity, but she was much too smallfor a transport, and for the life of me I could not imagine what hercharacter might be. But there could be no doubt whatever concerning thedestroyers; they were self-evident Russians, for they werefour-funnelled, the funnels arranged in pairs, which was distinctlycharacteristic of a certain class of Russian destroyer.
Neither side wasted any time upon useless preliminaries; but it was theRussians who opened the ball by both craft firing, almostsimultaneously, every gun they could bring to bear upon us. But theiraim was nothing to boast of, for although we heard the shells screamingall about us, we remained untouched. Twice they fired upon us before Iwould give the word to our gun-layers, and both times ineffectively;then I gave the order to commence firing; and no sooner had the wordspassed my lips than our 12-pounder spoke, and a moment later thereoccurred two distinct explosions aboard the nearest Russian boat, whichinstantly became enveloped in a great cloud of steam. Apparently thatfirst shot of ours had struck and exploded one of her boilers, foralmost immediately she slackened speed and began to drop astern. Thismishap, however, did not seem to in the least discourage her consort,which, putting on full speed, now dashed at us in the most determinedand gallant manner, firing as she came, and receiving our fire inreturn. And then, for some ten minutes, we found ourselves engaged in aregular ding-dong fight, we and our antagonist closing to a distance ofless than two hundred yards, and hammering away at each other as fast asthe guns could be served.
But it very soon became apparent that our fellows were much the betterand cooler gunners of the two; for whereas the Russians seemed to ram intheir charges and let fly on the instant that their guns were loaded,our men waited, watching the roll both of their own ship and that of theenemy, and firing at her waterline as she rolled away from us, with theresult that within the first five minutes of the fight a lucky shot fromour 12-pounder sent a shell through her upturned bilge a foot or sobelow her normal waterline, blowing a hole through her thin plating thatadmitted a tremendous inrush of water every time that she rolled towardus. Her crew at once got out a collision mat and made the mostdesperate efforts to get it over and stop the leak; but our 6-poundquick-firers peppered them so severely that, after struggling manfullyfor two or three minutes, they were obliged to let the mat go, and lostit. Then they launched a torpedo at us, which missed us by inches only,whereupon I ordered our men to cease fire, and hailed the Russian to askif she would surrender. But, not a bit of it; their reply, astranslated to me by Hiraoka, who was an excellent Russian linguist, was,that they knew how to die, but not how to surrender; and the reply wasaccompanied by another salvo from every one of their guns that wouldbear. And this, too, at a moment when it became only too apparent thatthe boat was rapidly sinking. Since, therefore, it was evident thatthey were resolved to fight to the last, there was nothing for it but toopen fire upon them afresh, much as I regretted it, as they obstinatelypersisted in keeping up a fire upon us.
The end, however, was nearer than even I thought, for we had fired but afew more shots at our opponent when there occurred a terrific explosionaboard her, instantly followed by several others, her deck opened uplike the lid of a box, a great sheet of flame leapt up from herinterior; and, seeming to break in two, the dismembered hull rapidlydisappeared, the bow and stern portions rearing themselves out of waterfor a few seconds ere they plunged to the bottom, leaving nothing toshow where the boat had been, save a great cloud of acrid smoke andsteam, a few fragments of wreckage, and some half a dozen men strugglingin the water.
Of course we instantly stopped our engines and launched a boat; but weonly found and saved three men out of the boat's total complement offorty-seven. We learned that the name of the lost destroyer was the_Beztraschni_, and that all of her officers had perished with her.
We now had leisure to attend to the other two craft, which were by thistime some three miles astern, having apparently stopped their engines toawait at a safe distance the course of events. Swinging round, weheaded for them at full speed, with all guns loaded, and a torpedo ineach tube, ready to open fire as soon as we got within effective range.As we drew nearer, however, it became evident that there was somethingvery seriously wrong with the destroyer which we had first fired upon,and which had dropped astern, disabled, for there were boats in thewater about her, seemingly passing between her and the other craft,boats going to her with only two or three hands in them, and leaving herloaded. By the time that we had arrived within a mile of her we couldsee that the destroyer was in a sinking condition; and a minute later welost sight of her altogether: she had gone down.
The boats were still in the water alongside the surviving craft, and menwere climbing up her side from them as we arrived within some thirtyfathoms of her and hailed, demanding her surrender. A reply instantlycame from her to the effect that she surrendered; whereupon I dispatchedHiraoka on board, in charge of an armed boat's crew; and some tenminutes later the youngster hailed, informing me that our prize wasnamed the _Vashka_, of seventeen hundred and sixty tons register,originally a cargo steamer, but now adapted for mine-laying; and thatshe was from Dalny, bound for Kinchau Bay for the purpose of sowing thebay with mines, in anticipation of the probability that some of ourships would be sent to participate in the attack upon the isthmus. Headded the information that the vessel, hoping to escape the notice ofJapan's warships by taking a roundabout route, had been escorted by twodestroyers only, the _Beztraschni_ and the _Storozhevoi_, the latter ofwhich we had seen go down a few minutes before as a result of injuriesinflicted upon her by our 12-pounder, the shell from which had not onlyblown a great rent in her bottom, as it burst, but the fragments ofwhich had pierced two of her boilers.
It was evident that we had made a capture of considerable importance, Itherefore proceeded on board the prize, with an armed reinforcement, andafter going carefully into the matter with Hiraoka, arranged with him totake the _Vashka_ to the Elliots, in charge of a prize crew, there toact according to the Admiral's orders.
This matter arranged, I returned to the _Kasanumi_, and we resumed ourvoyage while the prize headed away south-west, on her way round to theElliot Islands. We now had leisure to look into the extent of our owninjuries. These, it proved, were by no means so serious as might havebeen expected, having regard to the fierceness and closeness of thefight. Our casualties amounted to two killed and five wound
ed, one ofthem seriously; while the top of the aftermost of our midship pair offunnels had been blown away, the rail of the navigating bridge smashedand doubled up in a most astonishing way, the pilot-house roof torn off,our topsides pierced in no less than five places, and a very prettygeneral average made of my cabin, in which a shell had evidently burst.Luckily, none of these injuries seriously affected the craft's safety,while most of them could be at least temporarily patched-up in a fewhours; also, very luckily, all the navigating instruments, thechronometer, my sextant, the nautical almanac, and my book oflogarithmic and other tables had almost miraculously escaped all injury.
We steamed into Kinchau Bay, with all lights out, about an hour laterthan I had arranged for, but still in sufficient time for the work whichlay before me; and when we arrived off the cove where I had previouslylanded, our largest boat was lowered, the buoys or rafts which I hadcaused to be prepared were placed in her, each having attached to it avery light chain of just sufficient length to securely moor it with theaid of a good grapnel; and, accompanied by two men, I then jumped in,and we pulled ashore, while the _Kasanumi_ turned tail and steamed offto sea again at full speed, so as to be out of sight from the shorebefore dawn.
Arrived in the cove, we secured our boat, and then settled down ascomfortably as was possible to await the dawn. It came at last, and, asI had expected, there very shortly afterwards arrived some fortyManchurian fishermen from a little village, about half a mile distant.At first they were somewhat alarmed to find the cove, and their boats,apparently in possession of Japanese men-o'-war's-men; but I had takenthe precaution to ensure that one of my men should be capable of playingthe part of interpreter; and before long I was able not only to reassurethem but also, by a judicious admixture of cajolery and threats, tosecure their assistance in the completion of my scheme. Money appealsto the Manchurian fisherman just as powerfully as it does to most otherpeople, more powerfully than it does to many, for he sees so little ofit; consequently when I intimated that I was prepared to pay themagnificent sum of ten yen for a few hours' use of one of their boats,with a crew of four men, the whole crowd came tumbling over one anotherin their eagerness to secure the prize. I chose the boat most suitablefor my purpose, transferred my rafts and gear to her, leaving our ownboat in charge of a man who undertook to guard her with his life for thesum of one yen; and then, in company with the other boats, which weregoing fishing in the bay, we shoved off and pulled out of the cove. Bya stroke of the greatest good fortune, the day was beautifully fine andclear, so that I was able without the slightest difficulty to get everyone of my bearings with the most absolute accuracy, and to place myseveral buoys on the prearranged spots with perfect precision. The workwas successfully and most satisfactorily accomplished shortly beforenoon; and now all that remained to be done was to affix the differentcoloured flags to the buoys. But that part would have to be deferreduntil our ships should actually come into action; otherwise oursharp-sighted enemies might prematurely catch sight of them, and,guessing their purpose, destroy them.