CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
I GO ASHORE.
An hour before midnight, launching our own boat, my crew and I pushedout of the cove into Kinchau Bay, in readiness to board the _Kasanumi_immediately upon her arrival from the offing.
Toward the close of the afternoon the weather had undergone a change,becoming overcast and hazy, with a drizzling rain.
The wind, too, had shifted, and, as we pushed out of the cove, wasblowing fresh from the westward, knocking up a short, choppy sea thatthreatened soon to become dangerous to such a small boat as ours.Luckily for us, however, Hiraoka was a bit ahead of time that night, thebarometer having warned him that bad weather was brewing, with theresult that in little more than half an hour after leaving the cove wemade out the dark form of the destroyer, hove-to and waiting for us,within fifty fathoms of our boat. And now it was that I had practicalexperience of the value of a suitable colouring as an aid toconcealment; for although the _Kasanumi_ had been where we found her fora full quarter of an hour, and although we had been keeping a sharplookout for her, she remained invisible until we were close aboard ofher, thanks to the peculiar shade of grey with which I had caused her tobe painted. We scrambled aboard gladly enough, hoisted the boat to thedavits, and at once started back for our rendezvous at the Elliot group,where we arrived without adventure shortly after sunrise on thefollowing morning.
When, a little later, I went aboard the flagship to report myself andthe result of my expedition to the Admiral, I learned that I had onlygot back just in the nick of time, for at last a communication had beenreceived from General Oku, announcing that his preparations were nowcomplete, and the squadron detached to assist him was under orders toleave for Kinchau Bay that very night. This squadron consisted of the_Tsukushi_, a light cruiser, armed with two 10-inch and four 47-inchguns, and the old ironclad _Hei-yen_, once belonging to the Chinesenavy, but captured by the Japanese at the first battle of the Yalu. Shemounted one 10-inch Krupp which had formed part of her originalarmament, and two 6-inch modern guns. Also the _Akagi_, anothersurvivor of the Yalu battle, armed with four 47-inch guns; and the_Chokai_, carrying one 8-2-inch and one 47-inch gun. These were thecraft destined to bombard the Nanshan Heights from the sea while theJapanese infantry and artillery attacked them from the land side; andthey were the only craft we had at the time at all suitable for thepurpose, while even they were incapable of rendering such efficient helpas might have been desired, the fact being that the shallow waters ofKinchau Bay compelled them to keep at so great a distance from the shorethat they could only use their guns at extreme ranges. Accompanyingthese four ships was a flotilla consisting of ten torpedo-boats under mycommand, their duty being to lend a hand generally in any manner thatmight be required.
There was just comfortable time for us to re-bunker the _Kasanumi_before six o'clock, at which hour we got under way, the expedition as awhole being under the command of Rear-Admiral Misamichi, who knew thelocality well, having carefully reconnoitred the whole of the westerncoast of the peninsula a week or two earlier. I had by this timecompleted all my calculations, laid down upon the chart the positions ofmy series of buoys, and indicated in figures the exact measurements inyards from the lines which they marked to a number of points ashore, anda copy of this chart had been handed to each captain; they weretherefore now in a position to steam in and open fire forthwith, withthe absolute certainty of landing their shots upon the spots aimed at.
We were rather a slow-going lot, our speed of course being regulated bythat of the slowest craft of the bunch, which happened to be the old_Hei-yen_; and our progress was further impeded by the circumstancethat, upon rounding Liao-ti-shan promontory we ran into a westerlybreeze and sea that flung our torpedo-boats about like corks andnecessitated our slowing down to a speed of about eight knots; inconsequence of which it was late the next night when we arrived and cameto an anchor well out in deep water.
And now arose a little difficulty. We started to communicate bywireless to General Oku the fact of our arrival in the bay, by code ofcourse; but such was the Russian keenness and activity that the momenttheir own wireless picked up our message,--as, of course, it was boundto do,--finding that it was in a code which they could not decipher,they immediately proceeded to "mix" it so effectually that the readingof it became impossible. The first word or two, however, reached Oku,and he at once, shrewdly surmising that the message was from us,proceeded to signal us by searchlight, using an adaptation of the MorseCode. The conversation thus carried on was a lengthy one, occupyingmore than an hour, when it suddenly ceased, and almost immediatelyafterward the Admiral signalled me to proceed on board the flagship.This was much more easily said than done, for by this time it wasblowing a moderate gale, and the sea was running so heavily that it wasas much as my boat could do to live in it, while as for gettingalongside the cruiser, that was quite out of the question, and they wereobliged to hoist me aboard in a standing bowline at the end of a whip.
Upon being shown into Admiral Misamichi's cabin, I found its occupantsomewhat ruefully contemplating the rather voluminous communication fromthe shore which he had just received. He welcomed me with muchcordiality, and then passed the document over to me.
"Be so good as to read that, Captain," he said, "and then kindly tell mewhat you make of it. It purports to be General Oku's instructions forto-morrow; but so dense is my stupidity that I am compelled to confessmy inability to understand it."
I read the communication carefully through from beginning to end threetimes, and was then obliged to admit that I had only been able to gleana very hazy, imperfect notion of what the General required. I gatheredthat he desired the squadron to concentrate its fire from time to timeupon certain points, as directed by signal; but the mischief of it wasthat we out there in the bay had no means of identifying the pointsnamed by the General; in other words, he gave them designations of whichwe were completely ignorant. We produced the chart of the place,likewise the map, and studied them both intently, with Oku's messagebeside us, and finally came to the conclusion that it wasincomprehensible. Then the Admiral sent for the captains of the otherships, and they had a shot at it, with a similar result.
At length I said:
"It appears to me, sir, that there is but one thing to be done, namely,for me to go ashore, find General Oku, explain to him our difficulty,and _get_ him to mark on the map the several points mentioned here,"--touching the dispatch. "As you are aware, I have already been ashorehere; I spent a whole day among the hills, reconnoitring the ground andmaking observations. I therefore know the country well, including ourown and the enemy's positions; and probably half an hour's conversationwith the General will enable me to identify the points mentioned in thisdispatch with some of those already marked upon my chart. Thus, forexample, this point, the position of which we are wholly unable toidentify, may be the position which I have marked 1, or 3, or 7, or, infact, anything; but it _must_ be one or other of those which I havenumbered, for I numbered every one of them."
"Yes, yes," agreed the Admiral, "that is all quite comprehensible; and,if you could only get ashore, the matter could very soon be adjusted.But how are you going to get ashore; and--still more difficult--how areyou going to get off again? From what I know of this bay, I am preparedto say that there is a surf breaking on the beach at this moment whichno boat of ours could pass through and live. Listen to the wind, how ithowls through our rigging!"
True! that was a point which had entirely escaped me, in my eagerness.How was I to get ashore? Or rather, how was I to get off again? I waspretty confident of my ability to get ashore, for surf-swimming was afavourite pastime of mine; but as to getting off again--well, I doubtedwhether even my strength was equal to the task of struggling out throughthe long lines of surf which I knew must now be thundering in uponKinchau beach.
The difficulty was finally overcome by the Admiral consenting to myattempting to get ashore, upon condition that I would not attempt toswim off again unless I felt absolutely con
vinced of my ability toaccomplish the feat. If I could not, I was to remain ashore with Oku,helping him in any manner that might suggest itself, but especially bysignalling off to the fleet, from time to time, the numbers of theseveral positions which they would be required to shell.
This matter settled, I made my way back to the _Kasanumi_, and thereprepared for my somewhat hazardous adventure by carefully tying up amarked and figured copy of the map of Kinchau and its surroundings in apiece of thin sheet rubber, to protect it from the wet. Next, Idivested myself of all clothing except a pair of swimming drawers and apair of thin canvas running shoes. Then, tying the map, in its rubbercase, round my neck, I signalled our smallest torpedo-boat to look outfor me and haul me aboard--for by this time the sea was running soheavily that it was impossible to launch a boat; when, having received areply to my signal, I simply dived overboard and swam down to leeward towhere the torpedo-boat lay. Her crew were, of course, keenly on thealert, and as I came driving down toward them, only visible inconsequence of the phosphorescence of the water, they flung me alifebuoy bent on to the end of a line, and so hauled me aboard.
We were anchored at a distance of about four miles from the shore, whichwas, of course, much too great a distance for me to attempt to swim inthe sea that was now running, especially as I should need every ounce ofstrength to fight my way through the long stretch of surf that I knewmust now be breaking all along the shore. I therefore briefly explainedto the skipper of the torpedo-boat the mission upon which I was bound,and what I wished him to do, and then, while he saw to the doing of hispart, I retired to his little cabin, stripped off my wet swimming kit,and gave myself a vigorous towelling to banish the cold of even thebrief swim I had already undertaken. Meanwhile, the boat was got underway and taken in toward Kinchau, with the lead going all the time; andwhen at length she was as near the shore as it was at all prudent forher to approach, she was turned with her head to seaward, and theskipper came down to apprise me of the state of affairs. The boat hadtaken about twenty minutes to feel her way in, and during that time Ihad been assiduously practising gymnastics; I was therefore now not onlydry but also in a pleasant glow of warmth, and quite ready to undertakethe really formidable part of the task that still lay before me.
My swimming kit had meanwhile been taken down into the stokehole, sothat when it was handed to me it was not only nearly dry but, what wasvery much more to the purpose, comfortably warm. Donning it and a finewarm boat cloak, I accompanied the skipper to the deck and walked aft totake a look at the task before me. I found that they had taken the boatin to the very edge of the outer line of the surf, which stretched awayinshore of us, line after line, in an apparently interminable processionof breakers, like lines of infantry rushing forward to the assault,vaguely visible in their pallid phosphorescence against the blackness ofthe starless night. To fight my way to the shore through that wide areaof roaring, leaping, and seething breakers promised to be a task thatwould tax my strength and energy to their utmost limits; but it was acase of necessity, and I had undertaken to do it; therefore, throwingoff the borrowed boat cloak, with a word of farewell to the skipper ofthe boat, I waited for the next oncoming breaker, and dived overboard atthe precise moment when it would catch me up in its mighty arms andsweep me, without effort on my part, a good twenty fathoms toward theshore.
_B-r-r-r_! The water struck icy cold to my warm skin as I plunged deepinto the heart of the great arching mass of water, which caught me justas I was rising to the surface and hurled me shoreward with irresistibleforce, rolling me over and over like a cork as it broke into a long lineof hissing, pallid foam. But I knew exactly what to expect, and wasfully prepared for it. I therefore allowed it to do with me just whatit would, holding my breath and waiting until the breaker had passedahead and spent its force. Then, striking out strongly as I came to thesurface, I swam on toward the next line of breakers, where the samething was repeated, but each time a shade less violently, until atlength, after what seemed like hours, but which, as a matter of fact,could not have been more than about forty minutes of battling with thebreakers, my feet touched ground, and a moment later the last breaker, avery mild and harmless one compared with those in the offing, lifted meup and almost gently deposited me on the beach.
Upon hands and knees I crawled up above watermark and then rose to myfeet to look about, recover my breath, and get my bearings. After thestinging cold of the water, the air felt quite pleasantly warm, but Iknew that I should soon get chilled if I did not keep moving briskly;so, seeing a line of watch-fires about half a mile away, which, fromtheir position, I guessed must be Japanese, I set out toward them at abrisk walking pace, and, the ground being fortunately open in thatdirection, it was but a few minutes before I found myself unexpectedlyhalted, with the point of a Japanese sentry's bayonet gently pressingagainst my breast. Of course I hadn't the countersign; but myappearance, and particularly my unconventional garb, must have convincedhim of the truth of my story that, being unable to get ashore in anyother way, I had swum in from the fleet, with a communication from theAdmiral for General Oku, for he passed me on to the next sentry withouthesitation; and thus in the course of another ten minutes I found myselfin the tent of a certain colonel who not only had heard of me but hadalso seen me and now recognised me. From him I learned that the generalstaff quarters were situated about a mile farther inland, on one of thelower slopes of Mount Sampson, to which he very kindly offered toconduct me. But of course I could not present myself before General Okuin bathing rig, and it was not without difficulty that a suit of clotheswas at length found into which I could get; but it was managed at last,and off we went, the colonel and I, my companion seeming to be greatlyimpressed with my swimming feat. "I wonder," he remarked, "if there is_anything_ that an Englishman would not at least _attempt_ to do!"
Our way led through the Japanese camp, so I had a very good opportunityto observe what the domestic life--if I may so term it--of the Japanesesoldier was at the front; and I was surprised to see how thoroughlyevery possible contingency had been foreseen and provided for, and howmany ingenious little devices had been thought out and included in hiskit with the object of adding to his comfort.
In due time we arrived at headquarters; and late though the hour was,the General and his staff were all not only awake and on the move, butwere holding a sort of council of war, for the purpose of making thefinal arrangements for the morrow. As it happened, my arrival was mostopportune, for the staff were planning the details of an assault thatcould by no possibility be successful without the assistance of thenavy, upon which they were all confidently reckoning, whereas it was myduty to inform them that, unless there came a very quick change ofweather, it would be impossible for our ships to co-operate, and I hadto explain at length why. This caused an immediate change of plan, thegrand assault being provisionally postponed, since there was no prospectwhatever at that moment of a change of weather occurring in time.
I delivered my message and produced my map, explaining the variousmarkings upon it and describing the work upon which I had been engagedduring the past few days; and I was exceedingly gratified to learn thatit would greatly simplify and assist the general's plans.
It was also satisfactory to know that the Japanese had never had theslightest suspicion of what I was doing, which was tantamount to anassurance that the Russians were equally ignorant. It was amazing tosee the facility with which Oku altered his plans. No sooner did heunderstand that the chances were all against the fleet being able tohelp him on the following day than he was ready with an alternativescheme; and in a quarter of an hour he had everything cut-and-dried,every officer present was given clear and concise instructions relativeto his duties on the morrow, and we were all dismissed with a hint toget what rest we might, as the morrow was to be a busy day. GeneralOshima, who was in command of the 3rd Division, constituting theJapanese left, very kindly took me under his wing, and found me sleepingquarters in a tent, the occupants of which happened to be out on dut
y.
Being greatly fatigued after my swim, I slept soundly that night, butwas awakened at dawn by the bugle calls, and turned out to see what theweather was like. To my disgust, and doubtless that of everybody else,it was worse than ever; the sky was overcast and louring, with greatrags of dirty grey scud flying athwart the face of the heavens from thewestward, while the top of Mount Sampson was completely enveloped inmist, which, notwithstanding the gale, clung to the rugged peak and ribsof the mountain very much as the "tablecloth" does to the summit ofTable Mountain. There was no fog down where we were, but, what was evenworse, we were smothered with blinding and suffocating clouds of dust,for it was a dry gale, and all hands were devoutly praying that thelouring sky would dissolve into rain, if only for half an hour, just tolay the dust and so save us from the unpleasantness of being blinded andsuffocated. As for the bay, it was just one continuous sheet of foam,while the breakers leapt and boiled for a space of a full mile from thebeach. A single glance at it was sufficient to make it clear that itwould be impossible for the fleet to co-operate so long as the galelasted, even if the tossing masts and spray-enveloped hulls of our craftin the offing had not told a similar tale. General Oshima and I walkeda couple of miles to the northward along the slopes of Mount Sampson, inorder to get a good view of the bay, clear of the northern spur of theNanshan Heights, just to make assurance doubly sure; but it was scarcelynecessary to point out to him the wildly plunging hulls of our ships tomake him understand the hopelessness of the case, and that once clearlyestablished, we hurried back to Headquarters to make our report.
Oku, however, was not the man to be deterred by weather, or indeedanything else. Finding that the projected assault was impossible forthe moment, he resolved to begin the bombardment with his own guns,doing the best he could with them, unaided, and accompanying thebombardment with what he termed "a demonstration in force," in order tobring out the Russians and compel them to man their defences whileexposed to the fire of our guns. Thus, by a curious combination ofcircumstances, it appeared that at last I was to be afforded theopportunity of seeing what a land battle was like.
Naturally, I volunteered my services in any capacity where I could bemade useful, and the general eagerly closed with my offer. He wasparticularly anxious to obtain the exact range of certain of the Russianpositions without being obliged to fire any trial shots, and he asked meif I could do this for him, seeing that I had already done similar workquite recently; and I told him that I could, and would, with pleasure,if such a thing as a box sextant or an azimuth compass was to be foundin camp. Somewhat to my surprise it turned out, upon inquiry, that nosuch things were to be had. I therefore had recourse to what is knownamong engineers as a "plane table," which I was obliged to extemporise;and with this apparatus, used in conjunction with a carefully measuredline, three hundred yards in length, I was soon able to supply theinformation required. The whole device was, of course, of a veryrough-and-ready description, but I was greatly gratified when the firstshots were fired, to see the shells drop upon the exact spots aimed at.
The task which General Oku had undertaken, and which he must accomplishbefore an advance could be made by him upon Port Arthur, was anexceedingly difficult one. As has already been said, he effected alanding at a point near Yentoa Bay, distant some sixty miles north-eastof Port Arthur as the crow flies. From thence he must needs make hisway to Port Arthur overland, since there was no such thing for him asgetting there by sea. About half-way on his journey occurred theisthmus of Kinchau, which is only about two miles wide, and which hemust traverse on his way. A neck of land two miles wide is no greatmatter to fortify, a fact which the Russians speedily demonstrated. Tomarch along such a narrow strip of land, with sixteen thousand resolutearmed men saying you Nay, would be difficult enough, in all conscience,were that strip of land level; but unhappily for the Japanese it was notso, the Nanshan Heights running through it from north to south, like araised backbone, leaving only a very narrow strip of low ground oneither side of it. Nor was this the only difficulty which the Japanesehad to contend with, for, some three miles north-east of the narrowestpart of the isthmus, towered Mount Sampson, over two thousand feet inheight, commanding the entire neighbourhood and affording an idealposition for the Russian batteries. Then, at the foot of Mount Sampsonlay the walled city of Kinchau, which the Russians had seized andfortified; and, finally, there were the Nanshan Heights, upon the crestof which the Russians had constructed ten forts, armed with seventyguns, several of which were of 8-inch or 6-inch calibre, firing shellsof from two hundred to one hundred pounds weight.
To attempt to pass these several positions while they were in the handsof the Russians would have been simply courting annihilation; the firsttask, therefore, was to capture them. This, so far as Mount Sampson wasconcerned, had been done when I arrived upon the scene; but there stillremained Kinchau and the Nanshan Heights to be taken; and each of thesethreatened to be an even tougher piece of work than the storming ofMount Sampson; for the Russians, after their experience of theextraordinary intrepidity of the Japanese when storming the mountain,had adopted every conceivable means to make the heights impregnable.
First of all, there were the ten forts with their seventy guns liningthe crest of the heights, in addition to which the Russians had twobatteries of quick-fire field artillery and ten machine-guns. Next, infront of the forts, all along the eastern slope of the heights--whichwas the side from which attack was possible--there was row after row ofshelter trenches, solidly roofed with timber covered with earth, toprotect the occupants from artillery fire. Below these again theRussians had dug countless circular pitfalls, about ten feet deep,shaped like drinking cups, with very narrow bottoms, each pit having atits bottom a stout, upright, sharpened stake upon which any haplessperson, falling in, must inevitably be impaled. They were, in fact, anadaptation of the stake pitfalls employed by many African and othernatives to capture and kill big game. These pits were dug so closetogether that, of a party of stormers rushing up the slope, a largeproportion must inevitably fall in, or be unwittingly pushed in by theircomrades. Passages between these pits were purposely left here andthere, but they were all mined, each mine being connected to one of theforts above by an electric cable, so that it could be exploded at anymoment by merely pressing a button. And that moment would of course bewhen the passage-way was crowded with Japanese. And, lastly, at thefoot of the hill there was a great maze of strongly constructed wireentanglements, during the slow passage of which the hapless stormerswould be exposed to a withering rifle and shell fire. Thus the taskwhich the Japanese had to perform was, first to pass through the wireentanglements at the foot of the hill; next, to achieve the passage ofthe staked pits and the mined ground between them--exposed all the time,be it remembered, to a terrific fire from the forts and trenches above;next, to take line after line of trenches; and, finally, to storm theforts on the crest of the heights--a task which, I frankly admit, seemedto me impossible.
I must confess that my first impressions of a land battle weredisappointing. I had expected to see the Japanese march out and stormthe heights under cover of the fire of their own guns. And, as a matterof fact, they did march out, but there was no storming of the heights; Ihad momentarily forgotten that what I was witnessing was merely a"demonstration." I presume it served its purpose, however, for theGeneral and his staff seemed to be perfectly satisfied with the result;and in any case it had the effect intended of compelling the Russians toman their trenches under the fire of the Japanese guns, which, feeblethough they were as compared with those of the enemy, must haveinflicted severe punishment upon the packed masses of infantry whoswarmed into the trenches to repel what they had every reason to supposewas a genuine attack. But the Japanese--closely watched by a Russiancaptive balloon, which was sent up directly our troops were seen to bein motion--having compelled the Russians to turn out and expend aconsiderable quantity of ammunition in comparatively innocuouslong-range shooting, calmly marched back again about t
hree o'clock inthe afternoon, about which time the firing ceased. While it lasted,however, it was hot enough to bring on heavy rain, and the day endedwith a tremendous downpour, which converted the hillsides into a networkof miniature cascades, and must have been exceedingly unpleasant for anyof the Russians whom expediency and watchfulness compelled to remain inthe trenches.
With nightfall the gale increased in fury; but the rain had produced atleast one good result; it had laid the dust most effectually while ithad made but little mud, for the thirsty earth seemed to absorb thewater almost as fast as it fell; also it cooled the air considerably,which was all to the advantage of the Japanese, who would have thestrenuous work of climbing the hill, while it would tend to chill andbenumb the Russians, who would be compelled to remain comparativelyinactive in the sodden trenches. Whether it was this consideration, orthe fact that the barometer was rapidly rising, or a combination ofboth, I cannot say, but about ten o'clock that night the word went roundthat a general attack upon the Russian works was to be made as soon aspossible after midnight.