CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
THE FLOATING MINE.
It is a true saying, that "the pitcher which goes too often to the wellgets broken at last;" and thus it came about with me, or rather with the_Kasanumi_.
As the days passed, we became aware of greatly increased activity on thepart of the garrison of Port Arthur. Cruising in the offing during thedaytime, well beyond the range of the Russian's biggest guns, yet nearenough at hand to make sure that our blockade of the port was effective,the sound of violent explosions came floating off to us all day long,telling us in unmistakable language that strenuous efforts were beingmade to clear the channel of the sunken steamers wherewith we hadblocked it, at such heavy cost to ourselves. There could be but onereason for such tremendous activity: it was doubtless that the enemy hadit in contemplation to send his fleet to sea, probably with the objectof finding a more secure shelter in the port of Vladivostock, a surmisewhich was confirmed by our spies in Port Arthur.
If still further confirmation of this intention were needed, it was tobe found in the increased efforts which the Russians put forth to hamperour mine-laying operations in the roadstead; for about this time itbecame the practice of the enemy to send out a ship, sometimes two, oreven three, to lie at anchor in the roads all night. The ship, orships, always anchored well under the cover of the heaviest guns of thefortress, yet so far out that her, or their, own heavy guns completelycommanded the waters of the roadstead, thus tremendously increasing thedifficulty of sowing those waters with mines.
Naturally, the presence of these ships in the roadstead offered analmost irresistible temptation to our destroyers to essay the task ofsinking them, or at least putting them out of action; and this desire onour part was smiled upon by Togo, to put the case mildly, forinformation was now continually reaching us to the effect that theformidable Baltic fleet was being rapidly prepared for sea, and that itsdeparture on its long voyage to the Far East was imminent; while Togowas naturally anxious that the Port Arthur fleet--and the Vladivostockfleet also, if possible--should be effectually disposed of before thearrival of so powerful a reinforcement in Japanese waters. Therefore,great as was the risk attending the attack of a powerfully armed ship atanchor under the cover of several formidable forts, and careful as ourAdmiral was, both of his ships and of his men, no attempt was made todiscourage us of the torpedo flotilla when our desire to attack was madeknown; on the contrary, the desire was smiled upon, as I have said, andnothing more than a word of caution was given against the incurring ofunnecessary risks.
Perhaps I ought to explain precisely what I mean by saying that thedesire of the commander of the torpedo flotilla to attack these shipswas "smiled upon" by the Admiral. He had not only "smiled upon" but hadgiven imperative orders that the torpedo fleet was to be employed uponevery possible occasion for the harassing and discomfiture of the enemy;but hitherto the tactics employed had been for the destroyers andtorpedo-boats to attack in numbers, a division or even two or threedivisions being sent in at a time. It was due to my initiative thatthese tactics were now to be altered, and that attacks were now to bepermitted by as few as two boats only. Up to now it had been ourregular practice for a large number of craft to creep in toward theroadstead at a low speed until discovered by the enemy's searchlights,and then dash in upon the foe at our utmost speed, through a hail ofshells, discharge our torpedoes as we circled round our quarry, and thendash out again, trusting to our speed to carry us back into the zone ofsafety. Of course this plan had its advantages, inasmuch as that themore there were of us, the greater--in theory--the chance that some ofus would score a hit. But against this there was the fact that duringthe final rush of the torpedo craft upon the enemy, the necessity tomaintain our highest speed throughout the entire period of the attackinvolved forced draught, and consequently flaming funnels, which latterof course immediately attracted the attention of the enemy and nullifiedall our efforts to take him by surprise.
Now, I had by this time gained a considerable amount of experience oftorpedo warfare, and I had not failed to observe that in the majority ofcases where our attacks had failed, the failure had been due to theabove cause, combined with the fact that ten or a dozen craft ran a muchgreater risk of being picked up by the enemy's searchlights than wouldone or two. It had therefore seemed to me that, taking everything intoconsideration, the prospects of successful attack by two craft--one tosupport and assist the other in case of need--were as good as those of adozen craft, while the risk would be very much less, provided that theattack were made coolly and circumspectly in accordance with a planwhich I had worked out. This plan was, in brief, to run for the harbourat normal speed until we were practically within effective range, andthen, instead of dashing in at full speed, to stop our engines--thethrob of which was loud enough to be heard at a considerable distance ona quiet night--and head directly for our quarry, discharging ourtorpedoes when the momentum or "way" of the boat had carried her as faras she would go, trusting to the subsequent confusion to enable us toescape unscathed. I had fully explained this view of mine to theAdmiral, and had obtained his sanction to put my plan to the test.Accordingly, on a certain night toward the middle of June, after theRussians had been let severely alone for some forty-eight hours, the_Kasanumi_, accompanied by the _Akaisuki_, my friend Ito's ship, leftthe rest of the blockaders, with the object of putting my theory intopractice.
It was a splendid night for our purpose; there was a breathless calm,the water was smooth as oil, and although there was certainly a moon,she was in her last quarter, and did not rise until close upon oneo'clock in the morning. Moreover, the sky was overcast by a great sheetof dappled cloud through which only a solitary star here and therepeeped faintly; it was consequently dark enough to afford us areasonable chance of getting within striking distance of our quarryundetected.
When the Russians sent their ships out of harbour to lie all night inthe roadstead, as they did pretty frequently now, it was their custom toget them out early in the afternoon, after their destroyers hadcarefully swept the anchorage in search of mines; and it was my hopethat--we having left them alone for the preceding two days--they wouldby this time be getting suspicious of such unwonted inactivity on ourpart, and consequently would send out one, or perhaps even two ships, toguard against a possible _coup_ on our part.
Our mine-laying craft very rarely got to work before one or two o'clockin the morning, that being the hour when human vigilance is popularlysupposed to be least active; I therefore planned to arrive in theroadstead about midnight, hoping that I should then catch the enemy offhis guard, snatching a rest in preparation for the moment when ouractivities usually began.
Now, the thing which we had most to fear was a long-distance searchlightestablished in a station on Golden Hill, at a height of some two hundredfeet above the sea-level. This searchlight was generally turned on atdusk, and was kept unceasingly playing upon the anchorage and itsadjacent waters all through the night. It commanded the entireroadstead, from a point three miles east of the harbour's mouth, rightround to the south and west as far as the Pinnacle Rock; and thedifficulty was how to avoid being picked up by it before we haddelivered our attack. But by this time I knew the seaward surroundingsof Port Arthur almost by heart. I knew, for instance--and this was mostimportant--that the searchlight station was placed so far back from theedge of the crumbling cliff that the water immediately at the foot ofthe latter, and for a distance of perhaps a hundred yards to seaward,could not be reached by the beam of the light, and was thereforeenveloped in darkness, rendered all the deeper and more opaque by thedazzling brilliance of the light; and I also knew that along the outeredge of this patch of darkness there was a sufficient depth of water tofloat a destroyer, even at dead low water. My plan, therefore, was tomake a wide sweep to seaward upon leaving the blockading squadron,gradually turning east and north, and thus eventually to get into TakheBay, some five miles east of Port Arthur anchorage, and from thencecreep along the shore to the westward, keeping as clo
se in as the depthof water would permit. There was only one difficulty about this, whichwas that at a certain point not far from where the searchlight stationstood, there was a gap in the line of cliff where the ground slopedsteeply down to the water's edge for a short distance, and here ofcourse the beam of the light had uninterrupted play right up to thebeach; but I believed I could overcome this difficulty by simplywatching my opportunity and slipping past the gap when the searchlightwas not playing upon it.
All went well with us until about seven bells in the first watch(half-past eleven o'clock) when a great bank of fog, for which thoseseas are notorious, came driving in from the south-west, and in a momentwe were enveloped in a cloud so thick that, standing upon the bridge, Icould scarcely distinguish our aftermost funnel, and could not see ourtaffrail at all. We were then about three miles from the shore, withthe indentation of Takhe Bay straight ahead of us, and near enough theanchorage for a man on our signal yard to make out--before the fogenveloped us, of course--that there were two ships at anchor in theroadstead, one, a five-funnelled craft which I knew could only be the_Askold_, while the other, showing four funnels, I gathered from hisdescription must be the armoured cruiser _Bayan_. The searchlight hadof course been in action ever since we had made the land, and as itsbeam swept slowly over the ships it had revealed enough of their detailsto enable us to easily identify them.
It was most exasperating that the fog should have swept down upon usjust when it did. Had it come an hour, or even half an hour, later, Iwould have welcomed it, for we should then have had time to get upwithin striking distance of the ships and, under cover of the fog, couldhave approached them closely enough to have made sure of both, whilenow! Well, it was useless to cry over what could not be helped; theonly thing to do was to make the best of things as they were, and tohope that the fog might yet prove a friend in disguise, after all.
Fortunately, as the fog came sweeping up to us, I had the presence ofmind to hail the man on the yard--who was at that moment describing theships he saw riding at anchor in the roads--asking him to tell meexactly how they bore from us. His reply was:
"They are square abeam, honourable Captain."
I immediately put my head in through the window of the wheelhouse anddemanded of the helmsman how we were at that moment heading. Heanswered that we were then steering north forty degrees west, bycompass.
"Then," said I, "alter the course at once to west forty degrees south.That," I added, addressing young Hiraoka, who was standing beside me,"ought to take us to them, or near enough to enable us to sight them.Kindly go aft, Mr Hiraoka, and hail the _Akatsuki_, telling her of ourshift of helm."
The youngster ran aft to do my bidding, the fog at that moment being sothick that it was impossible to see one's hand before one's face, eventhe beam of the distant searchlight being so effectually obscured thatit might have been extinguished for all that we knew to the contrary. Ihad rung down for our engines to stop, so that we might not run awayfrom the _Akatsuki_, after shifting our helm, without informing her ofthe alteration in our course, and everything was now so still that I hadno difficulty in distinguishing young Hiraoka's hail, and the reply fromthe other destroyer, breaking through the soft swish and lap of waterunder our bows. It was the _Akatsuki's_ lieutenant who was answeringour hail, and he had just acknowledged the intimation of our alteredcourse, and was ordering his own helmsman to make a like change, when,without the slightest warning, I experienced a terrific shock which feltexactly as though the ship had been smitten a savage blow from below bya giant hammer. So violent was it that I was flung high in the air andover the rail of the bridge on to the steel turtle-back deck beneath,upon which I landed head-first with such violence that I immediatelylost consciousness. But before that happened I was sensible of twothings; one of them being a blinding flash of flame, coincident with theshock, in which our bows, for a length of some ten or twelve feet,seemed to crumple up and fly to pieces, while the other was that, as Iwas tossed high in the air, I sustained a violent blow on the chest fromsome heavy object which seemed to sear my flesh like white-hot iron.Then down I came upon my head, and knew no more.
My first sensation, upon coming to myself, was that of a violent achingall over my body, as though every bone in it had been broken. But theaching of my head was even worse than that of my body, while as for mychest, it smarted and throbbed as though the blade of a burning kniferested upon it. I next became aware that I was in bed; and finally,opening my eyes, I saw that I was the occupant of one of many beds in alarge, airy room which somehow seemed familiar to me, and which Ipresently identified as the ward which I had once before occupied in thehospital at our base among the Elliot Islands.
It was broad daylight, and the sun was shining brilliantly into the roomthrough the widely opened windows, which admitted a gentle, refreshingbreeze, pleasantly charged with ozone. Two dainty little women nurseswere doing something at a table at the far end of the room, whichhappened to come within the range of my vision, and presently I heardthe gentle splash of water in that direction, which immediately broughthome to me the consciousness that my mouth and throat were parched. Iopened my mouth to call to the nurses that I was thirsty, but it wasonly the very faintest of whispers that escaped my smarting lips. Itwas enough, however, to immediately produce a gentle rustle on the otherside of my bed, and the next moment a pretty face was bending over meand a pair of soft, dark, almond-shaped eyes were gazing sympatheticallyinto mine.
"Ah!" exclaimed the owner of those eyes, "at last the illustriousCaptain is himself again. Are you suffering very acutely, noble sir?"
"Suffering?" I whispered. "_Rather_! I ache as if I had been beatento a jelly, and I am as thirsty as a--as a limekiln. Can you by anychance get me something to drink? A bucketful will do to start with."
"A bucketful!" she murmured, looking anxiously down at me as she laidher long, slender, pointed fingers upon the pulse of my left hand whereit rested outside the coverlet. "But no," she continued, evidentlyspeaking to herself, "his pulse is almost normal, and there is no traceof fever. A bucketful! Oh, these English!"
She shook her head, as though giving up some problem that she found toodifficult for solution, and shuffled off, with the curious gait peculiarto Japanese women, without saying another word to me. She approachedthe other two nurses, at the far end of the ward, and said somethingwhich caused them both to turn and stare in my direction. Then thesenior of the party, accompanied by the girl whom I had so tremendouslyastonished, came up to my bedside, looked at me, felt my pulse, andshuffled away again, presently returning with one of those cups with aspout, from which one can drink while in a recumbent position. Sheplaced the point of the spout between my lips, and the next moment I wasaware that I was imbibing some delicious broth. But the cup! It wasonly about the size of an ordinary breakfast cup, and its contents weregone before I could well taste them. I asked for more, and got a secondcupful; and then, as I was asking for still more, the Medical Staff ofthe hospital entered the ward, and the whole crowd turned with oneaccord and grouped itself around my bed.
The Chief, a keen, clever-looking little fellow, whose age it wasimpossible to guess at since he was clean shaven, turned to the nursewho was feeding me, and sharply demanded what it was that she wasadministering. She explained, adding in all seriousness the informationthat I had demanded a bucketful, whereupon he turned and regarded mewith upraised eyebrows, and laid his fingers upon my wrist.
"So you are suffering from extreme thirst, Captain, eh?" he demanded.
I nodded emphatically.
"Ah!" he said, "yes; that was only to be expected. Well--" He turned tothe head nurse and gave her certain instructions in so low a tone ofvoice that I could not catch what he said. Then, drawing a notebookfrom his pocket, he very carefully and with much consideration wrotewhat I imagined to be a prescription, tore out the leaf, and handed itto the nurse, with instructions to have it made up. Then, turning againto me, he inquired how I felt. I described m
y symptoms as well as Icould, wondering all the while how it was that I was only able to speakin the merest whisper.
The members of the staff, including the Head himself, could not havelistened with more rapt attention, had I been communicating to them someitem of intelligence of the most tremendous import; and when I hadfinished, the Head drew away from my bed to the far end of the room,where for some minutes he appeared to be delivering a lecture to themembers of his staff, who had followed him. Then, the lecture beingfinished, they all came back to the side of my bed, and one of thenurses having carefully folded back the covering as low as my waist, theHead proceeded to deftly loosen the fastenings of an enormous bandagewhich I now discovered enveloped my chest. This done, I was verytenderly raised to a sitting posture--an operation which gave meexcruciating pain, by the way--and the endless turns of the bandage weredeftly unwound, one of the nurses seating herself upon the bed andsupporting me meanwhile. When at length the bandage was removed,several broad strips of dressing were disclosed, which, upon removal,revealed a ghastly great jagged wound stretching right across my chest,the edges of which had been very neatly drawn together by a number ofstitches. Then, for the first time, I remembered the violent blow onthe chest which I had received when the bows of the _Kasanumi_ weredestroyed. The wound was intently examined by the entire staff,pronounced to be healing most satisfactorily, and then, after beingthoroughly sponged with warm water, was re-dressed, and a fresh bandageapplied. Meanwhile, I had made the discovery that my head also wasenveloped in bandages, and when I asked why, was informed that I hadreceived a scalp wound, which, however, was of no serious consequence.When this also had been re-dressed, the entire operation occupying thebest part of half an hour, I felt considerably easier, although muchexhausted. While the wound in my chest was being dressed, I had seizedthe opportunity to look round the ward, and saw that several of the bedswere occupied, one of the patients, who appeared to be suffering from abroken arm, being a man whom I appeared to know. As I sat staring athim he turned his head and our eyes met, whereupon, to my amazement, upwent his uninjured hand to the salute.
"Who is that man?" I demanded. "I seem to recognise his face."
"You do?" remarked the Chief. "Ah! no wonder. He is one of thesurvivors of the disaster by which you so nearly lost your honourablelife. He was one of the crew of the _Kasanumi_."
"One of the crew of the _Kasanumi_!" I repeated. "Of course; Iremember now. How come he and I to be here?"
"You were both, with the rest of the crew of your ship, rescued by the_Akatsuki_, which ship was happily at hand when the disaster occurred,"replied the Chief.
"Ah, yes, the disaster!" I remarked. "Yes, I am beginning to rememberall about it now. What was the nature of the disaster, doctor? Wasthat ever ascertained?"
"According to your friend, Captain Ito, who brought you here, there isno doubt that your ship struck a mine," was the reply. "Of course shewent down, though not so quickly but that the entire crew were saved,together with most of their personal effects. There was time, indeed,to save most, if not all, of your belongings, Captain, and they are nowhere, awaiting your convalescence."
"Thank you," I said. "And, pray, when did the disaster occur?"
"Just a week ago, last night," was the reply.
"A week ago!" I exclaimed in consternation. "Then, have I lain hereall that time, unconscious?"
"You certainly have," replied the Chief. "Now, however, that you arehappily conscious once more, we must do our utmost to keep you so, andto assist your recovery. Therefore, no more conversation, if youplease, until I give you permission. What you now have to do is toremain perfectly quiet and free from all excitement, pleasurable orotherwise. Rest, sleep, take such food and such medicines as I shallorder for you, and recover strength as rapidly as possible. Then, whenyou are sufficiently well to receive visitors, I will permit a few ofthe many who are now eager to see you, to do so. No, not another word!"
And therewith the little fellow and his staff turned away and proceededto overhaul the rest of the patients.
The nurse whom I had at first seen upon recovering consciousnessappeared to have been specially told off to look after me, for upon thedeparture of the staff she came and knelt by my bedside, as is theirfashion, instead of sitting.
She was just within the range of my vision, as I lay, and I suppose Imust have stared at her pretty intently for some time, for presently Isaw her colour rising, which at once brought me to my bearings.Thinking to put her at her ease, I said to her:
"Nurse, what is your name?"
She coloured still more, and after regarding me steadfastly for amoment, answered:
"My contemptible and insignificant name, illustrious Captain, isPeach-blossom."
"Peach-blossom!" I repeated. "And a very appropriate name, too, byJove! See here, Peach-blossom. The Chief Surgeon seems to haveforgotten that I said I was thirsty. Do you think you could find mesomething to drink? Two or three tumblers of cold water, now, eh? Ihave an idea that they would taste particularly good."
"I will speak to the Chief, noble Captain, and if he consents I willhonourably let you have it," she replied.
The Chief evidently consented, and a few minutes later I was quenchingmy thirst with the most delicious draught I had ever tasted. It wasonly pure, cold water, but as I slowly imbibed it I told myself that atlast I really understood the full meaning of the term, "nectar."
Well, there is no need for me to dwell at length upon my sojourn in thehospital. I was given to understand that I was making a splendidrecovery, yet although I was brought back to the Elliot Islands andadmitted to the hospital on the morning of 20th June, it was not untilnearly three weeks had passed that I was permitted to receive visitors,the first of whom was that fine fellow Ito, to whom I owed my life.
I shall not readily forget the little chap's delight when, upon enteringthe ward, he discovered me sitting up in bed, reading, propped up bycushions and a bed-rest. He sprang forward, his eyes fairly snappingwith pleasure and excitement, and seizing my welcoming hand, shook itwith such energy that good little Peach-Blossom felt constrained tospring hastily to her feet and rescue me from his too strenuousdemonstrations of joy. At her vigorous remonstrances, however, hedropped my hand as though it had burnt him and, sinking into a chair bymy bedside, proceeded to apologise with almost abject contrition, andwould not be comforted until I had assured him, not quite truthfully, Iam afraid, that he had not hurt me. Then, in answer to my questions, heproceeded to tell me what he knew of the matter.
It appeared that at the moment when the explosion occurred, the_Akatsuki_ was so close to the _Kasanumi_ that the two craft were allbut touching each other, although, from the _Kasanumi's_ bridge, where Iwas then standing, I could not see the other destroyer. It alsoappeared that at the moment when I ordered the course of the _Kasanumi_to be altered, the _Akatsuki_ was close astern of us, and broad on ourport quarter, the consequence being that the shifting of our helmcarried us so close athwart her bows that she all but touched us whencrossing our stern. It was at this moment that the explosion occurred;and Ito, instantly divining what had happened, at once manoeuvred hiscraft in such a fashion as to lay her alongside the fast-sinking_Kasanumi_, so that the crew of the latter were able to transferthemselves directly from one ship to the other without using boats.Meanwhile, the helmsman and signalmen on the _Kasanumi's_ bridge hadseen me tossed over the rail by the force of the explosion, and,although themselves severely shaken, had instantly flung themselves downupon the turtle-back, where they found me lying bleeding and insensible.To pick me up and carry me aft was the next thing to be done, for theyrealised at once that their own ship was sinking, and they did it,transferring my senseless body to the _Akatsuki_ the moment that she gotalongside. I was at once taken below and temporarily patched-up, whilethe crew of the _Kasanumi_ were being transferred, together with such oftheir belongings as they were able to save, my cabin steward with theutmost devotion concentrating all his
efforts upon saving the mostvaluable of my belongings, regardless of the loss of his own.
It was at first thought that possibly the _Kasanumi_ might be saved, andIto did his utmost in that direction, working for more than half an hourupon the stricken craft. But the damage was too serious, and despitecollision mats and pumps the craft continued to settle until at length,recognising that all efforts were useless, he ordered all hands aboardhis own ship, and cast off, the _Kasanumi_ foundering almost before the_Akatsuki_ could back off clear of her.
Ito made no attempt to attack the ships in Port Arthur roadssingle-handed, but at once shaped a course for the Elliot Islands,running clear of the fog half an hour later. Arrived at our base, helost no time in having me conveyed ashore to the hospital, where, asalready recorded, I lay for a week in a state of alternating deliriumand coma before I recovered my senses.
The doctors assured me that I was making a splendid recovery; yet tomyself my progress appeared to be horribly slow, and it was certainlynot accelerated by the knowledge that while I was lying there helpless,big events were happening which had all the appearance of leading up tostill bigger events in the near future. For instance, there was thesecond sortie of the Russian squadron from Vladivostock, in the middleof June, lasting over a fortnight, during which it inflicted great lossand damage upon the Japanese. It was a most risky thing to do, and mustcertainly have resulted in disaster had not poor, unhappy AdmiralKamimura been morally chained down, and prevented from taking effectivemeasures against the raiders, by a stringent order that he was to holdthe Strait of Korea at all costs. Yet, such is human inconsistency,notwithstanding the above stringent order, which bound the unfortunateadmiral hand and foot, and effectually precluded his pursuit of theraiding ships, he was so severely blamed by "the man in the street" forthe damage done that a mob actually attacked and wrecked his house!This, of course, was most unjust and cruel treatment of a thoroughlycapable and zealous man who, hampered though he was, did all he could tobring the raiders to book, and indeed, but for a sudden change ofweather at a critical moment, would probably have brought them to actionand given them a severe punishing.
Then, there was the abortive sortie of the Port Arthur fleet, three daysafter the destruction of the _Kasanumi_. True, the ships were only atsea for about twenty-four hours, and did nothing, narrowly escapingcapture only by Togo's over-eagerness to engage them, thus discoveringhimself to the Russians in time to allow the latter to make good theirretreat back to Port Arthur; but, all the same, I felt that I was losingmuch in not being present. To me it seemed that our plucky littleAdmiral had missed a splendid chance over this last event; for we didthe enemy no perceptible damage, and only succeeded in driving him backto his lair. As a matter of fact the only injury sustained by theRussians was that which happened to the battleship _Sevastopol_, whichstruck one of our mines as she was returning to Port Arthur anchorage,and was only got into the harbour with the utmost difficulty.