CHAPTER SIX.
"SEALING UP" PORT ARTHUR.
Our gallant and indefatigable little Admiral seemed to spend all hisspare time in scheming out plans for the discomfiture of the enemy; andabout this time he evolved one which seemed to possess all the elementsof a brilliant success.
Knowing that Russian spies swarmed everywhere, he prepared an elaboratescheme to sow Port Arthur roadstead, in front of the harbour entrance,with electro-mechanical mines, with the ostensible object of preventingthe Russian fleet from coming out. These mines were stated to be of apeculiarly dangerous and deadly character, invented by Captain Odo.With great ingenuity the details of the scheme were permitted togradually leak out, so that in due time they came into the knowledge ofthe Russian spies and were promptly transmitted to Port Arthur. As amatter of fact, however, the mines which were proposed to be, andactually were, sown, were of a very innocuous character, Togo's objectbeing to imbue the Russian mind with the idea that the Japanese mineswere so useless that they might be safely disregarded. Then, when thisobject had been achieved, genuine Odo mines would be sown, withdisastrous results to such Russian ships as might chance to run foul ofthem.
The task of sowing the innocuous mines was entrusted to two divisions ofdestroyers, consisting of five craft; the first division being composedof the _Asashio, Kasanumi_, and _Akatsuki_, while the _Akebono_ and_Sazanami_ constituted the second division. Ito and I had both happilyrecovered from our indisposition by this time, and were able to rejointhe fleet in time to participate in the projected operation. Althoughpromoted to the rank of Commander, I was left in command of the_Kasanumi_; but Ito got a step up the ratlines, being given the commandof the _Akatsuki_, while a youngster named Hiraoka was given me in hisplace.
On 9th March we were busy all day shipping our harmless mines; and ateight o'clock in the evening we weighed and, under easy steam, proceededfrom our base at the Elliot Islands, bound for Port Arthur roadstead,accompanied by the fast cruiser squadron, the duty of which was tosupport us in the event of our being attacked, and cover our escape.
By 11:30 p.m. we were within ten miles of the roadstead; and at thispoint we parted company with the cruisers, who now hove-to for half anhour, to allow us time to reach our destination. At the expiration ofthat time, a light or two were "accidentally" revealed on board thecruisers for a few seconds, just long enough to give the Port Arthurlookouts an opportunity to detect them, when they were extinguished.But the ruse was successful, the attention of the lookouts had beenattracted, and instantly the searchlights from the station on the cliffto the eastward of the harbour were turned upon the cruisers and keptsteadily bearing upon them. They were, of course, so far away that theywere only dimly descried, and too far distant to make it worth while toopen fire upon them, but their movements were--of set purpose--of sosuspicious a character that, having once detected them, the Russianswere determined not to lose sight of them again. The attention of thelookouts having thus been attracted to our cruisers in the offing, we inthe destroyers were able to slip into the roadstead undetected.
Arrived there, we lost no time in sowing our mine-field right athwartthe harbour's mouth, and, had we been so minded, could have finished ourwork and retired before daylight. But to render the Admiral's schemesuccessful, it was necessary that we should be seen, and the nature ofour work recognised; the 2nd Division therefore reserved a few mines tobe dropped after daylight, and when that came they were at oncediscovered dropping mines, in a state of apparently feverish haste. Theforts, of course, at once opened fire upon them; but before they couldget the range, our destroyers launched their remaining mines overboard,and took to their heels, their task being accomplished. And now, allthat remained was to patiently await the course of events, and thus seehow far this part of Togo's plan had been successful.
The game, however, was not yet finished. While we had been busilydropping our mines, what I thought a rather brilliant idea had occurredto me; and, ceasing work for a while, I steamed up alongside the_Akebono_, of our 2nd Division, and imparted my idea to CommanderTsuchiya, who was pleased to very heartily approve of it. In accordancewith my scheme, therefore, the 1st Destroyer Division completed its taskbefore daylight, and quietly steamed off round to the westward ofLiau-ti-shan, where we remained snugly concealed, close in under thecliffs.
My idea was that if our 2nd Division were discovered--as it wasnecessary it should be, the Russians would probably send out a fewdestroyers to attack it; and the event proved that my surmise wascorrect. Six Russian destroyers were dispatched from the harbour,presumably with instructions to wipe the _Akebono_ and _Sazanami_ offthe face of the waters; and as soon as the latter saw the enemyapproaching, on a course intended to cut off their retreat to theeastward, the two boats swerved sharply away to the westward, with theirfunnels belching great clouds of smoke, and every indication that theircrews were in a terrible state of fright--but with their engines workingat only about three-quarter speed. The Russians, stimulated by our 2ndDivision's apparent terror, and finding also that they were steadilygaining upon the chase, strained every nerve to overtake them, and atlength came pounding round the point in great style.
Meanwhile, the two retreating Japanese destroyers had already swept pastus--thus giving us the signal to be on the lookout--and, veering round,in a wide semi-circle, formed up in our rear, we of the 1st Divisionhaving already started our engines as soon as they hove in sight.
On came the Russian destroyers, rolling and pitching on the long swell,with the water spouting and curling under their sharp bows to the heightof their bridges; and the moment that the first of them swung round thepoint, over went the indicators of our engine-room telegraphs to "Fullspeed ahead!" Our gun crews had been standing to their guns for sometime past, all ready for action, and as we swept out to seaward,crossing the Russians' bows, we let fly at them with our twelve-poundersand as many of our six-pounders as could be brought to bear,concentrating our fire as much as possible upon the enemy's guns,several of which we succeeded in dismounting.
I feel bound to admit that, taken by surprise though they were, theRussians put up a splendid fight; but although they were superior to usin numbers, our men would not be denied, they worked their guns ascoolly and with as deadly precision as though they had been at targetpractice, and the Russian boats were hulled again and again, clouds ofsteam arose from them, fires broke out aboard some of them, and soclosely were we engaged that we could occasionally hear the cries of thewounded that arose as our shot swept their decks. The fight, which wasa very hot one, lasted some twenty minutes, by which time the Russianshad managed to get back round the point and under the cover of thebatteries. We followed them to the very mouth of the harbour, fightingevery inch of the way, but, at length, with heavy shells falling allround us, in some cases dropping so close that our decks were drenchedwith spray, it became imperative for us to be off, and we accordinglyported our helms and made off, followed by salvos of shot, big andsmall, until we were out of range.
Then we slowed down our engines and proceeded to take stock of ourinjuries.
So far as the _Kasanumi_ was concerned, we had got off pretty lightly,although there was a period of about three minutes when we were hotlyengaged by two Russian destroyers at the same time. Our decks wererather severely scored by flying fragments of shells, we had threeshot-holes in our hull, we had one man killed and two wounded, one ofthem being our chief engineer, who, although severely wounded by afragment of a shell which burst in the engine-room, gallantly stuck tohis post until the fight was over, when he was able to turn the enginesover to his second. The _Akatsuki_ had received the severestpunishment, one of her steam pipes being severed, and four of herengine-room hands scalded to death. In all, we lost in this fight sevenkilled and eight wounded; but none of the boats was very seriouslydamaged.
Meanwhile, our 2nd Division, consisting of the _Akebono_ and _Sazanami_,had vanished, without leaving a sign of their whereabouts. It was nowdaylight, and the weather
tolerably clear, yet, although Hiraoka and Iswept the whole surface of the sea with our glasses, we entirely failedto pick them up. The _Asashio_ and _Akatsuki_ were within hail, both ofthem engaged, like ourselves, in temporarily patching up the holes intheir thin steel sides, through which the water was pouring in wheneverwe rolled extra heavily; and I hailed them both, inquiring whethereither of them had seen anything of the missing craft. An affirmativereply came from my friend Ito, aboard the _Akatsuki_, who informed methat shortly after the fight began, on the other side of the promontory,he had momentarily caught sight of them both, steaming hot-foot after adestroyer which was in full flight, heading toward Pigeon Bay.
Scarcely had this reply been given when the sounds of light gun-firefaintly reached our ears from the direction mentioned, and a few minuteslater two destroyers, flying the Russian flag, came foaming round thepoint, firing as they came, while close behind them appeared our twomissing boats, also firing for all they were worth. The Russian boatswere running in "line ahead," and it seemed to me that the skipper ofthe leading boat was manoeuvring her in such a manner as to keep hisconsort as nearly as possible between himself and the pursuers; at allevents the sternmost boat seemed to be getting the biggest share of thepursuers' fire.
At once I shouted an order for the men engaged upon our repairs tohasten their work and bring it to some sort of finish, at the same timesigning the quartermaster to put his helm hard over, my intention ofcourse being to go back and render such assistance as might be required,while the _Asashio_ kept on and stood by Ito, who had his hands fullwith his severed steam pipe.
But it was impossible for us now to steam at a greater speed than aboutthree knots, for had we attempted to do so, we should have washedoverboard the men who were making the repairs, as well as washed therepairs themselves away, in their uncompleted state; consequently, longbefore we could get near the scene of action, the fight was over. Oneof the destroyers--the leading one--managed to get safely into theharbour, while the other, which turned out to be the _Stercguschtchi_,riddled with shells, lost speed to such an extent that at length the_Sazanami_ was able to run alongside and throw a boarding party upon herdeck. They found that deck a veritable shambles, no less than thirtydead being counted upon it. Naturally, they took the craft without anyresistance worth mentioning, for there were very few left to resist,while, of those who remained, the greater number jumped overboard ratherthan surrender. Of these, only two were picked up, while two others,too badly wounded to either fight or take to the water, surrendered.
At once the _Sazanami_ took her prize in tow; but the craft was soseriously damaged that, despite all efforts to save her, she rapidlyfilled and sank, the towing hawser parting as she foundered.
Meanwhile the _Akebono_ was in a somewhat parlous condition, for duringthe fight she had been struck on the waterline, and was now limpingalong as best she could, with two compartments filled; when, therefore,the Russian boat foundered, the _Sazanami_ went to her consort'sassistance and took her in tow, for two Russian cruisers, identified asthe _Novik_ and _Bayan_, were now seen to be coming out of Port Arthurharbour, and it was high time for us all to be off. Happily for us, bythe time that the Russian cruisers were fairly out of harbour, five ofour own cruisers had hove up above the horizon, steaming rapidlyshoreward to our support, whereupon the Russians turned tail andretreated.
As our cruisers came up, their flagship signalled us to proceed to ourrendezvous, after ascertaining that we could look after ourselves andneeded no assistance; and shortly afterward we fell in with our mainfleet, under Togo, bound for Pigeon Bay, whither the Admiral wasproceeding for the purpose of testing his theory that the fortress couldbe successfully bombarded by high-angle fire projected over the highland between Pigeon Bay and the town. The signal was made for CommanderTsuchiya and me to proceed on board the _Mikasa_, where we jointly madeour report, with which the Admiral was pleased to express hissatisfaction. He, too, was anxious to know whether we required anyassistance, and finding that we did not, ordered us to proceed to ourrendezvous and get our repairs put in hand without a moment's delay. Wearrived safely at our destination early in the afternoon, and within thenext hour our damaged craft were in the hands of strong repairing gangs,so prompt were the Japanese to act.
The main fleet arrived at the rendezvous shortly before sunset, andanchored. I looked keenly at ship after ship, as they steamed in, butcould detect no signs of injury to any of them; so after dinner I tookour dinghy and rowed across to the _Mikasa_, with several of theofficers of which I was by this time on quite intimate terms. The firstman I happened to run into, however, upon passing in through the gangwaywas Captain Ijichi, commanding the ship; and he, as anxious to hear myyarn as I was to hear his, instantly pounced upon me and marched me offto his own cabin, where we were presently joined by Lieutenant PrinceKasho, for whom Ijichi had sent.
Here I was made to start the proceedings by spinning, at considerablygreater length, the yarn which I had related to the Admiral earlier inthe day, and which I was now able to supplement with the additionalinformation that our 2nd Division had chased the Russian destroyer, ofwhich they had started in pursuit, into Pigeon Bay, where they had sunkher. The honours of the day were of course with them, for they hadaccounted for two Russian destroyers, whereas we of the 1st Division hadonly given five of the enemy a very severe mauling; nevertheless, mylittle audience were good enough to stamp our performance with theirmarked approval.
Then the skipper of the _Mikasa_ related his story. The long-rangebombardment of Port Arthur was not a very exciting affair, it seemed,but it was successful in so far that it proved the correctness of theAdmiral's theory that it could be done by firing over the high groundand dropping shells upon an unseen mark on the other side.
The attempt was of a twofold character, one part of which was to testthe above theory, while the other was to destroy the Russian signalstation upon the island of Sanshan, off Dalny, from which spot the enemywere able to observe and report to Port Arthur the movements of ourfleet. This task was successfully accomplished by a detachment of ourcruisers.
As regards the long-range, high-angle bombardment of the fortress, itwas accomplished in the following fashion. Our battleships proceededround to the westward of the promontory of Liau-ti-shan to a spot wherethe high land hid them from the sight of the Port Arthur batteries, and,elevating the muzzles of their 12-inch guns to the required extent, theydischarged five rounds each from their four guns--one hundred and twentyshots in all, one shot at a time, while our first cruiser squadron,stationed off the port, to the south-east, carefully noted the spotwhere each shell dropped, and reported the result by wireless to thebattleships, thus enabling them to adjust their aim and rectify anyinaccuracies. The result was that one of our shells hit the Golden Hillfort, exploding a magazine and doubtless doing a considerable amount ofdamage to the structure, while the Mantow Hill fort, on the west side ofthe harbour, was hit several times and considerably damaged. Severalshells fell in the New Town of Port Arthur, setting fire to a number ofhouses there and causing a tremendous panic and great loss of life. Thefifth shell fired by our battleships struck the Russian battleship_Retvisan_, while another fell aboard the _Sevastopol_, exploding on herarmoured deck. Yet another of our shells struck a train which happenedto be just entering Port Arthur station, destroying the locomotive and,as we subsequently learned, killing the engine-driver and severelywounding the fireman. Finally, the _Retvisan_ adopted our own tacticsand retaliated by firing her heavy guns over the intervening highground, while some of the forts did the same, a party of signallersbeing stationed on the crest of the hill to direct their aim. As aresult of this, shells at length began to drop near our ships; whereuponthe Admiral, in obedience to his instructions not to risk hisbattleships, hauled off; the fleet, as it went, observing three densecolumns of smoke rising from the city.
Seeing that our ships were retiring, the Russian Admiral led out to seasuch of his ships as were fit for service, with the evi
dent intention ofluring our ships into the zone of fire of the forts; but he might aswell have saved his coal, for Togo was much too wary a bird to be caughtwith that kind of chaff.
On the following day we learned by wireless, from one of our cruiserscouts, that the Russian fleet was being cautiously taken out to seathrough our mine-field off the harbour's mouth, the innocuous characterof which they had already ascertained,--as intended by our Admiral,--and, later on, the further information reached us that the fleet was atsea and carrying out evolutions while cautiously working its waysouthward. Later still, we were informed that the Russians, learningfrom their scouts that none of our ships were in the vicinity, hadproceeded as far as the Miao-tao Islands, off the Shan-tung peninsula,which they subjected to a careful examination, under the impression, aswe subsequently learned, that those islands were being used by ourdestroyers as a hiding-place from which to make our raids. All hands ofus immediately made our preparations to weigh at a moment's notice,fully expecting that the Admiral would seize what seemed such a splendidopportunity to intercept the enemy and give him battle in the open sea.But no orders were issued; and we were given to understand that therewere certain good and sufficient secret reasons why the opportunity mustbe permitted to pass. A great deal of surprise, not to saydissatisfaction, was caused by this strange decision; but discipline wasso strong, and the idea of implicit, unquestioning obedience had been sothoroughly instilled into the Japanese mind, that not a word ofgrumbling passed any of our lips.
On the night of 21st March the tactics of the 9th of the same month wererepeated, including the laying of harmless mines off the mouth of theharbour, and the high-angle bombardment of the fortress by the _Fuji_and _Yashima_ from Pigeon Bay; but the affair was uneventful; it maytherefore be dismissed with the bare mention of it. The Russian shipsagain came out of harbour and ranged themselves in battle formation inthe roadstead, but no wiles of ours could tempt them to leave theprotection of the forts, so we drew off and returned to our rendezvousamong the Elliot Islands.
During the night of 22nd March, four merchant steamers, purchased by theJapanese Government, arrived at our rendezvous from Sasebo, in responseto a request from Togo; and the Admiral, with characteristic energy, atonce proceeded to prepare them for the task of making a second attemptto bottle up the fleet in Port Arthur harbour.
They were the _Fukui Maru, Chiyo Maru, Yoneyama Maru_, and _YahikoMaru_--all old craft, practically worn-out, and of very little value.These ships, like those used in the first attempt, were loaded withstones and scrap iron consolidated into a mass by pouring liquid cementover it, thus converting it into a sort of reinforced concrete,underneath which was buried the explosion charges destined to blow outthe bottoms of the ships and sink them upon their arrival at theirdestined stations.
Hirose, now promoted to the rank of Commander for the gallantry which hedisplayed upon the occasion of the first attempt, was given the commandof the largest ship, the _Fukui Maru_, while, to my intense surprise andgratification, I was given the command of the _Chiyo Maru_, a craft of1746 tons. The expedition was in charge of Commander Arima, who wentwith Hirose. The ships were armed with a few old Hotchkissquick-firers, for use against torpedo craft, should any attack us.
Our preparations were completed late in the afternoon of 26th March; andwe immediately weighed and proceeded to sea, escorted by a flotilla ofdestroyers and torpedo-boats, among which was the _Kasanumi_,temporarily under the command of my subordinate, young Hiraoka, who hadalready proved himself to be a very capable, discreet, and courageouslad.
The weather on this occasion was everything that could be desired,perfectly clear, with no wind and a sea so calm that the veriestcock-boat could have safely ventured upon it. The only drawback wasthat there was a moon, well advanced in her first quarter, floating highin a sky dappled with light, fleecy cloud through which enough lightpercolated to render even small craft distinctly visible on the horizon.But, after all, this would not greatly matter, indeed it would be anadvantage to us, always provided, of course, that we were notprematurely sighted by some keen-visioned, swift-steaming Russian scout;for the moon would set about midnight, while two o'clock in the morningwas the time set for our attempt.
The run to the offing of Port Arthur was like a pleasure trip; our fleetof old crocks pounded along steadily, with a soft, soothing sound ofpurling water rising from under their bows, dominated from time to timeby the clank of our crazy engines, which our mechanics had doctored upas thoroughly as time permitted, in order to ensure that they shouldoutlast the run across. There was nothing for us to do but follow ourleader, so I spent an hour of the time in making sure that our solitaryboat should reach the water with certainty and on a level keel when thetime should come to launch her, taking the turns out of the davittackles, well greasing the falls, oiling the block sheaves, and riggingup a device of my own contriving whereby the necessity to unhook theblocks could be avoided when the boat touched the water.
At eleven o'clock Commander Arima signalled the destroyer flotilla, andfive of the fastest of them at once went full speed ahead, spreading outin a fan-shaped formation ahead of us and on either bow to reconnoitrethe roadstead. At ten minutes to midnight the moon, a great goldenhalf-disc, swimming in a violet sky flecked with great islands of soft,fleecy cloud, touched the high land of Liau-ti-shan; and as she sankbehind it, the order was given to stop our engines and lay-to for ashort while, as we had made a good passage and were somewhat ahead ofour scheduled time; also to await the return and report of thedestroyers. We were now about twelve miles off Port Arthur, and farenough beyond the range of the searchlights to ensure our presence beingundetected.
With the setting of the moon, the clouds seemed to bunch together andacquire a greater density, and it fell very dark, such starlight asfiltered through the canopy of cloud only barely sufficing to enable usto detect our next ship ahead and astern. The land about Port Arthurloomed up in the darkness like a shapeless black shadow, stretched alongthe horizon to the west and north, pierced only by the long beam of thesearchlight on Golden Hill, sweeping slowly to and fro at intervals.Watching this, for want of something better to do, we presently noticedthat, for some reason not explicable to us, the beam never travelledfarther south than a certain point, where it invariably paused for a fewseconds, and then slowly swept round toward the north again.
Wondering whether Arima also had noticed this, I rang our engines aheadfor a revolution or two, and hailed the _Fukui_ to inquire. It appearedthat he had not; and I was in the middle of a suggestion, the observanceof which would, I believed, enable us to get close in, undetected, whenour destroyers came rushing back with the information that everythingwas clear ahead, and that the prospects of success looked exceedinglypromising. Whereupon Arima, hailing me, directed me to take the lead inthe _Chiyo_, steering such a course as seemed desirable, and the restwould follow. Accordingly, we in the _Chiyo_ went ahead, the _Fukui_falling in next astern, and the other two retaining their originalpositions.
We started at a speed of six knots only, to give our stokers a chance toget their boilers into the best possible trim and to raise a good headof steam for the final rush, and as soon as our safety valves began toblow off, we increased the number of our revolutions until, when wearrived within four miles of the harbour's mouth, we were racing in, asthough for a wager. At this point the destroyers stopped their enginesand lay-to. They had done the first part of their work, and must nowwait until we had done ours.
Meanwhile, I had quite made up my mind as to the proper thing to do, andaccordingly shaped a course by which, instead of running straight in,and so crossing the track of the searchlight beam, we edged away to thesouthward and westward, traversing the arc of a circle, and so justkeeping outside the range of the beam. But of course this sort of thingcould not go on indefinitely; to enter the harbour we must, sooner orlater, get within the range of the light; and when we arrived within twomiles of the harbour's mouth further concealment became impossible. Butwe had
done not at all badly, for a ten minutes' rush would now see uswhere we wanted to be, if in the meantime we were not hit and blown outof the water.
As we came within reach of the searchlight, I called down to theengine-room, enjoining those below to give the old packet every ounce ofsteam they could muster; and the engineer responded by calmly screwingdown the safety valves, ignoring the fact that, by doing so, he riskedthe bursting of the boilers. This was no time for caution, and if theworn-out kettles would only stand the strain for another ten minutes,all might be well.
Slowly the searchlight beam came sweeping round toward us, until itrested fully upon us. It swept on for a yard or two, switched back,paused for a few seconds, and then began to wave wildly to and fro,seemingly by way of a signal, while a solitary gunshot pealed out uponthe air. Then the light came back to us, fully revealing the foursteamers making their headlong rush for the harbour entrance.
Following that solitary gunshot there was a tense silence, lasting forperhaps half a minute, while searchlight after searchlight was turnedupon us from the heights and from every ship so placed that they couldbe brought to bear. Then, as though at a preconcerted signal, thebatteries on the heights and two gunboats anchored at the harbourentrance opened fire upon us, and the darkness of the night was stabbedand pierced by jets of flame, while the air became vibrant with the hissand scream of projectiles of every description, which fell all round us,lashing the surface of the sea into innumerable jets of phosphorescentfoam. The crash of the heavy gun-fire, and the sharper crackle of thequick-firers, raised such a terrific din that it quickly becameimpossible to make one's voice heard; but my crew had already receivedtheir orders, and the moment that we got within range they opened asteady fire with our two old Hotchkisses upon the gunboats at theharbour's mouth, while our destroyers, pushing boldly in after us,opened fire upon the searchlights, hoping to destroy them, andendeavouring by every possible device to distract the attention of thegunners and to draw their fire from us. But in this they wereunsuccessful; the Russians at once divined our intention to seal up theharbour, and recognised that it was vastly more important to them tofrustrate our purpose than to waste their fire upon our elusivedestroyers; and I doubt whether a single gun was turned upon them.
On through the tempest of projectiles we rushed, our old and patched-upengines rattling and clanking and groaning as they worked under such apressure of steam as they had not known for many a long day; thestokers, after a final firing-up, came on deck, by order of theengineer, and went upon the topgallant forecastle to assist with theguns; and I took up my station by the wheelhouse to con the ship to herappointed berth, which was immediately under Golden Hill, and about ahundred yards from the shore. One of the two gunboats that wereguarding the entrance was anchored so nearly in our way that I wassorely tempted to give her the stem and sink her where she lay. But Isuccessfully resisted the temptation, for, had we sunk her, she was toofar out to have become an obstruction, while we should probably havesmashed in our own bows and gone to the bottom before arriving at ourstation. As we surged past her, however, within twenty fathoms, wepeppered her smartly with our quick-firers, receiving in return a raggeddischarge from her entire battery, including a shell from her 6-inch gunwhich happily passed through our starboard bulwarks and out through ourport without exploding. Our foretopmast was at this moment shot away,and fell on deck, but hurt no one, our funnel was riddled with shrapnel,and a bridge stanchion, within a foot of where I was standing, was cutin two; but none of us was hurt. The next moment a shell struck ourmainmast and sent it over the side, luckily severing the rotten shroudsand stays also, so that it fell clear and did not foul our propeller. Afew seconds later a shell dropped upon our after-deck and exploded,blowing a jagged circular hole of some twenty feet diameter in it, andsetting the planks on fire; but a few buckets of water promptly appliedsufficed to extinguish the blaze.
Meanwhile we were plugging along in grand style and drawing so near toour destination that I called to the men to cease firing, and for two ofthem to stand by to let go the anchor while the rest came aft and heldthemselves ready to jump into our solitary boat when I gave the word.It was wonderfully exciting work, for as we drew nearer in we came intothe range of fire of other forts and ships, and the air seemed to bethick with missiles, while shrapnel was bursting all round us, and thewater was torn by flying shot to such an extent that our decks werestreaming, and all hands of us were wet through with the thrown-upspray.
At length our appointed berth was so close at hand that I rang down tostop the engines and signed to the helmsman to put his helm hard a-port,while I stationed myself close to the electric button, pressure on whichwould fire the explosives in our hold and blow our bottom out. We werenow so close in under the cliffs that the Golden Hill guns could nolonger reach us, also we were out of range of the great searchlights,consequently we were enshrouded in darkness, yet the forts on the westside of the harbour still maintained their fire upon us; but we were nowlost in the deep shadow of the cliffs, and the shots flew wide.
Half a minute later, I called down the tube to the engineer to send hisengines astern to check our way, and then come on deck; and he was stillascending the engine-room ladder when I shouted to the men forward tolet go the anchor. It fell with a great splash, and as we had snubbedher at a short scope, she quickly brought up in the exact spot destinedfor her.
"Lower away the boat, and tumble in, men," I shouted; and the words werehardly out of my mouth when I heard the murmur of the falls through theblocks, and the splash of the boat as she hit the water. A few muffledejaculations followed as the men slid down the falls, then came therattle of oars as they were thrown out; and finally a voice crying:
"All ready, Captain, we only wait for you."
"Good!" I ejaculated, and rammed down the button. A tremendous joltthat all but flung me off the bridge, accompanied by a not very loudexplosion, followed, the ship trembled as though she had been a sentientthing, and the sound of water, as though pouring through a sluice,reached my ears. Down the ladder I rushed, on to the main deck, seizedone of the davit tackles and slid down into the boat; and as the menreplied to my question that all were present, the bowman thrust the boataway from the sinking steamer's side, and the oars churned up the wateras we pulled away.
"Give way, lively, lads," I cried, as I seized the tiller; "we'll getclose inshore, where nobody can see us, and save our skins in that way.We have happily escaped thus far; and it would be a pity for any of usto get hit now. There goes the old _Chiyo_! she hasn't taken long tosink, bless her! She is worth a lot more where she is, at the bottom ofPort Arthur harbour, than she was when afloat."