CHAPTER EIGHT.
THE PETROPAVLOSK LURED TO HER DOOM.
The explanation of the Russian cruisers' pertinacity was soon made plainto Admiral Dewa by a wireless message which he picked up, addressed tothe captain of the _Novik_, which, decoded, ran thus: "Keep in touchwith enemy but do not attack until I join you. Two battleships and_Askold_ following to support you. Signed Makarov."
Of course I did not know anything about this until afterward, the_Koryu_ not being fitted with a wireless installation; but Dewa at oncemade a code signal to me instructing me to continue my present tactics;and while this was being done his wireless operators were busily engagedin transmitting a code message to Admiral Togo, who was at that momentlurking, enveloped in mist, some thirty miles away, near the Miao-taoIslands, with his whole battle squadron and the new cruisers _Nisshin_and _Kasuga_.
Makarov, however, was evidently ignorant of that fact; the atmosphere inthe neighbourhood of Port Arthur was now quite clear, and to thelookouts on the highest points about the fortress no Japanese ships werevisible, save the cruiser squadron, which was undoubtedly in fullretreat from the pursuing Russian ships, which it was perfectly evidentthey were afraid of. It was the moment and the opportunity for whichthe Russian Admiral had long been pining, the moment when a weakJapanese force, entirely unsupported, lay at his mercy, and now he wouldsmash them!
Accordingly, he hurried aboard the _Petrofiavlosk_ and signalled the_Poltava_ and _Askold_--both of which, like the flagship, had steam up--to weigh at once and proceed to sea. This was done, with marvelloussmartness, considering that the craft were Russian, and presently outthey came, their funnels belching immense volumes of black smoke and thewater leaping and foaming about their bows as they pounded after us attheir utmost speed, which, after all, was only about fourteen knots.
Meanwhile, Dewa, who was bringing up the rear in the _Asama_,--by thespeed of which ship the rest of the squadron regulated theirs,--was verycleverly allowing the Russians to slowly overtake him, while theRussians were straining every nerve to do so, stoking up furiously andwasting their coal in the most reckless manner.
Then came an order from the Admiral to me to increase speed and passahead of the squadron, out of harm's way, as he was about to open fireupon the Russians. Of course there was nothing for it but to obey,which I did forthwith; but when I had got about a mile ahead, Igradually slowed down again; if there was any fun toward, I was notgoing to miss it. Besides, it was just possible that I might be of use,for, following the Russian battleships and cruisers, there was nowcoming up, hand over hand, a crowd of destroyers, against which the_Koryu's_ Hotchkisses might be brought into play.
Admiral Dewa only allowed me just bare time to get ahead of hissquadron, when he made the signal to open fire upon the pursuers withour cruisers' 8-inch turret guns; and the signal, which had been awaitedwith the utmost impatience, was promptly responded to with a steady anddeadly deliberate fire upon the _Bayan_, which was leading the Russianline. Before her officers had time to realise what was happening,shells were hurtling all about her and raining against her bows and uponher deck, punishing her so severely that they had to stop her enginesand allow the rest of the fleet to pass ahead. The Russian fleet, whichhad thus far been coming on in line ahead, now hurriedly formed lineabreast, the two battleships opening fire upon our cruisers with their12-inch guns. Luckily for us, although the water was smooth the Russianaim was bad, and their shells flew over and on either side of us, butnone hit us. Then Dewa, who was far too good a tactician to pit hiscruisers against battleships, gave the order to increase speed, and weran out of range, undamaged.
But only just out of range; for we wanted to draw the Russian ships sofar away from Port Arthur that Admiral Togo might have a chance to comeup, slip in between them and the fortress, cut off their retreat, andforce them to fight. And without a doubt we should have beensuccessful, had not the capricious weather played us a scurvy trick at acritical moment when the Russians were some eighteen miles off the landin a south-easterly direction from Port Arthur. For it was at thismoment that the fog, which had hitherto hidden Togo's approaching fleet,suddenly cleared, revealing to the Russian lookouts on the Liau-ti-shanheights, the Japanese warships, racing up from the south-west.
The approach of the Japanese was instantly frantically signalled to thewireless station, which in turn wirelessed the alarming intelligence tothe Russian Admiral. A few moments' study of the chart revealed toMakarov the precariousness of his situation. If he turned and retreatedat once, he might possibly escape by the skin of his teeth and get backinto harbour before Togo's ships could get up to cut him off, and he didnot hesitate a moment. Up went the signal to retire, over went theRussians' helms, and away they scuttled back toward their lair, evenfaster than they came out, while our cruisers, keenly on the watch forsome such movement, also wheeled sharply in pursuit, keeping up a steadyfire upon the _Bayan_ and the _Novik_, the rearmost ships in the Russianline. Naturally, the _Koryu_ turned when our cruisers did, followingthem up at full speed until we were close in their rear, while Dewa wasfar too busy attending to the pursuit to spare any attention to me andmy doings.
It was at this juncture that the Russian destroyers made a gallanteffort to check our pursuit by distracting our attention from their bigcraft to themselves. Believing that they held an important advantageover us in point of speed, they boldly slowed down, dropped astern, and,in two divisions, made a determined demonstration on our two flanks,repeatedly threatening to make a dash, close in, and use the torpedo.
There was one exceptionally audacious craft, the pertinacity of whichcaused me to take particular notice of her, and keep a speciallywatchful eye upon her, because I speedily came to the conclusion thatshe was doing more than merely demonstrate, she was bent upon mischief.She was making a dead set at the _Asama_, our most valuable ship,getting right to windward of her, and pouring dense volumes of blacksmoke from her four funnels, so forming a screen for herself, undercover of which she was evidently trying to edge in to within effectivetorpedo range. Of course the _Asama_ and one or two of the othercruisers opened fire upon her with their light guns, but we, who hadcrept up to windward, saw that the smoke screen was serving its purposeadmirably, and that although the projectiles were falling all round her,she was not being hit. It occurred to me that now was the time when wein the _Koryu_ might be able to render a little useful service, our owndestroyers having been unfortunately ordered to return to theirrendezvous, some time before, and were now out of sight. Accordingly Igave orders for the gunners to stand by their Hotchkisses, and rang forfull speed, also calling down to the engineer for the very last ounce ofsteam he could get out of his boilers.
Like an arrow shot from a bow, the _Koryu_ started forward and, edgingwell out to windward of the destroyer, opened a brisk fire upon her withour Hotchkisses, aiming at her deck tubes, round which I had seen somemen busily clustering. And it was well that I did so, for the Russianswere in the very act of launching a torpedo at the moment; indeed theyactually _did_ launch it, but by one of those extraordinary flukes thatsometimes happen, and are so difficult to describe convincingly, one ofour shots struck the weapon at the instant that it issued from the tube,wrecking its propeller and rudder and sending it to the bottom.
Evidently the destroyer's crew had been so completely absorbed in theirattempt upon the _Asama_ that they had been oblivious to our approach;but now, seeing us bearing menacingly down upon her, her skippersuddenly shifted his helm and would fain have beaten a retreat. As ithappened, however, we had by this time drawn up abreast and were betweenhim and his friends, so he evidently came to the conclusion that therewas nothing for it but to fight his way out; accordingly he made a dashto cut out across our bows, at the same time turning his whole batteryof guns upon us. I instantly ordered my men to leave their guns and getaway aft, out of the way of the shot, dismissing the quartermaster also,and taking the wheel in his stead.
At such short range, his shots could n
ot possibly miss, and in less thana minute our bows and fore deck showed a very pretty "general average,"a 6-pound shell blowing a hole through our plating and wrecking thetopgallant forecastle, while several 4-pound projectiles pierced ourfunnel, blew away our fore topmast, and knocked one corner of thewheelhouse to smithereens. But I did not care; the purpose which I hadin mind was fully worth all the damage and more, and I knew now thatunless I personally was hit and disabled, I should be able to accomplishit. For I meant to give that impudent destroyer the stem, to run herdown and sink her, knowing that our stout bows would shear through herthin plating as though it were paper. And the _Koryu_ had the speed todo it, the destroyer having lost much of her speed by the barnacles andweed on her bottom, which she exposed at every roll.
Evidently the Russian did not realise my purpose until it was too late;he seemed to think I was a fool who was giving him a chance to inflict adeadly raking upon me as he crossed my bows; and it was not until Isuddenly shifted my helm, rendering a collision inevitable, that whatwas going to happen dawned upon him. Then there arose a sudden outcryas the crew forsook their guns and made a mad dash at the two smallboats slung to the davits, there was a frantic jangling of bells down inthe destroyer's engine-room, an officer on her bridge snatched arevolver from his belt and snapped off five shots at me in as manyseconds--none of which took effect--and then we were upon her. Withscarcely any perceptible shock we struck her fair and square amidships,right in the wake of where I judged her boiler-room would be; there wasa horrible crackling and rending of wood and iron as our stem shearedinto and through her deck, a clamour of yells from the crew as theyfought with each other in their mad haste to lower the boats, and thedestroyer heeled over until she was almost on her beam-ends, a volleyingsuccession of deep, heavy _booms_, accompanied by a tremendous outburstof steam, proclaimed that her boilers had burst, and at the same instantshe seemed to crumple up and break completely in two, her bow-halfsweeping along our port side, while her stern-half drove past tostarboard, the crew, unable to get the boats afloat, leaping desperatelyoverboard. A moment before striking the craft, I had rung down an orderto the engine-room to stop the engines, and shouted for my crew to standby with ropes' ends; and now several of these were hove, by means ofwhich we managed to drag three Russians up on to our deck; and then webacked astern and fished up eight more, all of whom we marched below andlocked up securely. The other poor fellows, including the captain ofthe boat, must have gone down with her, for we saw nothing more of them.But we had taught the destroyers a lesson, for thenceforth they kepttheir distance.
Examining into our own condition, we discovered that our injuriesarising out of the collision amounted to about as much paint scraped offas might be replaced by the contents of a 10-pound tin, while all otherdamage was so high above the waterline as to make it of no practicalaccount. And we had not a man injured; so I considered that we hademerged from the encounter very cheaply.
It was just half-past nine o'clock, by my watch, when, bursting throughthe curtains of haze, our battle fleet hove in sight in the south-westquarter, with flags flying, the water leaping and foaming about theircutwaters, and a fine "white feather" of steam playing on the top oftheir waste-pipes, indicating that the stokers were maintaining a fullhead of steam in the boilers. But--Japanese luck again--they were justtoo late; for at that moment the Russian fleet entered the protectivezone of their shore batteries and, with a very poor attempt at bravado,slowed down to a speed of about six knots, while the _Sevastopol,Pobieda_, and _Peresviet_ came steaming out to meet them. They hadmanaged to escape by the skin of their teeth; and now, in accordancewith the instructions given to the Admiral not to risk his ships bypitting them against the shore batteries, we also were obliged to slowup, and finally to stop our engines. As a matter of fact, the time hadcome for us to retire; but evidently everybody was curious to see whatwould be the result of my mine-laying operations of the preceding night,and by common consent we all lay-to.
We had not long to wait. We saw some signalling going on between theflagship and the three craft that had come out to meet the fleet; sawthe trio fall into line in rear of the retreating fleet; and then, whileour glasses were glued to our eyes as we watched the procession of greatships sweeping majestically toward the harbour's mouth--from which theywere then little more than a mile distant--we suddenly beheld atremendous flash of fire envelop the bows of the _Petropavlosk_, theflagship, which was leading the way into the harbour. The flash wasaccompanied by the upheaval of a gigantic cone of water and an outburstof thick yellow smoke which at once told us that one of our mines hadgot in its deadly work. Instantly a great exultant roar of "BanzaiNippon!" burst forth from the throats of the eagerly watching Japanese,but it was as instantly checked when they began to realise the fullmagnitude of the disaster that had befallen their enemy. For evenbefore the sound of the shattering explosion reached our ears we saw herfore topmast fall, saw long tongues of flame leap up from her decks, sawher-two funnels whirl over and fall, one after the other, while herbridge, pilot-house, and foremast soared high into the air; and sotremendous was the force of the explosion that actually one of her6-inch gun turrets was torn bodily from its strong fastenings and hurledsome twenty feet aloft, to crash downward again upon the hapless ship'sdeck, while a great burst of flame, probably due to the explosion of herboilers, shot up where her two funnels had stood a moment before. Aseries of heavy explosions followed, seeming to indicate the explosionof her magazines, and then the doomed ship became enveloped in a thickhaze of green smoke, in the midst of which played great streams of fire.Through that terrible green haze we were just able to see that she hadtaken a heavy list to starboard; then her bows dipped, her stern roseuntil her two propellers were lifted out of the water, a greatmushroom-shaped pillar of smoke shot up from her, and--she was gone!And all this had happened in the short space of two minutes, duringwhich shells from our battleships were falling thick and fast about theRussian ships, which had stopped their engines when the explosionoccurred, while some of them lowered boats, in the hope of being able torender assistance to the unfortunate flagship.
With the disappearance of the flagship, the Russian fleet resumed itsway toward the harbour, the _Pobieda_ now being at the head of the line.But scarcely had she started her engines when an enormous pillar offlame, water, and smoke enveloped her amidships. She, too, had comeinto contact with one of our mines, but, fortunately for her, with muchless disastrous results than those attending the destruction of the_Petropavlosk_. She instantly listed, showing that she was severelydamaged, but beyond that nothing further happened, so far as we couldsee, except that the second explosion appeared to have created a perfectpanic among the Russians, who immediately opened a terrific fire withevery gun, big or small, apparently at random, for we could see theshots throwing up great jets of foam in the water all round them.Later, we learned that when the second explosion occurred, some oneaboard one of the ships yelled that the fleet was surrounded by Japanesesubmarines, discharging torpedoes; hence the frantic firing at thewater. Of course the assertion was groundless, since, as a matter offact, the Japanese had no submarines; but it is not very surprisingthat, with two disasters, one following so closely upon the heels of theother, the Russians should jump to the conclusion that they had beenattacked by submarines; for it must be remembered that we had carefullyeducated them into the belief that our mines were quite harmless.
The loss of the _Petropavlosk_ was a terrible misfortune for theRussians, for she was one of their most formidable ships; being armedwith four 12-inch guns of the most recent design, mounted in pairs inher two big turrets; with, as a secondary battery, twelve 6-inchquick-fire guns, eight of which were mounted in pairs in four smallturrets placed, two on either beam, behind 5-inch steel armour, whilethe other four were in casemates similarly protected. She had sixtorpedo tubes, and we conjectured that she probably had a torpedo ineach tube which exploded at the time of the disaster.
As for the _Pobieda_, our spies we
re able to ascertain that the minewhich damaged her had breached three of her big compartments and somesmaller ones, so that it was only with the utmost difficulty she was gotinto harbour and beached in time to save her. Also one set of herBelleville boilers was so severely damaged as to be rendered useless.Consequently she, too, was put out of action for a considerable period.
Thus, at one fell swoop, the Russian fleet was reduced in strength bytwo battleships. But their worst loss was their Admiral; for it isindisputable that Makarov was the most able, energetic, and enterprisingnaval leader they possessed.
Two days later, more mines were laid in Port Arthur roadstead, andanother attempt was made to entice the Russian fleet to come out andfight us; but the attempt was a failure. As a matter of fact, itafterwards transpired that, upon receipt of the report announcing theloss of the _Petropavlosk_ and the damage to the _Pobieda_, theauthorities at Petersburg had telegraphed orders to the effect that thePort Arthur fleet was on no account whatever to leave the harbour untilthe arrival of Admiral Skrydloff, Makarov's successor.
Failing in this, Admiral Togo dispatched the cruisers _Nisshin_ and_Kasuga_ to Pigeon Bay, to make a high-angle fire attack upon thefortress and the ships in the harbour. I was not engaged in either ofthese attempts, the Admiral considering that I had well earned and wasdeserving of a few days' rest. Besides, he very properly wished to givesome of his other officers a chance to distinguish themselves. But Iunderstood that, with the exception of silencing a new battery which theRussians had built commanding the bay, the bombardment was not attendedwith any very important results.
On the following day our little Admiral, whom some have named theJapanese Nelson, dispatched a squadron of ten cruisers, accompanied by atorpedo flotilla, to attempt to bring the Vladivostock squadron tobattle. This squadron was accompanied by a cargo steamer named the_Kinshiu Maru_, loaded with coal and spare stores for the use of thesquadron while away from its base; and the expedition was placed underthe command of Vice-Admiral Kamimura, with the cruiser _Idzumi_ as hisflagship. I had now had a little rest, and as there seemed to be noimmediate prospect of serious fighting at Port Arthur, I volunteered forthe expedition, and was temporarily attached to the _Idzumi_ as asupernumerary.
We left our base among the Elliot Islands on the 16th of April; andafter an uneventful cruise of a week's duration arrived at the port ofGensan, on the eastern coast of Korea, about two-thirds of the distancefrom the Elliots to Vladivostock.
There was a Japanese consul at this place, and upon our arrival off theport he and the Commandant came off in a steam launch and, boarding the_Idzumi_, requested an interview with the Admiral, which was at oncegranted, and the pair were conducted to Kamimura's cabin, where theyremained for the best part of an hour. At the close of the interviewthe visitors entered their steam launch and returned to the shore. Someten minutes later, Kamimura sent for me; and when I entered the cabin Ifound him poring over a chart of the east coast of Korea. He welcomedme with the usual elaborate courtesy of the Japanese in theirintercourse with each other as well as with strangers, and invited me toapproach the table.
"I am particularly glad that it is my good fortune to have the pleasureof your honourable company, Captain Swinburne," he began; "for anoccasion has just arisen upon which I think your services may prove ofthe utmost value. You see this little place--Iwon--on the chart. Thetwo honourable gentlemen who have just visited me--the Commandant ofGensan and our Japanese consul stationed here--inform me that rumourshave reached their ears of certain suspicious occurrences at Iwon whichseem to point to the possibility that the Russian Government may becontemplating the dispatch of a large body of troops to Vladivostock byrail, their embarkation there for Iwon, at which spot they may land,march across Korea, and take our troops at Port Arthur in the rear. Totell you the truth, I have not much faith in the idea, the only point inits favour being that such a movement would be wholly unanticipated byus. But in view of the information which I have just received, it is mybounden duty to investigate the matter; and I therefore propose todispatch the _Kinshiu Maru_ on a reconnoitring expedition to Iwon, toascertain what foundation, if any, there may be for the suspicion. Asof course you are aware, she carries a small detachment of troops, whomay be very useful, should any opposition be met with. These troopswill, of course, be commanded by their own officers, while Captain Yagowill continue to command the ship. But, being a merchant seaman, he hashad no experience of landing troops; and that is where your serviceswill prove of value, especially should any resistance be offered. Itherefore want you to change over temporarily to the _Kinshiu_, still asa supernumerary, but with my authority for you to take charge of andsuperintend the landing and subsequent embarkation arrangements. I amafraid this will mean a certain amount of disappointment for you, sinceas soon as you have started I shall proceed in search of theVladivostock fleet. But you must endeavour to console yourself with thereflection that I may not find them, or be able to entice them to comeout and fight me."
It was true, I certainly did feel a bit disappointed, for I mostearnestly desired to see what it was like to be engaged in a regularpitched battle, even though it were only between a couple of hostilesquadrons; but I was where I was, to lend a hand where required, not topick and choose what I would or would not do; in any case I was notgoing to make occasion for it to be said that an Englishman hadunwillingly accepted any duty offered to him; therefore with as muchcheerfulness as I could muster, I expressed my perfect readiness to domy best; whereupon Kamimura gave me my written instructions anddismissed me to pack up such few of my belongings as I thought I mightneed. However, as I had only brought a very limited kit aboard the_Idzumi_, I decided to take everything, since it would all go into asmall portmanteau.
Meanwhile, the skipper of the _Kinshiu_ had been signalled to have acabin prepared for me, and for him and Captain Honda, the officer incommand of the troops, to repair on board the _Idzumi_ to receive theirinstructions. They of course came at once, had a short interview withthe Admiral, and we all left together, Honda doing the honours of theship, welcoming me on board the transport, and introducing hisfellow-officers, all of whom seemed very jolly fellows, with but onedesire, namely, to get to grips with the Russians.
We left Gensan that afternoon, escorted by the 11th torpedo-boatflotilla under the command of Commander Takebe; the cruisers weighing atthe same time and heading east, in the hope of seeing or hearingsomething of the Russians.
Unfortunately for us, we had not been under way a couple of hours beforewe ran into a dense fog which delayed our progress to such an extentthat we did not reach Iwon until the morning of the 25th. We foundthere a long, roughly constructed wooden jetty running far enough outfrom the shore to give a depth of about six feet alongside its head, atlow water, which greatly facilitated our landing; and, ashore, wediscovered certain artfully concealed field-works of such a characterthat, armed with a few heavy guns, they might have pretty effectuallycovered a landing, unless interfered with by a very powerful force. Butour visit was evidently quite unexpected, for we only found a small bodyof Russian troops--about a hundred or so, with a squadron of Cossacks--in possession; and a few shells from our torpedo-boats sent them to theright-about in double-quick time. We destroyed the earthworks, and thejetty, as a precautionary measure, and, having reconnoitred the countryfor several miles in every direction without discovering anything veryalarming, returned to the ship the same night, without casualties of anykind.
It was now about six o'clock in the evening. During the greater part ofthe day the weather had been beautifully fine; but toward three o'clockin the afternoon a heavy bank of dark, slate-coloured cloud had gatheredin the eastern quarter of the sky, so quickly rising and spreading that,by five o'clock, the entire firmament had become obscured, the winddropped to a dead calm, the light dwindled to a murky, unnatural kind oftwilight, there were a few flickerings of sheet lightning, low down onthe horizon, occasionally accompanied by a low muttering of distantthunder, and th
e mercury was dropping with rather ominous rapidity.
I confess that, for my own part, I felt a bit puzzled; I did not quiteknow what to make of the weather indications. It might be that nothingworse than a violent thunderstorm was brewing; but against this theorythere was to be set the sudden and ominous decline of the barometricpressure. We had fulfilled our task, and were preparing to get underway, when Takebe, who was in command of the torpedo flotilla, cameaboard to consult with our skipper as to the advisability of going tosea, in the face of such threatening conditions.
Unfortunately, our escort was composed entirely of torpedo-boats; andalthough they were staunch enough little craft of their kind, they werenothing like such good sea boats as our destroyers. The latter were,under able management, capable of riding out practically any weather,but with the torpedo-boats it was rather a different story. Some ofthose that we had with us were small and rather ancient, their engineswere not to be too implicitly relied upon, and their boilers were nearlyworn-out; indeed, they would never have been detailed for the service,had it been thought that there would be any likelihood of real righting.If by any chance they should happen to be caught at sea in anythinglike a heavy gale, and anything should go wrong with either theirengines or their boilers, the probability was that they would founder,taking all hands with them.
It was these considerations that were weighing upon Commander Takebe'smind when he came aboard the _Kinshiu_ to consult with Captain Yagi; andit was evident from his first words that he was all in favour ofadopting the prudent course, and staying where we were until it could beseen how matters were going to turn out. But Yagi and he looked atthings with different eyes. In the first place, Yagi did not believethat the portents indicated anything more serious than, at worst, asharp thunderstorm, while at the same time his instructions fromKamimura were that the reconnaissance was to be executed with the utmostdispatch, and that, this done, he was to immediately return to Gensan,so that he might be on the spot in the event of the cruisers needing tore-bunker. And in any case, should it come on to blow, as CommanderTakebe seemed to fear, he had no apprehensions concerning the _Kinshiu_;she was a good sturdy little ship, and would weather out the worst thatwas at all likely to happen.
The two discussed the matter together for quite half an hour,occasionally referring to me for my opinion; but both of them wereconsiderably older than I, and had had a much more varied experiencethan myself of the somewhat peculiar weather conditions of the Sea ofJapan; I therefore said as little as possible, and did not attempt tooffer a word of advice to either of them. Finally, the matter ended byeach of them having his own way--that is to say, Yagi decided to leavefor Gensan forthwith, unescorted, taking such trifling risk as theremight be--which, they both agreed, amounted practically to none at all--while Takebe determined to study the safety of his command by remainingwhere he was and awaiting developments. Accordingly, as soon as theCommander had gone, the order was given to get the anchor; and aboutseven o'clock we steamed out to sea.