Part 11 (1/2)
”Oh, nothing, so far as we were concerned,” he replied. ”We scrambled down the cleft into our boat and pushed off, still keeping quite close to the foot of the cliffs, although there was a heavy sea rolling in and breaking upon them. And indeed it was high time for us to be off, for when we pulled out of our little harbour at the base of the cliff, the first light of dawn was showing along the horizon to the eastward.
”Suddenly, the cannonading, which had completely died away, broke out furiously again from the heights above, and from the new batteries which have been built on the low ground higher up the harbour. At first we thought we had been seen, and that they were firing at us; but presently a steamer hove in sight to seaward, and we saw that the firing was directed at her and three others which followed her. These we presently recognised as the remaining explosion steamers, which had lost their way in the fog of the night before.
”On they came, rus.h.i.+ng toward the harbour at top speed, with a hurricane of sh.e.l.ls of all sizes falling upon and about them, and the full glare of the searchlights s.h.i.+ning full upon them.
”The first of them to come I recognised as the _Edo Maru_, under the command of Commander Takayagi. She looked frightfully battered as she swept past us, yet she kept afloat and reached the spot for which she was aiming. Her engines stopped and reversed, and she was evidently preparing to anchor, when a sh.e.l.l struck poor Takayagi, who was standing on the port extremity of the bridge, and, almost cutting him in two, hit the funnel, and exploding blew a tremendous hole in it. Nagata--you know Lieutenant Nagata, I think--the second in command, who was also on the bridge, immediately took charge, anch.o.r.ed the s.h.i.+p, exploded the charges down in her hold, and, ordering away the boats, left her, just as she was sinking, the crew bringing away poor Takayagi's body with them. He is to be buried ash.o.r.e here, this afternoon, with full military honours, of course.
”The next steamer to come was the _Otaru Maru_. I think the fire directed upon her was even hotter than that which greeted the _Edo_.
Sh.e.l.ls fell all round her, but none of them seemed to hit her; and meanwhile she was replying briskly with her Hotchkisses. The din was terrific, for every battery that could bring a gun to bear was blazing away at her, while troops made their appearance on the cliffs above and rained bullets upon her deck; indeed a sort of panic seemed to have seized the Russians, for not only were they hurling hundreds of sh.e.l.ls at the devoted _Otaru_, but were exploding observation mines everywhere, in the most reckless manner. But their most deadly weapon of all was their searchlight beam, which they directed right into the eyes of the helmsman and the officers on the bridge. Dazzled by its blinding brilliance, our people could not see where they were going; and instead of reaching her appointed station in the harbour, the _Otaru_ dashed at full speed upon the rocks. The crew, of course, took to the boats, but they were unfortunately in the full glare of the searchlight, and the Russian troops shot every one of them.
”We were by this time about a mile out at sea, when we suddenly caught sight of a torpedo-boat hove-to, without lights, and rolling and pitching furiously not far away. Feeling sure that she must be j.a.panese, I hailed her, got a reply, and five minutes later was following my crew up the side of Number 65, being warmly welcomed by my friend, Lieutenant Taira, who was in command.
”And now came a misfortune; for as I made a spring from our boat to the deck of the plunging Number 65, the sweeping ray of the Russian searchlight pa.s.sed over us, returned, and rested inexorably upon us.
Taira instantly gave the order to the engineers to go full speed ahead; but even before the engines could be started, a number of sh.e.l.ls came hurtling about us, and one unfortunately pa.s.sed through the boat's thin side and, without exploding, cut the steam pipe of Number 3 boiler. Of course the stoke-hold was instantly filled with high-pressure steam, and before the stokers could escape, three of them were scalded to death.
It was horrible to hear their screams and at the same time to realise the impossibility of doing anything to save them. Luckily for us, Number 75, lying at no great distance, saw that we were in difficulties, and pluckily came to our rescue, taking us in tow and, despite the tremendous fire directed upon us both, dragging us out of range.
”I was too busily engaged in helping to save Number 65 to see much of what further happened in connection with the attempt to 'bottle up' the Russian fleet; but I have since learned that the _Sagami Maru_, which followed the _Otaru Maru_, was peculiarly unfortunate, in that she struck a mechanical mine, just outside the harbour, and went down with all hands. The last s.h.i.+p, the _Asagao Maru_, was scarcely less unfortunate; for a sh.e.l.l struck her rudder as she neared the harbour, and rendered her unmanageable, so that she went ash.o.r.e close under Golden Hill, and her crew, refusing to surrender, were killed, to a man.
”Just after this last happening, a fog came driving in from seaward and swallowed us all up, so that the Russians lost sight of us; and then the firing ceased. Shortly afterwards, our fast cruisers came looming up through the fog, to cover our retreat; and about nine o'clock in the morning Togo himself joined us with the battle squadron. He was most anxious to know the result of the night's operations; but, unfortunately, none of us could afford him more than mere disconnected s.n.a.t.c.hes of information. I think I possessed more information than anybody else; but of course mine was by no means complete, and the Admiral was most anxious to know exactly how matters stood, for great things hinged upon the measure of our success; I therefore offered to take in a picket boat and attempt to obtain all the information required, and my offer was accepted. I steamed in under cover of the fog, which was so thick that it was impossible for us to see more than a few yards in any direction; so thick, indeed, that we actually found ourselves among the masts of the sunken craft before we really knew where we were. There were two or three sh.o.r.e boats groping about the wreckage already, but they took no notice of us, imagining, perhaps, that we belonged to one of their own s.h.i.+ps; and we were therefore able to complete our examination and to definitely satisfy ourselves that at last the harbour was entirely blocked. Learning this, the Admiral wirelessed a message to General Oku, informing him that he could safely move, since the Russian s.h.i.+ps were now effectually bottled up; and the result of that message is the fleet of transports that you see yonder.
And now, my dear chap, I must be off; the doctor told me that I must on no account weary you by talking too much; and here have I been yarning for the last half-hour or more. Good-bye! Hope to see you about again soon.”
”Here, stop a moment, old chap,” I cried. ”Having told me so much, you may as well tell me the rest. Where is Oku going?”
”Ah!” answered Ito. ”That is a secret. But I think many of us could make a good guess, eh?”
”If I were asked to guess, I should say, Pi-tse-wo,” answered I.
”And very probably, my dear Swinburne, you would be honourably correct,”
answered Ito, as he waved his hand and smilingly bowed himself out.
A little later I was honoured by a visit from Togo himself, with whom I believed myself to be something of a favourite, although Togo's favouritism never took the form of sparing the favoured one, or giving him easy work to execute; on the contrary, the most infallible sign that a man was in the Admiral's favour was the a.s.signment to him of some exceptionally difficult, arduous, or dangerous task. He had, of course, already heard of my adventure from Kamimura, but he wanted to hear the story from my own lips, and he also had several questions to ask me. He remained with me nearly an hour, and was most friendly and kind in his manner, expressing regret at my sufferings--such as they were--and the hope that I should soon be well enough to resume duty.
To my surprise, the Admiral called again, somewhat late in the afternoon. He was very busy, he said, being engaged on the task of arranging for the convoy of General Oku's Second Army, consisting of 70,000 men, the task of whom was to a.s.sist in the reduction of Port Arthur. He expected to be away a full week, at least, possibly longer, and the object of his visit was to explain to me that, aboard the transports in harbour were all the materials for the construction of a great ”boom,” eight miles long, to be carried from the island of Kw.a.n.g-lung-tau, the most westerly of the Elliot group, to the mainland.
Similar booms had already been run from island to island of the group, and the new, big boom would render the rendezvous immune to attack from the land to the northward. His object in looking me up, now, was in connection with the construction of this new, big boom. It appeared that, after leaving me that morning, he had encountered the physician who had charge of the hospital, and that official had expressed the opinion that, in the course of the next three or four days, I might probably be sufficiently recovered to be discharged from the hospital, and be employed upon light duties, such as those of superintendence, or anything which did not involve personal exertion.
That remark had suggested an idea to Togo, the result of which was his second call upon me, to inquire whether I knew anything about the construction of protective booms. As it happened, I did, having once been actively employed upon the construction of an experimental boom which was afterward stretched across the mouth of Portsmouth harbour.
When, therefore, I told the Admiral this, with his usual directness of purpose he at once appointed me to superintend the construction of the long boom; his orders being that I was to remain in hospital until the doctors should discharge me; when I was to resume the command of the _Kasanumi_, and with her as flags.h.i.+p, proceed to the Elliot Islands, in charge of the torpedo flotilla which he would leave behind for that purpose, escorting the steamers into which he would trans.h.i.+p all the materials necessary for the construction of the long boom. And upon our arrival there, I was to discharge the steamers--or, rather, supervise the discharge of them, landing the materials at the most suitable spot I could find; and then, still supervising only, proceed with all celerity upon the construction of the boom. He briefly gave me his own ideas as to how the boom should be constructed, but left me with an entirely free hand to introduce any improvements that might suggest themselves to me, so far as the materials at my command would permit. The task was one that strongly appealed to me, for it gave some scope for the employment of a certain inventive faculty which I believed I possessed; and I undertook it with avidity.
That evening, about half an hour before sunset, the trans.h.i.+pment of the materials for the boom having been effected, the transports containing Oku's Second Army got their anchors and started for Pi-tse-wo, escorted by a portion of the fleet under Togo, while the remaining portion, consisting of the light, fast cruisers and a detachment of destroyers, proceeded to Port Arthur, to make a.s.surance doubly sure by keeping an eye upon the Russian s.h.i.+ps there. I subsequently learned that the latter appeared to be quite inactive, although the sounds of frequent loud explosions proceeding from the harbour indicated that the Russians were already busily engaged upon the task of attempting to blast a pa.s.sage through the obstructing wrecks.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THE RUSSIAN SUBMARINE.
By dint of wheedling entreaty and the most lavish promises on my part that I would on no account attempt to do any actual work, I succeeded in inducing the doctor to discharge me from the hospital on the second day after the departure of the Admiral, with General Oku's transports, to Pi-tse-wo.
I was discharged shortly after eleven o'clock in the morning, and was conveyed in a hand ambulance down to the landing-place, where my boat was waiting for me, having been semaph.o.r.ed for, the instant that I obtained my discharge. I was glad to find myself aboard my own little s.h.i.+p once more; and the crew seemed to be as glad to see me as I was to see them; for it appeared that during my absence the _Kasanumi_ had been employed upon nothing but patrol work, which was not at all to the taste of my lads. Young Hiraoka, my lieutenant, seemed keenly disappointed when he learned that our most exciting work, for some time to come, was to be the construction of the long boom; but philosophically remarked that no doubt as soon as the Russians learned what we were about, we should have a few of their destroyers paying us a call, when we might hope for a little fun.