Part 18 (1/2)
For a moment there was silence. Then Captain Matsumoto, commanding the _Fuji_, stepped forward.
”I should like to say, sir,” he said, ”that I entirely concur in what Captain Swinburne has said. Unlike that gentleman, I had the honour to be present on the occasion to which he refers, and I believe all present--including yourself, sir--will be inclined to agree that the honourable captain has put his finger upon the two causes which then combined to render the escape of the Russian fleet possible.”
A low murmur of a.s.sent followed; and when it died away, Togo spoke.
”I thank you all, gentlemen,” he said, ”for the expression of opinion to which I have just listened. I agree that a mistake was made upon that occasion, and it was I who made it. But that mistake will not be repeated, you may rest a.s.sured. I recognised my mistake when it was too late to amend it, and I have now made my plans accordingly. Has any one else any suggestion to offer?”
There was no response.
”Very well, then, gentlemen,” resumed Togo. ”Our conference is at an end. Return to your s.h.i.+ps, and get your anchors at once. We will proceed to sea forthwith; and may Hachiman Sama,” (the j.a.panese G.o.d of War) ”be with us to-day and crown our arms with victory!”
A moment's silence followed, and then the cabin rang with the exultant shout of ”Banzai! Banzai Nippon!” instantly taken up by the crew out on deck, who heard it, and as instantly repeated by the crews of the other s.h.i.+ps, as the sound of the cheering reached them. Then, one after another, we filed past the Admiral, who shook hands with each of us as we pa.s.sed out of the cabin; and ten minutes later the harbour was resounding with the clank of chain cables being hove in through a fleet's hawse-pipes and stowed away below.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
THE BATTLE OF THE YELLOW SEA.
It was still quite early--half-past six o'clock in the morning, to be exact--when a gun from the _Mikasa_ and a string of flags, drooping from the end of her signal yard in the breathless calm of a hot August morning, gave the signal for the j.a.panese fleet to go forth to battle.
In accordance with the Admiral's instructions, the _Yak.u.mo_ was to lead the way to sea, and it was a proud moment for me when, standing upon the cruiser's navigating bridge, I personally rang down the order to the engine-room, ”Ahead, half-speed, both engines!” And I considered--and still consider--that I had every reason to be proud; for here was I, a lad not yet quite nineteen years of age, captain of one of the finest and most formidable cruisers in the j.a.panese navy. And I had attained to that position--I may say it now, I think, without laying myself open to the charge of being unduly vain--solely by my own exertions and without a particle of favour shown me, excepting that, when my own country contemptuously dispensed with my services, the aliens whom I was now serving received me with the utmost courtesy and kindness. Ah, well! thank G.o.d, that bitter period in my life is past now, and I can bear to look back upon it with equanimity, but the memory of it often swept down upon me like a black cloud in the days of which I am now writing.
But there was no thought of my unmerited disgrace and ruined career in my own country to interfere with my happiness or humble my pride upon that glorious morning; I enjoyed the satisfaction of knowing that my innocence had been made clear, that the stain of guilt had been removed from my name, and I was as happy just then as I suppose it is ever possible for mortal to be.
And indeed, quite apart from matters of a purely personal nature, it would have been very difficult for any normal-minded individual to have been otherwise than buoyant upon that particular morning, for everything conspired to make one so. The weather was glorious; the sky, a clear, rich sapphire blue, was, for a wonder, without a cloud, the air was so still that until we got under way and made a wind for ourselves the signal flags drooped in motionless folds, and their interpretation was largely a matter of guesswork. Then there was all the pomp and circ.u.mstance of modern war, the s.h.i.+ps already cleared for action, and each of them decorated with at least two enormous battle-flags--wrought by the dainty fingers of j.a.pan's fairest daughters--flaunting defiantly from her mast-heads. It must have been a magnificent sight to behold that proud fleet steaming out to sea, s.h.i.+p after s.h.i.+p falling into line with machine-like precision and keeping distance perfectly, first the squadron of cruisers, led by the _Yak.u.mo_; then the other five armoured cruisers, with the _Asama_ in the van; then the four battles.h.i.+ps-- accompanied by the _Niss.h.i.+n_ and _Kasuga_, which were powerful enough to take their place in the line of battle--and, finally, the swarm of heterogeneous craft composed of the older and less important cruisers and other vessels, and those wasps of the sea, the destroyers.
The _Yak.u.mo_ had scarcely begun to gather way when the flags.h.i.+p signalled ”Course South-West by South; speed twelve knots.”
As our signalman ran up the answering pennant, I entered the chart-room and, approaching the table, upon which a chart of the Yellow Sea lay spread out, requested Mr s.h.i.+rais.h.i.+, the navigating lieutenant, to lay down a South-West by South course upon the chart, that we might see where it would take us. He did so, and I saw with satisfaction that it would take us some twenty-five miles to the eastward of Encounter Rock, that unfortunate spot near which the j.a.panese fleet had too prematurely revealed its presence upon the occasion of its previous encounter with the Russians. Twenty-five miles! That was excellent. If we held on upon that course we should cross the bows of the Russians at such a distance as would enable us to pa.s.s unseen, and then come up from the southward in the enemy's rear, so cutting him off from Port Arthur and rendering it impossible for him to avoid a fight.
Shortly after clearing the harbour, the _Asama_ and her attendant cruisers parted company with us, striking off to the westward, with the object of working round in the rear of the Russians, and again I mentally complimented Togo upon his astuteness.
Nine o'clock came, and a few minutes later there arrived a wireless message from the Admiral for our squadron to change course thirty-four degrees to the westward. I wondered what this might portend, for we had been receiving almost continuous wireless messages from the squadron off Port Arthur, the latest of which told us that the Russians, although undoubtedly intending a sortie, had not yet started. I again visited the chart-room, and with s.h.i.+rais.h.i.+'s a.s.sistance discovered that our new course would bring us within about seven miles south-east of Encounter Rock about noon.
”Four bells” had just gone tinkling along the line of the j.a.panese s.h.i.+ps, informing those whom it might concern that the hour was ten o'clock in the morning, when a fresh wireless message came from our blockading squadron, informing us that at last the Russian fleet was actually steaming out of Port Arthur harbour, with battle-flags flying, bands playing, and the s.h.i.+p's companies singing the Russian National Anthem, with the battles.h.i.+p _Tsarevich_, Vitgeft's flags.h.i.+p, leading.
As the message was decoded and the news spread throughout the j.a.panese fleet, an almost audible sigh of relief escaped the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of officers and men; the Russians were not only coming out, but actually meant to fight; and the fateful hour which had been so long and so eagerly awaited was now at last at hand. A great cheer arose, pa.s.sing along the line from s.h.i.+p to s.h.i.+p, and officers who had already a.s.sured themselves that all preparations for meeting the enemy were complete once more went the rounds, to make a.s.surance doubly sure.
The j.a.panese blockading fleet gradually closed in behind the Russian s.h.i.+ps, compelling Vitgeft to send back his gunboats, mining craft, and reserve destroyers, as our boats were threatening to cut them off; and about eleven o'clock we got a message informing us that the fleet which we should have to meet consisted of six battles.h.i.+ps, four cruisers, and seven destroyers, an eighth destroyer, believed to be the _Res.h.i.+telny_, having contrived, by her superior speed, to give our boats the slip, and steam away in the direction of Chifu. Meanwhile, the gla.s.s was falling, great ma.s.ses of cloud came driving up from the eastward, and a little breeze from the same quarter sprang up, rapidly freshening and knocking up a sea which soon set even our battles.h.i.+ps rolling and pitching ponderously. ”Well, so much the better for us,” we told each other.
Our gunners were by this time quite accustomed to shoot from a rolling and pitching platform, while the Russians had had no such profitable experience; and the heavier the sea, the greater would probably be the superiority of our shooting.
It was nearing noon when at length, broad on our starboard bow, a great cloud of black smoke began to show on the south-eastern horizon; and shortly afterward a forest of masts, from the truck of each of which flaunted a great white flag bearing a blue Saint Andrew's cross, began to rise above the sea-line, followed by numerous funnels belching immense volumes of black smoke. The two fleets were nearing each other fast, it was therefore not long before the ponderous bulk of the _Tsarevich_ topped the horizon, with the _Retvisan, Pobieda, Peresviet_ (flying Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky's flag), _Sevastopol_, and _Poltava_ following. Then came our old friend of the five funnels, the _Askold_, followed by the _Pallada_ and _Diana_, with a hospital s.h.i.+p, flying a Red Cross flag, bringing up the rear but well astern. On the port beam, but well to the rear of the line of battles.h.i.+ps, was the cruiser _Novik_--easily distinguished by her three funnels with a single mast stepped between the second and third funnel--and seven destroyers.
Up fluttered a signal aboard the _Mikasa_, and scarcely had the flags broke out when away went our destroyers at top speed, like hounds released from the leash, to attack the enemy. And a stirring sight it was to witness their dash, for it was now blowing quite fresh and a nasty, choppy sea had arisen, through which the plucky little boats raced, like a school of dolphin chasing flying-fish, now throwing a third of their length clean out of the water, and anon plunging into an oncoming wave until the water foamed and hissed over turtle-back and bridge and poured in torrents down upon the main deck and overboard.
But the Russian Admiral was not going to tamely submit to a torpedo attack in broad daylight; he allowed the boats to get well within range of his guns, and then opened a brisk fire upon them, driving them off for the moment. Nevertheless, although the boats never actually scored a hit that day, they were of the utmost a.s.sistance, hovering on the enemy's flanks and rear, das.h.i.+ng in upon him from time to time, and distracting his attention at many a critical moment.
Encounter Rock now bore north-west from us, seven miles distant, and was broad upon the port beam of the Russians, at about the same distance; and had both fleets held on as they were then going the Russians must very soon have cut through our line--provided, of course, that we had permitted them to do so. But the attempt evidently did not appeal to Vitgeft, for the _Tsarevich_ suddenly starboarded her helm and led away from us in a north-westerly direction, while Togo, perhaps afraid that this was the preliminary to a retreat on the part of the Russian fleet, feigned a nervousness that he certainly did not feel, and s.h.i.+fted his helm, heading South-South-West, at the same time forming his battles.h.i.+ps in line abreast. The result was that, for a time, the two fleets were actually steaming away from each other, the Russians being upon our starboard quarter. After steaming a short distance in this direction, our formation was altered back to line ahead, and the course was changed to South-West, apparently with the object of getting the s.h.i.+ps well in hand.
It was close upon one o'clock in the afternoon when our Admiral, having put us through one or two further manoeuvres and apparently satisfied himself that he had strung us up to the necessary pitch of alertness, finally formed line ahead and changed course to East-North-East, at the same time hoisting the signal, ”Engage!” The signal was greeted with a terrific outburst of cheering from every s.h.i.+p, and faces that had begun to look gloomy as the distance between the two fleets increased, once more became wreathed in smiles. Speed was increased, and we began to rapidly overhaul the enemy, the spray flying high over our bows as we pushed our way irresistibly through the rising sea. And now the horizon all round from north, west, and south showed dark with smoke as the j.a.panese cruisers began to close in from those points upon the Russians.