Part 9 (2/2)
CHAPTER XIV.
BATTLE OFF BEACHY HEAD.
The sun at last broke forth brilliantly, betokoning another blazing day.
Having regard to the fact that both the Channel Fleet and the reserve had been sent on futile errands by our enemy's secret agent, and the superior forces against which the British had all along had to fight, they had most a.s.suredly shown what tact and courage could effect.
Opposite the Belle Tout lighthouse a disaster occurred to the _Narcissus_. During the fight one of her engines had been injured, and this being now strained to its utmost limit had suddenly broken down altogether, with the result that the vessel gradually slackened speed, and the _Sfax_ and _Alger_ bore down quickly upon her, pouring into her a heavy fire from their 5-tonners. The reply was a weak one from her quick-firing guns, her heavy arms having nearly all been disabled.
Onward steamed the _Galatea_ and _Hannibal_, keeping up a running fire with the four vessels pursuing them, while the two cruisers engaging the _Narcissus_ continued their strenuous endeavours to silence her guns.
The British sailors, however, still undaunted, quickly showed their opponents that all the arms workable would be brought into play by directing a most vigorous fire upon their pursuers, blowing away one of the funnels of the _Alger_, and disabling one of her large bow guns.
Just then, however, while the _Narcissus_ was discharging a broadside, a torpedo boat crept under her stern and sent forth its submerged projectile. For a moment there was a hush of expectation, then a dull explosion sounded as the cruiser, apparently rent in twain, plunged stern foremost into the sea, and with her ensign still flying gradually disappeared without a soul on board being able to save himself.
Meanwhile the _Galatea_ and _Hannibal_, with their torpedo boats, were sustaining serious injuries from the heavy bow fire, and there seemed every possibility that they too would share the same terrible fate as the _Narcissus_, when suddenly one of the officers of the _Galatea_ discovered three vessels approaching. The ”demand” was immediately hoisted, and responded to by both vessels running up private signals.
With an expression of satisfaction he directed the attention of the captain to the fact, for the flags of the first-named vessel showed her to be the British turret-s.h.i.+p _Monarch_, and those of the second the great barbette-s.h.i.+p _Rodney_, while a moment later it was discerned that the third vessel was the _Gorgon_.
Even as they looked, other masts appeared upon the horizon, and then they knew relief was at hand. Both vessels ran up signals, while the men, encouraged by the knowledge that some powerful British ironclads were bearing down to their aid in indented line ahead, worked with increased vigour to keep the enemy at bay.
It was a fierce, sanguinary fight. Fire vomited from all the vessels'
battered works, and the scuppers ran with blood. The French vessels, having apparently also noticed the relief approaching, did not seem inclined to fight, but were nevertheless compelled, and not for a single instant did the firing from the attacked vessels cease. Their guns showed constant bursts of flame.
Soon, however, the _Rodney_ drew within range. A puff of white smoke from her barbette, and the _Cecille_ received a taste of her quick-firing guns, the shots from which struck her amids.h.i.+ps, killing a large number of her men, and tearing up her deck. This was followed by deafening discharges from the four 25-ton guns of the _Monarch_, while the _Gorgon_ and a number of other vessels as they approached all took part in the conflict, the engagement quickly becoming general. With great precision the British directed their fire, and the French vessels soon prepared to beat a retreat, when, without warning, a frightful explosion occurred on board the _Hirondelle_, and wreckage mingled with human limbs shot into the air amid a great sheet of flame.
The magazine had exploded! The scene on board the doomed vessel, even as witnessed from the British s.h.i.+ps, was awful. Terrified men left their guns, and, rus.h.i.+ng hither and thither, sought means of escape. But the boats had already been smashed by shots from the British cruisers, and all knew that death was inevitable.
The burning s.h.i.+p slowly foundered beneath them, and as they rushed about in despair they fell back into the roaring flames. A British torpedo boat rescued about a dozen; but presently, with a heavy list, the wars.h.i.+p suddenly swung round, and, bow first, disappeared into the green sunlit sea, leaving only a few poor wretches, who, after struggling vainly on the surface for a few moments, also went down to the unknown.
The carnage was frightful. Hundreds of men were being launched into eternity, while upon the horizon both east and west dozens of s.h.i.+ps of both invaders and defenders were rapidly approaching, and all would, ere long, try conclusions.
Before half an hour had pa.s.sed, a fierce battle, as sanguinary as any in the world's history, had commenced. The cruisers, acting as satellites to the battles.h.i.+ps forming the two opposing fighting lines, had quickly commenced a series of fierce skirmishes and duels, all the most destructive engines of modern warfare being brought into play.
The division of our Channel Fleet that had at last returned consisted of the powerful battles.h.i.+p _Royal Sovereign_, flying the Admiral's flag; the barbette-s.h.i.+ps _Anson_, _Howe_, _Camperdown_, and _Benbow_; the turret-s.h.i.+ps _Thunderer_ and _Conqueror_; the cruisers _Mersey_, _Terpsich.o.r.e_, _Melampus_, _Tribune_, _Latona_, _Immortalite_, and _Barham_; with the torpedo gunboats _Spanker_ and _Speedwell_, and nineteen torpedo boats.
The forces of the invaders were more than double that of the British, for, in addition to the vessels already enumerated, the reinforcements consisted of the French battles.h.i.+ps _Amiral Baudin_, _Formidable_, _Amiral Duperre_, _Brennus_, _Trehouart_, _Jemappes_, _Terrible_, _Requin_, _Indomptable_, _Caman_, _Courbet_, _Devastation_, _Redoubtable_, and _Furieux_, together with nine cruisers, and thirty-eight _torpilleurs de haute mer_.
From the very commencement the fighting was at close quarters, and the storm of shot and sh.e.l.l caused death on every hand. With such an overwhelming force at his disposal, Admiral Maigret, the French commander, had been enabled to take up a position which boded ill for the defenders, nevertheless the British Admiral on board the _Royal Sovereign_ was determined to exert every effort to repulse the enemy.
In the thick of the fight the great flags.h.i.+p steamed along, her compartments closed, her stokeholds screwed down, her four 67-ton guns hurling great shots from her barbettes, and her smaller arms pouring out a continuous deadly fire upon the French s.h.i.+p _Indomptable_ on the one side, and the great Russian armoured cruiser _Nicolai I._ on the other.
Upon the latter the British vessel's sh.e.l.ls played with a terribly devastating effect, bringing down the large forward mast and the machine guns in her fighting tops, and then, while the crew worked to get the wreckage clear, the Maxim, Nordenfelt, and Hotchkiss guns of the _Royal Sovereign_ suddenly rattled out, sweeping with their metal hail her opponent's deck, and mowing down those who were cutting adrift the fallen rigging. A moment later a sh.e.l.l struck one of the pair of guns in the _Nicolai's_ turret, rendering it useless, and then the captain of the _Royal Sovereign_, who had been standing in the conning-tower calmly awaiting his chance, touched three electric k.n.o.bs in rapid succession.
The engines throbbed, the great s.h.i.+p moved along at increasing speed through dense clouds of stifling smoke, and as she did so the captain shouted an order which had the effect of suddenly turning the vessel, and while her great barbette guns roared, the ram of the British vessel crashed into the broadside of the Tsar's s.h.i.+p with a terrific impact which caused her to s.h.i.+ver from stem to stern.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Nicolai I._ _Royal Sovereign._ BATTLE OFF BEACHY HEAD: H.M.S. ”ROYAL SOVEREIGN” RAMMING THE ”NICOLAI I.”]
<script>