Part 11 (1/2)

At length all preparations were completed, and on the 2nd of April 1880, exactly a week after Jim had returned to Valparaiso in the _Angamos_, the fleet, consisting of the _Blanco, Huascar, Angamos, Pilcomayo, Mathias Cousino_, and the two torpedo-boats _Guacolda_ and _Janequeo_, left that port and, steaming out of the bay, headed to the northward.

The s.h.i.+ps, which had of course been coaled and provisioned at Valparaiso, had no need to call in anywhere for stores, but headed direct for Callao, which was openly stated to be their destination as soon as they were out of the harbour; and on April 9 the squadron arrived within a couple of hours' steam of the Peruvian port. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day the two torpedo boats, under convoy of the _Huascar_, went on ahead to scout; and, arriving off the port just about dusk, Lieutenant Goni of the _Guacolda_ rashly determined to make a raid on the Peruvian s.h.i.+pping on his own account, and accordingly slipped away into the harbour toward the place where the enemy's wars.h.i.+ps were known to be lying.

The _Union_ was soon identified as one of the s.h.i.+ps lying at anchor, and Goni promptly headed for her. But when about half a mile distant from her quarry, the torpedo-boat accidentally ran down a fis.h.i.+ng-smack, drowning all the crew except three, and losing one of her own torpedo- spars. It was by this time quite dark, and in the confusion the precise position of the _Union_ had been lost; but Goni, having rescued the three surviving fishermen, forced them to pilot him to the spot where the corvette was lying, only to discover, when he got close to her, that her skipper had surrounded her with a boom. But undismayed by this, the gallant Chilian forthwith destroyed the boom, and then discovered that he had lost his second spar, and consequently was unable to torpedo the s.h.i.+p herself. The _Union_ then opened a smart machine-gun fire, and the _Guacolda_ was compelled to beat a retreat, much to Lieutenant Goni's annoyance.

Unfortunately, this ill-timed attack had put the Peruvians thoroughly on the alert, and as soon as daylight appeared they hauled their fleet, consisting of the _Union, Rimac, Chalaco, Oroya_, and _Atahualpa_ into shoal water behind the breakwater of the stone docks, where were also the _Talisman_ and two hulks, the _Apurimac_ and _Maranon_. They had also several new torpedo-boats, as well as launches and tugs armed with spar-torpedoes, with which they patrolled the harbour to prevent any repet.i.tion of an attack like that of the _Guacolda_.

Admiral Riveros was extremely angry with Lieutenant Goni when upon his arrival off Callao he saw that every possible preparation had been made for his reception; that any further surprise was impossible; and that the attack would now have to be made openly. He therefore called away his barge and, under a flag of truce, visited the senior Peruvian naval officer for the purpose of informing him that Callao was to be blockaded, and that, since bombardment might at any moment become necessary, all non-combatants should at once leave the town and seek a place of safety. The Chilian also sent a notice to this effect to the princ.i.p.al consular agent and to the senior foreign naval officer of the neutral wars.h.i.+ps lying in the roads, eight days being the time allowed for neutral s.h.i.+pping and foreigners generally to leave the place. Upon the representation of the consuls, however, that eight days were not enough, the admiral increased the period of grace to ten days, and then set to work on the task of making his fleet ready for the bombardment which he saw was inevitable.

The defences of Callao consisted for the most part of a series of batteries arranged in crescent form round the sh.o.r.es of the bay. At the extreme south-west point of land, between the bays of Callao and Miraflores, stood the strongest Peruvian battery, called the Dos de Mayo, which had only very recently been constructed. This contained two 20-inch M.L. Rodman guns, mounted on United States service iron carriages; and these formidable weapons commanded nearly seven-eighths of the horizon. Tarapoca battery, which faced due south over Chorillos bay, contained two 15-inch Dahlgren guns, as also did Pierola battery, facing Callao bay. Next to Pierola came the Torre del Merced, a revolving turret mounting two 10-inch rifled Armstrongs. Then came a brick fort called the Santa Rosa, containing two 11-inch rifled Blakely guns. The Castle, a very old and ruinous structure, the only strength of which consisted of two masonry towers, had four 11-inch rifled Blakelies. Seven large-bore guns were mounted on the mole, together with two small and very ancient 32-pounders. At the north end of the town itself was Fort Ayacucho, containing one 15-inch Dahlgren and one 11-inch Blakely. Then came another revolving turret, with two 10-inch Armstrongs; and finally a sand-bag battery, named the Rimac, which mounted four 15-inch Dahlgren muzzle-loaders.

It will thus be seen that the Chilian fleet would have all its work cut out if it meant to take the port of Callao, as the first step toward the capture of the capital, Lima.

By April 20 all the foreign merchant s.h.i.+ps had gone away, and all the foreign wars.h.i.+ps had moved out of the line of fire and taken up their position off the mouth of the Rimac River, about two miles to the northward of the port of Callao.

It was half-past one o'clock p.m. on the eventful day of April 22 when Admiral Riveros hoisted a signal on the _Blanco Encalada_ for the fleet to weigh anchor and stand over toward the batteries in readiness to engage; and a few moments later the clatter of chain-cables was heard, as the men-o'-war got their anchors. The _Pilcomayo_, gunboat, was the first to move, and she took up a position north of the middle of the bay; Jim's recent command, the cruiser _Angamos_, being next in line; with the _Huascar_ at the south-west extremity. The flags.h.i.+p, to the intense annoyance of her crew, was held in reserve; but the men would not have grumbled at their enforced idleness had they but known of what was in store for some of them. Jim, in particular, was never tired of speculating as to what was the mysterious service which Riveros had hinted his intention of employing him upon, and longed for an opportunity which would enable him to distinguish himself.

He was roused from his somewhat moody reverie by the boom of a great gun, and, looking up, he saw a cloud of white smoke hanging over the _Huascar_, which had been the first s.h.i.+p to fire, while a brilliant flash of flame on board the monitor _Atahualpa_ showed where the death- dealing sh.e.l.l had struck and exploded. The _Angamos_ and the _Pilcomayo_ were not slow in chiming in, and presently the air fairly vibrated with the concussion of heavy guns; for the Peruvians were now replying with their seventeen large-bore guns mounted in the batteries, a.s.sisted by the pivot-guns of the _Union_ and several large smooth-bore guns from some of the obsolete s.h.i.+ps behind the mole or stone pier.

The _Blanco Encalada_ was theoretically beyond the range of any of the enemy's guns; and although several sh.e.l.ls exploded in the air near her, she was never at any time in the least danger, and Jim Douglas, with his chum Terry, had a splendid opportunity of witnessing a bombardment at close quarters without taking any risks. But both of them were so unappreciative of this immunity that they would have infinitely preferred their s.h.i.+p to be in the thick of the fighting, instead of lying safely out of range as she was.

But presently the Chilians found that it was almost impossible to hit the s.h.i.+pping behind the mole from the position which they had taken up, and as Admiral Riveros' princ.i.p.al desire was to annihilate the Peruvian navy, and thus render Peru harmless at sea, he signalled for the _Huascar_ to move closer in, and to take up a position more to the north-eastward. The signal was acknowledged, and presently the monitor lifted her anchor and stood over still closer to the mole, maintaining a terrific fire as she went, and receiving a 20-inch Dahlgren sh.e.l.l on her water-line as some slight return for the damage that she was inflicting.

But luckily she was well provided with water-tight bulkheads, or nothing could have saved her, for the sea poured into her in tons through the huge hole which the sh.e.l.l had made in her side.

Nothing daunted, however, her captain, Carlos Condell--the man who had fought the _Covadonga_ so splendidly, and been promoted through several s.h.i.+ps to the _Huascar_--continued to stand on until he had approached to within a mile of the mole, when he dropped his anchor and opened a still more furious and destructive fire upon the Peruvian s.h.i.+ps. One well- aimed sh.e.l.l set the _Union_ on fire, and for a few minutes Jim and his chum--together with every other man in the Chilian navy, for that matter--thought and hoped that the famous s.h.i.+p had run her course. But Villavicencio was, as has already been seen, a man of resource and energy, and in half an hour he had the fire under control.

Not so fortunate was the school-s.h.i.+p _Maranon_. Although old, she was armed with the newest weapons for the instruction of naval men in gunnery, and though these guns were of small calibre, and therefore of little use against the thick armour of the ironclad, she steamed out from behind the mole and replied heroically to the _Huascar's_ fire, killing twelve men who were working the monitor's machine-guns, jamming one of the turret-tracks, cutting one of the anchor cables, and nearly wrecking the _Huascar's_ new foremast which had been put in at Valparaiso, before one of the ironclad's 10-inch sh.e.l.ls burst in her hold and blew the bottom clean out of her.

”By George, Terry,” exclaimed Jim enthusiastically, ”did you ever see such a plucky fight? Why, the school-s.h.i.+p has given the _Huascar_ a thoroughly nasty mauling! I expect the Peruvians feel more than a bit sore at seeing the s.h.i.+p which used to be the pride of their fleet in Chilian hands. _Caramba_! but the _Maranon_ is sinking lower in the water every second; she will be gone in less than five minutes. I hope those brave fellows will be able to get out of her before she goes, for the bay is simply swarming with sharks! Look at the black dorsal fins of the beggars playing round the old _Blanco_! It's enough to make a fellow sick to think of those gallant chaps being torn to pieces by such monsters as these. Ah! I am glad to see that Condell has ceased firing to allow those Peruvian launches which are just coming out to pick up the survivors. Too late! too late!” he groaned, a second or two later; ”there she goes already! Why, the whole bottom must have been blown clean out of her for her to sink in that short time!”

The launches held back for a few seconds to avoid being caught in the vortex caused by the sinking s.h.i.+p, and then dashed forward to the rescue. They saved a good many, but if Jim had but been close enough he would have seen that his prophecy with regard to the sharks had proved only too true; for the voracious monsters, darting hither and thither, snapped up the unfortunate men before the very eyes of the comrades who were straining every nerve to save them, the fierce fish sometimes leaping half their length out of the water in their furious efforts to s.n.a.t.c.h their prey back even when the man had been hauled up on to the boat's gunwale.

The two lads were fortunately spared a close view of this harrowing sight, and their attention was speedily diverted from the catastrophe by a further commotion behind the mole, when, looking through their gla.s.ses, they saw that the Peruvians, encouraged apparently by the damage wrought by the _Maranon_, had got a couple of tugs alongside the old monitors _Manco Capac_ and _Atahualpa_, and were towing them out close to the _Huascar_; their ironclad sides being more capable of resisting the latter's sh.e.l.ls than the _Maranon's_ wooden hull.

Directly the Chilians perceived this new move, the _Angamos_ and _Pilcomayo_ stood in to the support of their consort, and in a very few minutes Jim beheld the somewhat rare spectacle of a close fleet action in which the sides were well matched, for the two Peruvian monitors were of about equal strength to the three Chilian wars.h.i.+ps. The thunder of the cannon now became deafening, and Callao bay was positively flecked with white by the hundreds of ricochetting sh.e.l.ls and solid shot; while even at the distance of four miles the boys could see, through their telescopes, the s.h.i.+ps' hulls reel and quiver under the frightful impact of the shot and sh.e.l.l.

But the combat did not last very long, for the merciful darkness came down about an hour after the monitors had been towed out, and put an end to the action. The signal for recall was hoisted aboard the _Blanco Encalada_, the firing gradually ceased, the _Huascar, Angamos_, and _Pilcomayo_ got their anchors, and shortly after nightfall the whole Chilian fleet was once more anch.o.r.ed safely under the lee of San Lorenzo island.

These tactics and the bombardment of Callao continued day after day, and the port seemed to be as far from surrendering as it was when they began; but the Chilians found, after the first few days, that it was necessary to lay down permanent moorings under San Lorenzo Island and buoy them, so that the fleet could leave its berth every night at dusk, and return when morning dawned. This was because of the fact that the Peruvians had constructed several fast torpedo-boats which prowled round the fleet after dark and attempted to torpedo the vessels composing it; and also to avoid the peril of the floating mines which the enemy put into the water at the mouth of the harbour and allowed to drift down upon the Chilian vessels with the tide.

The flags.h.i.+p had, in particular, been made the objective of several of these torpedo attacks; and it was this fact which put into the head of the admiral a scheme which he had now been turning over in his mind for some days past.

On the 8th of May a meeting of officers was convened in Admiral Riveros'

cabin on board the flags.h.i.+p; and Jim was one of the officers present.

It was about seven o'clock in the evening, and darkness had already closed in, the fleet then steaming, in double column of line abreast, on and off, about two miles to seaward of their anchorage. As soon as all the Chilian officers had come aboard Riveros took his seat at the head of the cabin table, and straightway plunged into business.

”As you are aware, gentlemen,” he began, ”we have now been lying before Callao for nearly three weeks; and, despite our best endeavours, the town still remains untaken, and the way to Lima is still closed to us.

This cannot be permitted to continue very much longer; for we are running short of provisions and coal, while the s.h.i.+ps' bottoms are getting so foul that, should the need for fast steaming arise, we should find that the vessels are incapable of making their top speed by at least two or three knots. If we are compelled to raise the blockade of the place so that we may put ourselves in order, the Peruvians will naturally avail themselves of the opportunity to throw cargoes of arms, ammunition, and provisions into the place; and thus, upon our return, all our work will need to be done over again. Therefore, it is out of the question for us to think of raising the blockade before Callao has fallen; and it appears to me that the princ.i.p.al obstacle in the way of our bringing that to pa.s.s is the presence of those Peruvian s.h.i.+ps lying behind the mole. We have proved that it is impossible to reduce the port by gun-fire alone; a general a.s.sault, therefore, seems to be the only alternative left us; and a general a.s.sault is equally impossible in the face of the hurricane of shot and sh.e.l.l which those s.h.i.+ps are, as we have already seen, capable of discharging.

”Therefore, as you will doubtless have gathered from my remarks, gentlemen, it will be necessary for us to destroy those s.h.i.+ps, and that soon. The question is, how are we to do it? So long as they remain where they are, they are safe from our guns, for they are all protected by the mole. I have therefore summoned you aboard the flags.h.i.+p with the object of ascertaining whether any of you have any plans or suggestions to offer for the solution of the difficulty. If so, I shall be very glad to hear them.”