The Great War in England in 1897 Part 11

Was Hull in danger? Would the enemy advance up the river and bombard the town? These all-important questions were on every one's tongue, and as the thousands of all cla.s.ses rushed hither and thither, wild rumours of the enemy's intentions spread and increased the horror.

Within an hour of the publication of the first intimation of the presence of the invaders the excitement had become intense, and the narrow streets and narrower bridges had become congested by a terror-stricken mult.i.tude. Time after time the thunder of heavy guns shook the town, causing windows to clatter, and the people standing on the pier and along the riverside strained their eyes into the cavernous darkness towards the sea. But they could discern nothing. Across at New Holland, two miles away, lamps twinkled, but the many lights--red, white, and green--that stud the broad river for the guidance of the mariner had, since the Declaration of War, been extinguished. The familiar distant lights that had never failed to s.h.i.+ne seaward at Salt End and Thorngumbald no longer shed their radiance, and from the revolving lights at Spurn no stream of brilliancy now flashed away upon the rolling waters of the North Sea. The buoys had been cut adrift, the Bull Lights.h.i.+p taken from her moorings, and the entrance to Grimsby harbour was unillumined. Not a star appeared in the sky, for all was dark, black, and threatening. Through the hot, heavy atmosphere the roar of cannon came from the direction of Spurn Point, and as the sounds of the shots fell upon the ears of the anxious watchers, they stood aghast, wondering what would be their destiny.

The suspense was awful. Men, women, and children, with scared faces, stood in groups in the market-place, in Queen Street, and in High Street, discussing the situation. This question, however, was already engaging the attention of the munic.i.p.al and military authorities, for on hearing the alarming news the Mayor, with shrewd prompt.i.tude, walked quickly to the Town Hall, and held a hurried informal consultation with Mr. Charles Wilson, Mr. Arthur Wilson, Mr. Richardson, Major Wellsted, Alderman Woodhouse, and a number of aldermen and councillors. All knew the town was in peril. The enemy could have but one object in entering the Humber. Yet it was agreed that no steps could be taken at such brief notice to defend the place. The guards.h.i.+p _Edinburgh_ had been withdrawn to form part of the squadron upon which they would be compelled to rely, with the batteries at Paull and the submarine mines.

It was evident by the firing that an attack upon the British Squadron had commenced. The shadow of impending disaster had fallen.

Working men, hurrying towards the pier, stopped their leader, Mr.

Millington, and tried to learn what was being done, while many of the leading townsfolk were thronged around for information, and were centres of excited groups in Whitefriargate. The boatmen, sharply questioned on every hand, were as ignorant of the state of affairs as those seeking information, so nothing could be done except to wait.

Women and children of the middle and upper cla.s.ses, regardless of their destination, were being hurried away by anxious fathers. Every train leaving Hull was filled to overflowing by those fleeing from the advance of the Russians, and on the roads inland to Beverley, Selby, and Market Weighton crowds of every cla.s.s hurried away to seek some place of safety.

Suddenly, just before eleven o'clock, the thousands anxiously peering over the wide, dark waters saw away on the bank, three miles distant, two beams of white light, which slowly swept both reaches of the river.

They were the search-lights of the battery at Paull. Scarcely had the bright streaks shone out and disappeared when they were followed by a terrific cannonade from the forts, and then, for the first time, those standing on the Victoria Pier could discern the enemy's s.h.i.+ps. How many there were it was impossible at that moment to tell, but instantly their guns flashed and thundered at the forts in reply. Far away seaward could also be heard low booming. The enemy's vessels were creeping carefully up the Humber, being compelled to take constant soundings on account of the removal of the buoys, and evidently guided by foreign pilots who had for years been permitted to take vessels up and down the river.

Moments dragged on like hours, each bringing the town of Hull nearer its fate. The people knew it, but were powerless. They stood awaiting the unknown.

The Russian force, besides the three vessels already mentioned, included the armoured cruiser _Dimitri Donskoi_, the central-battery s.h.i.+p _Kniaz Pojarski_, the cruiser _Pamyat Merkuriya_, two of the new armoured cruisers, _Mezen_ and _Syzran_, of the _Rurik_ type, the corvette _Razboynik_, the torpedo gunboats _Griden_ and _Gaidamak_, and the armoured gunboat _Gremyastchy_, with several torpedo boats.

The manner in which they had manoeuvred to pa.s.s Spurn Point and ascend the river was remarkable, and astounded the officers in the forts at Paull. They, however, were not aware that each captain of those vessels possessed a copy of the British secret code and other important information compiled from the doc.u.ments filched from the body of the Admiralty messenger by the Count von Beilstein at the Mariners' Rest at Deal!

The possession of this secret knowledge, which was, of course, unknown to our Admiralty, enabled the captains of the Russian vessels to evade sunken hulks and other obstructions, and take some of their s.h.i.+ps slowly up the river, bearing well on the Lincolns.h.i.+re coast, so as to keep, until the last moment, out of the range of the search-lights at Paull.

Then, on the first attack from the batteries, they suddenly replied with such a hail of sh.e.l.l, that from the first moment it was clear that the strength of the fort with its obsolete guns was totally inadequate.

The roar of the cannonade was incessant. Amid the deafening explosions the townspeople of Hull rushed up and down the streets screaming and terrified. Suddenly a great sh.e.l.l fell with a dull thud in Citadel Street, close to a crowd of excited women, and exploding a second later, blew a number of them to atoms, and wrecked the fronts of several houses.

This served to increase the panic. The people were on the verge of madness with fright and despair. Thousands seized their money and jewellery and fled away upon the roads leading to the country. Others hid away their valuables, and preferred to remain; the crisis had come, and as Britons they determined to face it.

While the Russian s.h.i.+ps, lying broadside-on in positions carefully selected to avoid the electro-contact mines, poured their terrible fire upon the land battery at Paull, their torpedo boats darted hither and thither with extraordinary rapidity. Several were sunk by shots from the battery, but four piquet boats in the darkness at last managed to creep up, and after searching, seized the cable connecting the mines with the Submarine Mining Station at Paull.

This was discovered just at the critical moment by means of one of the British search-lights, and upon the hostile boats a frightful cascade of projectiles was poured by the quick-firing guns of the battery.

But it was, alas, too late! The cable had been cut. To the whole of the wires a small electric battery had in a moment been attached, and as the guns of the fort crashed out there were a series of dull explosions under the bed of the river across the channel from Foul Holme Sand to Killingholme Haven, and from Paull Coastguard Station to the Skitter.

The dark water rose here and there. The whole of the mines had been simultaneously fired!

Cheers rang out from the Russian vessels, sounding above the heavy cannonade. The destruction of this most important portion of the defences of the Humber had been accomplished by the boats just at the very instant when they were shattered by British sh.e.l.ls, and ere the waters grew calm again the last vestige of the boats had disappeared.

The officers at Paull worked on with undaunted courage, striving by every means in their power to combat with the superior forces. In a measure, too, they were successful, for such havoc did the sh.e.l.ls play with the gunboat _Gremyastchy_ that she slowly foundered, and her crew were compelled to abandon her. A portion of the men were rescued by the _Syzran_, but two boatloads were precipitated into the water, and nearly all were drowned. Two of the big guns of the _Dimitri Donskoi_ were disabled, and the loss of life on several of the s.h.i.+ps was considerable.

Nevertheless the firing was still incessant. Time after time the 9-ton guns of the _Kniaz Pojarski_ and the four 13-tonners of the _Mezen_ threw their terrible missiles upon the defences at Paull with frightful effect, until at length, after a most desperate, stubborn resistance on the part of the British commander of the battery, and after half the defending force had been killed, the guns suddenly ceased.

Both land and sea defences had been broken down! The Russians were now free to advance upon Hull!

Not a moment was lost. Ten minutes after the guns of Paull had been silenced, the enemy's s.h.i.+ps, moving very cautiously forward, opened a withering fire upon the town.

The horrors of that bombardment were frightful. At the moment of the first shots, fired almost simultaneously from the two big guns of the _Syzran_, the panic became indescribable. Both sh.e.l.ls burst with loud detonations and frightfully devastating effect. The first, striking one of the domes of the Dock Office, carried it bodily away, at the same time killing several persons; while the other, cras.h.i.+ng upon the Exchange, unroofed it, and blew away the colossal statue of Britannia which surmounted the parapet on the corner. Surely this was an omen of impending disaster!

Ere the horrified inhabitants could again draw breath, the air was rent by a terrific crash, as simultaneously flame rushed from the guns of the _Kniaz Pojarski_, the _Pamyat Merkuriya_, and the _Mezen_, and great sh.e.l.ls were hurled into the town in every direction. The place trembled and shook as if struck by an earthquake, and everywhere walls fell and buildings collapsed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF HULL AND THE HUMBER.]

Long bright beams of the search-lights swept the town and neighbouring country, lighting up the turbulent streets like day, and as the crowds rushed headlong from the river, shot and sh.e.l.l struck in their midst, killing hundreds of starving toilers and unoffending men, women, and children.

Lying off Salt End, the _Cizoi Veliky_, which had now come up the river in company with two torpedo boats, poured from her barbette a heavy fire upon the Alexandra Dock and Earle's s.h.i.+pbuilding yard, while the other vessels, approaching nearer, wrought terrible destruction with every shot in various other parts of the town. In the course of a quarter of an hour many streets were impa.s.sable, owing to the fallen buildings, and in dozens of places the explosion of the melinite sh.e.l.ls had set on fire the ruined houses.

Missiles hurled from such close quarters by such heavy guns wrought the most fearful havoc. Naturally, the Russian gunners, discovering the most prominent buildings with their search-lights, aimed at them and destroyed many of the public edifices.

Among the first prominent structures to topple and fall was the Wilberforce Monument, and then, in rapid succession, shots carried away another dome of the Dock Office, and the great square towers of St.

John's and Holy Trinity Churches. The gaudily gilded equestrian statue of King William III. was flung from its pedestal and smashed by a heavy shot, which entered a shop opposite, completely wrecking it; and two sh.e.l.ls, striking the handsome offices of the Hull Banking Company at the corner of Silver Street, reduced the building to a heap of ruins. Deadly sh.e.l.ls fell in quick succession in Paragon Street, and at the North-Eastern Railway Station, where the lines and platforms were torn up, and the Station Hotel, being set on fire, was soon burning fiercely, for the flames spread unchecked here, as in every other quarter. Church spires fell cras.h.i.+ng into neighbouring houses, whole rows of shops were demolished in Whitefriargate, High Street, and Saville Street, and roads were everywhere torn up by the enemy's exploding missiles.

Not for a moment was there a pause in this awful work of destruction; not for a moment was the frightful ma.s.sacre of the inhabitants suspended. The enemy's sole object was apparently to weaken the northern defences of London by drawing back the Volunteer battalions to the north. There was no reason to bombard after the fort had been silenced, yet they had decided to destroy the town and cause the most widespread desolation possible.

Flame flashed from the muzzles of those great desolating guns so quickly as to appear like one brilliant, incessant light. Sh.e.l.ls from the _Cizoi Veliky_ fell into the warehouses around the Alexandra Dock, and these, with the fine new grain warehouses on each side of the river Hull, were blazing furiously with a terrible roar. High into the air great tongues of flame leaped, their volume increased by the crowd of s.h.i.+ps in the dock also igniting in rapid succession, shedding a lurid glare over the terrible scene, and lighting up the red, angry sky. The long range of warehouses, filled with inflammable goods, at the edge of the Albert and William Wright Docks, were on fire, while the warehouses of the Railway Dock, together with a large number of Messrs. Thomas Wilson's fine steamers, were also in flames. Such a hold had the flames obtained that no power could arrest them, and as the glare increased it was seen by those flying for their lives that the whole of the port was now involved.

The great petroleum stores of the Anglo-American Company, struck by a sh.e.l.l, exploded a few moments later with a most terrific and frightful detonation which shook the town. For a moment it seemed as if both town and river were enveloped in one great sheet of flame, then, as blazing oil ran down the gutters on every side, fierce fires showed, and whole streets were alight from end to end.

Hundreds of persons perished in the flames, hundreds were shot down by the fragments of flying missiles, and hundreds more were buried under falling ruins. Everywhere the roar of flames mingled with the shrieks of the dying. Sh.e.l.ls striking the Royal Infirmary burst in the wards, killing many patients in their beds, and setting fire to the building, while others, cras.h.i.+ng through the roof of the Theatre Royal, carried away one of the walls and caused the place to ignite. One shot from the 13-ton gun of the _Syzran_ tore its way into the nave of Holy Trinity Church, and, exploding, blew out the three beautiful windows and wrecked the interior, while another from the same gun demolished one of the corner buildings of the new Market Hall. The handsome tower of the Town Hall, struck by a sh.e.l.l just under the dial, came down with a frightful crash, completely blocking Lowgate with its debris, and almost at the same instant a shot came through the dome of the Council Chamber, totally destroying the apartment.

The Mariners' Hospital and Trinity House suffered terribly, many of the inmates of the former being blown to pieces. One shot completely demolished the Savings Bank at the corner of George Street, and a sh.e.l.l exploding under the portico of the Great Thornton Street Chapel blew out the whole of its dark facade. Another, striking the extensive premises of a firm of lead merchants at the corner of Brook and Paragon Streets, swept away the range of buildings like gra.s.s before the scythe.

In the Queen's, Humber, Victoria, and Prince's Docks the congested crowd of idle merchant s.h.i.+ps were enveloped in flames that wrapped themselves about the rigging, and, crackling, leaped skyward. The Orphanage at Spring Bank, the Artillery Barracks, and Wilberforce House were all burning; in fact, in the course of the two hours during which the bombardment lasted hardly a building of note escaped.

The houses of the wealthy residents far away up Spring Bank, Anlaby and Beverley Roads, and around Pearson's Park, had been shattered and demolished; the shops in Saville Street had without exception been destroyed, and both the Cannon Street and Pier Stations had been completely wrecked and unroofed.

Soon after two o'clock in the morning, when the Russian war vessels ceased their thunder, the whole town was as one huge furnace, the intense heat and suffocating smoke from which caused the Russian Admiral to move his vessels towards the sea as quickly as the necessary soundings allowed.

The glare lit the sky for many miles around. The immense area of great burning buildings presented a magnificent, appalling spectacle.

It was a terrible national disaster--a frightful holocaust, in which thousands of lives, with property worth millions, had been wantonly destroyed by a ruthless enemy which Britain's defective and obsolete defences were too weak to keep at bay--a devastating catastrophe, swift, complete, awful.

CHAPTER XVI.

TERROR ON THE TYNE.

England was thrilled, dismayed, petrified. The wholesale ma.s.sacre at Eastbourne and the terrible details of the bombardment of Hull had spread increased horror everywhere throughout the land.

Terror reigned on the Tyneside. Hospitals, asylums, and public inst.i.tutions, crowded with affrighted inmates, had no food to distribute. In Newcastle, in s.h.i.+elds, in Jarrow, and in Gateshead the poor were idle and hungry, while the wealthy were feverishly apprehensive. A Sabbath quiet had fallen on the great silent highway of the Tyne. In those blazing days and breathless nights there was an unbroken stillness that portended dire disaster.

In the enormous crowded districts on each side of the river the gaunt spectre Starvation stalked through the cheerless homes of once industrious toilers, and the inmates pined and died. So terrible was the distress already, that domestic pets were being killed and eaten, dogs and cats being no uncommon dish, the very offal thrown aside being greedily devoured by those slowly succ.u.mbing to a horrible death. Awful scenes of suffering and blank despair were being witnessed on every side.

Three days after the enemy had ascended the Humber and dealt such a decisive blow at Hull, the port of South s.h.i.+elds was suddenly alarmed by information telegraphed from the Coastguard on Harton Down Hill, about a mile south of the town, to the effect that they had sighted a number of French and Russian s.h.i.+ps.

Panic at once ensued. The broad market-place was filled by a terror-stricken crowd of townspeople, while the seafaring population surged down King Street and Ocean Road, across the park to the long South Pier at the entrance to the Tyne, eager to rea.s.sure themselves that the enemy had no designs upon their town.