Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun Part 5

"Yes," agreed Ito, his voice tense with excitement; "she has seen and intends to speak us. See, she has stopped her engines, and is hailing the _Asas.h.i.+o_! What a jolly, bloomin' chance," (Ito was very proud of his command of English slang, and availed himself of every possible opportunity to air it) "to honourably torpedo her! Will the honourable Swinburne augustly grant the humblest of his servants permission to do so?"

"Heavens! no, man," I exclaimed, "not for worlds. And I pray that Matsunaga may also have the sense to refrain from doing so."

"But why, my honourable friend; why?" demanded Ito, literally dancing with eagerness and impatience.

"Because, don't you see, my honourable duffer, that if we did so the explosion would put all Port Arthur, and the fleet too, on the _qui vive_ long before we could get at them, and thus spoil our chances of bagging the battles.h.i.+ps?" I replied. "No, certainly not. Let the cruiser go; it is the battles.h.i.+ps we want. There go the _Asas.h.i.+o's_ lanterns. Hoist away, quartermaster!"

"Yes, yes; I see," replied Ito in crestfallen tones; "you are honourably right, of course. Aha! there goes the cruiser. The honourable Captain Matsunaga has evidently honourably satisfied her. He honourably speaks Russian like a native."

It was an exciting moment; but, tense as it was, I could not help being amused at the pertinacity with which Ito, like all the j.a.panese, dragged in the word "honourable" upon every possible and impossible occasion.

It arises, of course, out of the desire, drilled into them, generation after generation, to be extremely polite; and doubtless when speaking in their own tongue, the word is never unsuitably used; but when they undertake to talk English, it is frequently pitchforked into the conversation in the most incongruous and even ludicrous fas.h.i.+on, and I decided that it would only be kind to give Ito a lesson upon the absurdity of employing it inappropriately. The opportunity came a few minutes later.

The _Askold_, apparently satisfied with Captain Matsunaga's explanation, put her helm hard a-starboard and swept on, presently vanis.h.i.+ng in the darkness; and a minute or two later the _Asas.h.i.+o_ made the signal for the Divisions to separate as arranged, starboarding her helm as she did so and leading Number 1 Division to the westward, while Divisions 2 and 3 ported and swerved sharply away to the eastward.

"The critical moment is at hand," said I. "Be so good, Mr Ito, as to go down on the main deck and a.s.sure yourself that everything is ready, and that the men are standing by the tubes and guns."

Then Ito turned upon me and poured out an impa.s.sioned entreaty that he might be "honourably" permitted to take charge of and fire the torpedoes himself. I considered for a moment. The man who might chance to score a hit in the coming attempt would gain immense kudos, I knew, and, in all probability, promotion also. By rights, of course, Ito's station should be by me, to take my place should I chance to be hit; but he was just as liable to be hit on the bridge as anywhere else; also it would be doing him a kindness to grant his request. So:

"Now, look here, Ito," I said, "it is of paramount importance that the men in charge of the tubes to-night should be first-rate shots, and as cool as cuc.u.mbers; for, hit or miss, I do not suppose we shall be afforded a chance to discharge more than the two torpedoes already in our tubes; therefore they must both hit. Now, are you a good shot with the torpedo?"

Ito solemnly a.s.sured me that there was not a better torpedo shot than himself in the whole j.a.panese fleet.

"And is your nerve all right? I mean, are you perfectly cool?" I demanded.

"As cool as the honourable cuc.u.mber," he a.s.serted. "Feel my unworthy hand."

I could not help laughing. Here was the inevitable "honourable" being dragged in again. I seized his hand and held it loosely in mine for a few seconds. It was firm and steady as a rock.

"Good!" I said. "You will do, Ito. Go down and work the tubes, my boy, and see that you excel yourself to-night. And, Ito, if you love me, do not, for heaven's sake, forget to withdraw the honourable safety pin from the honourable fan before you honourably fire the honourable torpedo, or you will make no honourable hits this honourable night. Do you honourably take me?"

There! I had fired off my little joke on Ito; ill.u.s.trated to him, I fondly thought, the absurdity of indiscriminately dragging in the word "honourable" in and out of season. How would he take it, I wondered.

"The august captain may honourably rely upon his unworthy lieutenant to do his honourable best," he gravely answered; and the next moment was "honourably" descending the bridge ladder to the deck. My miserable attempt at jocularity had absolutely missed fire; the dear, innocent fellow had accepted my speech as uttered in all seriousness.

It was at this moment that I first caught the loom of the Russian s.h.i.+ps, showing up a deeper black against the black shadow of the frowning cliffs away to starboard; and a second or two later a long, brilliant beam of intensely white light shot out from one of the black shapes and slowly swept hither and thither, now striking the heaving surface of the black water, and anon vividly illumining one of her sisters. Our orders had been not to discharge at a higher range than five hundred metres.

Slowly, the beam swept round toward us until it halted and rested steadily upon a great lump of a craft that towered out of the water like a castle, almost immediately between itself and us. Luckily, the dazzling light itself was hidden from our eyes by the bulk of the s.h.i.+p upon which it rested, but it invested her with a sort of halo of radiance against which she stood out black and grim, a perfect silhouette. She was a big craft, evidently a battles.h.i.+p, with a lofty superstructure, three big funnels cased half-way up, a long overhanging bridge, and two stout military masts with fighting tops, and two yards across each. She was just within range, and, seizing a megaphone, I was in the act of raising it to my lips to order Ito to let fly at her, when I saw a long, silvery shape flash out from our after-deck, and a few seconds later a great cone of water leaped into the air and fell like a deluge upon the great s.h.i.+p, which seemed to lift half out of the water, as though hove up by a giant. A heavy _boom_ followed, and I had the extreme gratification of knowing that the little _Kasanumi's_ first Whitehead had got home.

The explosion was quickly followed by several others; and in the midst of them a sudden transformation took place. The pitchy darkness gave way to the glare of a perfect network of searchlight beams streaming out from s.h.i.+p after s.h.i.+p and from the cliffs above, sweeping here, there, and everywhere, lighting up the fleet, the cliffs, the channel leading to the harbour, the lighthouse, everything, in fact, except our destroyers, which they all seemed to miss in the most miraculous way.

Excited shouts came pealing across the water to us from the decks of the various s.h.i.+ps, boatswains' whistles shrilled, order after order was hoa.r.s.ely bellowed, and with a rattling crash of gun-fire a perfect tempest of projectiles was sent hurtling out to sea from the now thoroughly awakened and panic-stricken Russians, not a solitary shot of which came anywhere near us; for the enemy seemed to have not the slightest idea of our actual whereabouts. And then, to add to the turmoil and confusion, the forts on the cliffs above opened fire with their heavy guns, and we heard the sh.e.l.ls go muttering angrily far overhead, as the gunners ash.o.r.e also fired into the offing.

The fleet as a whole now lay broad on our starboard beam, and we in the _Kasanumi_ were crossing the bows of a two-funnelled battles.h.i.+p which, from her position as the outermost s.h.i.+p of the fleet, I knew must be the _Tzarevich_, when, out of the tail of my eye, so to speak, I again caught the flash of one of our Whiteheads as it leapt outward and plunged into the sea. Breathlessly I awaited the result, and presently, to my delight, I saw that our second torpedo had got home!

"Good old Ito!" I exclaimed aloud; and, as I spoke, the man himself stood beside me.

"Two hits!" he gasped, almost inarticulate with excitement and delight.

"The _Kasanumi_ has done her duty to-night."

"She has," I agreed; "and so have you, splendidly, old chap. This means immediate promotion for you, Ito; for you may rest a.s.sured that, if we get out of this alive, I will not fail to report to the Admiral what you have done. I don't see--"

"Ah, but," he interrupted me, "the real credit of it all belongs to you, not me. For if you had not warned me, I should certainly, in my excitement, have forgotten to withdraw the pins before firing the torpedoes. As it was, I very nearly did so when firing the first, but luckily your warning flashed into my mind at the very instant when I was about to fire. I am afraid that many of our men have forgotten that essential; for although all the torpedoes must be by this time discharged, I do not think that many s.h.i.+ps have been hit."

I had noticed the same thing myself, and was about to say so, but at this moment the Russian s.h.i.+ps opened fire with their heavy guns, and conversation, which up to now had been difficult enough, became quite impossible owing to the deafening din. But I observed that the s.h.i.+ps and batteries were all firing out to sea, whereas our destroyers were by this time between the fleet and the land, completely absorbed in the deep shadow of the lofty cliffs, so that up to that moment I believed we had remained unseen. Then the _Asas.h.i.+o_ flashed the signal for Number 1 Division to retire at full speed, putting her helm hard a-port as she did so, for by this time we were running parallel with the sh.o.r.e on the west side of the harbour, and a few minutes more would have taken us to the harbour's mouth, which was now brilliantly illuminated by the rays of some half a dozen searchlights, which it was essential for us to avoid if we wished to escape instant annihilation.

It was at this moment, when I was eagerly taking note of the most distinctive features of the harbour entrance, brought thus prominently into view--with the idea that such knowledge as I might then be able to acquire might prove useful at some future time--that three destroyers, coming out of the harbour at full speed, rushed across the illuminated area and, turning sharp round the Pinnacle Rock, headed almost directly toward us. A single glance sufficed to show that they were Russian craft, for they were of a different model from ours, and their four funnels were arranged differently from ours, being in pairs.

For a moment I believed that they saw and were about to engage us, I therefore laid my hand upon Ito's arm to attract his attention, pointed to the boats, and then yelled in his ear:

"Russians! Stand by to give them a broadside as they pa.s.s."

Ito nodded comprehendingly, and vanished from my side. A minute later, the leading Russian destroyer came abreast the _Asas.h.i.+o_, and Captain Matsunaga showed that he was as wideawake as the rest of us, by plumping a 12-pound and three 6-pound sh.e.l.ls into her. Then came our turn, and we did the same, each of the four j.a.panese boats in turn firing all the guns that would bear upon each of the three Russian boats as they came up, without receiving a single shot in return; for, strange as it may seem, the Russians appeared to have no suspicion of our whereabouts until we actually fired upon them.

But perhaps we should have been wiser had we allowed our valour to be tempered with discretion, and refrained from attacking the enemy's destroyers; for the flashes of our guns, low down near the surface of the water, were instantly observed by a hundred sharp eyes, eagerly seeking the whereabouts of the elusive enemy, and almost immediately every searchlight on s.h.i.+p and sh.o.r.e swept round until it rested full upon us, thereafter inexorably following our every movement, while a perfect tornado of sh.e.l.l and rifle-fire hissed and whined about our ears. But for this, it might have been not very difficult for us to have inflicted further damage upon the battles.h.i.+ps and cruisers; but as it was, there was only one thing to be done, namely, to effect our escape with the utmost expedition, if, indeed, escape were still possible; for to remain until fresh torpedoes could be got up on deck and placed in the tubes, would mean our swift and certain destruction before the opportunity came for us to work further mischief. As it was, it was simply miraculous that we were not instantly blown out of the water; for, with a dozen or more searchlights bearing full upon us, we were as plainly visible as though it had been broad daylight; yet, strange to say, not a shot struck any of us, a circ.u.mstance which can only be accounted for upon the a.s.sumption that the Russian gunners were so unnerved by our sudden and unexpected attack that, for the moment, they had completely lost the ability to shoot straight.

Through that frightful tempest of shot and sh.e.l.l we tore at top speed, the fragile hulls of the boats bucking and quivering to the impulse of their tremendously powerful engines, the water cleft by their sharp bows curling almost to the height of the navigating bridges and drenching the occupants with spray, while flames roared out of all four of their funnels as the stokers below toiled like fiends to feed the furnaces and maintain a full head of steam. To add to our difficulties, the glare of so many searchlights directed full upon us dazzled our sight to blinding point, so that it was only with the greatest difficulty we were able to find our way. The formation in which the Russian fleet was moored helped us, however, for we presently found ourselves rus.h.i.+ng across the bows of their weathermost line, and we steered accordingly.

Then, quite unexpectedly, we came upon the three Russian destroyers again; and those of us who happened to be prepared--of which the _Kasanumi_ was one--gave them a further peppering, to which, as before, they made no reply. And now, at last, we were reaching the end of the line, and the gauntlet was almost run, for as we drew out to seaward the insh.o.r.e s.h.i.+ps were compelled to cease fire for fear of hurting their friends instead of us. There was but one more s.h.i.+p to pa.s.s; and as we drew near to her I saw that she had a decided list to port, and was floating so deep aft that her "admirals' walk," or stern gallery, was very nearly submerged. Steam was roaring from her safety valves, and as we came up to her a small curl of water under her bows and a swirl at her stern showed that she was under way. It was the _Tsarevich_, heading for the harbour, evidently in a sinking condition, and we had the satisfaction of knowing that by that night's work we had put at least one of the Russian battles.h.i.+ps _hors de combat_. Her crew were much too busy to pay any attention to us; and a quarter of an hour later we were beyond the zone of that awful, merciless fire, and were heading south-east for Mokpo, where we had been ordered to rendezvous.

We did not, of course, at that time know the extent of the damage that we had succeeded in inflicting upon the Russian fleet; but trustworthy information reached us later, that the _Tsarevich_ had been struck aft, the torpedo blowing a big hole in her hull and flooding her steering compartment to such an extent that her captain had been obliged to beach her to prevent her from sinking. The _Retvisan_ had been struck amids.h.i.+ps, and a large hole blown in her pump compartment, rendering it necessary that she also should be beached in order to save her. Those two battles.h.i.+ps const.i.tuted the _Kasanumi's_ share of the bag; and very pleased we were with ourselves when the news became known, since those two s.h.i.+ps were far and away the best in the Russian fleet, and the loss of them, even if it should prove to be only temporary, was a very serious matter for the Russians. But, in addition to these, the _Pallada_, cruiser, and the volunteer cruiser _Angara_ were also hit, and were obliged to be beached to save them from foundering.

Thus we had done not at all badly; although some surprise was felt that, considering the favourable circ.u.mstances under which the attack was made--by which I mean our unsuspected approach, and the time which elapsed before the searchlights actually found us--we had not done a great deal more. For Divisions 1, 2, and 3, which had attacked the Russian fleet, consisted in all of ten destroyers, each of which had discharged two torpedoes--twenty in all. And of those twenty, only four, apparently, had got home. It was not a result to be proud of.

But I had a suspicion that I could have put my finger upon the explanation, had I been asked to do so; and it would have been this: The night was bitterly cold; so cold, indeed, that the spray froze as it fell upon us, and the weather was simply atrocious; the result being that by the time the flotilla arrived in Port Arthur roadstead, the limit of even j.a.panese physical endurance had been almost, if not quite, reached. Most of our deck hands had been more or less severely frost-bitten, not only their bodies, but also their minds were benumbed by the arctic severity of the weather, and thus it came to pa.s.s (at least so I reasoned it out) that when the moment for action arrived their faculties, between physical suffering and mental excitement, became so confused that many of them made the mistake against which I had warned Ito, and failed to withdraw the safety pin before discharging their torpedoes, thus rendering the missiles ineffective. This was also Ito's opinion, you will remember.

By the time that we reached Mokpo we were all in a most deplorable condition, nearly half of the deck hands of the expedition being compelled to go into hospital suffering from frost-bite, a few of the cases being of so severe a character that the patients lost either their hands or their feet, while one man lost all four members, and narrowly escaped dying outright. Ito and I were somehow lucky enough to escape without serious injury, but we both developed virulent attacks of inflammation of the lungs, which put us _hors de combat_ for nearly three weeks. But there is no doubt that our recovery was greatly facilitated by the intimation, which reached us while we were still in hospital, that we had both been promoted to the rank of Commander.

Meanwhile, things had been happening at Port Arthur and elsewhere. On the morning following our attack, Togo sent three fast cruisers in toward the fortress to reconnoitre; and these s.h.i.+ps having discovered pretty much how matters stood there, and reported to the Admiral, the whole fleet stood in and engaged the s.h.i.+ps and batteries at long-range, firing only their 12-inch and 8-inch guns, the range being too long for the others. The weather had changed, and was now bright and comparatively warm, the atmosphere so clear that even comparatively small objects were clearly visible.

The _Mikasa_ opened the ball by firing a sighting shot from one of the 12-inch guns in her fore barbette, and at the same moment the Russian s.h.i.+ps were seen to be getting under way. At low speed the j.a.panese fleet steamed past the port in "line ahead," firing as they went, and after an engagement lasting some forty minutes, drew off, hoping that the Russian fleet would follow them, but in this they were disappointed.

Our s.h.i.+ps were hit several times and sustained a certain amount of damage, but, luckily, not of a serious character. It was reported that we lost four killed and fifty-four wounded, none of the wounds being serious enough, however, to necessitate the men being sent ash.o.r.e to the hospital. It was some time before reliable information reached us as to the extent of the damage sustained by the Russians, but when it came it was to the effect that several of our sh.e.l.ls fell in the town, scattering the piles of coal on the wharves and creating general panic; the _Poltava_ was so badly hit that she could not move, a sh.e.l.l blowing her bows open; the _Petropavlosk_ and _Pobieda_ were also hit, though not seriously; our old friend, the _Askold_, was. .h.i.t on the waterline and set on fire, as was also the _Diana_; while the _Novik_, which had steamed out toward our fleet, was sent flying back with her rudder damaged, so that they had to steer her with her propellers. This affair caused Admiral Stark to be superseded; his successor being Admiral Makarov, said to be the finest seaman Russia then possessed. At the same time General Kuropatkin was appointed commander of the Russian land forces.

Two days later, the Russians lost the mine-layer _Yenesei_ in Dalny Bay.

This was a particularly hard bit of luck for them, inasmuch as that she had practically completed her work when the disaster happened. Her mission was to sow Dalny Bay with four hundred contact mines, in order to prevent the j.a.panese from using the bay as a landing-place for troops. She had successfully laid all but two of the four hundred mines; but when the three hundred and ninety-ninth mine was launched overboard, it floated, instead of sinking to its prescribed depth. The captain of the s.h.i.+p is said to have opened fire upon it with his light guns, to explode it; and in this he appears to have been only too successful, since it not only exploded but also blew up the s.h.i.+p, which sank almost immediately, most of her crew going down with her. And on the following day the small cruiser _Boyarin_ went ash.o.r.e in Dalny Bay, and became a total wreck. Thus in less than a week the Port Arthur fleet had become reduced in strength by no less than three battles.h.i.+ps, five cruisers, and one mining s.h.i.+p, exclusive of the cruiser _Variag_ and the gunboat _Korietz_, destroyed at Chemulpo.

Encouraged by the success of the first destroyer attack upon Port Arthur, Admiral Togo arranged for a repet.i.tion of the experiment on the night of 13th February, and the attempt duly came off, the 4th and 5th Divisions of the destroyer flotilla being this time told off to conduct the attack. These divisions, consisting of eight boats, had not partic.i.p.ated in the previous attack, and Togo no doubt wished to give them an opportunity to acquire _kudos_, and, at the same time, by arousing their emulation, spur them on to outvie our performance.

Unfortunately, however, for the expedition, the weather was even worse than that with which we had had to contend: the cold was intense, a gale was blowing, a tremendously heavy sea was running, and, to cap it all, a terrific snow blizzard was raging. The result of this combination of adverse conditions was that the destroyers very soon lost touch with each other, and only two of them succeeded in entering the harbour, the _Asigiri_ preceding the _Hayatori_ by nearly two hours. The _Asigiri_ entered the harbour unseen, discharged two torpedoes--both of which her captain, Commander Isakawa, believed had got home--and then fled, encountering an enemy's launch on the way, and sinking her. The explosion of the _Asigiri's_ torpedoes of course raised an alarm, searchlights flashed wildly hither and thither, gunners blazed away madly, and so great was the panic that several of the Russian destroyers opened fire upon each other and did a lot of damage.

When Commander Takanouchi, in the _Hayatori_, arrived two hours later, the confusion was still at its height, and taking advantage of it, he, too, slipped in unnoticed and, as he believed, successfully torpedoed a cruiser before he fled. But it seemed very doubtful whether, after all, either of the j.a.panese boats did much damage; for when the j.a.panese cruisers reconnoitred next day, none could be detected.

Then, on the night of 23rd February, all the Russian s.h.i.+ps being inside Port Arthur, Togo sent in five steamers, under Commander Arima, whose instructions were that they were to be sunk across the harbour entrance, in such positions as would effectually block the pa.s.sage. But their approach was prematurely discovered, and so terrific a fire was opened upon them from the batteries that two were sunk, while the other three, their steering gear being shot away, went ash.o.r.e outside. The attempt was consequently a failure, while ten men lost their lives in making it.

On the night of 24th February and the morning of the following day, the j.a.panese fleet made a second attack upon Port Arthur, bombarding the town and fleet for twenty-five minutes. The Russian cruisers _Bayan, Novik_, and _Askold_ were hit, some sh.e.l.ls exploded in the batteries, and the town was set on fire in two places, but the damage done was inconsiderable; and at length, in accordance with his instructions to on no account risk his battles.h.i.+ps by engaging the forts, Togo felt himself obliged to retire.

CHAPTER SIX.

"SEALING UP" PORT ARTHUR.