sky; for there seemed to be another typhoon threatening, and he was
keenly anxious to run out of the storm area before the hurricane should
break. When twilight fell that evening, the sun was already enveloped
in a peculiar, dun-coloured mist that resembled an enormous pall of
distant smoke, in the midst of which the orb appeared like a dimly-seen,
red-hot iron disk, as it sank toward the western horizon. The darkening
sky overhead and away to the eastward glowed with a dull incandescence,
like the reflected glare of an enormous furnace; while the short, choppy
waves of the forenoon had given place to a long, oily, sluggish swell,
without a single ripple to disturb its surface, through which the _Chih'
Yuen's_ stem clove its way like a knife shearing through butter. The
ship was rolling heavily; and in the queer, eerie stillness that fell
with the disappearance of the sun, the usual ship-board sounds, the
clank of machinery far below, and even the voices of the men, assumed so
weird and unnatural a character that Frobisher felt himself gradually
being overcome by a most unpleasant, dismal sense of foreboding.
The sea, reflecting the ruddy glow from overhead, looked ghastly in the
extreme, recalling to the Englishman's disturbed fancy the old sailor's
legend of the appearance of the "Hand of Satan in the Sea of Darkness".
This was precisely the kind of sea out of which such a terrible
apparition might be expected to appear; and so strongly did the feeling
of menace take hold of him, that he actually caught himself at times
glancing apprehensively over his shoulder, in spite of his resolve to
the contrary.
About an hour after sunset, puffs of hot wind came moaning about the
ship from all directions, oppressive, and almost as noxious as the fumes
from an open furnace door. Indeed, there was a distinctly sulphurous
smell in the atmosphere; and the air was so full of electricity that a
quite perceptible shock was to be felt if the bare hand were placed on
metal, especially upon the copper fittings of the binnacle. A feeling
of vague uneasiness seemed to have taken possession of every man on
board; and tempers were short almost to the point of acerbity. The
petty officers could be heard snarling at the men, the officers grumbled
at their subordinates, and even Frobisher and Drake had something of a
passage of arms up on the bridge, until they realised that their fretted
nerves were due to the extraordinary weather conditions, and laughed the
little unpleasantness off accordingly.
Frobisher now gave orders that all the guns were to be doubly secured,
so that they might not break adrift in the event of the ship being
overtaken by the typhoon, the approach of which now appeared most
probable; and everything that might possibly strike adrift was fastened
and double fastened, in view of what was almost certainly coming. The
canvas dodgers round the bridge were taken down and put away, and the
quarter-deck and forecastle awnings were removed, and the stanchions
taken out of their sockets and placed below. The lashings of the boat
covers were again looked to, and the boats themselves secured more
firmly in their chocks, until finally there remained nothing more
possible to be done for security, and the outbreak of the storm could be
awaited with reasonable confidence.
About eight o'clock in the evening the swell became even more
pronounced, and the ship commenced to roll so heavily that it was
necessary to run hand-lines fore and aft the deck to enable the seamen
to go about their duties, otherwise there was great danger of the men
being hurled right across the decks and sustaining serious injuries.
The gloomy, lowering, red light which had suffused the sky at the going
down of the sun had given place to a dull, copper-coloured glow, mingled
with a kind of brassy glare, all the more ominous from the fact that
there was no visible source of its origin; for in the ordinary course of
events it should have been quite dark, except for such light as was
given by the moon, the sun having disappeared more than an hour and a
half previously. So strong was this unearthly light that the horizon
was plainly visible in all directions, save away to the northward, and
there the blackness was intense. Not the faintest glimmer of a star was
observable through the inky curtain which covered about ten degrees of
the horizon in that direction, but now and again a sudden dazzle of
wicked-looking forked lightning shot across the face of the bank. As
yet, however, there was no sound of thunder, and the same unearthly
stillness prevailed, save when a moaning sound could be plainly heard as
the puffs of hot wind more and more frequently scurried through the
ship's wire rigging, or sobbed weirdly in the hoods of the ventilators.
"There is certainly something pretty bad coming, sir," Drake presently
volunteered, unable any longer to endure the strained silence. "I have
sailed these seas before; and although I have never seen the sky looking
quite so threatening as it does now, there were much the same
premonitions before the great hurricane of 1889, when more than twenty
thousand Chinamen were drowned, and hundreds of junks, sailing ships,
and steamers were destroyed, and their wreckage strewn up and down the
coast. I was in the old _Barracouta_ at the time; and although she was
as well-found a craft as ever I sailed in, I never expected her to live
through it. It would be a queer state of affairs if we were to drop
across the enemy now, sir, wouldn't it? The men would have a pretty job
serving the guns, and no mistake!"
"An action, with a swell such as this running, would be an utter
impossibility," was Frobisher's reply. "Before long we shall be having
all our work cut out to take care of ourselves, without troubling to
attempt the destruction of the other fellow. And by Jove, Drake! I
believe it's coming now."
Drake glanced apprehensively behind him, and there, _sure_ enough, just
below the inky curtain of blackness on the northern horizon, which was
now being rent in every direction by continuous lightning flashes, could
be seen a long line of whitish colour, which, there could be no doubt,
was approaching the ship with more than the speed of an express train.
Frobisher had scarcely uttered the words before the darkness was rent by
the most terrifically vivid flash of lightning that he had ever seen,
while simultaneously the air was shattered by a clap of thunder of such
frightful volume that the cruiser jarred and shivered from stem to
stern, as though she had taken the ground at full speed; indeed, for
some seconds Frobisher was not at all sure that they had not happened
upon some uncharted shoal. And while all hands were still cringing
involuntarily from the shock, there came another dazzling flash of
lightning, apparently within a few yards of the vessel, followed
immediately by peal on peal of thunder, which rolled and reverberated
over the sea as though all the great guns in existence were being fired
at the same time within a few miles of them.
Then the rain came down as it only can in those latitudes--as though the
bottom of an enormous tank had been suddenly knocked out; the roar of
that colossal volume of water beating on the deck being such that,
although Frobisher put his mouth to Drake's ear and shouted with all the
power of his lungs, the latter could not distinguish a syllable.
For only a few brief seconds did this last; then it ceased as suddenly
as though a tap had been turned off. An instant later the line of white
water appeared, scarcely a hundred yards distant from the _Chih' Yuen's_
stern. Frobisher had barely time to yell an order to the men on deck to
"hold on for their lives" before the oncoming wave and the attendant
hurricane broke upon the cruiser.
The wave, black, gleaming, and sinister in the sheen of the lancing
lightning flashes, and capped with a ridge of phosphorescent foam, swept
over the cruiser's stern, down upon the quarter-deck, and then forward,
burying the ship in an instant from stern to stem, so that her captain,
up on the navigating bridge, was unable for a few seconds to see
anything of his vessel's decks, the bridge on which he and Drake were
standing--or endeavouring to stand--and the tops of the ventilators
being all of the upper-works that showed above the racing turmoil of
foam-covered water. At the same time Frobisher and Drake were literally
jammed against the quivering rails of the bridge and held there,
powerless to move, by the amazing force of the wind.
A perceptible quiver thrilled through the hull of the sturdy vessel as,
like a live thing, she endeavoured to free herself from that enormous
weight of water, and a few moments later she emerged from the swirl,
which poured off her decks in cataracts. Then, rolling herself free of
the rest of her burden, she was carried irresistibly forward on the back
of the wave, like a chip in the current of a mill-race.
Frobisher gave a big sigh of relief as he saw his ship shake herself
free. "A little longer, Drake, and she would have foundered under our
feet," he managed to gasp; "if she had not been the sturdy craft that
she is, she would not have come up again."
"You're right, sir," replied Drake, wiping the spray out of his eyes;
"that was a narrow squeak, if ever there was one. But hark to the wind!
It must be blowing at ninety miles an hour, at least. I pray that
nothing may get in our way, for we could not possibly avoid it. A
hair's-breadth out of our course, and the ship would broach to and
capsize with us."
Drake spoke truth. Although the sea was absolutely smooth--every
wave-crest being shorn off by the terrific force of the wind almost
before it had time to form--the extremely heavy swell that had arisen
earlier in the evening was still running. Even the hurricane could not
flatten that, and the _Chih' Yuen_, driven forward by her own steam and
the power of the wind behind her, rushed down one steep slope and up the
next with a speed that made even the most experienced seaman gasp. A
very slight alteration of the helm, at the speed at which the ship was
then travelling, would certainly suffice to send her reeling over upon
her beam-ends, aided by the "send" of the sea.
Looking round him, after the storm's first wild outburst, Frobisher was
horrified to observe the terrible damage and loss of life that had been
caused by that first great rush of water. Of the men who had been on
deck at the time, only some half a dozen poor, draggled, half-drowned
creatures, clinging limply to the nearest support, could be seen; while
every movable object had been swept overboard into the sea, as well as a
number that are not usually considered easy of removal. Several
ventilators had been shorn off level with the deck, and the water had
poured in tons down the openings thus formed; the two quarterboats had
disappeared altogether, and of another boat only the stem and stern
posts remained, hanging to the davit tackles by their ring-bolts.
Stanchions were either missing altogether, or bent into a variety of
curious and extraordinary shapes; and even some of the lighter
machine-guns mounted on deck had been torn from their tripods, and were
by this time at the bottom of the sea. The havoc was simply
indescribable, and Frobisher's heart was full of bitterness as he
surveyed the shocking wreck of what had, a few minutes previously, been
the smartest and finest cruiser in the whole Chinese Navy, and thought
of the poor souls who were perhaps, even now, struggling feebly as they
gradually sank to their watery graves.
All that night both Drake and Frobisher remained on the bridge, not
daring to leave the ship to herself for an instant; and many and many a
time during those hours of darkness did each of them think that his last
moment was come. Yet time after time the cruiser recovered from the
staggering blows inflicted by wind and sea, and rushed from crest to
crest of the swell like a flying-fish pursued by dolphin.
Several times during the night and the following morning her skipper
tried to gauge the speed at which his ship was travelling, and
ultimately he estimated that she must be doing fully twenty knots over
the ground. As the cruiser was travelling at this high speed Frobisher
became particularly anxious to obtain a sight of the sun at midday, in
order to ascertain his position; for he was of opinion that he must be
very near, if not actually among, those islands forming the Chu-san
Archipelago; and he feared, every moment, that the _Chih' Yuen_ might
crash headlong upon some submerged rock. But, unfortunately, the
atmosphere was far too thick to render any observation possible; indeed,
what with the black, low-hanging clouds, and the dense spindrift with
which the air was filled, it was as dark at midday as it would have
been, under ordinary circumstances, half an hour after sunset; and he
was perforce obliged to content himself with the very unsatisfactory
result obtained by dead reckoning.
Late in the afternoon the typhoon eased up a little, and Frobisher sent
Drake below to secure some rest--for both men were completely worn out--
promising to call him and take his own turn after the first lieutenant
had refreshed himself with three hours' slumber.
At the expiration of that time the wind had dropped so much that he felt
quite justified in leaving the bridge; and he therefore had Drake called
to take his place. With the easing of the wind, however, a very steep
and heavy sea naturally began to rise, and Frobisher therefore
instructed Drake to call him immediately should any danger arise to the
ship. He then went below and turned in "all standing", excepting that
he discarded his boots and his water-soaked oilskins; and he was asleep
almost before his head had touched the pillow.
It seemed to him that he had been sleeping but a few minutes when he
felt himself violently shaken by the shoulder, and awoke to find Drake,
still haggard and worn for want of proper sleep, standing over him in
his dripping oilskins.
"Hillo! Anything wrong, Drake?" was his immediate enquiry, followed by
a request to be told the time, since his own watch appeared to have run
down.
"Nothing absolutely wrong, sir," was the reply, "but what you can feel
for yourself. The sea has risen very badly; and the ship is not
behaving as well as I should like. The chief engineer, also, has just
sent up word that the engines are working a bit loose, and that some of
the bearings are almost red-hot. He thinks that some parts of the
machinery must have been strained when that first wave swept over us; so
I thought it just as well to let you know. As for the time, sir, it is
nearly three o'clock in the morning."
"Three in the morning!" ejaculated the captain. "Surely not, Drake! I
must have slept nearly ten hours, in that case. All right! I will be
on deck in a few seconds."
Hardly were the words out of his mouth when there arose on deck a
fearful outcry, as of men in the extremity of fear and dismay; and
before Frobisher and Drake had planted their feet on the first steps of
the companion-ladder, the ship struck heavily, plunged forward, and then
struck again. At the same moment the electric lights went out, and
everything was in darkness.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
IN THE HANDS OF FORMOSAN CANNIBALS.
"Heavens above!" shouted Frobisher, as he and Drake picked themselves up
from the floor, to which they had been hurled at the first shock; "the
ship is ashore!"
As if to emphasise the statement, just as the two men succeeded in
reaching the top of the steeply-inclined ladder a deluge of water
crashed thunderously down on the cruiser's poop, driving in a solid mass
along her decks from end to end, and causing her to bump again heavily.
Then came a terrific shock, accompanied by the heart-stopping sounds of
rending and tearing iron, shearing rivets, jangling machinery, and,
worse than all, the despairing screams of men who had been caught by the
giant comber and swept overboard to death among the rocks which were
grinding and tearing their way into the unfortunate _Chih' Yuen's_
vitals.
When Frobisher and his lieutenant gained the wave-swept deck, the first
faint glimmerings of coming dawn were just appearing away to the
eastward, and objects close at hand were beginning to take on
recognisable form in the ghostly, grey dawn light; so that, although all
the lamps in the ship had gone out with the stoppage of the dynamo,
which had been jolted from its bedplate at the first shock, it was to
some slight extent possible to see what was happening, and to dodge the
masses of wreckage which were being hurled hither and thither about the
decks.
Frobisher's first instructions were to the engine-room staff, to stop
the engines, which the engineers had omitted to do, doubtless waiting
for orders; and the next was to the carpenter, to sound the well and
ascertain how much water the ship had inside her. True, she seemed to
be firmly enough fixed on the rocks at the moment, but there was no
knowing when she might slide off and, if she had taken in much water,
carry them all to the bottom.
Then, without waiting to receive the man's report, he ordered such boats
as still remained in a condition to swim to be stocked with provisions
and water, and to be hoisted off the chocks ready for lowering in a
hurry, should necessity arise. These, it was soon discovered, amounted
only to three, not counting the steam-pinnace, which, Frobisher feared,
it would be impossible to get into the water under the circumstances;
and it was at once apparent that, notwithstanding the large number of
men who had been already swept overboard and drowned, there would not be
sufficient accommodation for half the remaining crew.
Meanwhile the seas, although they still continued to break heavily over
the ship's stern, were not nearly so violent as the great waves that had
swept the decks when she first struck; and the men were able to move
about in comparative safety by watching their opportunity. After the
first few moments of alarm and confusion, too, Frobisher's strong
personality and cool confidence soon restored the men's courage, and
discipline once more prevailed.
The carpenter returned after about five minutes' absence, and reported
that already there was more than ten feet of water in the fore end of
the ship, while in the engine-room it was almost up to the bedplates,
and that consequently the stokers were drawing the furnaces as quickly
as they could in order to avert an explosion. He also added that,
during the brief period while he had been sounding the well, the water
had risen almost a foot, and that therefore the vessel could not be
expected to float much longer. Indeed it was now evident that, although
the bows of the _Chih' Yuen_ were supported on a ridge or pinnacle of
rock, the after portion of the ship was in deep water, in which it was
quickly sinking lower and lower, so that it was almost a question of
minutes before she must either break in two or else slide backward off
the rock and founder.
By this time the light had become so much stronger that it was possible
to make out, in some small degree, the position in which they were
situated. The ship had apparently driven upon an outlying ridge of
rock, stretching a mile or more into the sea in a north-easterly
direction, from an array of black-looking, rugged cliffs, which towered
upward to a height of several hundred feet above the sea. The cliffs
themselves shut out the view to the south-westward, but toward the south
the shore line could be seen running away until it became lost in the
distance, thus proving--although the light was still too poor to enable
the men to see very far--that it was not some isolated, uncharted reef
upon which the ship had run, but an island of considerable size.
Although it seemed to Frobisher almost impossible that the land could be
actually the island of Formosa itself, yet it was still believable when
he came to consider the great speed at which the _Chih' Yuen_ had been
travelling during the storm, urged forward both by her engines and by
the terrific force of the wind. In fact, a few minutes' consideration
sufficed to convince him that this must indeed be Formosa, since there
was no other island of such extent as this, anywhere in the vicinity,
upon which the cruiser could possibly have struck.
Seeing, then, that there was no time to be lost, Frobisher gave orders
for the boats to be hoisted out, as many men as they could safely hold
being told off to each, with instructions that, upon their cargoes being
landed, they were to be brought back to the ship by a crew selected
among themselves, for the remainder of the _men_. In the meantime,
while the boats were transferring some of the men to the shore, the
remainder were to set to work to construct rafts as quickly as possible
out of the raffle of wreckage washing about the deck and alongside, so
that, in the event of the boats not having time to make more than the
one trip, those left behind should have some means of saving their lives
other than by swimming.
Very fortunately, the now fast-increasing light disclosed a strip of
sandy beach, on the west side of, and very largely sheltered by, the
ridge of rocks on which the _Chih' Yuen_ had struck; and it was for this
spot that Frobisher directed the boats to make, as offering the most
suitable landing-place in sight.
These orders given, the men rushed to execute them, and in a few minutes
the first boat was ready for lowering into the water. The crew got in,
while others stood by the tackles, prepared to lower away at the word of
command. Drake, carefully watching the seas sweeping up behind the
ship, waited until an especially heavy wave dashed past, and then, when
the ensuing "smooth" arrived, gave the word to let run. The boat
dropped down the cruiser's steep side like a rocket, hit the water with
a resounding splash, the bow and stern men unhooked the tackles, the
oars pushed the little craft away from the ship's side, and the perilous
journey toward the beach was commenced.
Time after time it appeared as though the boat must be overrun by the
sea and swamped; but the coxswain in charge of her was an old
man-o'-war's-man, and each time he avoided disaster by a hairbreadth,
until, at the expiration of a breathless five minutes, Frobisher saw her
living cargo leap safely out on the beach, and heaved a sigh of relief.
By this time, too, the second and third boats had been got into the
water without mishap, and were also on their way shoreward, leaving
about a hundred and fifty men still remaining aboard the cruiser,
working like madmen to complete their raft; for it now appeared almost
certain that the _Chih' Yuen_ could not live long enough to allow all
hands to be taken off by the boats.
The engine-room staff had been driven on deck some time previously by
the inrush of water, and were also making a raft for themselves up in
the bows of the ship. Others were busily engaged in getting up such
unspoiled provisions as they could lay their hands on; and yet another
party, headed by Frobisher himself, was collecting a little armoury of
weapons on deck, ready to be taken ashore, for the Englishman had heard
some ugly yarns of the savage character of the natives of the island,
and their methods of treatment of such shipwrecked crews as were
unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. Among these yarns were one
or two to the effect that they were also strongly addicted to
cannibalism; and neither he nor Drake, nor indeed any of the rest, were
at all desirous of ending their careers as part of the ingredients of a
cannibal banquet on the desolate and forbidding shores of Formosa.
Unfortunately, the magazine was flooded, so that it was impossible to
procure any ammunition for the fire-arms, but all the rifles in the
arm-belts happened to be loaded in readiness for the expected encounter
with the Japanese gunboat and transports; these were therefore unloaded
and the cartridges placed in a box for safe transit. The officers'
revolvers were also all fully charged, while Frobisher, Drake, and the
second lieutenant had a small quantity of revolver cartridge loose in
their cabins. This was added to the general store, and it was then
found that the entire supply of ammunition available amounted to three
hundred rounds of rifle ammunition and a little over a hundred rounds of
revolver cartridge.