Change of scene has almost always an invigorating effect on the mind.
Whatever be the nature of your mind, variety, rest assured, will improve
its condition.
So we thought, my mother and I, Nicholas and Bella, as we lay, one
beautiful morning, becalmed in the English Channel.
The yacht turned out to be a most charming vessel. Schooner-rigged,
with two cabins, one of which formed our _salon_ during the day, and the
gentlemen's bed-room by night, the other being set apart entirely for
the ladies. It was quite full. My mother and Bella filled it. Another
female would have caused it to overflow.
Contrary to all expectation, my mother turned out a capital sailor;
better even than Bella, on whom she attended during the first part of
the voyage when the latter was ill.
"D'you think we shall have a good passage across the far-famed Bay of
Biscay?" asked Nicholas, as he sat on the cabin skylight, smoking a mild
cigar. Talking of that, smoking was the only thing in which I could not
join my future brother-in-law. I know not how it is, but so it is that
I cannot smoke. I have often tried to, but it invariably makes me sick,
for which, perhaps, I ought to be thankful.
"It is to be hoped we shall," I replied to his question; "but I am not a
judge of weather. What think you, Mr Whitlaw?" I said, addressing my
skipper.
"I hope we shall, sir," replied the skipper, with a deferential touch of
his cap, and a glance round the horizon; "but I don't feel sure."
Mr Whitlaw was an American, and a splendid specimen of the nation to
which he belonged,--tall, lanky, broad-shouldered, gentlemanly, grave,
self-possessed, prompt, good-humoured: I have seldom met a more
agreeable man. He had been in the Northern navy of America during the
last war, and had already introduced some of the discipline, to which he
had been accustomed, amongst my small crew.
Bella was up on deck enjoying the sunset; so was my mother. Lancey was
busy cleaning my fowling-piece, near the companion-hatch.
"It is charming," exclaimed my mother.
"So calm," said Bella.
"And settled-looking," remarked Nicholas, flipping the end of his cigar
over the side.
"Mr Whitlaw does not appear to think so favourably of the weather," I
remarked.
The skipper, looking gravely at a particular point on the horizon, said,
in a quiet tone--
"The clouds are heavy."
"From which you judge that the fine weather may not last?"
"It may be so, but the indications are not certain," was his cautious
reply.
That night we were in a perfect chaos of wind and water. The
storm-fiend seemed to have reserved all his favours in order to give us
a befitting reception. The sea roared, the wind yelled, the yacht--but
why repeat the oft-told tale that invariably ends with "Biscay, O!" A
week later and we were in a dead calm, revelling in warmth, bathed in
sunshine, within the straits of Gibraltar.
It was evening. All sail was set. Not a puff of wind rendered that
display available. The reef-points pattered as the yacht rolled
gracefully from side to side on the gentle heave of the Mediterranean's
bosom.
Sitting on a rug on the deck, between my mother and Nicholas, Bella
said, in a low quiet tone, "This is perfect felicity."
"Agreed," said Nicholas, in a similar tone, with a puff from his cigar.
Bella referred to the calm, of course!
A sea-captain, sitting astride the bulwarks of his ship in the
"Doldrums," far far away from Bella, said, in reference to a similar
calm which had beset him for three weeks, "This is perfectly maddening,"
with many other strong expressions which we would rather not record; but
Bella, of course, did not know that, and could not be expected to
reflect on it. She was taken up with her own comforts at the time.
"My dear," said Mrs Childers, "I think I shall go to bed. Come with
me. Good-night, Nicholas. Will you keep the skylight off to-night,
Jeffry? It was too hot in our cabin last night."
"Of course I will," said I; "why did you not ring, and let me know that
you would like fresh air? But I shall see to it to-night."
About eleven o'clock that night, I lay on one of the lockers of the main
cabin, in a wakeful mood. Nicholas lay on the other locker, in that
profound slumber which is so characteristic of healthy youth. His
regular breathing was the only sound I heard, except the soft footfall
of our skipper, as he slowly paced the deck.
Presently I heard another step. It advanced, and a low "Fine night,
sir," apprised me that it was Lancey, who had come on deck to air
himself after the culinary and other labours of the day, for he served
in the capacity of cook and steward to the yacht.
"I wish you'd tell me about that expedition you was speakin' off to the
master this morning," said Lancey.
"With pleasure," replied the skipper; "sit down here, and I'll spin it
off to you right away."
I knew by the sound of their motions that they had seated themselves at
the foot of the main-mast, just between the skylights of the two cabins,
and feared that their talk might disturb my mother; but, reflecting that
she must have got to sleep long ago, I thought it better not to disturb
them, unless their talk should become too loud. As for myself, in my
wakeful mood, their converse could not annoy me. After a time it began
to interest me deeply.
"It was about the blowing-up of Southern ironclads, was it not?" said
the skipper. As he spoke I could distinctly hear the puff, puff, of his
pipe between each half-dozen words.
"_Just_ so," replied Lancey. "The master is uncommon fond of
blowin's-up and inquirin' into the natur' of things. I never know'd
another except one as beat 'im at inwestigation, but that one beat
everybody I ever seen or heard of. He was a Scotch boy, named Sandy--"
"What was his other name?" asked the skipper.
"'Aven't a notion," replied Lancey. "We never called 'im anythink else.
I don't believe he 'ad any other name. He said he was the son of an
apothecary. No doubt the schoolmaster knew 'is other name, if he 'ad
one, but he never used it, and we boys were content with Sandy. That
boy, sir, seemed to me to know everythink, and was able, I believe, to
do hanythink. He was a tremendous fighter, too, though not out o' the
way as regards size. He could lick the biggest boy in the school, and
when he made up his mind to do a thing, nothin' on earth could stop him
a-doin' of it."
"Good," said the skipper, with an emphatic puff; "that's what we
Americans call the power to go ahead. Did Sandy become a great man?"
"Don't know," answered Lancey. "He went a'ead too fast for me to
foller. One day the master gave 'im a lickin'. He vowed he'd be
revenged. Next mornin' early he got up an' smashed the school winders,
redooced the master's desk to matchwood, an' walked away whistlin'. I
never seed 'im since."
"Nor heard of him?"
"Nor 'eard of 'im."
"That was a pity," said the skipper, with a prolonged whiff.
"It was. But go on, Mister Whitlaw, with your hanecdotes. I couldn't
rightly hear all you said to the master."
"It was about torpedo warfare we were talking," said the skipper. "You
know that sort o' thing is only in its infancy, but the Americans, as
usual, had the honour of starting it fairly into being."
"The `honour,' eh?" said Lancey; "h'm! well, I'm not so sure about the
honour, but go on."
"Well, whether it be an honour or no, I won't dispute," returned the
skipper, with a puff; "but of this I am sure, that during the late war
between the North and South in America, torpedo practice was regularly
brought into play for the first time, and the case which I brought
before Mr Childers yesterday is only one of many which I could
describe. I'll not relate the same story, but another and a better.
"About the beginning of the war, in 1862, the Confederates--these were
the Southern men--blew up our ironclad, the _Cairo_, in which I lost one
of my most intimate friends; and in 1864 they attempted to blow up the
_Wabash_, and myself along with it. The _Cairo_ business was caused by
sunk torpedoes. She was going up the Yazoo river at the time, and had
lowered a boat to search for torpedoes, which were known to be sunk
there. They succeeded in fishing up one, which was found to be an
exploded one. Meanwhile the _Cairo_, having got rather too close in
shore, backed out towards the middle of the stream, when two explosions
occurred in quick succession, one close to the port-quarter, the other
under the port-bow. The effect was tremendous. Some of the heavy guns
were actually lifted from the deck. The captain instantly shoved the
_Cairo_ on the bank, and got a hawser out to a tree to keep her, if
possible, from sinking in deep water. The pumps, steam and hand, were
set going immediately; but her whole frame, ironclad though she was, had
been so shattered, that nothing could save her. Twelve minutes
afterwards she slipped down into six fathoms water, giving them barely
time to get out the boats and save the sick men aboard, and the arms.
My friend was one of the sick, and the moving was ultimately the death
of him, though no lives were lost at the time."
"You're not tellin' me crackers, are you?" said Lancey, in an
incredulous tone.
"My good fellow," returned the skipper, "I wish that I were. The story
is only too true, and I would it were the only one of the sort I had to
tell. You can find a book in London, [see note 1] if you like, which
tells all about this and the other torpedo work done during the late
American war."
"Well, then," said Lancey, in the tone of an eager listener, while, by
the tapping on the combings of the hatchway, I could distinguish that he
was emptying his pipe, with a view, no doubt, to the enjoyment of
another, "and what happened when they tried to blow _you_ up?"
"Well, you must know," resumed the skipper, "it was long afterwards,
near the end of the war. I was in the US steamer _Wabash_ at the time.
We were at anchor off Charleston, and we kept a sharp look-out at that
time, for it was a very different state of things from the wooden-wall
warfare that Nelson used to carry on. Why, we never turned in a night
without a half sort of expectation of being blown into the sky before
morning. It was uneasy work, too, for although American sailors are as
good at _facing_ death as any men, they don't like the notion of death
coming in on them, like a sneak below the waterline, and taking them in
the dark while asleep. We were always on the alert, and doubly so at
that time, for only a short while previously, the Confederates had sunk
another of our ironclads, the _Housatonic_, with one of their
torpedo-Davids,--little boats that were so called because, compared with
the great ironclads they were meant to attack, they somewhat resembled
David when he went out against Goliath.
"Well, as I said, the _Wabash_ was at anchor, and it was night--not very
late, about ten; but it was very dark.
"Fortunately the deck was in charge that night of a young officer named
Craven, and never was an officer worse named or better deserving to be
called Courage. He had his wits about him. At the hour I have named,
he observed something on the starboard-quarter, about 150 yards off. It
resembled a plank on the water. In reality it was a torpedo-David. It
was opposite the main-mast when first observed, going rapidly against
the tide. At that moment it turned and made straight for the ship.
Craven was up to the mark. He commenced with volleys of musketry; beat
the gong for the crew to assemble at quarters; rang four bells for the
engine to go ahead; opened fire with the watch and the starboard
battery; and gave orders to slip the cable.
"His orders, you may be sure, were obeyed with promptitude. The gong
sent every man from his hammock as if he had received an electric shock.
Jack-in-the-box never came out of his box more promptly than each man
shot up the hatchway. An exaggerated idea of the effect of torpedoes--
if that were possible--had got possession of us. We were at our
quarters in a moment; the ship moved ahead; the chain slipped; and the
torpedo-boat passed us about forty yards astern. A round shot from us
at the same moment appeared to strike it. We cheered. A second shot
was fired, and appeared to send it to the bottom, for we saw it no more.
"But now _our_ turn came," continued the skipper, refilling his pipe.
"Puff! you see we were not so well situated as the Southerners for the
use of this weapon, for we had to go in to attack their forts, while
they had only to defend themselves, which they did largely with sunk
torpedoes.
"We had long been desirous of revenging their attacks in a similar
fashion, and at last we were successful on the 27th of October. I had
the good luck to be one of the expedition. It was risky work, of
course. We all knew that, but where is the nation worthy of the name
that will not find men for risky work? People talk about the difference
of courage in nations. In my opinion that is all gammon. Most nations
that lie near to one another are pretty much alike as to courage. In
times of trial among all nations, the men of pluck come to the front,
and the plucky men, be they American, English, French, German, Russian,
or Turk, do pretty much the same thing--they fight like heroes till they
conquer or die."
"Better if they didn't fight at all," remarked Lancey.
"That's true, but if you're attacked you _must_ fight. Anyhow, on this
particular occasion we attacked the Confederate ironclad ram
_Albemarle_, and sent her to the bottom. I had volunteered for the duty
with some other men from the squadron, and we started in a steam-launch
under Lieutenant Cushing. The distance from the mouth of the river to
where the ram lay was about eight miles, the stream averaging 200 yards
in width, and being lined with the enemy's pickets, so that we had to
proceed with the utmost possible caution. We set out in the dead of
night. There was a wreck on our way, which was surrounded by schooners,
and we knew that a gun was mounted there to command the bend of the
river. We had the good luck, however, to pass the pickets and the wreck
without being discovered, and were not hailed until seen by the look-out
of the ram itself.
"Without replying to the hail, we made straight at her under a full head
of steam. The enemy sprang their rattles, rang their bell, and
commenced firing. The _Albemarle_ was made fast to a wharf, with a
defence of logs around her about thirty feet from her side. A chance
fire on the shore enabled us to see this, although the night was
intensely dark, and raining.
"From the report afterwards published by the commander of the
_Albemarle_, it seems that a good look-out had been kept. The watch
also had been doubled, and when we were seen (about three in the
morning) they were all ready. After hailing, a brisk fire was opened on
us both by small arms and large guns; but the latter could not be
brought to bear, owing to our being so close, and we partially disturbed
the aim of the former by a dose of canister at close range. Paymaster
Swan, of the _Otsego_, was wounded near me, and some others. My own
jacket was cut in many places, and the air seemed full of bullets.
"Our torpedo-boom was out and ready. Passing close to the _Albemarle_,
we made a complete circle round her, so as to strike her fairly. Then
Lieutenant Cushing gave the order, and we went straight at her, bows on.
In a moment we struck the logs, just abreast of the quarter-port, with
such force that we leaped half over them, at the same time breasted them
in. The boom was lowered at once. `Now, lads, a vigorous pull!' said
Cushing.
"We obeyed, and sent the torpedo right under the overhang of the ship.
It exploded. At the same instant the _Albemarle's_ great-gun was fired.
A shot seemed to go crashing through the boat, and a dense mass of
water rushed in from the torpedo. It seemed to me as if heaven and
earth had come together. Smoke and yells, with continued firing at only
fifteen feet range, followed, in the midst of which I heard the
commander of the ironclad summon us to surrender. I heard our
lieutenant twice refuse, and then, ordering the men to save themselves,
he jumped into the water. I followed him, and for some time swam in the
midst of a shower-bath caused by plunging shot and bullets, but not one
of them struck me. At last I reached the shore, and escaped.
"At the time I thought we must have failed in our purpose, but I was
mistaken. Though we had lost one boat and some of our men, many of them
being captured, I learned that the _Albemarle_ had sunk in fifteen
minutes after the explosion of the torpedo, only her shield and
smoke-stack being left out of the water to mark the spot where a mighty
iron-clad had succumbed to a few pounds of well-applied gunpowder!"
"If that be so," said Lancey, after a pause and deep sigh, "it seems to
me no manner of use to build ironclads at all, and that it would be
better, as well as cheaper, in time to come, to fight all our battles
with torpedo-boats."
"It may be so," replied the skipper, rising, "but as that is a subject
which is to be settled by wiser heads than ours, and as you have to look
after the ladies' breakfast to-morrow morning, I'd strongly advise you
to turn in."
Lancey took the hint, and as he slept in a berth close to the cabin, I
quickly had nasal assurance that he had thrown care and torpedoes to the
dogs.
It was not so with myself. Much of the information which Mr Whitlaw
had unconsciously conveyed to me was quite new, for although I had, as a
youth, read and commented on the late American war while it was in
progress, I had not given to its details that amount of close study
which is necessary to the formation of a reasonable judgment. At first
I could not resist the conviction that my skipper must have been
indulging in a small amount of exaggeration, especially when I reflected
on the great strength and apparent invulnerability of such massive
vessels as our _Thunderer_; but knowing the sedate and truthful
character of Mr Whitlaw, I felt perplexed. Little did I think at the
time that I should live to see, and that within the year, the truth of
his statements corroborated with my own eyes. I meditated long that
night on war and its results, as well as the various processes by which
it is carried on; and I had arrived at a number of valuable conclusions,
which I would have given worlds to have been able to jot down at the
moment, when I was overtaken by that which scattered them hopelessly to
the winds: I fell sound asleep!
The rest of this delightful voyage I am compelled to pass over, in order
that I may come to matters of greater importance.
We had reached the neighbourhood of the beautiful town of Nice, when my
dear mother, to my surprise and mortification, suddenly announced that
she could not endure the sea any longer. She had kept pretty well, she
admitted, and had enjoyed herself, too, except when listening to those
dreadful stories of the captain about the American war, which had
travelled to her down the after-cabin skylight, during wakeful hours of
the night. Despite appearances, she said she had suffered a good deal.
There was something, she declared, like a dumpling in her throat, which
always seemed about to come up, but wouldn't, and which she constantly
tried to swallow, but couldn't.
In these circumstances, what could I do? We had meant to land at Nice
in passing. I now resolved to leave my mother and sister there and
proceed eastward--it might be to Egypt or the Black Sea--with
Naranovitsch. The latter had ordered his letters to be forwarded to
Nice; we therefore ran into the port, and, while my mother and sister
and I drove to "the Chateau" to see the splendid view from that
commanding position, he went off to the post-office.
On returning to the yacht, we found poor Nicholas in deep distress. He
had received a letter announcing the death of his father, and requiring
his immediate return to Russia. As the circumstances admitted of no
delay, and as my mother could not be prevailed on to go farther in the
yacht, it was hastily arranged that she and Bella should return through
France to England, and that Nicholas should take charge of them.
Our plans being fixed, they were at once carried into effect, and the
same evening I found myself alone in my yacht, with no one but the
skipper and crew and the faithful Lancey, to keep me company.
The world was now before me where to choose. After a consultation with
my skipper, I resolved to go on a cruise in the Black Sea, and perhaps
ascend the Danube, in spite of the rumours of possible war between the
Russians and Turks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. "A Treatise on Coast-Defence ... Compiled from official
reports of officers of the United States. By Von Scheliha,
Lieutenant-Colonel and chief engineer of the department of the Gulf of
Mexico of the army of the late Confederate States of America."