THE OUTRAGE ON THE HIGH SEAS
IT will now be necessary to follow up the events relating to the
object of the torpedo-boat destroyer _Frome's_ search.
The scrapped Dreadnought-cruiser Impregnable had been sold by public
auction, the purchaser being Mynheer Van der Coote, shipbreaker, of
Rotterdam. According to the usual terms of sale the purchaser was
bound to complete the breaking-up of the ship within six months. The
machinery could be utilised again, and, in consequence, was in fair
order. Owing to the fact that it would be necessary to employ a large
engine-room and stokehold staff to take the ship across to Holland
under her own steam, Mynheer Van der Coote took the far more
economical course of sending two powerful tugs to Portsmouth to tow
the _Impregnable_ to her last port.
Directly the cruiser gained Spithead the two dockyard tugs cast off
and returned. The last link with Great Britain had been severed; the
purchase money had been paid, and the obsolete craft was now private
property.
Before the Warner Lightship was abeam the fog enveloped the ship, so
that her tugs were quite invisible. Captain Stalkart, the master of
the leading tug, therefore eased down to half speed, reduced the
scope of hawser by one half, and steered a compass course towards the
English Channel. The tugs' syrens kept up a continuous and discordant
bellow--one prolonged blast followed by two short blasts, signifying
that they had a vessel in tow--for the appalling risks of a collision
in a fog were more than doubled by reason of the fact that the
unwieldy craft lumbering astern was almost incapable of being
manoeuvred with any degree of celerity.
At 4.45 the master of the tug heard the characteristic blast of the
reed-horn of the Owers Light vessel, and deeming that the warning
came from a bearing well on his port bow, altered his course a couple
of points to starboard.
Suddenly a black shape, distorted out of its proportion by the watery
atmosphere, loomed up dead ahead. There was no attempt made by the
vessel--for such it was--to give warning of her presence. She was
simply forging ahead with bare steerage way.
Signalling to the rearmost tug to go full speed astern, the master of
the leading tender promptly gave orders for the engines to be
stopped. He dared not go astern, otherwise the momentum of the
_Impregnable_ would cause the giant vessel to overrun her diminutive
escort. As it was the cruiser forged ahead till the tug was swept
alongside.
Just then the mysterious vessel, that had made no attempt to get out
of the way, went astern, and, describing a graceful curve, ran
alongside the _Impregnable_. There was a rending of steel as the
ex-cruiser's torpedonet-booms were shorn from their securing-lashings
by the wall-sided vessel. The next instant fifty men poured upon the
_Impregnable's_ upper deck; hawsers were passed out and the two ships
were soon locked in a close embrace.
Captain Stalkart, knowing that something was amiss, but ignorant of
what had actually occurred, shouted through his megaphone for the
other tug to come alongside. She promptly complied, making fast on
the port side of the _Impregnable_, and slightly astern of the first
tug.
Under the impression that a serious collision had occurred, and
wishing to do his best to save the huge vessel he was towing,
Stalkart gave orders for the powerful centrifugal pumps to be manned,
and the suction-pipes to be led aboard the _Impregnable_; but ere the
hoses could be coupled up a score of men armed with revolvers and
automatic pistols lowered themselves over the cruiser's side, and on
to the two tugs.
The phlegmatic Dutchmen, finding it useless to resist, promptly ran
below, their retreat being hastened by a few pistol-shots fired over
their heads. To do the crews of the tugs personal injury was
evidently not the intention of the assailants.
As for Captain Stalkart, the minute he saw how things were turning
out, he ran into the chart-room and seized a revolver. Fortunately
for his own sake he did not attempt to fire, nor did the aggressors
find him for some considerable time. During that interval he wrote a
hurried message on one of the lifebuoys, and heaved it over the side.
Meanwhile, in addition to the work of pillaging both tugs of
everything that might be of service, the modern buccaneers were
busily engaged in transhipping stores, arms, and ammunition from the
tramp to the _Impregnable_.
It was soon evident that they had laid their plans carefully
beforehand, and that the capture of the _Impregnable_ was not an act
on the spur of the moment. From the hold of the steamer twenty-five
seven-pounder quick-firers with their mountings were soon hauled up,
and placed in position on the captured cruiser. Tons of oil were
pumped into her double bottoms; water and provisions were stowed away
in the usual tanks and store-rooms.
Down in the _Impregnable's_ engine-room men--experienced
mechanics--were overhauling the machinery. Only a few weeks before
the cruiser had been in commission with a nucleus crew, and, as is
usually the case, her engines had lacked proper attention, but in
less than a couple of hours the filibusters had succeeded in firing
the oil-fuel burners and raising steam.
This done the Dutchmen were ordered to come up from below, and were
placed in one of the store-rooms of the after-flats of the cruiser.
The _Vulkan_ had been scuttled and was sinking fast, but ere she
dropped beneath the waves her master, the taciturn Stalkart, rushed
from the chart-room, where he had been concealed, on to the bridge.
Volubly cursing and shaking his fist at the rascally crowd who had
sunk his ship, the captain remained bravely at his post, scorning the
gestures that indicated that he should save himself.
The _Vulkan's_ bows rose high in the air as her stern slipped beneath
the surging cauldron of foam. In another instant the loyal skipper
would have gone to his doom, when a lariat whizzed through the air.
The noose tightened round Stalkart's portly waist, and, amid a round
of jeers and ironical laughter, the Dutchman was hauled ignominiously
but effectively on board the _Impregnable_.
The second tug suffered a similar fate; but just then a lifting of
the fog revealed the presence of the ss. _Wontwash_.
For a few moments all was confusion, the crowd of men on the
_Impregnable's_ deck running below to hide themselves from the
inquisitive gaze of the undesirable steamer. The Dutchmen, thinking
that assistance was at hand, began to clamour for aid, till quieted
by the silent threat of a revolver being pointed at them.
Seizing a megaphone the leader of the pirates--for that they were to
all intents and purposes--sprang upon the fore-bridge.
"You vill clear out of dis!" he shouted. "No vant 'elp; go 'way."
The _Wontwash's_ skipper was completely taken aback. Naturally he was
at first under the impression that the tramp alongside the
_Impregnable_ was engaged in salvage work, and did not want outside
interference that might lead to reduction of the salvage court's
award; but when he saw that the steamer alongside bore no name, and
that the men were far in excess of the number of an ordinary crew,
and, in addition, armed, he decided that discretion was the better
part of valour, and promptly did as he had been peremptorily told--he
sheered off.
Directly the _Wontwash_ was lost to view in the still thick haze men
were lowered over the taffrail of the vessel that had effected the
seizure of the battle-cruiser, and the words "_Steephill Castle_,
Hull," were prominently painted on her stern. Ere this was completed
the final stages of transferring the stores were finished, and the
_Impregnable's_ propellers began to revolve slowly.
The vessels then parted company, the pseudo _Steephill Castle_
proceeding up Channel, while the _Impregnable_, steaming at a steady
fifteen knots, headed due south.
Forty miles from the Sussex shore she eased down. The word
_Impregnable_ was erased from her stern and _Independencia_
substituted. Her crew were mustered aft, divided into port and
starboard watches, and told off to their respective quarters. The men
were literally the scum of the Mediterranean ports--Greeks, Italians,
Spaniards, Algerines, and Egyptians, with a renegade Englishman
(formerly a naval petty officer) as bo'sun. The officers were mostly
Spaniards, the captain being a native of Barcelona, and a member of a
formidable Anarchist society.
All hands knew that theirs was a desperate and unlawful
enterprise--piracy. The stake was a high one, the inducements great.
In a few days all hands would either be wealthy or doomed to an
ignominious end.
Juan Cervillo, the leader of the rascally crew, was a Spaniard of
good family He had served as an officer in the Spanish Navy; but,
imbued with revolutionary sentiments, he became mixed up in an
anti-monarchist plot. Exposed, he was arrested, brought to trial; and
sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.
Before he had done twelve months of his sentence he contrived, with
the assistance of his revolutionary associates, to effect his escape
from the prison-fortress of Saragossa. For some months he lay hidden
in Barcelona, when his daring, undoubted courage, and vehement
denunciations of all authority, gained him a prominent position
amongst the anarchist community of that city.
As a delegate he attended the secret revolutionary conferences in
Paris, and London, and the Mediterranean seaports; and in the course
of his wanderings contrived to gather together a band of seafaring
rascals in whom the piratical instincts of their forefathers lay
dormant.
It wanted but a leader, bold, determined, and unscrupulous, to bind
them together into a formidable band--and that leader was forthcoming
in Juan Cervillo.
A daring raid upon one of the leading banks in Rome, and an equally
successful coup in the commercial quarter of Marseilles, provided
Juan Cervillo with ample funds. He could have retired into some
remote South American town, and lived a life of luxury; but the
desire for adventure and the lust for gold were too great.
With the money at his disposal he proposed to buy a swift cruiser,
prey upon the world's sea-borne commerce, and recoup his outlay
tenfold.
Then it was that the possibility of securing a discarded British
warship occurred to him. Careful and guarded inquiries revealed the
information that the _Impregnable_ was leaving Portsmouth for
Holland. He resolved to intercept her--and succeeded.
The next few days were to be spent in wholesale depredations; then,
as soon as the high seas became too unsafe to continue his nefarious
exploits, he meant to convey his booty to some out-of-the-way port,
and, temporarily satisfied with his war upon civilisation, he would
lie low till a favourable opportunity again occurred.
Thus, while the _Frome_, lured on a false scent, was running
westward, the _Independencia_ ex-_Impregnable_ was steaming
southward, ready like a beast of prey to pounce down upon the first
unsuspecting merchant ship that came across Cervillo's course.