THE HYDRO-AEROPLANES
MEANWHILE, what had happened to Lieutenant Drake and the rest of the
_Frome's_ crew, after the destruction of that little craft? Directly
the boats pushed off Drake and those of the men who remained with him
gathered on the fo'c'sle and turtle-back deck. Then, as the water
came into contact with the red-hot plates, the destroyer's deck
buckled amidships. Her motors went crashing through the flaming
petrol in the double-bottoms as the vessel tilted and slipped stern
foremost beneath the flaming surface of the sea.
All on board imagined that the end had come, when suddenly that part
of the ship between the for'ard engine-room bulkhead and the bows
shook itself clear of the remainder of the shattered hull and floated
on the surface. The destroyer had literally been torn in twain, and
the watertight bulkhead kept the forepart afloat. True, there was a
perceptible list, but on investigation there was found hardly any
water in the forehold.
As soon as the petrol blazing on the water had burned itself out, the
boats returned to find that Drake and his companions were alive,
though scorched by the terrific heat. Deeming it inexpedient to allow
the boats' complement on board the stumpy vessel, Drake ordered them
to stand off and lay on their oars. Fortunately there was little
wind, although the sea ran high, but guided by an anchor-lamp shown
from the bridge, the boats could keep within hail of the
lieutenant-commander. At frequent intervals rockets were sent up, for
the _Frome_ was not so very far from the regular steamer track, while
it was known that other destroyers and one or two cruisers were
heading in their direction.
Just after dawn H.M.S. _Indus_, a powerful cruiser of 22,000 tons,
bore down. The lieutenant and his men were taken off the wrecked
forepart, and a wireless message was sent to Devonport announcing the
details of the outrage on the high seas, and asking for instructions.
To the surprise of everyone on board, the reply came--"Tow remains to
Devonport." Not a word was said about continuing the chase, so, to
the disappointment of all ranks, the _Indus_ took the sorry remnants
of the _Frome_ in tow, and at an easy ten knots headed towards
Plymouth Sound.
Thousands of people assembled to see the shattered forepart of the
destroyer pass up Drake's Passage. Hundreds of cameras were levelled
at her, shoals of boats accompanied the _Indus_ and her tow, till the
latter was docked, safe from public observation, in the basin at
Keyham.
Then followed several days of irritating official inquiries, which,
while the _Independencia_ still roved the high seas, was an utter
waste of time. Drake wanted to be off again. His one desire was to
retrieve his reputation by capturing the pirate vessel, and rescuing
his brother officers.
Cruisers, scouts, and destroyers were despatched, and, spreading
fanwise, scoured the Atlantic from Rockall to the Azores; but somehow
or other the filibustered ship escaped detection. Then came the news
of the holding up of _L'Égalité_, which, according to the French
captain's report, had taken place within twenty miles of the British
cruiser _Khartoum_.
The immediate result of this affair was that a squadron of fast
cruisers and a flotilla of destroyers left Brest to join in the
hounding-down of the _Independencia_. The Spanish Government, eager
to lay hands upon the notorious anarchist, also despatched two
cruisers and four destroyers; so that there was the keenest rivalry
between the various nations engaged in the enterprise as to who
should have the honour of laying the running and desperate Juan
Cervillo by the heels.
All concerned realised that the business must of necessity be a
peculiar one, for Drake had reported how the hostages from the _Yosen
Maru_, as well as his own officers who had been trapped, were
utilised as screens to prevent the _Independencia_ from being sunk by
gun fire. There were three alternatives: either to overhaul and board
the pirate vessel, a feat that could only be accomplished on a calm
day, and with the _Independencia_ compelled to heave-to; or to sink
the offender by torpedoes, trusting that the pirates would cut their
hostages adrift ere the ship sunk; or else to dog her so tenaciously
that, unable to capture any more liners or tramps, she would be
compelled to haul down the red flag through sheer starvation.
The British Admiralty decided to adopt the last alternative, and
orders were given that once the _Independencia_ was sighted, all
cruisers and destroyers within a certain radius were to be summoned
by wireless, and form a close cordon around the modern buccaneer.
All merchant ships fitted with wireless were informed of this new
terror of the seas, and requested to "speak" with other vessels not
so equipped, as well as to transmit news of the appearance of any
suspicious craft answering to the _Independencia's_ description, so
that aid could be quickly forthcoming from the nearest warships. Yet
in spite of these precautions the officers of the trans-atlantic
liners and tramps had an anxious time. Never had the deck officers
kept such a keen look-out, especially at night, when the pirate,
steaming without navigation lights, might at any moment loom through
the darkness and peremptorily order her prey to heave-to.
At Lloyd's the insurance rates went up 60 per cent. The "Atlantic
ferry" paid heavily, for would-be passengers, as a matter of
precaution, deferred their journey until the time when the danger
ceased to exist. Grain-laden tramps from the States and Canada either
remained in port or else sailed under convoy, as in the days of the
Napoleonic war. The price of food, in consequence, rose tremendously,
and coming as it did after a succession of disastrous strikes, the
effects of the modern pirate-ship's depredations began to be felt by
all classes of the community.
Two days after the receipt of the wireless message from the French
cruiser _Desaix_, announcing the outrage upon _L'Égalité_, the liner
arrived at Cherbourg in tow of the armoured cruiser _Chanzy_. Then
followed the customary Press interviews with the passengers and crew,
with the stock of conflicting and of ten misleading reports. Some of
the eye-witnesses, partly through a love of exaggeration, and partly
through the result of a highly strung temperament, told ghastly tales
of butchery, some even going to the length of asserting that they had
seen the passengers who had been removed from the liner being made to
walk the plank. No satisfactory explanation could be given as to why,
if the pirates were so bloodthirsty as they had been made out to be,
the liner had not been scuttled with all hands, until someone
explained that Juan Cervillo had spared the ship on account of the
third-class passengers.
Then it was that a Socialist Parisian newspaper appeared with a
eulogistic three columns and a half on Cervillo's record and aims,
and calling upon the Anarchists to give him their moral and active
support. The offices of the paper were raided by the gendarmes, and
before night the military and the canaille were engaged in
hand-to-hand fighting in the streets of Paris. Similar disturbances
took place in Madrid, Barcelona, and Naples, and the French, Spanish,
and Italian Governments had good cause to wish that the notorious
Juan Cervillo was at the bottom of the sea.
At Barcelona the news spread that the _Independencia_ had appeared
off that port. The authorities knew that such was impossible, partly
on account of the distance from British waters, and also that the
Straits of Gibraltar were too well guarded by a strong flotilla
cruising betwixt Tarifa and Ceuta. But amongst the ignorant
population it was accepted that Cervillo had appeared to proclaim the
anarchist rule in Spain, and that night the town was at the mercy of
the mob.
It was not until it was found that the ship was the British cruiser
_Indefatigable_--the sea-going instructional vessel for naval cadets,
and which bore a striking resemblance to the _Independencia_--that
the disorder ceased. Even then it required four regiments of Spanish
infantry to quell the insurrection.
As soon as the new scout _Cerberus_, could be passed out of dockyard
hands, she was commissioned in order to participate in the search for
the pirate-cruiser, and to Drake's unbounded satisfaction he was
appointed to her for duties in the hydro-aeroplanes, of which the
scout carried four.
Vast strides had been made in the construction and efficiency of the
hydro-aeroplanes since their demonstration before the King in
Portland Roads in 1912. Instead of being, like the first of this
class, clumsy aeroplanes fitted with floats, those of the later
pattern were swift motor-boats, provided with folding air-planes and
propellers, so that they could either keep the sea in fairly heavy
weather, or they could soar into the air and perform a thousand-mile
flight. Each hydro-aeroplane consisted of an aluminium hull, 35 ft.
in length, 6 ft. in breadth, and of a draught when at rest of 9 ins.
These were completely decked in, with the exception of a small, open
well, which could, if necessity arose, be covered with a water-tight
hatch. At one-third the distance from its bows was a small
observation turret, the top of which served as one of the bearings,
or the shafting of the aerial propeller. The planes, when not in use,
folded into recesses in the sides of the hull, the actuation of a
pair of tension wires serving to extend and keep them in position for
flight. Whereas the original hydro-aeroplanes could not descend to
rest upon the surface of a choppy sea, those carried by the
_Cerberus_ could not only be relied upon to descend or ascend from
the water, but could by reason of their strength and rigid
construction safely withstand the impact of a fall from a
considerable height. For armament they carried a one-pounder
automatic gun, and gear for dropping small bombs charged with high
explosives.
On board the _Cerberus_ these four hydro-aeroplanes were carried on
the space hitherto occupied by the funnel-casings, for the scout had
internal combustion engines, and, save for a small exhaust pipe, was
without funnels. Each tender could be hoisted in less than
half-a-minute by means of a single-purchase wire rope passing through
a block at the end of a derrick, and wound round a motor-capstan.
Constructed at one-twentieth of the cost of a submarine, the
hydro-aeroplane had already virtually superseded those craft. Save at
night, the crews of the hydro-aeroplanes could from a height easily
locate the presence of a submarine, and by means of her bombs could
destroy it with ease. Before long it was recognised that the era of
the submarine, as a destructive means of offence, was past.
Lieutenant Douglas Drake lost no time in reporting himself on board
the _Cerberus_, and within twenty hours of being passed out of
dockyard hands the scout left Portsmouth Harbour to join in the
search for the pirate-cruiser.
But before the ship had passed through the Needles Channel she was,
to the disgust of all on board, ordered to return. That morning the
owners of the ss. _Duke of Negropont_ had received a wireless message
from the captain of that vessel. It was brief and to the point:--
"_Independencia_ in collision with unknown
vessel, 4.45 a.m. Lat. 40-22-10 N., Long.
22-9-16 W. Both sank; no survivors."