with a spring armour above the heavy plates of her roof. This had been
placed upon her after the news had been received by the Syndicate that
the Adamant would carry a perpendicular cannon over her stern, but
there had not been time enough to fit out another crab in the same way.
When the director in charge of Repeller No. 7 first caught sight of the
Adamant, and scanned through his glass the vast proportions of the
mighty ship which was rapidly steaming towards the coast, he felt that
a responsibility rested upon him heavier than any which had yet been
borne by an officer of the Syndicate; but he did not hesitate in the
duty which he had been sent to perform, and immediately ordered the two
crabs to advance to meet the Adamant, and to proceed to action
according to the instructions which they had previously received. His
own ship was kept, in pursuance of orders, several miles distant from
the British ship.
As soon as the repeller had been sighted from the Adamant, a strict
lookout had been kept for the approach of crabs; and when the small
exposed portions of the backs of two of these were perceived glistening
in the sunlight, the speed of the great ship slackened. The ability of
the Syndicate's submerged vessels to move suddenly and quickly in any
direction had been clearly demonstrated, and although a great ironclad
with a ram could run down and sink a crab without feeling the
concussion, it was known that it would be perfectly easy for the
smaller craft to keep out of the way of its bulky antagonist.
Therefore the Adamant did not try to ram the crabs, nor to get away
from them. Her commander intended, if possible, to run down one or
both of them; but he did not propose to do this in the usual way.
As the crabs approached, the stern-jacket of the Adamant was let down,
and the engines were slowed. This stern-jacket, when protecting the
rudder and propellers, looked very much like the cowcatcher of a
locomotive, and was capable of being put to a somewhat similar use. It
was the intention of the captain of the Adamant, should the crabs
attempt to attach themselves to his stern, to suddenly put on all
steam, reverse his engines, and back upon them, the stern-jacket
answering as a ram.
The commander of the Adamant had no doubt that in this way he could run
into a crab, roll it over in the water, and when it was lying bottom
upward, like a floating cask, he could move his ship to a distance, and
make a target of it. So desirous was this brave and somewhat facetious
captain to try his new plan upon a crab, that he forebore to fire upon
the two vessels of that class which were approaching him. Some of his
guns were so mounted that their muzzles could be greatly depressed, and
aimed at an object in the water not far from the ship. But these were
not discharged, and, indeed, the crabs, which were new ones of unusual
swiftness, were alongside the Adamant in an incredibly short time, and
out of the range of these guns.
Crab J was on the starboard side of the Adamant, Crab K was on the port
side, and, simultaneously, the two laid hold of her. But they were not
directly astern of the great vessel. Each had its nippers fastened to
one side of the stern-jacket, near the hinge-like bolts which held it
to the vessel, and on which it was raised and lowered.
In a moment the Adamant began to steam backward; but the only effect of
this motion, which soon became rapid, was to swing the crabs around
against her sides, and carry them with her. As the vessels were thus
moving the great pincers of the crabs were twisted with tremendous
force, the stern-jacket on one side was broken from its bolt, and on
the other the bolt itself was drawn out of the side of the vessel. The
nippers then opened, and the stern-jacket fell from their grasp into
the sea, snapping in its fall the chain by which it had been raised and
lowered.
This disaster occurred so quickly that few persons on board the Adamant
knew what had happened. But the captain, who had seen everything, gave
instant orders to go ahead at full speed. The first thing to be done
was to get at a distance from those crabs, keep well away from them,
and pound them to pieces with his heavy guns.
But the iron screw-propellers had scarcely begun to move in the
opposite direction, before the two crabs, each now lying at right
angles with the length of the ship, but neither of them directly astern
of her, made a dash with open nippers, and Crab J fastened upon one
propeller, while Crab K laid hold of the other. There was a din and
crash of breaking metal, two shocks which were felt throughout the
vessel, and the shattered and crushed blades of the propellers of the
great battleship were powerless to move her.
The captain of the Adamant, pallid with fury, stood upon the poop. In
a moment the crabs would be at his rudder! The great gun,
double-shotted and ready to fire, was hanging from its boom over the
stern. Crab K, whose roof had the additional protection of spring
armour, now moved round so as to be directly astern of the Adamant.
Before she could reach the rudder, her forward part came under the
suspended cannon, and two massive steel shot were driven down upon her
with a force sufficient to send them through masses of solid rock; but
from the surface of elastic steel springs and air-buffers they bounced
upward, one of them almost falling on the deck of the Adamant.
The gunners of this piece had been well trained. In a moment the boom
was swung around, the cannon reloaded, and when Crab K fixed her
nippers on the rudder of the Adamant, two more shot came down upon her.
As in the first instance she dipped and rolled, but the ribs of her
uninjured armour had scarcely sprung back into their places, before her
nippers turned, and the rudder of the Adamant was broken in two, and
the upper portion dragged from its fastenings then a quick backward
jerk snapped its chains, and it was dropped into the sea.
A signal was now sent from Crab J to Repeller No. 7, to the effect
that the Adamant had been rendered incapable of steaming or sailing,
and that she lay subject to order.
Subject to order or not, the Adamant did not lie passive. Every gun on
board which could be sufficiently depressed, was made ready to fire
upon the crabs should they attempt to get away. Four large boats,
furnished with machine guns, grapnels, and with various appliances
which might be brought into use on a steel-plated roof, were lowered
from their davits, and immediately began firing upon the exposed
portions of the crabs. Their machine guns were loaded with small
shells, and if these penetrated under the horizontal plates of a crab,
and through the heavy glass which was supposed to be in these
interstices, the crew of the submerged craft would be soon destroyed.
The quick eye of the captain of the Adamant had observed through his
glass, while the crabs were still at a considerable distance, their
protruding air-pipes, and he had instructed the officers in charge of
the boats to make an especial attack upon these. If the air-pipes of a
crab could be rendered useless, the crew must inevitably be smothered.
But the brave captain did not know that the condensed-air chambers of
the crabs would supply their inmates for an hour or more without
recourse to the outer air, and that the air-pipes, furnished with
valves at the top, were always withdrawn under water during action with
an enemy. Nor did he know that the glass blocks under the
armour-plates of the crabs, which were placed in rubber frames to
protect them from concussion above, were also guarded by steel netting
from injury by small balls.
Valiantly the boats beset the crabs, keeping up a constant fusillade,
and endeavouring to throw grapnels over them. If one of these should
catch under an overlapping armour-plate it could be connected with the
steam windlass of the Adamant, and a plate might be ripped off or a
crab overturned.
But the crabs proved to be much more lively fish than their enemies had
supposed. Turning, as if on a pivot, and darting from side to side,
they seemed to be playing with the boats, and not trying to get away
from them. The spring armour of Crab K interfered somewhat with its
movements, and also put it in danger from attacks by grapnels, and it
therefore left most of the work to its consort.
Crab J, after darting swiftly in and out among her antagonists for some
time, suddenly made a turn, and dashing at one of the boats, ran under
it, and raising it on its glistening back, rolled it, bottom upward,
into the sea. In a moment the crew of the boat were swimming for their
lives. They were quickly picked up by two of the other boats, which
then deemed it prudent to return to the ship.
But the second officer of the Adamant, who commanded the fourth boat,
did not give up the fight. Having noted the spring armour of Crab K,
he believed that if he could get a grapnel between its steel ribs he
yet might capture the sea-monster. For some minutes Crab K contented
itself with eluding him; but, tired of this, it turned, and raising its
huge nippers almost out of the water, it seized the bow of the boat,
and gave it a gentle crunch, after which it released its hold and
retired. The boat, leaking rapidly through two ragged holes, was rowed
back to the ship, which it reached half full of water.
The great battle-ship, totally bereft of the power of moving herself,
was now rolling in the trough of the sea, and a signal came from the
repeller for Crab K to make fast to her and put her head to the wind.
This was quickly done, the crab attaching itself to the stern-post of
the Adamant by a pair of towing nippers. These were projected from the
stern of the crab, and were so constructed that the larger vessel did
not communicate all its motion to the smaller one, and could not run
down upon it.
As soon as the Adamant was brought up with her head to the wind she
opened fire upon the repeller. The latter vessel could easily have
sailed out of the range of a motionless enemy, but her orders forbade
this. Her director had been instructed by the Syndicate to expose his
vessel to the fire of the Adamant's heavy guns. Accordingly the
repeller steamed nearer, and turned her broadside toward the British
ship.
Scarcely had this been done when the two great bow guns of the Adamant
shook the air with tremendous roars, each hurling over the sea nearly a
ton of steel. One of these great shot passed over the repeller, but
the other struck her armoured side fairly amidship. There was a crash
and scream of creaking steel, and Repeller No. 7 rolled over to
windward as if she had been struck by a heavy sea. In a moment she
righted and shot ahead, and, turning, presented her port side to the
enemy. Instant examination of the armour on her other side showed that
the two banks of springs were uninjured, and that not an air-buffer had
exploded or failed to spring back to its normal length.
Firing from the Adamant now came thick and fast, the crab, in obedience
to signals, turning her about so as to admit the firing of some heavy
guns mounted amidships. Three enormous solid shot struck the repeller
at different points on her starboard armour without inflicting damage,
while the explosion of several shells which hit her had no more effect
upon her elastic armour than the impact of the solid shot.
It was the desire of the Syndicate not only to demonstrate to its own
satisfaction the efficiency of its spring armour, but to convince Great
Britain that her heaviest guns on her mightiest battle-ships could have
no effect upon its armoured vessels. To prove the absolute superiority
of their means of offence and defence was the supreme object of the
Syndicate. For this its members studied and worked by day and by
night; for this they poured out their millions; for this they waged
war. To prove what they claimed would be victory.
When Repeller No. 7 had sustained the heavy fire of the Adamant for
about half an hour, it was considered that the strength of her armour
had been sufficiently demonstrated; and, with a much lighter heart than
when he had turned her broadside to the Adamant, her director gave
orders that she should steam out of the range of the guns of the
British ship. During the cannonade Crab J had quietly slipped away
from the vicinity of the Adamant, and now joined the repeller.
The great ironclad battle-ship, with her lofty sides plated with nearly
two feet of solid steel, with her six great guns, each weighing more
than a hundred tons, with her armament of other guns, machine cannon,
and almost every appliance of naval warfare, with a small army of
officers and men on board, was left in charge of Crab K, of which only
a few square yards of armoured roof could be seen above the water.
This little vessel now proceeded to tow southward her vast prize,
uninjured, except that her rudder and propeller-blades were broken and
useless.
Although the engines of the crab were of enormous power, the progress
made was slow, for the Adamant was being towed stern foremost. It
would have been easier to tow the great vessel had the crab been
attached to her bow, but a ram which extended many feet under water
rendered it dangerous for a submerged vessel to attach itself in its
vicinity.
During the night the repeller kept company, although at a considerable
distance, with the captured vessel; and early the next morning her
director prepared to send to the Adamant a boat with a flag-of-truce,
and a letter demanding the surrender and subsequent evacuation of the
British ship. It was supposed that now, when the officers of the
Adamant had had time to appreciate the fact that they had no control
over the movements of their vessel; that their armament was powerless
against their enemies; that the Adamant could be towed wherever the
Syndicate chose to order, or left helpless in midocean,--they would be
obliged to admit that there was nothing for them to do but to surrender.
But events proved that no such ideas had entered the minds of the
Adamant's officers, and their action totally prevented sending a
flag-of-truce boat. As soon as it was light enough to see the repeller
the Adamant began firing great guns at her. She was too far away for
the shot to strike her, but to launch and send a boat of any kind into
a storm of shot and shell was of course impossible.
The cannon suspended over the stern of the Adamant was also again
brought into play, and shot after shot was driven down upon the towing
crab. Every ball rebounded from the spring armour, but the officer in
charge of the crab became convinced that after a time this constant
pounding, almost in the same place, would injure his vessel, and he
signalled the repeller to that effect.
The director of Repeller No. 7 had been considering the situation.
There was only one gun on the Adamant which could be brought to bear
upon Crab K, and it would be the part of wisdom to interfere with the
persistent use of this gun. Accordingly the bow of the repeller was
brought to bear upon the Adamant, and her motor gun was aimed at the
boom from which the cannon was suspended.
The projectile with which the cannon was loaded was not an
instantaneous motor-bomb. It was simply a heavy solid shot, driven by
an instantaneous motor attachment, and was thus impelled by the same
power and in the same manner as the motor-bombs. The instantaneous
motor-power had not yet been used at so great a distance as that
between the repeller and the Adamant, and the occasion was one of
intense interest to the small body of scientific men having charge of
the aiming and firing.
The calculations of the distance, of the necessary elevation and
direction, and of the degree of motor-power required, were made with
careful exactness, and when the proper instant arrived the button was
touched, and the shot with which the cannon was charged was
instantaneously removed to a point in the ocean about a mile beyond the
Adamant, accompanied by a large portion of the heavy boom at which the
gun had been aimed.
The cannon which had been suspended from the end of this boom fell into
the sea, and would have crashed down upon the roof of Crab K, had not
that vessel, in obedience to a signal from the repeller, loosened its
hold upon the Adamant and retired a short distance astern. Material
injury might not have resulted from the fall of this great mass of
metal upon the crab, but it was considered prudent not to take useless
risks.
The officers of the Adamant were greatly surprised and chagrined by the
fall of their gun, with which they had expected ultimately to pound in
the roof of the crab. No damage had been done to the vessel except the
removal of a portion of the boom, with some of the chains and blocks
attached, and no one on board the British ship imagined for a moment
that this injury had been occasioned by the distant repeller. It was
supposed that the constant firing of the cannon had cracked the boom,
and that it had suddenly snapped.
Even if there had been on board the Adamant the means for rigging up
another arrangement of the kind for perpendicular artillery practice,
it would have required a long time to get it into working order, and
the director of Repeller No. 7 hoped that now the British captain would
see the uselessness of continued resistance.
But the British captain saw nothing of the kind,
and shot after shot from his guns were hurled high into the air, in
hopes that the great curves described would bring some of them down on
the deck of the repeller. If this beastly store-ship, which could
stand fire but never returned it, could be sunk, the Adamant's captain
would be happy. With the exception of the loss of her motive power,
his vessel was intact, and if the stupid crab would only continue to
keep the Adamant's head to the sea until the noise of her cannonade
should attract some other British vessel to the scene, the condition of
affairs might be altered.
All that day the great guns of the Adamant continued to roar. The next
morning, however, the firing was not resumed, and the officers of the
repeller were greatly surprised to see approaching from the British
ship a boat carrying a white flag. This was a very welcome sight, and
the arrival of the boat was awaited with eager interest.
During the night a council had been held on board the Adamant. Her
cannonading had had no effect, either in bringing assistance or in
injuring the enemy; she was being towed steadily southward farther and
farther from the probable neighbourhood of a British man-of-war; and it
was agreed that it would be the part of wisdom to come to terms with
the Syndicate's vessel.
Therefore the captain of the Adamant sent a letter to the repeller, in
which he stated to the persons in charge of that ship, that although
his vessel had been injured in a manner totally at variance with the
rules of naval warfare, he would overlook this fact and would agree to
cease firing upon the Syndicate's vessels, provided that the submerged
craft which was now made fast to his vessel should attach itself to the
Adamant's bow, and by means of a suitable cable which she would
furnish, would tow her into British waters. If this were done he would
guarantee that the towing craft should have six hours in which to get
away.
When this letter was read on board the repeller it created considerable
merriment, and an answer was sent back that no conditions but those of
absolute surrender could be received from the British ship.
In three minutes after this answer had been received by the captain of
the Adamant, two shells went whirring and shrieking through the air
toward Repeller No. 7, and after that the cannonading from the bow, the
stern, the starboard, and the port guns of the great battle-ship went
on whenever there was a visible object on the ocean which looked in the
least like an American coasting vessel or man-of-war.
For a week Crab K towed steadily to the south this blazing and
thundering marine citadel; and then the crab signalled to the still
accompanying repeller that it must be relieved. It had not been fitted
out for so long a cruise, and supplies were getting low.
The Syndicate, which had been kept informed of all the details of this
affair, had already perceived the necessity of relieving Crab K, and
another crab, well provisioned and fitted out, was already on the way
to take its place. This was Crab C, possessing powerful engines, but
in point of roof armour the weakest of its class. It could be better
spared than any other crab to tow the Adamant, and as the British ship
had not, and probably could not, put out another suspended cannon, it
was considered quite suitable for the service required.
But when Crab C came within half a mile of the Adamant it stopped. It
was evident that on board the British ship a steady lookout had been
maintained for the approach of fresh crabs, for several enormous shell
and shot from heavy guns, which had been trained upward at a high
angle, now fell into the sea a short distance from the crab.
Crab C would not have feared these heavy shot had they been fired from
an ordinary elevation; and although no other vessel in the Syndicate's
service would have hesitated to run the terrible gauntlet, this one, by
reason of errors in construction, being less able than any other crab
to resist the fall from a great height of ponderous shot and shell,
thought it prudent not to venture into this rain of iron; and, moving
rapidly beyond the line of danger, it attempted to approach the Adamant
from another quarter. If it could get within the circle of falling
shot it would be safe. But this it could not do. On all sides of the
Adamant guns had been trained to drop shot and shells at a distance of
half a mile from the ship.
Around and around the mighty ironclad steamed Crab C; but wherever she
went her presence was betrayed to the fine glasses on board the Adamant
by the bit of her shining back and the ripple about it; and ever
between her and the ship came down that hail of iron in masses of a
quarter ton, half ton, or nearly a whole ton. Crab C could not venture
under these, and all day she accompanied the Adamant on her voyage
south, dashing to this side and that, and looking for the chance that
did not come, for all day the cannon of the battle-ship roared at her
wherever she might be.
The inmates of Crab K were now very restive and
uneasy, for they were on short rations, both of food and water. They
would have been glad enough to cast loose from the Adamant, and leave
the spiteful ship to roll to her heart's content, broadside to the sea.
They did not fear to run their vessel, with its thick roofplates
protected by spring armour, through the heaviest cannonade.
But signals from the repeller commanded them to stay by the Adamant as
long as they could hold out, and they were obliged to content
themselves with a hope that when night fell the other crab would be
able to get in under the stern of the Adamant, and make the desired
exchange.
But to the great discomfiture of the Syndicate's forces, darkness had
scarcely come on before four enormous electric lights blazed high up on
the single lofty mast of the Adamant, lighting up the ocean for a mile
on every side of the ship. It was of no more use for Crab C to try to
get in now than in broad daylight; and all night the great guns roared,
and the little crab manoeuvred.
The next morning a heavy fog fell upon the sea, and the battle-ship and
Crab C were completely shut out of sight of each other. Now the cannon
of the Adamant were silent, for the only result of firing would be to
indicate to the crab the location of the British ship. The
smoke-signals of the towing crab could not be seen through the fog by
her consorts, and she seemed to be incapable of making signals by
sound. Therefore the commander of the Adamant thought it likely that
until the fog rose the crab could not find his ship.
What that other crab intended to do could be, of course, on board the
Adamant, only a surmise; but it was believed that she would bring with
her a torpedo to be exploded under the British ship. That one crab
should tow her away from possible aid until another should bring a
torpedo to fasten to her stern-post seemed a reasonable explanation of
the action of the Syndicate's vessels.