THE FIRST BLOW.
On the evening of February 8th a fleet of dark-hulled ships moved
silently westward across the Yellow Sea. In the harbour of Port Arthur
lay the pride of the Russian navy, most of the ships riding peacefully
at anchor in the outer roads. They comprised the battle-ships
_Petropavlovsk_ (flagship), _Perseviet_, _Czarevitch_, _Retvizan_, and
_Sebastopol_, and the cruisers _Novik_, _Boyarin_, _Bayan_, _Diana_,
_Pallada_, _Askold_, and _Aurora_. Of the officers, many were on shore,
enjoying the hospitalities of the port and drinking the health of the
Czar. The crews were below decks, or smoking idly and talking, in the
low gutturals of their language, of home and friends far away. Secure in
their sense of their mighty domain and the power that reached from the
Baltic to the Pacific, they sang snatches of rude forecastle songs, or
joked and laughed at the prospects of a war with the Japanese, "those
little monkeys," who dared dispute even in mild diplomacy with the Great
Empire. And as they laughed, and the smoke curled upward from their
bearded lips, and the little waves of the peaceful harbour lapped softly
against the huge floating forts, the black hulls from the east crept
nearer, through the darkness.
Nine years had elapsed since the Japanese had invaded Korea and
Manchuria. In 1895, victor over the Chinese, firmly established with his
troops on the main land, with his fleet riding in the harbour of Port
Arthur, which his army had taken by storm, the Mikado had been compelled
by the powerful combination of Russia, France, and Germany to give up
the material fruits of his victory, and Japan, too exhausted to fight
for her rights, withdrew sullenly to her island Empire.
Three years later Russia obtained from China a twenty-five years' lease
of Port Arthur, which she claimed she needed "for the due protection of
her navy in the waters of North China." Her next move was to secure
right to build the Manchurian Railway, connecting her two Pacific ports,
Vladivostock and Port Arthur, with her western capital. She had at last
reached the open sea. Vladivostock, at the south-eastern extremity of
her own possessions in the north, was blocked by ice and shut off from
the ocean every winter; Port Arthur offered a safe and open roadstead
for her navy and mercantile marine throughout the year.
During the years that followed Russia strained every nerve to establish
her customs, her power, and her people in Manchuria. Japan saw the
danger to herself, but was powerless to prevent it. Recruiting from the
expenditures of the Chinese war, she prepared for the greater struggle
that was inevitable. She built up one of the most formidable navies the
world had seen; she trained her officers and crews by the most modern
methods; she reorganised her army and laboured to perfect it as a
fighting machine. By wise laws and enlightened counsels she fostered her
resources until her treasury was plethoric with gold. At last, early in
1903, she calmly reminded Russia that the stipulated term of her
occupation of Manchuria, save at Port Arthur, had expired; that her
excuse for remaining there no longer existed; that her pledges of
removal must be kept.
Russia winced under the word "must"; the keyword of her own domestic
polity, when applied by the nobles to the masses, it now had a strange
and unwelcome sound. She redoubled her efforts to pour troops into the
province, provisioned and fortified Port Arthur for a year's siege,
established a "railroad guard" of sixty thousand men,--and blandly
promised to retire in the following October.
Japan was no less alert. One by one the divisions of her great army were
mobilised. They were drilled unceasingly, by competent officers from
Western schools. They invented new and terrible explosives and engines
of war, and prepared their battle-ships and torpedo-boats for active
service. October passed, and the forces of Russia in Manchuria had been
largely augmented instead of diminished. More diplomatic messages,
couched in courteous terms, passed between the two capitals, and greater
numbers of armed men flocked to the eastern and western shores of the
Japan Sea.
Again and again St. Petersburg gained a modicum of time through silence
or evasive answer; while the rails of the long railroad groaned under
the heavy trains that day and night bore troops, supplies, and
ammunition eastward. At last the limit was reached. On the 6th of
February, at 4 P.M., Kurino, the Japanese minister at St. Petersburg,
presented himself at the Foreign Office at that city and informed Count
Lamsdorff that his government, in view of the delays in connexion with
the Russian answer to Japan's latest demand, and the futility of the
negotiations up to that time, considered it useless to continue
diplomatic relations and "_would take such steps as it deemed proper_
for the protection of Japan's interests." In obedience to instructions,
therefore, he asked, most gently and politely (after the fashion of his
countrymen), for his passports.
On one of the Japanese torpedo-boats silently approaching Port Arthur,
just forty-eight hours after M. Kurino had made his farewell bow at the
court of the Czar, was Oto Owari. No one who had seen him on the
_Osprey_, meekly serving his commander with sliced cucumbers and broiled
chicken, would have recognised the trim, alert little figure in the blue
uniform, his visor drawn low over his sparkling eyes, his whole bearing
erect, manly and marked with intense resolve as he conned his vessel
through the channel toward the doomed fleet of the enemy.
When the American ship arrived at Shanghai, Oto had at once procured his
own discharge and that of Oshima, which was an informal matter, they not
being enlisted men but merely cabin servants. Rexdale was glad to let
them go. The little Japs were too mysterious and secretive personages to
render their presence welcome on a war-ship where the commander should
know all that is going on, above-board and below. Dave more than half
suspected that his stewards were of more importance in their own country
than their menial office would indicate; and while he could not exactly
regard them in the light of spies--Japan being friendly to the United
States--he felt more comfortable when they had taken their little grips
and marched ashore to mingle with the heterogeneous population of the
Chinese port.
[Illustration: PICKED UP BY THE SEARCHLIGHT.]
The torpedo-boats increased their speed as they neared the outer basin
of the harbour of Port Arthur. Oto steered his small black craft
directly toward a huge battle-ship with three smoke-stacks.
"It is the _Retvizan_," he whispered to the officer next in command. "I
know where to strike her. Wait for the order."
The Russian ships had their nets out. They believed the Japanese fleet
two hundred miles away.
"Now!" hissed Oto sharply; and in a moment a long, black, cigar-shaped
missile leaped from the bows of his ship toward the Russian leviathan.
It dashed, foaming, through the water, sheared its way through the steel
meshes of the torpedo net, and struck the hull of the doomed _Retvizan_
exactly where Oto had planned his attack. There was a dull roar, echoed
by another and another a short distance away. Wild cries and shrieks of
anguish rose from the Russian fleet. Two mighty battle-ships, the
_Retvizan_ and the _Czarevitch_, slowly heeled over, mortally wounded.
The cruiser _Pallada_ began to settle. She, too, was pierced below the
water-line. Thus the Japanese declared war.
The harbour now seemed full of torpedo-boats. Flash-lights from the
forts on the Golden Horn and the Tiger's Tail disclosed the swarm of
invaders. The hills resounded with the sudden roar of artillery, and
every machine-gun in the Russian fleet that could be trained on the
audacious enemy poured its hail of steel shot upon them. Outside the
harbour, within easy range, lay the heavier vessels of the Japanese,
which opened fire on the forts and the town from their great
turret-guns. In the midst of the uproar and confusion the torpedo-boats
which had inflicted such terrible damage retired to the shelter of the
outer battle-ships and cruisers, unhurt. The _Retvizan_ limped over to
the entrance of the harbour and rested on the rocks. The _Czarevitch_
was towed out of further danger. The storm of Japanese shot and shell
diminished and at length ceased altogether, as the attacking fleet
withdrew. The assault had occupied less than an hour; at one o'clock all
was silent again, save where the wounded were being cared for, on the
ill-fated _Retvizan_ and her sister ships, and the crews of every vessel
in the harbour talked hoarsely as they stood to their guns, with decks
cleared for further action. The first sea-battle--if such it can be
called--of the twentieth century was over. Japan had struck, and struck
fiercely. Russia was stunned by the blow. Although she did not then
realise it, her sea-power in the Pacific was at an end, for years to
come.
"_Sayonara, Retvizan!_" said Commander Oto Owari grimly, as he headed
his ship for the open sea.
The midnight attack was but the first outburst of the storm. Before
noon the Mikado's fleet returned, as the United States ships came back
at the battle of Manila, and once more the huge twelve-inch rifles
thundered and the shore forts replied. The still uninjured vessels of
the Russians came bravely out to meet the foe, but reeled under the
terrible fire that was concentrated upon them. For an hour the bolts
fell thick and fast. Then the Japanese drew back, and the Russians,
dazed, bewildered, thunderstruck at the swiftness and might of the
assault, again counted their losses.
"By order of Viceroy Alexieff," reported the commanding officer to St.
Petersburg, "I beg to report that at about eleven o'clock in the morning
a Japanese squadron, consisting of about fifteen battle-ships and
cruisers, approached Port Arthur and opened fire....
" ... At about midday the Japanese squadron ceased its fire and left,
proceeding south.
"Our losses are two naval officers and fifty-one men killed.... During
the engagement the battle-ship _Poltava_ and the cruisers _Diana_,
_Askold_, and _Novik_ were damaged on the water-line."
Three battle-ships and four cruisers put out of action in a single day!
But more was to follow.
In the harbour of Chemulpo, across the neck of the Yellow Sea, lay the
Russian cruisers _Variag_ and _Korietz_, in company with several
war-ships of other nations, including the U. S. gunboat _Vicksburg_. On
the evening before the assault on Port Arthur the commanders of these
two cruisers were notified by the Rear-Admiral Uriu, commanding a
Japanese squadron, which lay just outside, that on the following day
they would be attacked at their moorings if they did not quit the port
by noon. Other foreign ships in the harbour were warned to withdraw from
the line of fire.
Early the next morning the _Variag_ and _Korietz_ cleared for action,
and, with their bands playing the Russian national anthem, slipped their
cables and moved slowly out of the harbour to sure destruction, amid the
cheers of the crews of other nations, who appreciated their splendid
bravery and the devotion of the men to the Czar, at whose command they
were ready for death in its most terrible form.
At a range of nearly four miles the battle began. The Japanese squadron
opened fire upon the advancing Russians, who replied as promptly as if
they were the forefront of a fleet of a dozen battle-ships, instead of a
cruiser and gunboat as absolutely helpless as two spaniels encountering
a pack of wolves.
Five shells struck the _Variag_ in rapid succession, while shrapnel
swept the crews repeatedly from her guns. A single shell killed or
disabled all save one of the gunners on her forecastle; another struck
one of her six-inch rifles (the largest in her armament), and exploded
part of her ammunition; still another demolished her fore-bridge and set
fire to the _débris_, so that the crew had to cease firing and rush to
fire stations. Two shells now penetrated at the water-line. The second
bridge was wrecked and a funnel shattered. All this time the _Korietz_
was firing wildly and doing little damage to the Japanese, who paid but
slight attention to her.
The _Variag_, to save the lives of her remaining crew, turned slowly
toward the shore, and, accompanied by the gunboat, regained her
anchorage, listing heavily and evidently sinking fast. Surgeons and
ambulances were instantly despatched to the doomed ship by every
war-ship in the harbour, including the _Vicksburg_. It was maliciously
reported that the latter did not assist in this Samaritan work, but the
slander was refuted and absolutely disproved. Commander Marshall, of the
_Vicksburg_, was one of the very first to send boats to rescue the
sailors, and medical aid to succour the wounded.
At four o'clock the _Korietz_ was blown up by her commander. There were
two sharp explosions, forward and aft. A mass of flame arose, and a
column of black smoke rolled upward. As the noise of the explosion died
away the Russians on the other ships could be heard across the bay
singing the national anthem.
The _Variag's_ sea-cocks were now opened, and the ship gradually
filled. At five, a succession of small, sharp explosions were heard. The
Russian captain, fearing that the Japanese would arrive, begged the
commander of a British war-ship to fire at her water-line, but he
refused.
The list to port became more and more marked, and flames burst out from
the sides and stern of the beautiful ship which, like the _Retvizan_,
had been the pride of the builders in Cramp's Philadelphia shipyard a
few years before.
The ship's guns remained fast to the end, but there was a tremendous
clatter and roar of gear falling to leeward. At last, with a slow and
majestic plunge, the _Variag_ sank, all her tubes charged with
torpedoes, and her great rifled guns pointing upward. Soon afterward the
mail-boat _Sungari_ was fired, and the flames sent their red glow over
the harbour of Chemulpo until it and all the ships seemed embayed in a
sea of blood, while the wounded and dying men moaned below decks. So
ended the first terrible day of the war, and night fell, as softly, as
gently, as on the hills of Palestine long ago when the holy Babe lay in
the manger and the angels sang "Peace on earth--good will to men!"