"SEALING UP" PORT ARTHUR.
Our gallant and indefatigable little Admiral seemed to spend all his
spare time in scheming out plans for the discomfiture of the enemy; and
about this time he evolved one which seemed to possess all the elements
of a brilliant success.
Knowing that Russian spies swarmed everywhere, he prepared an elaborate
scheme to sow Port Arthur roadstead, in front of the harbour entrance,
with electro-mechanical mines, with the ostensible object of preventing
the Russian fleet from coming out. These mines were stated to be of a
peculiarly dangerous and deadly character, invented by Captain Odo.
With great ingenuity the details of the scheme were permitted to
gradually leak out, so that in due time they came into the knowledge of
the Russian spies and were promptly transmitted to Port Arthur. As a
matter of fact, however, the mines which were proposed to be, and
actually were, sown, were of a very innocuous character, Togo's object
being to imbue the Russian mind with the idea that the Japanese mines
were so useless that they might be safely disregarded. Then, when this
object had been achieved, genuine Odo mines would be sown, with
disastrous results to such Russian ships as might chance to run foul of
them.
The task of sowing the innocuous mines was entrusted to two divisions of
destroyers, consisting of five craft; the first division being composed
of the _Asashio, Kasanumi_, and _Akatsuki_, while the _Akebono_ and
_Sazanami_ constituted the second division. Ito and I had both happily
recovered from our indisposition by this time, and were able to rejoin
the fleet in time to participate in the projected operation. Although
promoted to the rank of Commander, I was left in command of the
_Kasanumi_; but Ito got a step up the ratlines, being given the command
of the _Akatsuki_, while a youngster named Hiraoka was given me in his
place.
On 9th March we were busy all day shipping our harmless mines; and at
eight o'clock in the evening we weighed and, under easy steam, proceeded
from our base at the Elliot Islands, bound for Port Arthur roadstead,
accompanied by the fast cruiser squadron, the duty of which was to
support us in the event of our being attacked, and cover our escape.
By 11:30 p.m. we were within ten miles of the roadstead; and at this
point we parted company with the cruisers, who now hove-to for half an
hour, to allow us time to reach our destination. At the expiration of
that time, a light or two were "accidentally" revealed on board the
cruisers for a few seconds, just long enough to give the Port Arthur
lookouts an opportunity to detect them, when they were extinguished.
But the ruse was successful, the attention of the lookouts had been
attracted, and instantly the searchlights from the station on the cliff
to the eastward of the harbour were turned upon the cruisers and kept
steadily bearing upon them. They were, of course, so far away that they
were only dimly descried, and too far distant to make it worth while to
open fire upon them, but their movements were--of set purpose--of so
suspicious a character that, having once detected them, the Russians
were determined not to lose sight of them again. The attention of the
lookouts having thus been attracted to our cruisers in the offing, we in
the destroyers were able to slip into the roadstead undetected.
Arrived there, we lost no time in sowing our mine-field right athwart
the harbour's mouth, and, had we been so minded, could have finished our
work and retired before daylight. But to render the Admiral's scheme
successful, it was necessary that we should be seen, and the nature of
our work recognised; the 2nd Division therefore reserved a few mines to
be dropped after daylight, and when that came they were at once
discovered dropping mines, in a state of apparently feverish haste. The
forts, of course, at once opened fire upon them; but before they could
get the range, our destroyers launched their remaining mines overboard,
and took to their heels, their task being accomplished. And now, all
that remained was to patiently await the course of events, and thus see
how far this part of Togo's plan had been successful.
The game, however, was not yet finished. While we had been busily
dropping our mines, what I thought a rather brilliant idea had occurred
to me; and, ceasing work for a while, I steamed up alongside the
_Akebono_, of our 2nd Division, and imparted my idea to Commander
Tsuchiya, who was pleased to very heartily approve of it. In accordance
with my scheme, therefore, the 1st Destroyer Division completed its task
before daylight, and quietly steamed off round to the westward of
Liau-ti-shan, where we remained snugly concealed, close in under the
cliffs.
My idea was that if our 2nd Division were discovered--as it was
necessary it should be, the Russians would probably send out a few
destroyers to attack it; and the event proved that my surmise was
correct. Six Russian destroyers were dispatched from the harbour,
presumably with instructions to wipe the _Akebono_ and _Sazanami_ off
the face of the waters; and as soon as the latter saw the enemy
approaching, on a course intended to cut off their retreat to the
eastward, the two boats swerved sharply away to the westward, with their
funnels belching great clouds of smoke, and every indication that their
crews were in a terrible state of fright--but with their engines working
at only about three-quarter speed. The Russians, stimulated by our 2nd
Division's apparent terror, and finding also that they were steadily
gaining upon the chase, strained every nerve to overtake them, and at
length came pounding round the point in great style.
Meanwhile, the two retreating Japanese destroyers had already swept past
us--thus giving us the signal to be on the lookout--and, veering round,
in a wide semi-circle, formed up in our rear, we of the 1st Division
having already started our engines as soon as they hove in sight.
On came the Russian destroyers, rolling and pitching on the long swell,
with the water spouting and curling under their sharp bows to the height
of their bridges; and the moment that the first of them swung round the
point, over went the indicators of our engine-room telegraphs to "Full
speed ahead!" Our gun crews had been standing to their guns for some
time past, all ready for action, and as we swept out to seaward,
crossing the Russians' bows, we let fly at them with our twelve-pounders
and as many of our six-pounders as could be brought to bear,
concentrating our fire as much as possible upon the enemy's guns,
several of which we succeeded in dismounting.
I feel bound to admit that, taken by surprise though they were, the
Russians put up a splendid fight; but although they were superior to us
in numbers, our men would not be denied, they worked their guns as
coolly and with as deadly precision as though they had been at target
practice, and the Russian boats were hulled again and again, clouds of
steam arose from them, fires broke out aboard some of them, and so
closely were we engaged that we could occasionally hear the cries of the
wounded that arose as our shot swept their decks. The fight, which was
a very hot one, lasted some twenty minutes, by which time the Russians
had managed to get back round the point and under the cover of the
batteries. We followed them to the very mouth of the harbour, fighting
every inch of the way, but, at length, with heavy shells falling all
round us, in some cases dropping so close that our decks were drenched
with spray, it became imperative for us to be off, and we accordingly
ported our helms and made off, followed by salvos of shot, big and
small, until we were out of range.
Then we slowed down our engines and proceeded to take stock of our
injuries.
So far as the _Kasanumi_ was concerned, we had got off pretty lightly,
although there was a period of about three minutes when we were hotly
engaged by two Russian destroyers at the same time. Our decks were
rather severely scored by flying fragments of shells, we had three
shot-holes in our hull, we had one man killed and two wounded, one of
them being our chief engineer, who, although severely wounded by a
fragment of a shell which burst in the engine-room, gallantly stuck to
his post until the fight was over, when he was able to turn the engines
over to his second. The _Akatsuki_ had received the severest
punishment, one of her steam pipes being severed, and four of her
engine-room hands scalded to death. In all, we lost in this fight seven
killed and eight wounded; but none of the boats was very seriously
damaged.
Meanwhile, our 2nd Division, consisting of the _Akebono_ and _Sazanami_,
had vanished, without leaving a sign of their whereabouts. It was now
daylight, and the weather tolerably clear, yet, although Hiraoka and I
swept the whole surface of the sea with our glasses, we entirely failed
to pick them up. The _Asashio_ and _Akatsuki_ were within hail, both of
them engaged, like ourselves, in temporarily patching up the holes in
their thin steel sides, through which the water was pouring in whenever
we rolled extra heavily; and I hailed them both, inquiring whether
either of them had seen anything of the missing craft. An affirmative
reply came from my friend Ito, aboard the _Akatsuki_, who informed me
that shortly after the fight began, on the other side of the promontory,
he had momentarily caught sight of them both, steaming hot-foot after a
destroyer which was in full flight, heading toward Pigeon Bay.
Scarcely had this reply been given when the sounds of light gun-fire
faintly reached our ears from the direction mentioned, and a few minutes
later two destroyers, flying the Russian flag, came foaming round the
point, firing as they came, while close behind them appeared our two
missing boats, also firing for all they were worth. The Russian boats
were running in "line ahead," and it seemed to me that the skipper of
the leading boat was manoeuvring her in such a manner as to keep his
consort as nearly as possible between himself and the pursuers; at all
events the sternmost boat seemed to be getting the biggest share of the
pursuers' fire.
At once I shouted an order for the men engaged upon our repairs to
hasten their work and bring it to some sort of finish, at the same time
signing the quartermaster to put his helm hard over, my intention of
course being to go back and render such assistance as might be required,
while the _Asashio_ kept on and stood by Ito, who had his hands full
with his severed steam pipe.
But it was impossible for us now to steam at a greater speed than about
three knots, for had we attempted to do so, we should have washed
overboard the men who were making the repairs, as well as washed the
repairs themselves away, in their uncompleted state; consequently, long
before we could get near the scene of action, the fight was over. One
of the destroyers--the leading one--managed to get safely into the
harbour, while the other, which turned out to be the _Stercguschtchi_,
riddled with shells, lost speed to such an extent that at length the
_Sazanami_ was able to run alongside and throw a boarding party upon her
deck. They found that deck a veritable shambles, no less than thirty
dead being counted upon it. Naturally, they took the craft without any
resistance worth mentioning, for there were very few left to resist,
while, of those who remained, the greater number jumped overboard rather
than surrender. Of these, only two were picked up, while two others,
too badly wounded to either fight or take to the water, surrendered.
At once the _Sazanami_ took her prize in tow; but the craft was so
seriously damaged that, despite all efforts to save her, she rapidly
filled and sank, the towing hawser parting as she foundered.
Meanwhile the _Akebono_ was in a somewhat parlous condition, for during
the fight she had been struck on the waterline, and was now limping
along as best she could, with two compartments filled; when, therefore,
the Russian boat foundered, the _Sazanami_ went to her consort's
assistance and took her in tow, for two Russian cruisers, identified as
the _Novik_ and _Bayan_, were now seen to be coming out of Port Arthur
harbour, and it was high time for us all to be off. Happily for us, by
the time that the Russian cruisers were fairly out of harbour, five of
our own cruisers had hove up above the horizon, steaming rapidly
shoreward to our support, whereupon the Russians turned tail and
retreated.
As our cruisers came up, their flagship signalled us to proceed to our
rendezvous, after ascertaining that we could look after ourselves and
needed no assistance; and shortly afterward we fell in with our main
fleet, under Togo, bound for Pigeon Bay, whither the Admiral was
proceeding for the purpose of testing his theory that the fortress could
be successfully bombarded by high-angle fire projected over the high
land between Pigeon Bay and the town. The signal was made for Commander
Tsuchiya and me to proceed on board the _Mikasa_, where we jointly made
our report, with which the Admiral was pleased to express his
satisfaction. He, too, was anxious to know whether we required any
assistance, and finding that we did not, ordered us to proceed to our
rendezvous and get our repairs put in hand without a moment's delay. We
arrived safely at our destination early in the afternoon, and within the
next hour our damaged craft were in the hands of strong repairing gangs,
so prompt were the Japanese to act.
The main fleet arrived at the rendezvous shortly before sunset, and
anchored. I looked keenly at ship after ship, as they steamed in, but
could detect no signs of injury to any of them; so after dinner I took
our dinghy and rowed across to the _Mikasa_, with several of the
officers of which I was by this time on quite intimate terms. The first
man I happened to run into, however, upon passing in through the gangway
was Captain Ijichi, commanding the ship; and he, as anxious to hear my
yarn as I was to hear his, instantly pounced upon me and marched me off
to his own cabin, where we were presently joined by Lieutenant Prince
Kasho, for whom Ijichi had sent.
Here I was made to start the proceedings by spinning, at considerably
greater length, the yarn which I had related to the Admiral earlier in
the day, and which I was now able to supplement with the additional
information that our 2nd Division had chased the Russian destroyer, of
which they had started in pursuit, into Pigeon Bay, where they had sunk
her. The honours of the day were of course with them, for they had
accounted for two Russian destroyers, whereas we of the 1st Division had
only given five of the enemy a very severe mauling; nevertheless, my
little audience were good enough to stamp our performance with their
marked approval.
Then the skipper of the _Mikasa_ related his story. The long-range
bombardment of Port Arthur was not a very exciting affair, it seemed,
but it was successful in so far that it proved the correctness of the
Admiral's theory that it could be done by firing over the high ground
and dropping shells upon an unseen mark on the other side.
The attempt was of a twofold character, one part of which was to test
the above theory, while the other was to destroy the Russian signal
station upon the island of Sanshan, off Dalny, from which spot the enemy
were able to observe and report to Port Arthur the movements of our
fleet. This task was successfully accomplished by a detachment of our
cruisers.
As regards the long-range, high-angle bombardment of the fortress, it
was accomplished in the following fashion. Our battleships proceeded
round to the westward of the promontory of Liau-ti-shan to a spot where
the high land hid them from the sight of the Port Arthur batteries, and,
elevating the muzzles of their 12-inch guns to the required extent, they
discharged five rounds each from their four guns--one hundred and twenty
shots in all, one shot at a time, while our first cruiser squadron,
stationed off the port, to the south-east, carefully noted the spot
where each shell dropped, and reported the result by wireless to the
battleships, thus enabling them to adjust their aim and rectify any
inaccuracies. The result was that one of our shells hit the Golden Hill
fort, exploding a magazine and doubtless doing a considerable amount of
damage to the structure, while the Mantow Hill fort, on the west side of
the harbour, was hit several times and considerably damaged. Several
shells fell in the New Town of Port Arthur, setting fire to a number of
houses there and causing a tremendous panic and great loss of life. The
fifth shell fired by our battleships struck the Russian battleship
_Retvisan_, while another fell aboard the _Sevastopol_, exploding on her
armoured deck. Yet another of our shells struck a train which happened
to be just entering Port Arthur station, destroying the locomotive and,
as we subsequently learned, killing the engine-driver and severely
wounding the fireman. Finally, the _Retvisan_ adopted our own tactics
and retaliated by firing her heavy guns over the intervening high
ground, while some of the forts did the same, a party of signallers
being stationed on the crest of the hill to direct their aim. As a
result of this, shells at length began to drop near our ships; whereupon
the Admiral, in obedience to his instructions not to risk his
battleships, hauled off; the fleet, as it went, observing three dense
columns of smoke rising from the city.
Seeing that our ships were retiring, the Russian Admiral led out to sea
such of his ships as were fit for service, with the evident intention of
luring our ships into the zone of fire of the forts; but he might as
well have saved his coal, for Togo was much too wary a bird to be caught
with that kind of chaff.
On the following day we learned by wireless, from one of our cruiser
scouts, that the Russian fleet was being cautiously taken out to sea
through our mine-field off the harbour's mouth, the innocuous character
of which they had already ascertained,--as intended by our Admiral,--
and, later on, the further information reached us that the fleet was at
sea and carrying out evolutions while cautiously working its way
southward. Later still, we were informed that the Russians, learning
from their scouts that none of our ships were in the vicinity, had
proceeded as far as the Miao-tao Islands, off the Shan-tung peninsula,
which they subjected to a careful examination, under the impression, as
we subsequently learned, that those islands were being used by our
destroyers as a hiding-place from which to make our raids. All hands of
us immediately made our preparations to weigh at a moment's notice,
fully expecting that the Admiral would seize what seemed such a splendid
opportunity to intercept the enemy and give him battle in the open sea.
But no orders were issued; and we were given to understand that there
were certain good and sufficient secret reasons why the opportunity must
be permitted to pass. A great deal of surprise, not to say
dissatisfaction, was caused by this strange decision; but discipline was
so strong, and the idea of implicit, unquestioning obedience had been so
thoroughly instilled into the Japanese mind, that not a word of
grumbling passed any of our lips.
On the night of 21st March the tactics of the 9th of the same month were
repeated, including the laying of harmless mines off the mouth of the
harbour, and the high-angle bombardment of the fortress by the _Fuji_
and _Yashima_ from Pigeon Bay; but the affair was uneventful; it may
therefore be dismissed with the bare mention of it. The Russian ships
again came out of harbour and ranged themselves in battle formation in
the roadstead, but no wiles of ours could tempt them to leave the
protection of the forts, so we drew off and returned to our rendezvous
among the Elliot Islands.
During the night of 22nd March, four merchant steamers, purchased by the
Japanese Government, arrived at our rendezvous from Sasebo, in response
to a request from Togo; and the Admiral, with characteristic energy, at
once proceeded to prepare them for the task of making a second attempt
to bottle up the fleet in Port Arthur harbour.
They were the _Fukui Maru, Chiyo Maru, Yoneyama Maru_, and _Yahiko
Maru_--all old craft, practically worn-out, and of very little value.
These ships, like those used in the first attempt, were loaded with
stones and scrap iron consolidated into a mass by pouring liquid cement
over it, thus converting it into a sort of reinforced concrete,
underneath which was buried the explosion charges destined to blow out
the bottoms of the ships and sink them upon their arrival at their
destined stations.
Hirose, now promoted to the rank of Commander for the gallantry which he
displayed upon the occasion of the first attempt, was given the command
of the largest ship, the _Fukui Maru_, while, to my intense surprise and
gratification, I was given the command of the _Chiyo Maru_, a craft of
1746 tons. The expedition was in charge of Commander Arima, who went
with Hirose. The ships were armed with a few old Hotchkiss
quick-firers, for use against torpedo craft, should any attack us.
Our preparations were completed late in the afternoon of 26th March; and
we immediately weighed and proceeded to sea, escorted by a flotilla of
destroyers and torpedo-boats, among which was the _Kasanumi_,
temporarily under the command of my subordinate, young Hiraoka, who had
already proved himself to be a very capable, discreet, and courageous
lad.
The weather on this occasion was everything that could be desired,
perfectly clear, with no wind and a sea so calm that the veriest
cock-boat could have safely ventured upon it. The only drawback was
that there was a moon, well advanced in her first quarter, floating high
in a sky dappled with light, fleecy cloud through which enough light
percolated to render even small craft distinctly visible on the horizon.
But, after all, this would not greatly matter, indeed it would be an
advantage to us, always provided, of course, that we were not
prematurely sighted by some keen-visioned, swift-steaming Russian scout;
for the moon would set about midnight, while two o'clock in the morning
was the time set for our attempt.
The run to the offing of Port Arthur was like a pleasure trip; our fleet
of old crocks pounded along steadily, with a soft, soothing sound of
purling water rising from under their bows, dominated from time to time
by the clank of our crazy engines, which our mechanics had doctored up
as thoroughly as time permitted, in order to ensure that they should
outlast the run across. There was nothing for us to do but follow our
leader, so I spent an hour of the time in making sure that our solitary
boat should reach the water with certainty and on a level keel when the
time should come to launch her, taking the turns out of the davit
tackles, well greasing the falls, oiling the block sheaves, and rigging
up a device of my own contriving whereby the necessity to unhook the
blocks could be avoided when the boat touched the water.
At eleven o'clock Commander Arima signalled the destroyer flotilla, and
five of the fastest of them at once went full speed ahead, spreading out
in a fan-shaped formation ahead of us and on either bow to reconnoitre
the roadstead. At ten minutes to midnight the moon, a great golden
half-disc, swimming in a violet sky flecked with great islands of soft,
fleecy cloud, touched the high land of Liau-ti-shan; and as she sank
behind it, the order was given to stop our engines and lay-to for a
short while, as we had made a good passage and were somewhat ahead of
our scheduled time; also to await the return and report of the
destroyers. We were now about twelve miles off Port Arthur, and far
enough beyond the range of the searchlights to ensure our presence being
undetected.
With the setting of the moon, the clouds seemed to bunch together and
acquire a greater density, and it fell very dark, such starlight as
filtered through the canopy of cloud only barely sufficing to enable us
to detect our next ship ahead and astern. The land about Port Arthur
loomed up in the darkness like a shapeless black shadow, stretched along
the horizon to the west and north, pierced only by the long beam of the
searchlight on Golden Hill, sweeping slowly to and fro at intervals.
Watching this, for want of something better to do, we presently noticed
that, for some reason not explicable to us, the beam never travelled
farther south than a certain point, where it invariably paused for a few
seconds, and then slowly swept round toward the north again.
Wondering whether Arima also had noticed this, I rang our engines ahead
for a revolution or two, and hailed the _Fukui_ to inquire. It appeared
that he had not; and I was in the middle of a suggestion, the observance
of which would, I believed, enable us to get close in, undetected, when
our destroyers came rushing back with the information that everything
was clear ahead, and that the prospects of success looked exceedingly
promising. Whereupon Arima, hailing me, directed me to take the lead in
the _Chiyo_, steering such a course as seemed desirable, and the rest
would follow. Accordingly, we in the _Chiyo_ went ahead, the _Fukui_
falling in next astern, and the other two retaining their original
positions.
We started at a speed of six knots only, to give our stokers a chance to
get their boilers into the best possible trim and to raise a good head
of steam for the final rush, and as soon as our safety valves began to
blow off, we increased the number of our revolutions until, when we
arrived within four miles of the harbour's mouth, we were racing in, as
though for a wager. At this point the destroyers stopped their engines
and lay-to. They had done the first part of their work, and must now
wait until we had done ours.
Meanwhile, I had quite made up my mind as to the proper thing to do, and
accordingly shaped a course by which, instead of running straight in,
and so crossing the track of the searchlight beam, we edged away to the
southward and westward, traversing the arc of a circle, and so just
keeping outside the range of the beam. But of course this sort of thing
could not go on indefinitely; to enter the harbour we must, sooner or
later, get within the range of the light; and when we arrived within two
miles of the harbour's mouth further concealment became impossible. But
we had done not at all badly, for a ten minutes' rush would now see us
where we wanted to be, if in the meantime we were not hit and blown out
of the water.
As we came within reach of the searchlight, I called down to the
engine-room, enjoining those below to give the old packet every ounce of
steam they could muster; and the engineer responded by calmly screwing
down the safety valves, ignoring the fact that, by doing so, he risked
the bursting of the boilers. This was no time for caution, and if the
worn-out kettles would only stand the strain for another ten minutes,
all might be well.
Slowly the searchlight beam came sweeping round toward us, until it
rested fully upon us. It swept on for a yard or two, switched back,
paused for a few seconds, and then began to wave wildly to and fro,
seemingly by way of a signal, while a solitary gunshot pealed out upon
the air. Then the light came back to us, fully revealing the four
steamers making their headlong rush for the harbour entrance.
Following that solitary gunshot there was a tense silence, lasting for
perhaps half a minute, while searchlight after searchlight was turned
upon us from the heights and from every ship so placed that they could
be brought to bear. Then, as though at a preconcerted signal, the
batteries on the heights and two gunboats anchored at the harbour
entrance opened fire upon us, and the darkness of the night was stabbed
and pierced by jets of flame, while the air became vibrant with the hiss
and scream of projectiles of every description, which fell all round us,
lashing the surface of the sea into innumerable jets of phosphorescent
foam. The crash of the heavy gun-fire, and the sharper crackle of the
quick-firers, raised such a terrific din that it quickly became
impossible to make one's voice heard; but my crew had already received
their orders, and the moment that we got within range they opened a
steady fire with our two old Hotchkisses upon the gunboats at the
harbour's mouth, while our destroyers, pushing boldly in after us,
opened fire upon the searchlights, hoping to destroy them, and
endeavouring by every possible device to distract the attention of the
gunners and to draw their fire from us. But in this they were
unsuccessful; the Russians at once divined our intention to seal up the
harbour, and recognised that it was vastly more important to them to
frustrate our purpose than to waste their fire upon our elusive
destroyers; and I doubt whether a single gun was turned upon them.
On through the tempest of projectiles we rushed, our old and patched-up
engines rattling and clanking and groaning as they worked under such a
pressure of steam as they had not known for many a long day; the
stokers, after a final firing-up, came on deck, by order of the
engineer, and went upon the topgallant forecastle to assist with the
guns; and I took up my station by the wheelhouse to con the ship to her
appointed berth, which was immediately under Golden Hill, and about a
hundred yards from the shore. One of the two gunboats that were
guarding the entrance was anchored so nearly in our way that I was
sorely tempted to give her the stem and sink her where she lay. But I
successfully resisted the temptation, for, had we sunk her, she was too
far out to have become an obstruction, while we should probably have
smashed in our own bows and gone to the bottom before arriving at our
station. As we surged past her, however, within twenty fathoms, we
peppered her smartly with our quick-firers, receiving in return a ragged
discharge from her entire battery, including a shell from her 6-inch gun
which happily passed through our starboard bulwarks and out through our
port without exploding. Our foretopmast was at this moment shot away,
and fell on deck, but hurt no one, our funnel was riddled with shrapnel,
and a bridge stanchion, within a foot of where I was standing, was cut
in two; but none of us was hurt. The next moment a shell struck our
mainmast and sent it over the side, luckily severing the rotten shrouds
and stays also, so that it fell clear and did not foul our propeller. A
few seconds later a shell dropped upon our after-deck and exploded,
blowing a jagged circular hole of some twenty feet diameter in it, and
setting the planks on fire; but a few buckets of water promptly applied
sufficed to extinguish the blaze.
Meanwhile we were plugging along in grand style and drawing so near to
our destination that I called to the men to cease firing, and for two of
them to stand by to let go the anchor while the rest came aft and held
themselves ready to jump into our solitary boat when I gave the word.
It was wonderfully exciting work, for as we drew nearer in we came into
the range of fire of other forts and ships, and the air seemed to be
thick with missiles, while shrapnel was bursting all round us, and the
water was torn by flying shot to such an extent that our decks were
streaming, and all hands of us were wet through with the thrown-up
spray.
At length our appointed berth was so close at hand that I rang down to
stop the engines and signed to the helmsman to put his helm hard a-port,
while I stationed myself close to the electric button, pressure on which
would fire the explosives in our hold and blow our bottom out. We were
now so close in under the cliffs that the Golden Hill guns could no
longer reach us, also we were out of range of the great searchlights,
consequently we were enshrouded in darkness, yet the forts on the west
side of the harbour still maintained their fire upon us; but we were now
lost in the deep shadow of the cliffs, and the shots flew wide.
Half a minute later, I called down the tube to the engineer to send his
engines astern to check our way, and then come on deck; and he was still
ascending the engine-room ladder when I shouted to the men forward to
let go the anchor. It fell with a great splash, and as we had snubbed
her at a short scope, she quickly brought up in the exact spot destined
for her.
"Lower away the boat, and tumble in, men," I shouted; and the words were
hardly out of my mouth when I heard the murmur of the falls through the
blocks, and the splash of the boat as she hit the water. A few muffled
ejaculations followed as the men slid down the falls, then came the
rattle of oars as they were thrown out; and finally a voice crying:
"All ready, Captain, we only wait for you."
"Good!" I ejaculated, and rammed down the button. A tremendous jolt
that all but flung me off the bridge, accompanied by a not very loud
explosion, followed, the ship trembled as though she had been a sentient
thing, and the sound of water, as though pouring through a sluice,
reached my ears. Down the ladder I rushed, on to the main deck, seized
one of the davit tackles and slid down into the boat; and as the men
replied to my question that all were present, the bowman thrust the boat
away from the sinking steamer's side, and the oars churned up the water
as we pulled away.
"Give way, lively, lads," I cried, as I seized the tiller; "we'll get
close inshore, where nobody can see us, and save our skins in that way.
We have happily escaped thus far; and it would be a pity for any of us
to get hit now. There goes the old _Chiyo_! she hasn't taken long to
sink, bless her! She is worth a lot more where she is, at the bottom of
Port Arthur harbour, than she was when afloat."