Under the Ensign of the Rising Sun Part 4

Pray proceed, Mr Swinburne."

"Very well, then, Admiral, and gentlemen, since you do me the honour to insist, I will," said I. "But you must permit me to begin by reminding you that I am only a boy, and that this is my first experience of actual warfare; therefore if I venture to express an opinion on what has been justly described as a most momentous question, I do so with the utmost diffidence. At the same time, although I have had no previous experience of war, I should like to say that I have studied the subject deeply and with intense interest. And it is with equal interest that I have listened to the expression of your views on the question now under consideration. I am filled with admiration of the n.o.ble and patriotic sentiments which have to-day been spoken within the walls of this cabin--sentiments with which I most cordially agree, since they happen to accurately coincide with my own.

"But, gentlemen, may I dare venture to remind you that patriotism and valour, splendid and admirable as they are, are not the only qualities that should distinguish the soldier or sailor who fights for his country? Inspired by them, a man may no doubt accomplish great things, wonderful things; but we Britons have a proverb which declares that discretion is the better part of valour, and in my humble opinion-- which, I repeat, I advance with the utmost diffidence--the present is one of those occasions when valour, as heroic and self-sacrificing as you will, should go hand in hand with discretion.

"With your kind favour I will briefly mention the picture that arose in my mind while Prince Kasho was advocating the plan of taking the entire fleet into Port Arthur roadstead and engaging the Russians in a pitched battle.

"I readily grant you that the information communicated to the Admiral by Hang-won seems to indicate that to-night, or the small hours of to-morrow morning, will afford a magnificent opportunity for such a _coup_; but--let us consider all the consequences which that _coup_ would entail. It may be that we should be able to take the Russians by surprise; it is exceedingly probable that some of the officers--perhaps a good many of them--will be ash.o.r.e to-night; but, recognising the fact that Russia and j.a.pan are at war, do you, gentlemen, as reasonable, sensible men, really believe for a moment that the Russian fleet will be left defenceless in an open roadstead, or that the vigilance of the lookouts will be relaxed? I do not. And, if not, the approach of such a formidable array as ours would a.s.suredly be detected, and the alarm given, long before we could arrive within effective striking distance.

Then what would be the ultimate result? I have not a doubt that we should be victorious, but at what cost? We must remember, gentlemen, that we should be not only engaging a fleet but slightly inferior in strength to our own, _but the batteries as well_; and it is in the batteries that our danger lies. I know not what the armament of those batteries may be, but I think we may safely a.s.sume that it will consist of weapons heavy enough to sink many of our ships while we are doing our best to sink theirs. With all submission, I think it would be the height of folly for us to a.s.sume that we could fight such a battle without serious loss to ourselves. And the point which I wish to emphasise is this: _How are we going to make good those losses_? The Russians can make good theirs by sending more ships out from Europe; but where are we to get more? I need not labour this question, gentlemen; I am sure you will all see what I mean, and therefore understand why I say that, altogether apart from the question of slavish obedience to orders, or otherwise, I think the Admiral is fully justified in his decision not to risk his ships in such an exceedingly hazardous enterprise."

"Thank you, Mr Swinburne," said Togo, offering me his hand as I sat down. "You have spoken pretty much as I expected you would." Then, turning to one of the officers who had been busily writing all the time that I was speaking, he said:

"Captain Matsumoto, am I correct in supposing that you have been taking down Mr Swinburne's remarks?"

"Quite correct, sir," answered the skipper of the _Fuji_.

"Then," said Togo, "do me the favour to read them over aloud, in j.a.panese, for the benefit of those officers who have been unable to closely follow Mr Swinburne's English."

This was done; and when Matsumoto sat down there was silence for a few moments, succeeded by a faint murmur of applause. Then the Admiral rose.

"Gentlemen," he said, "you have now all spoken; and I tender you my most hearty thanks for the frank expression of your several opinions. I have listened with the greatest interest and satisfaction to everything that has been said, but you must pardon me if I say at once, frankly, that you leave me as unconvinced as ever. Or, no; not unconvinced; on the contrary, I am more convinced than ever that, apart, as Mr Swinburne has remarked, from any question of slavish obedience to orders, I should be guilty of a serious, even disastrous, error of judgment, were I to take my battleships and cruisers into Port Arthur roads and give battle to the Russian fleet. The only alternative is to employ the destroyers; and I shall be glad of any suggestions you may be pleased to offer as to the best method of attack."

n.o.body spoke. It was easy to see that the officers of the battleships and cruisers, deeply imbued with the somewhat fantastic and high-flown ideas of the j.a.panese with regard to the almost divine virtue of heroism and self-sacrifice, were profoundly disappointed that they were not to be afforded an opportunity to display their possession of those virtues.

"Has no one a suggestion to offer?" demanded Togo, in a tone of surprise. "What say you, Swinburne?" turning to me.

"It would greatly help us, sir," I said, "if Hang-won could give us even an approximate idea of the position of the Russian ships in the roadstead."

"You are right, sir; it would," answered the Admiral. And turning to the Chinaman, he addressed to him a question in what I imagined to be Chinese. The man was replying at some length when Togo interrupted him and turned to the skipper of the flagship.

"Captain Ijichi," said he, "a chart of Port Arthur, if you please."

The chart was brought, and Hang-won, after poring over it awhile, took a pencil and with meticulous care jotted down certain marks upon it. When he had finished, Togo turned to me and said:

"Here we are, Mr Swinburne. These marks indicate the positions of some of the Russian ships, as nearly as Hang-won can remember them. As you see, they are moored in wedge-shaped formation, the point of the wedge to seaward; and that point is occupied by the _Tsarevich_, a battleship.

Next her, insh.o.r.e, comes the _Poltava_, also a battleship, then the _Sevastopol_, another battleship, and abreast of her, in the second line, the battleship _Pobieda_. Of the positions of these he is certain, he says, having taken particular notice of them as he came out; but of the rest he is not so sure, except that there are thirteen of them, exclusive of the _Askold_, all anch.o.r.ed inside the _Tsarevich_.

The _Askold_ is a cruiser, and according to Hang-won she is performing patrol duty to and fro, outside the rest of the fleet. You will readily recognise her from the fact that she is the only craft with five funnels.

"There is another point in favour of our employing destroyers. It appears that Admiral Stark sends out a destroyer flotilla every night to patrol the coast as far as Dalny--there it is, about twenty miles north-east of Port Arthur. If, upon approaching the roadstead, our boats show the lights usually exhibited by the Russian destroyers--a white light above a red--on their return from Dalny, they ought to be able to get right in among the Russian fleet and do a tremendous amount of damage before their ident.i.ty is discovered, and I shall confidently look for important results accordingly. Now, gentlemen, I have my own idea as to how the attack should be conducted; but I have heard it said that in many councillors there is wisdom, therefore I should be glad to have your views on the subject."

And, one after the other, the officers present gave them, the general opinion being that the destroyers ought to approach to within about five miles of the sh.o.r.e at a moderate speed, showing no lights; then dash in at top speed, discharging torpedoes right and left, and continue to do so, regardless of consequences, until every Russian ship was destroyed.

Finally, I was called for to give my opinion; and again I found myself obliged to differ from the others.

"If I were leading the attack, sir," I said, "I should time myself to arrive at about eleven o'clock, that being the time, I imagine, when the banquet and the special performance will both be at their height. At the distance of about five miles from the sh.o.r.e I should slow down, instead of increasing speed, because I should then have no fear of flames escaping from my funnels and so betraying my approach. I should then divide my force into two, one of which should sweep well away to the nor'ard, while the other sheered off toward the south, my object being to get my boats well into the concealment of the shadow of the high land east and west of the roadstead. Under the cover of this shadow I should creep close along sh.o.r.e until I was well inside the enemy's fleet, when I should wheel outward, get good way on my boats, and torpedo the enemy, ship after ship, as I came out. By this plan I should be heading seaward, ready to make good my escape as soon as the alarm was given, which I believe will be within a few seconds after the first torpedo is fired. Then I should run for it out to sea, at top speed; for I am convinced that, once the alarm is given and the searchlights are turned on, we shall be afforded no further opportunity to do mischief; and I see no sense in sacrificing ships and lives uselessly. I have heard the remark made, more than once, that it is a glorious thing to die for one's country and one's Emperor. So it is-- when the sacrifice of one's life is necessary to secure a certain object; but I maintain that it is still more glorious to _live_ for one's country. One live man can render more useful service to his country than a hundred dead ones."

Again there was a little half-hearted murmur of applause.

But Togo expressed his approval in no half-hearted manner. Dashing his fist upon the table he exclaimed:

"By Hachiman Sama!" (the j.a.panese G.o.d of War), "you are right, Mr Swinburne. You told us, a little while ago, that you are only a boy, but you have the brains and wisdom of a man, sir. Your plan of attack is the right one--cannot you see that it is, gentlemen?--and it shall be followed. By attempting the other plan, we should in all probability lose every boat and every man, with no better result; while, by adopting Mr Swinburne's plan, we may save at least two-thirds of them. Now, gentlemen, before we terminate the council, has any one a better plan to propose?" And he glanced round the cabin, inquiringly.

No one answered. Then Captain Matsumoto, commanding the battleship _Fuji_, rose.

"As one whose knowledge of the august English language is perhaps superior to that of most present--your honourable self, sir, excepted,"

he said, addressing the Admiral, "I should like to say that I have listened to the remarks of the honourable commander of the _Kasanumi_ with profound interest. His doctrine, that it is more glorious to live than to die for one's Emperor, is a new one to us j.a.panese, and I confess that for the moment it shocked me, as I saw that it shocked most of us. But, if one comes to reflect, one sees that there is sound sense in it; therefore I should like to record my entire approval of the projected plan of attack upon the enemy's fleet. For, by adopting it, there is a good prospect that many lives and many craft, which would otherwise be uselessly sacrificed, may be preserved to render further valuable service to j.a.pan and its Emperor."

The applause this time was real and hearty enough, and several of the officers who were sitting near me offered me their hands and smilingly complimented me.

"Very well, then, gentlemen, that matter is settled, and most satisfactorily, too, in my humble opinion. And, now, as to details.

Divisions 1, 2, and 3 of the destroyer flotilla will attack the fleet at Port Arthur; Divisions 4 and 5 will proceed to Dalny in quest of the Russian destroyers said to reconnoitre in that direction nightly; and all will inflict as much damage as possible upon the enemy. Captain Matsunaga of the _Asashio_ will command Divisions 1, 2, and 3; while Captain Nagai will command Divisions 4 and 5. The flotilla will start at five o'clock this evening. You are dismissed, gentlemen. I thank you for your honourable attendance, and the a.s.sistance which you have rendered me."

CHAPTER FIVE.

MY "BAPTISM OF FIRE."

The weather had cleared somewhat during the afternoon, but when, at a few minutes before five o'clock, the _Mikasa_ made the signal for the destroyer flotilla to weigh and proceed, the clouds had gathered afresh, and it was looking as wild as ever. It was exactly five o'clock when the _Asashio_, followed by the _Kasanumi_, led the way out to sea; and as we began to move, the Admiral signalled us: "Go in and sink the enemy's fleet. I pray for your success."

The Elliot group of islands, from which we started upon our great adventure, is situated some sixty miles north-east of Port Arthur, and within some seven or eight miles of the mainland. Our nearest and best way, therefore, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, would have been to creep down the coast close insh.o.r.e. But this would have involved our pa.s.sing Dalny on the way, and there were the Russian destroyers, which were said to patrol as far as that place every night, to be reckoned with. We did not desire to encounter them on the way, and so afford them a chance to slip back to Port Arthur and give the alarm; our object was to get in between them and Port Arthur, and so cut off their retreat. Also, we had decided to approach Port Arthur from the south-west, so as to give the idea that we were the Russian boats returning after a scouting excursion in the offing; we therefore headed due south at the start, our speed being fifteen knots, which was later increased to twenty-two, as the course which we had decided upon took us far out of our way and nearly doubled the distance to be run.

The sun disappeared beneath the horizon in a heavy squall of rain, the wind breezed up fiercely, and it was piercingly cold. The night shut down upon us dark as a wolf's mouth, the only relief to the intense blackness being the phosph.o.r.escence of the bow wave as it swept, roaring and scintillating away to port and starboard, and the faint gleam of a shrouded lamp which each vessel bore at her taffrail as a guide to the craft next astern of her. Well, so much the better; the darker the night, the better for our purpose; only I fervently wished that the water had not been so brilliantly phosph.o.r.escent, for in the intense darkness the gleam of it was visible for quite a considerable distance, and I feared that, if the Russians were keeping a sharp lookout, it would prematurely reveal our approach. We had cleared for action before getting under way, and each boat carried two torpedoes in her tubes, her guns loaded, and ammunition ready to pa.s.s up on deck at a moment's notice.

Hour after hour we steamed on, describing the arc of a big semi-circle as we altered our course from time to time, until at length we were heading west-nor'-west for Port Arthur; and during the whole time we had not sighted a craft of any description.

At length, about half-past ten, the darkness ahead seemed to grow blacker than ever, and turning to Ito, who stood beside me on the bridge, I said:

"Do you see that darkness ahead, Ito? Surely that is the loom of land."

"Yes," answered Ito, who spoke English excellently. "Without a doubt that is the high land on either side of Port Arthur; and--ha! there is the Pinnacle Rock light, straight ahead. By Jingo! as the honourable English say, Captain Matsunaga has 'hit it off splendidly.' And see there,"--as a light began to wink at us from the bridge of the _Asashio_ ahead--"there is the signal for the 4th and 5th Divisions to part company. Yes; there they go; and now, as again the honourable English say, 'we shan't be long.'"

I shivered involuntarily. A quarter of an hour more and that blackness ahead would be pierced by the blinding rays of the inexorable searchlights and stabbed by the fierce flashing of artillery, the glare of bursting sh.e.l.ls, and the radiance of star rockets. And we should be in the midst of it. It would be my first experience of actual warfare, and I wondered how I should pa.s.s through the ordeal. I had already learned that the j.a.panese soldier or sailor is absolutely the most fearless creature in existence. He fears death as little as he fears sleep, provided that it comes to him in the service of his Emperor and his country. To die for his Emperor, indeed, who is to him as a G.o.d, is the very highest honour, the greatest glory, that the male j.a.panese can look forward to. He faces such a death with the same pure joy, the same exaltation, that the early Christian martyrs displayed when they were led forth to die for their faith. It was this spirit, this eagerness, this enthusiasm to die in battle, that caused the enormous losses suffered by the j.a.panese during the war; but it made them invincible!

How was my conduct going to compare with that of men like these, I who was animated by no more lofty sentiment than the desire to do my duty to the best of my ability, to play my part as a man should, and, above all, to uphold the honour and dignity of my race? I was happy in the conviction that I should not disgrace myself by any exhibition of craven fear, but what I dreaded was that in the excitement of the moment I should get "nervy," lose my head (if only figuratively), and perhaps forget to do something that I ought to do, to miss some opportunity that I ought to see and seize. "Brace up, Paul!" I said to myself, "pull yourself together for the honour of the dear homeland; forget all about yourself, and think only of the work that lies before you." And I did.

My thoughts went back to my talk with the Admiral in the _Mikasa's_ cabin that afternoon; I suddenly remembered that the work in hand was to be carried out as I had planned it; and in a moment all my anxiety vanished, I was my own man again, mentally planning what I would do; and from that moment I felt as cool and collected and keen as was Ito who stood beside me.

As the tail lights of the 4th and 5th Divisions of the flotilla vanished in the darkness on our port quarter, the _Asashio's_ signal lantern began winking again, and Ito read off and translated the message to me:

"Reduce speed to twelve knots. Be ready to show signal lanterns if required. When I starboard helm, Division one will follow me, while Divisions two and three will port helm and sheer off to the eastward."

A single flash from our own carefully shrouded signal lanterns informed the Commodore that the message had been read and understood, and all was opaque darkness once more. The rain had by this time cleared off and the atmosphere was much clearer, so clear indeed that the outlines of the hills ahead showed with tolerable distinctness, and the water was getting smoother.

The lighthouse light was showing very bright and clear by this time, and two or three other and much dimmer lights, like those of houses, showed here and there in the shadow of the hills. The gap between the hills which marked the harbour entrance was also visible, while a faint glare in the sky to the right of it showed that Port Arthur was still awake.

But everything seemed absolutely peaceful, and there were no signs of that alertness which we had expected to find.

Suddenly the lighthouse light, upon which my gaze happened to be fixed, seemed to blink several times in a very curious manner; then it disappeared altogether for a moment, and I saw a great black shadow that seemed to rapidly increase in size as I stared at it. Then I glimpsed at the base of the shadow the ghostly gleam of phosph.o.r.escent foam, such as is piled up by the bows of a ship travelling at speed, and high above it a rolling, swirling cloud of blackness spangled with evanescent sparks which, a moment later, I saw was issuing from three of a group of five tall funnels.

"By Jove! Ito," I exclaimed, "here comes the patrol cruiser--the _Askold_--and she is heading straight for us! Gun and tube crews, stand by! Quartermaster, light those two signal lanterns, white above red, bend them on to the signal halliards, and stand by to hoist away when I give the word."