CHAPTER XXIX.
LIKE A BATTLE OF OLDEN TIMES.
The fight between those two splendid battle-ships Ting-Yuen of 7430 tons and the Matsushima of 4300 tons, was a combat that puts us in mind of some of the battles of olden days, when chiefs met single-handed, and before their assembled armies decided the fate of the day.
It will be observed that the Chinese ship was fully three thousand tons heavier than the Japanese, and she carried more heavy guns too.
But the admiral of the latter had skill and daring and his vessel had far greater speed, for, while the Chinaman could only steam fourteen knots, the Jap could do over seventeen. She had also more quick-firing guns, and no living thing can stand a moment before these terrible weapons of modern naval warfare.
Creggan was stationed in one barbette—the port—and his friend in another, while Goodwin worked a gun not far from our hero.
I have never had a chance of interviewing my friend the Ugly Duckling as to his feelings during their terrible ship-to-ship engagement, but it is not long since I talked with Creggan himself. He describes the battle as a fearful tempest of fire and blood.
"What were your feelings, Creggan?" I asked.
"You mean," he answered, "when we ranged up to fight the Chinese flag-ship?"
"Yes," I said.
"Well," he replied, "I cannot very well tell you. For to begin with, the Matsushima had already received her baptism of blood, and I had shuddered to see men mangled out of all shape of humanity by bursting shells, and others borne below, leaving here a limb and there a ghastly arm behind, the blood spurting fountain-like over the faces and clothes of the bearers.
"It might be my turn next, and that of the brave men who crowded the barbette.
"Was I afraid?" he continued. "I confess I was. It was something more than fear that took possession of my soul. I felt a cold terror creeping round my heart, for I had no hopes of life. Such terror as this it must be that a doomed man experiences when walking towards the scaffold with trembling limbs and cold perspiring knees. But I had prayer to support me. I do not know if you will quite understand me, when I say that I could see far beyond the awful din and roar and smoke of battle, see an eye above bidding me be of good cheer, whether death should come or not.
"Every bullet has it billet. Yes, but a bursting projectile in modern warfare has not one billet, but a hundred. The destruction some of these shells cause cannot be grasped by anyone who has not seen it.
"But here is a curious thing. No sooner did the first great boom of one of our guns take place, and our huge shell go roaring away on its mission of destruction, than all fear and terror passed away. I was as exalted now, although calm, as if I had taken a great dose of morphia, such as Dr. Grant once gave me.
"The first shot came from the foe—I mean the first that told. We could see from where I stood the quick, spiteful puff of white smoke and its awful tongue of red fire, and almost at the same time nearly every man around me had fallen to the deck with the fearful concussion as the Chinese projectile struck us almost amidships.
"But now the battle raged fast and furious. Small though we were in comparison with the Chinaman, we circled around, and hardly did we fire a shot which did not tell.
"We soon had the intense satisfaction of seeing the Ting-Yuen in flames. A few more of our shots and a torpedo would have sunk her, had not her sister ship, the Chen-Yuen, come to her and stood by her.
"The Chinese flag-ship was now unable to work her guns, but if," said Creggan, "my memory serves me right, it was the last shell she fired which worked such fearful havoc on board our poor ship.
"This shell was not only terrible in itself, but, bursting near to a large heap of ammunition, it exploded it, tearing our decks almost to pieces, and killing or wounding about eighty of our crew.
"I myself escaped that time," he continued.
"Yes," I said, "but you have an empty sleeve."
"True, but it was a shell from another vessel that tore away my forearm after this.
"But poor honest Goodwin was rent in pieces. I marked his brave looks but a minute or two before this, next when I saw him he formed one in that awful heap of carnage, when arms, limbs, heads, and bodies were huddled together, with stanchions, broken pieces of conning-tower, all torn up like pasteboard, and the smoke of warfare rising slowly from the bleeding mass.
"Ah, well! so quick was the death, that honest Goodwin couldn't have known what hit him.
"Meanwhile the battle raged on, and it was just an hour after this when I had my own disaster. I felt no pain. There was a bright flash of light across my eyes, that was all; and I was advancing to assist in training my gun, when a comrade flung himself towards me. I was for the moment unaware that I was wounded, but fell fainting to the deck.
"When I recovered my senses, I was lying in the battery with a tourniquet around my arm. I was shortly after removed below, and saw no more of the fearful fight. But I was told that at half-past three we sank the King-Yuen, and after this our fleet, which in its two divisions, had circled right round the Chinese, causing them great confusion, hemmed them in.
"The flying squadron passed the Chih-Yuen, giving her fits, turned, swept back again, and finally under its terrible fire she heeled over and sank with all hands.
"I may say that the carnage in our tops was fearful. Blood spurting from the dead and dying, and rushing in a red stream adown the masts.
"Owing to their wonderful strength and fourteen-inch armour belts, the Chinese flag-ship and her sister, though utterly wrecked and riddled as to their upper works, continued to float and fight to the end.
"The Chinamen had certainly fought well, but shortly before sunset thought they had had enough of it and fled. Our flying squadron followed, peppering them as they went, but just as gloaming was descending on the now gray sea they were recalled, and thus ended the ever-memorable naval battle of the Yalu river."
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This brilliant Japanese victory, reader, had a great effect on the campaign on land.
"Even without it," says the historian, "Japan's military superiority was so overwhelming and China's collapse so complete, that no single event could have altered the fortunes of the war. But the crushing defeat of the Chinese fleet, and the consequent command of the sea held by the Japanese, facilitated all their operations, and enabled them to land their armies when and where they chose, and to conceive bold plans of campaign, which would have been too hazardous without such a naval supremacy."
I must refer the reader who is interested in the subsequent triumphs of Japanese soldiers to books on history. And these are plentiful enough.
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One day about six weeks after the fearful fight in which Creggan had lost his forearm, the British paddle-frigate Osprey hove in sight, and both our chief hero and the Duckling, who, by the way, had come through the fiery ordeal all safe and unscathed, were transferred once more to their floating home.
They were both very sorry indeed to bid adieu to the brave Japs. Every officer was a gentleman, and had treated them with the greatest kindness.