CHAPTER X
THE HYDRO-AEROPLANES
MEANWHILE, what had happened to Lieutenant Drake and the rest of the_Frome's_ crew, after the destruction of that little craft? Directlythe boats pushed off Drake and those of the men who remained with himgathered on the fo'c'sle and turtle-back deck. Then, as the watercame into contact with the red-hot plates, the destroyer's deckbuckled amidships. Her motors went crashing through the flamingpetrol in the double-bottoms as the vessel tilted and slipped sternforemost beneath the flaming surface of the sea.
All on board imagined that the end had come, when suddenly that partof the ship between the for'ard engine-room bulkhead and the bowsshook itself clear of the remainder of the shattered hull and floatedon the surface. The destroyer had literally been torn in twain, andthe watertight bulkhead kept the forepart afloat. True, there was aperceptible list, but on investigation there was found hardly anywater in the forehold.
As soon as the petrol blazing on the water had burned itself out, theboats returned to find that Drake and his companions were alive,though scorched by the terrific heat. Deeming it inexpedient to allowthe boats' complement on board the stumpy vessel, Drake ordered themto stand off and lay on their oars. Fortunately there was littlewind, although the sea ran high, but guided by an anchor-lamp shownfrom the bridge, the boats could keep within hail of thelieutenant-commander. At frequent intervals rockets were sent up, forthe _Frome_ was not so very far from the regular steamer track, whileit was known that other destroyers and one or two cruisers wereheading in their direction.
Just after dawn H.M.S. _Indus_, a powerful cruiser of 22,000 tons,bore down. The lieutenant and his men were taken off the wreckedforepart, and a wireless message was sent to Devonport announcing thedetails of the outrage on the high seas, and asking for instructions.
To the surprise of everyone on board, the reply came--"Tow remains toDevonport." Not a word was said about continuing the chase, so, tothe disappointment of all ranks, the _Indus_ took the sorry remnantsof the _Frome_ in tow, and at an easy ten knots headed towardsPlymouth Sound.
Thousands of people assembled to see the shattered forepart of thedestroyer pass up Drake's Passage. Hundreds of cameras were levelledat her, shoals of boats accompanied the _Indus_ and her tow, till thelatter was docked, safe from public observation, in the basin atKeyham.
Then followed several days of irritating official inquiries, which,while the _Independencia_ still roved the high seas, was an utterwaste of time. Drake wanted to be off again. His one desire was toretrieve his reputation by capturing the pirate vessel, and rescuinghis brother officers.
Cruisers, scouts, and destroyers were despatched, and, spreadingfanwise, scoured the Atlantic from Rockall to the Azores; but somehowor other the filibustered ship escaped detection. Then came the newsof the holding up of _L'?galit?_, which, according to the Frenchcaptain's report, had taken place within twenty miles of the Britishcruiser _Khartoum_.
The immediate result of this affair was that a squadron of fastcruisers and a flotilla of destroyers left Brest to join in thehounding-down of the _Independencia_. The Spanish Government, eagerto lay hands upon the notorious anarchist, also despatched twocruisers and four destroyers; so that there was the keenest rivalrybetween the various nations engaged in the enterprise as to whoshould have the honour of laying the running and desperate JuanCervillo by the heels.
All concerned realised that the business must of necessity be apeculiar one, for Drake had reported how the hostages from the _YosenMaru_, as well as his own officers who had been trapped, wereutilised as screens to prevent the _Independencia_ from being sunk bygun fire. There were three alternatives: either to overhaul and boardthe pirate vessel, a feat that could only be accomplished on a calmday, and with the _Independencia_ compelled to heave-to; or to sinkthe offender by torpedoes, trusting that the pirates would cut theirhostages adrift ere the ship sunk; or else to dog her so tenaciouslythat, unable to capture any more liners or tramps, she would becompelled to haul down the red flag through sheer starvation.
The British Admiralty decided to adopt the last alternative, andorders were given that once the _Independencia_ was sighted, allcruisers and destroyers within a certain radius were to be summonedby wireless, and form a close cordon around the modern buccaneer.
All merchant ships fitted with wireless were informed of this newterror of the seas, and requested to "speak" with other vessels notso equipped, as well as to transmit news of the appearance of anysuspicious craft answering to the _Independencia's_ description, sothat aid could be quickly forthcoming from the nearest warships. Yetin spite of these precautions the officers of the trans-atlanticliners and tramps had an anxious time. Never had the deck officerskept such a keen look-out, especially at night, when the pirate,steaming without navigation lights, might at any moment loom throughthe darkness and peremptorily order her prey to heave-to.
At Lloyd's the insurance rates went up 60 per cent. The "Atlanticferry" paid heavily, for would-be passengers, as a matter ofprecaution, deferred their journey until the time when the dangerceased to exist. Grain-laden tramps from the States and Canada eitherremained in port or else sailed under convoy, as in the days of theNapoleonic war. The price of food, in consequence, rose tremendously,and coming as it did after a succession of disastrous strikes, theeffects of the modern pirate-ship's depredations began to be felt byall classes of the community.
Two days after the receipt of the wireless message from the Frenchcruiser _Desaix_, announcing the outrage upon _L'?galit?_, the linerarrived at Cherbourg in tow of the armoured cruiser _Chanzy_. Thenfollowed the customary Press interviews with the passengers and crew,with the stock of conflicting and of ten misleading reports. Some ofthe eye-witnesses, partly through a love of exaggeration, and partlythrough the result of a highly strung temperament, told ghastly talesof butchery, some even going to the length of asserting that they hadseen the passengers who had been removed from the liner being made towalk the plank. No satisfactory explanation could be given as to why,if the pirates were so bloodthirsty as they had been made out to be,the liner had not been scuttled with all hands, until someoneexplained that Juan Cervillo had spared the ship on account of thethird-class passengers.
Then it was that a Socialist Parisian newspaper appeared with aeulogistic three columns and a half on Cervillo's record and aims,and calling upon the Anarchists to give him their moral and activesupport. The offices of the paper were raided by the gendarmes, andbefore night the military and the canaille were engaged inhand-to-hand fighting in the streets of Paris. Similar disturbancestook place in Madrid, Barcelona, and Naples, and the French, Spanish,and Italian Governments had good cause to wish that the notoriousJuan Cervillo was at the bottom of the sea.
At Barcelona the news spread that the _Independencia_ had appearedoff that port. The authorities knew that such was impossible, partlyon account of the distance from British waters, and also that theStraits of Gibraltar were too well guarded by a strong flotillacruising betwixt Tarifa and Ceuta. But amongst the ignorantpopulation it was accepted that Cervillo had appeared to proclaim theanarchist rule in Spain, and that night the town was at the mercy ofthe mob.
It was not until it was found that the ship was the British cruiser_Indefatigable_--the sea-going instructional vessel for naval cadets,and which bore a striking resemblance to the _Independencia_--thatthe disorder ceased. Even then it required four regiments of Spanishinfantry to quell the insurrection.
As soon as the new scout _Cerberus_, could be passed out of dockyardhands, she was commissioned in order to participate in the search forthe pirate-cruiser, and to Drake's unbounded satisfaction he wasappointed to her for duties in the hydro-aeroplanes, of which thescout carried four.
Vast strides had been made in the construction and efficiency of thehydro-aeroplanes since their demonstration before the King inPortland Roads in 1912. Instead of being, like the first of thisclass, clumsy aeroplanes fitted with floats, those of the laterpattern were swift motor-boats,
provided with folding air-planes andpropellers, so that they could either keep the sea in fairly heavyweather, or they could soar into the air and perform a thousand-mileflight. Each hydro-aeroplane consisted of an aluminium hull, 35 ft.in length, 6 ft. in breadth, and of a draught when at rest of 9 ins.These were completely decked in, with the exception of a small, openwell, which could, if necessity arose, be covered with a water-tighthatch. At one-third the distance from its bows was a smallobservation turret, the top of which served as one of the bearings,or the shafting of the aerial propeller. The planes, when not in use,folded into recesses in the sides of the hull, the actuation of apair of tension wires serving to extend and keep them in position forflight. Whereas the original hydro-aeroplanes could not descend torest upon the surface of a choppy sea, those carried by the_Cerberus_ could not only be relied upon to descend or ascend fromthe water, but could by reason of their strength and rigidconstruction safely withstand the impact of a fall from aconsiderable height. For armament they carried a one-pounderautomatic gun, and gear for dropping small bombs charged with highexplosives.
On board the _Cerberus_ these four hydro-aeroplanes were carried onthe space hitherto occupied by the funnel-casings, for the scout hadinternal combustion engines, and, save for a small exhaust pipe, waswithout funnels. Each tender could be hoisted in less thanhalf-a-minute by means of a single-purchase wire rope passing througha block at the end of a derrick, and wound round a motor-capstan.Constructed at one-twentieth of the cost of a submarine, thehydro-aeroplane had already virtually superseded those craft. Save atnight, the crews of the hydro-aeroplanes could from a height easilylocate the presence of a submarine, and by means of her bombs coulddestroy it with ease. Before long it was recognised that the era ofthe submarine, as a destructive means of offence, was past.
Lieutenant Douglas Drake lost no time in reporting himself on boardthe _Cerberus_, and within twenty hours of being passed out ofdockyard hands the scout left Portsmouth Harbour to join in thesearch for the pirate-cruiser.
But before the ship had passed through the Needles Channel she was,to the disgust of all on board, ordered to return. That morning theowners of the ss. _Duke of Negropont_ had received a wireless messagefrom the captain of that vessel. It was brief and to the point:--
"_Independencia_ in collision with unknown vessel, 4.45 a.m. Lat. 40-22-10 N., Long. 22-9-16 W. Both sank; no survivors."