Great War Syndicate

Syndicate; but he did not hesitate in theduty which he had been sent to perform, and immediately ordered the twocrabs to advance to meet the Adamant, and to proceed to actionaccording to the instructions which they had previously received. Hisown ship was kept, in pursuance of orders, several miles distant fromthe British ship.

  As soon as the repeller had been sighted from the Adamant, a strictlookout had been kept for the approach of crabs; and when the smallexposed portions of the backs of two of these were perceived glisteningin the sunlight, the speed of the great ship slackened. The ability ofthe Syndicate's submerged vessels to move suddenly and quickly in anydirection had been clearly demonstrated, and although a great ironcladwith a ram could run down and sink a crab without feeling theconcussion, it was known that it would be perfectly easy for thesmaller craft to keep out of the way of its bulky antagonist.Therefore the Adamant did not try to ram the crabs, nor to get awayfrom them. Her commander intended, if possible, to run down one orboth of them; but he did not propose to do this in the usual way.

  As the crabs approached, the stern-jacket of the Adamant was let down,and the engines were slowed. This stern-jacket, when protecting therudder and propellers, looked very much like the cowcatcher of alocomotive, and was capable of being put to a somewhat similar use. Itwas the intention of the captain of the Adamant, should the crabsattempt to attach themselves to his stern, to suddenly put on allsteam, reverse his engines, and back upon them, the stern-jacketanswering as a ram.

  The commander of the Adamant had no doubt that in this way he could runinto a crab, roll it over in the water, and when it was lying bottomupward, like a floating cask, he could move his ship to a distance, andmake a target of it. So desirous was this brave and somewhat facetiouscaptain to try his new plan upon a crab, that he forebore to fire uponthe two vessels of that class which were approaching him. Some of hisguns were so mounted that their muzzles could be greatly depressed, andaimed at an object in the water not far from the ship. But these werenot discharged, and, indeed, the crabs, which were new ones of unusualswiftness, were alongside the Adamant in an incredibly short time, andout of the range of these guns.

  Crab J was on the starboard side of the Adamant, Crab K was on the portside, and, simultaneously, the two laid hold of her. But they were notdirectly astern of the great vessel. Each had its nippers fastened toone side of the stern-jacket, near the hinge-like bolts which held itto the vessel, and on which it was raised and lowered.

  In a moment the Adamant began to steam backward; but the only effect ofthis motion, which soon became rapid, was to swing the crabs aroundagainst her sides, and carry them with her. As the vessels were thusmoving the great pincers of the crabs were twisted with tremendousforce, the stern-jacket on one side was broken from its bolt, and onthe other the bolt itself was drawn out of the side of the vessel. Thenippers then opened, and the stern-jacket fell from their grasp intothe sea, snapping in its fall the chain by which it had been raised andlowered.

  This disaster occurred so quickly that few persons on board the Adamantknew what had happened. But the captain, who had seen everything, gaveinstant orders to go ahead at full speed. The first thing to be donewas to get at a distance from those crabs, keep well away from them,and pound them to pieces with his heavy guns.

  But the iron screw-propellers had scarcely begun to move in theopposite direction, before the two crabs, each now lying at rightangles with the length of the ship, but neither of them directly asternof her, made a dash with open nippers, and Crab J fastened upon onepropeller, while Crab K laid hold of the other. There was a din andcrash of breaking metal, two shocks which were felt throughout thevessel, and the shattered and crushed blades of the propellers of thegreat battleship were powerless to move her.

  The captain of the Adamant, pallid with fury, stood upon the poop. Ina moment the crabs would be at his rudder! The great gun,double-shotted and ready to fire, was hanging from its boom over thestern. Crab K, whose roof had the additional protection of springarmour, now moved round so as to be directly astern of the Adamant.Before she could reach the rudder, her forward part came under thesuspended cannon, and two massive steel shot were driven down upon herwith a force sufficient to send them through masses of solid rock; butfrom the surface of elastic steel springs and air-buffers they bouncedupward, one of them almost falling on the deck of the Adamant.

  The gunners of this piece had been well trained. In a moment the boomwas swung around, the cannon reloaded, and when Crab K fixed hernippers on the rudder of the Adamant, two more shot came down upon her.As in the first instance she dipped and rolled, but the ribs of heruninjured armour had scarcely sprung back into their places, before hernippers turned, and the rudder of the Adamant was broken in two, andthe upper portion dragged from its fastenings then a quick backwardjerk snapped its chains, and it was dropped into the sea.

  A signal was now sent from Crab J to Repeller No. 7, to the effectthat the Adamant had been rendered incapable of steaming or sailing,and that she lay subject to order.

  Subject to order or not, the Adamant did not lie passive. Every gun onboard which could be sufficiently depressed, was made ready to fireupon the crabs should they attempt to get away. Four large boats,furnished with machine guns, grapnels, and with various applianceswhich might be brought into use on a steel-plated roof, were loweredfrom their davits, and immediately began firing upon the exposedportions of the crabs. Their machine guns were loaded with smallshells, and if these penetrated under the horizontal plates of a crab,and through the heavy glass which was supposed to be in theseinterstices, the crew of the submerged craft would be soon destroyed.

  The quick eye of the captain of the Adamant had observed through hisglass, while the crabs were still at a considerable distance, theirprotruding air-pipes, and he had instructed the officers in charge ofthe boats to make an especial attack upon these. If the air-pipes of acrab could be rendered useless, the crew must inevitably be smothered.

  But the brave captain did not know that the condensed-air chambers ofthe crabs would supply their inmates for an hour or more withoutrecourse to the outer air, and that the air-pipes, furnished withvalves at the top, were always withdrawn under water during action withan enemy. Nor did he know that the glass blocks under thearmour-plates of the crabs, which were placed in rubber frames toprotect them from concussion above, were also guarded by steel nettingfrom injury by small balls.

  Valiantly the boats beset the crabs, keeping up a constant fusillade,and endeavouring to throw grapnels over them. If one of these shouldcatch under an overlapping armour-plate it could be connected with thesteam windlass of the Adamant, and a plate might be ripped off or acrab overturned.

  But the crabs proved to be much more lively fish than their enemies hadsupposed. Turning, as if on a pivot, and darting from side to side,they seemed to be playing with the boats, and not trying to get awayfrom them. The spring armour of Crab K interfered somewhat with itsmovements, and also put it in danger from attacks by grapnels, and ittherefore left most of the work to its consort.

  Crab J, after darting swiftly in and out among her antagonists for sometime, suddenly made a turn, and dashing at one of the boats, ran underit, and raising it on its glistening back, rolled it, bottom upward,into the sea. In a moment the crew of the boat were swimming for theirlives. They were quickly picked up by two of the other boats, whichthen deemed it prudent to return to the ship.

  But the second officer of the Adamant, who commanded the fourth boat,did not give up the fight. Having noted the spring armour of Crab K,he believed that if he could get a grapnel between its steel ribs heyet might capture the sea-monster. For some minutes Crab K contenteditself with eluding him; but, tired of this, it turned, and raising itshuge nippers almost out of the water, it seized the bow of the boat,and gave it a gentle crunch, after which it released its hold andretired. The boat, leaking rapidly through two ragged holes, was rowedback to the ship, which it reached half full of water.

  The great
battle-ship, totally bereft of the power of moving herself,was now rolling in the trough of the sea, and a signal came from therepeller for Crab K to make fast to her and put her head to the wind.This was quickly done, the crab attaching itself to the stern-post ofthe Adamant by a pair of towing nippers. These were projected from thestern of the crab, and were so constructed that the larger vessel didnot communicate all its motion to the smaller one, and could not rundown upon it.

  As soon as the Adamant was brought up with her head to the wind sheopened fire upon the repeller. The latter vessel could easily havesailed out of the range of a motionless enemy, but her orders forbadethis. Her director had been instructed by the Syndicate to expose hisvessel to the fire of the Adamant's heavy guns. Accordingly therepeller steamed nearer, and turned her broadside toward the Britishship.

  Scarcely had this been done when the two great bow guns of the Adamantshook the air with tremendous roars, each hurling over the sea nearly aton of steel. One of these