Great War Syndicate

character was the occasion ofmuch excited feeling and comment, particularly in the United States.The descent and attack by British vessels on an Atlantic port was amatter of popular expectation. The Syndicate had repellers and crabsat the most important points; but, in the minds of naval officers and alarge portion of the people, little dependence for defence was to beplaced upon these. As to the ability of the War Syndicate to preventinvasion or attack by means of its threats to bombard the blockadedCanadian port, very few believed in it. Even if the Syndicate could doany more damage in that quarter, which was improbable, what was toprevent the British navy from playing the same game, and entering anAmerican seaport, threaten to bombard the place if the Syndicate didnot immediately run all their queer vessels high and dry on someconvenient beach?

  A feeling of indignation against the Syndicate had existed in the navyfrom the time that the war contract had been made, and this feelingincreased daily. That the officers and men of the United States navyshould be penned up in harbours, ports, and sounds, while British shipsand the hulking mine-springers and rudder-pinchers of the Syndicatewere allowed to roam the ocean at will, was a very hard thing for bravesailors to bear. Sometimes the resentment against this state ofaffairs rose almost to revolt.

  The great naval preparations of England were not yet complete, butsingle British men-of-war were now frequently seen off the Atlanticcoast of the United States. No American vessels had been captured bythese since the message of the Syndicate to the Dominion of Canada andthe British Government. But one good reason for this was the fact thatit was very difficult now to find upon the Atlantic ocean a vesselsailing under the American flag. As far as possible these had takenrefuge in their own ports or in those of neutral countries.

  At the mouth of Delaware Bay, behind the great Breakwater, was nowcollected a number of coastwise sailing-vessels and steamers of variousclasses and sizes; and for the protection of these maritime refugees,two vessels of the United States navy were stationed at this point.These were the Lenox and Stockbridge, two of the finest cruisers in theservice, and commanded by two of the most restless and bravest officersof the American navy.

  The appearance, early on a summer morning, of a large British cruiseroff the mouth of the harbour, filled those two commanders withuncontrollable belligerency. That in time of war a vessel of the enemyshould be allowed, undisturbed, to sail up and down before an Americanharbour, while an American vessel filled with brave American sailorslay inside like a cowed dog, was a thought which goaded the soul ofeach of these commanders. There was a certain rivalry between the twoships; and, considering the insult offered by the flaunting red crossin the offing, and the humiliating restrictions imposed by the NavalDepartment, each commander thought only of his own ship, and not at allof the other.

  It was almost at the same time that the commanders of the two shipsseparately came to the conclusion that the proper way to protect thefleet behind the Breakwater was for his vessel to boldly steam out tosea and attack the British cruiser. If this vessel carried along-range gun, what was to hinder her from suddenly running in closerand sending a few shells into the midst of the defenceless merchantmen?In fact, to go out and fight her was the only way to protect the livesand property in the harbour.

  It was true that one of those beastly repellers was sneaking about offthe cape, accompanied, probably, by an underwater tongs-boat. But asneither of these had done anything, or seemed likely to do anything,the British cruiser should be attacked without loss of time.

  When the commander of the Lenox came to this decision, his ship waswell abreast of Cape Henlopen, and he therefore proceeded directly outto sea. There was a little fear in his mind that the English cruiser,which was now bearing to the south-east, might sail off and get awayfrom him. The Stockbridge was detained by the arrival of a despatchboat from the shore with a message from the Naval Department. But asthis message related only to the measurements of a certain deck gun,her commander intended, as soon as an answer could be sent off, to sailout and give battle to the British vessel.

  Every soul on board the Lenox was now filled with fiery ardour. Theship was already in good fighting trim, but every possible preparationwas made for a contest which should show their country and the worldwhat American sailors were made of.

  The Lenox had not proceeded more than a mile out to sea, when sheperceived Repeller No. 6 coming toward her from seaward, and in adirection which indicated that it intended to run across her course.The Lenox, however, went straight on, and in a short time the twovessels were quite near each other. Upon the deck of the repeller nowappeared the director in charge, who, with a speaking-trumpet, hailedthe Lenox and requested her to lay to, as he had something tocommunicate. The commander of the Lenox, through his trumpet, answeredthat he wanted no communications, and advised the other vessel to keepout of his way.

  The Lenox now put on a greater head of steam, and as she was in anycase a much faster vessel than the repeller, she rapidly increased thedistance between herself and the Syndicate's vessel, so that in a fewmoments hailing was impossible. Quick signals now shot up in jets ofblack smoke from the repeller, and in a very short time afterward thespeed of the Lenox slackened so much that the repeller was able to comeup with her.

  When the two vessels were abreast of each other, and at a safe hailingdistance apart, another signal went up from the repeller, and then bothvessels almost ceased to move through the water, although the enginesof the Lenox were working at high speed, with her propeller-bladesstirring up a whirlpool at her stern.

  For a minute or two the officers of the Lenox could not comprehend whathad happened. It was first supposed that by mistake the engines hadbeen slackened, but almost at the same moment that it was found thatthis was not the case, the discovery was made that the crabaccompanying the repeller had laid hold of the stern-post of the Lenox,and with all the strength of her powerful engines was holding her back.

  Now burst forth in the Lenox a storm of frenzied rage, such as wasnever seen perhaps upon any vessel since vessels were first built.From the commander to the stokers every heart was filled with fury atthe insult which was put upon them. The commander roared through histrumpet that if that infernal sea-beetle were not immediately loosedfrom his ship he would first sink her and then the repeller.

  To these remarks the director of the Syndicate's vessels paid noattention, but proceeded to state as briefly and forcibly as possiblethat the Lenox had been detained in order that he might have anopportunity of speaking with her commander, and of informing him thathis action in coming out of the harbour for the purpose of attacking aBritish vessel was in direct violation of the contract between theUnited States and the Syndicate having charge of the war, and that suchaction could not be allowed.

  The commander of the Lenox paid no more attention to these words thanthe Syndicate's director had given to those he had spoken, butimmediately commenced a violent attack upon the crab. It wasimpossible to bring any of the large guns to bear upon her, for she wasalmost under the stern of the Lenox; but every means of offence whichinfuriated ingenuity could suggest was used against it. Machine gunswere trained to fire almost perpendicularly, and shot after shot waspoured upon that portion of its glistening back which appeared abovethe water.

  But as these projectiles seemed to have no effect upon the solid backof Crab H, two great anvils were hoisted at the end of thespanker-boom, and dropped, one after the other, upon it. The shockswere tremendous, but the internal construction of the crabs provided,by means of upright beams, against injury from attacks of this kind,and the great masses of iron slid off into the sea without doing anydamage.

  Finding it impossible to make any impression upon the mailed monster athis stern, the commander of the Lenox hailed the director of therepeller, and swore to him through his trumpet that if he did notimmediately order the Lenox to be set free, her heaviest guns should bebrought to bear upon his floating counting-house, and that it should besunk, if it took all day to do it.

 
It would have been a grim satisfaction to the commander of the Lenox tosink Repeller No. 6, for he knew the vessel when she had belonged tothe United States navy. Before she had been bought by the Syndicate,and fitted out with spring armour, he had made two long cruises in her,and he bitterly hated her, from her keel up.

  The director of the repeller agreed to release the Lenox the instanther commander would consent to return to port. No answer was made tothis proposition, but a dynamite gun on the Lenox was brought to bearupon the Syndicate's vessel. Desiring to avoid any complications whichmight ensue from actions of this sort, the repeller steamed ahead,while the director signalled Crab H to move the stern of the Lenox tothe windward, which, being quickly done, the gun of the latter boreupon the distant coast.

  It was now very plain to the Syndicate director that his words couldhave no effect upon the commander of the Lenox, and he thereforesignalled Crab H to tow the United States vessel into port. When thecommander of the Lenox saw that