CHAPTER XIV
PROGRESS OF THE WAR
An hour after the capture of the Chinese junk one of the officers of theill-fated craft was thrust into the prison pen with our friends.
He was a small sallow-eyed Celestial rejoicing in the name of Won Lung,and it was soon learned that he could speak a little English, he havingonce paid a visit to San Francisco.
"All go up spout!" said he, referring to his own ship. "T'ink we safewhen Russian gunboat come, den all up spout!"
"Did they sink your ship?" asked Captain Ponsberry.
"No sink--shoot holes, back, front, side--all up spout. No fightee nomore den--all up spout!" The latter was his pet phrase and he used itover and over again.
"You were in the Japanese trade?"
"Yes--carry rice. Now Russians got rice, got junk--all Won Lung's moneygone up spout!" And the Celestial made an odd little grimace.
"Well, they took my ship, too."
"Big schooner your shipee?"
"Yes."
"Won Lung weep for you--all ship gone up spout, samee like Won Lung'sship gone up spout!"
"Well, we haven't gone up the spout yet," put in Larry, with a laugh."Let us thank fortune that we are alive and well."
"Dat so--Won Lung lose fliends on junk--six, seven, ten--don't know howmany yet," and the Chinese officer shook his head sadly. "Bad war, bad!"
"Can you tell us how the war is going?" asked Tom Grandon. "TheseRussians say everything is a Russian victory."
"Russians sayee dat?"
"Yes--they pretend to say they have the Japs about beaten."
At this Won Lung screwed up his eyes into mere slits.
"Big lie dat. Japanese win everyt'ing allee timee. Russian warships goneup spout--Russian army run like--like--up spout!"
After that Won Lung told them all he knew. It was hard to understandhim, yet they gathered that there had been another sea fight in thevicinity of Port Arthur, in which the Russian navy had come off secondbest, and that the Japanese army that had landed in Korea had driven theenemy to the northwestward, over the Yalu River, and was now forcingthem back upon Liao-Yang.
"If this news about the army is true, Ben and Gilbert must be having ahot time of it," was Larry's comment. "I must say, I am mighty glad theyare on the winning side."
"Didn't I tell ye them Russians are a lot o' blowers?" came from Luke."The truth ain't in 'em half the time."
"Perhaps they do not get the correct news from the front," came fromCaptain Ponsberry. "The censors may keep the bad news back, for fear ofdisheartening the rest of the men in the army and navy."
"They tell me the Russians are very strict about sending out news,"rejoined Larry.
"It is true, Larry; no country on the globe is stricter. No telegram canbe sent without it is inspected, and the newspapers cannot print asingle scrap of news, or a single editorial, until after the presscensor has passed upon it."
"If that's the case, I don't wonder that some of the people want to befree."
"Russia is more free to-day than she ever was before, and freedom isbound to come sooner or later--that is, I mean, not such freedom as wehave in the United States, but such freedom as they have in England andGermany--where, at least, a man can call his soul his own."
"It's a wonder the Russians will fight for their country, if they are soground down."
"They know nothing better, and besides, they are really patriotic. Ifthe Czar would only treat them a little better, and give them a littlemore liberty, they would be the most faithful of subjects. But when aman can't do at all as he wants to do, and can't open his mouth about iteither, he is apt to grow sullen and ugly."
As day after day went by life on the Russian warship became almostunendurable for Larry and the others. They suffered greatly for the wantof fresh air, and at last made a vigorous protest to the captain of theship, when he happened to be passing the pen. As a result orders weregiven that they should be allowed three hours on deck each day, one inthe morning and two after dinner.
"This is a little like," said Larry, when coming on deck for the firsttime. "Oh, how good it feels to breathe fresh air once more!" And hefilled his lungs to their fullest capacity.
For their daily exercise Larry and Luke were chained together, and thepair inspected with great curiosity as much of the warship as wasallowed.
"It's not so very different from some of our own auxiliary cruisers,"said Larry. "But, after all, I like ours better."
"That's right, lad; stick up fer your own country every trip."
"Well, what do you say, Luke?"
"I say I'd rather be on one of Uncle Sam's ships than on any other inthe world."
While allowed to roam around on deck, Larry often looked eagerly for the_Columbia_, but the schooner and the Chinese junk were too far off to bedistinguished with the naked eye.
"We'd give a good deal to be back on her deck, wouldn't we, Luke?" saidhe.
"Don't mention it, lad; it makes me sick," grumbled the Yankee tar.
"I wish I knew just what was being done on land, don't you? Perhaps thiswar will end soon, and then we'll be set free."
"It won't end yet awhile, Larry, mark my words on that," answered Luke.
The old Yankee sailor was right--the war was far from ended, and here itmay be well to note briefly what was taking place on the sea betweenRussia and Japan, while the army of the Mikado was pushing throughManchuria in the direction of Liao-Yang.
The loss of the great battleship _Petropavlovsk_ has already beenrecorded in "Under the Mikado's Flag." This vessel was sunk by a mine inPort Arthur harbor, April 13, 1904, and carried down with her AdmiralMakaroff and about five hundred officers and men. At the same time thebattleship _Pobieda_ was also injured by a mine.
The loss of the admiral's flag-ship was a great blow to Russia, andwhile she was trying to recover, Port Arthur was vigorously shelled bythe Japanese fleet, and many buildings were more or less damaged. Somewarehouses were set on fire, but the local fire department, aided by theRussian garrison, succeeded in putting out the conflagration.
While the Japanese fleet was hammering at the city and the ships frombeyond the harbor, the Japanese army encircled Port Arthur on land,taking possession of every available hill beyond the Russian line ofdefenses. As a consequence, by the middle of May the city was in acomplete state of siege, nearly all communication with the outside worldbeing cut off.
But now came a turn in affairs which, for a short while, made matterslook favorable for Russia. While the fleet of Admiral Togo waspatrolling the whole of the southeastern coast of Manchuria andprotecting the Japanese transports which were pouring troops into thecountry, occurred a catastrophe as appalling as it was unexpected.
On the same day, May 15, the magnificent battleship _Hatsuse_, of theJapanese navy, was blown up by mines and sunk, and the protectedcruiser, _Yoshino_, also of Admiral Togo's fleet, collided in the fogwith a sister ship, and was a total loss. It is estimated that by thesetwo disasters seven hundred men were lost. Among the officers who mettheir fate were men of marked ability which Japan at this crisis couldill afford to lose.
The loss of the _Hatsuse_ is worth relating in detail. She had beenalong the coast during a heavy fog, but this had cleared off and the sunwas shining brightly. Not an enemy was in sight, and all was quiet onthe great battleship when, without warning, a terrific explosion wasfelt near the stern and a portion of the steering gear was damaged.
"We have struck a mine!" cried some one on board, and without delaysignals were hoisted for the other vessels in sight to stand by. Thebattleship was drifting and the locality was full of mines. It was amoment of terrible suspense. Then came another explosion, greater thanthe first, which ripped large holes through her heavy plates. At oncethe battleship began to fill, and presently she sank like a stone to thebottom of the sea. The other warships put out their small boats with allspeed, and succeeded in rescuing about three hundred officers and menout of a total of nearly eight hundred. Among those lost
wereRear-Admiral Nashiba and Captain Nakao, the commander of the warship.
The _Yoshino_ was lost while steaming slowly southward, after a night'svigil near the entrance to Port Arthur harbor. Other vessels of theblockading fleet were close by, so each ship had to advance with extremecaution. But the fog, instead of lifting, became thicker, and at alittle before two o'clock in the afternoon the cruiser was rammed by the_Kasuga_, another vessel of the fleet. A large hole was torn in the hullof the _Yoshino_.
"Out with the collision mats!" cried the commander of the cruiser, andthe mats were brought out without delay and placed over the side. Butthe hole was too great to be stopped in that manner. Then the captaincalled the entire crew on deck, and ordered the small boats to belowered, five on the starboard side and one on the port. Before theboats could be gotten away, the _Yoshino_ listed heavily to starboardand went down, smashing the five small boats under her. The other boatmanaged to get away, with only a handful of jackies and a couple ofofficers. The captain remained on the bridge and went down with hisship. As soon as possible the _Kasuga_ put out her boats and succeededin rescuing about ninety men, out of a total of over two hundred andfifty.
It was a great blow to Japan and the Russians were correspondinglyelated. Feeling that Admiral Togo's grip on the sea was now weakened,the Russian squadron at Vladivostok sailed forth and did much damage tothe shipping on the northern coast of Japan, sinking several merchantmenand taking a number of others as prizes. The Russian squadron also metthe Japanese transport _Kinshiu Maru_, having on board the 37th regimentof Japanese infantry.
"Surrender, or we will sink you!" signaled the Russian commander. TheJapanese refused, and were given exactly an hour in which to think itover. As they still refused, a torpedo was discharged against the doomedship. As she began to sink the Japanese soldiers opened fire with theirrifles, and then the Russians answered with their machine guns, mowingdown the Mikado's men by the score. But the Japanese were brave to thelast, and sank beneath the waves with the cry of _Banzai_! (hurrah!) ontheir lips.
It was an auxiliary cruiser of the Vladivostok squadron which had takenthe _Columbia_ and the Chinese junk as prizes of war. The captain of thecruiser was now looking for the rest of the squadron, but so far none ofthe warships had been sighted.
"They must have returned to Vladivostok," he reasoned, and then turnedin that direction with the _Pocastra_, never dreaming of what the nearfuture held in store for himself, his ship, and his crew.