The Sea-girt Fortress: A Story of Heligoland

by Percy F. Westerman

  CHAPTER XVIII

  The Errant Airship

  THE next day was warm and sunny, with hardly any wind. It would havebeen an ideal day for cricket, thought Hamerton, as he gazed throughthe window upon the deserted courtyard. It made confinement doublyhard and irksome.

  Continuously the noise of machinery and the busy hum of workmen rosein the sultry air. The smell of petrol and occasionally wafts of hotmineral oil seemed to pervade the atmosphere.

  Yet above the din could be heard the dull roar of the sea: the sullenbreakers lashing themselves into masses of white foam upon the inneredges of the Hohe Brunnen shoal. It was a sure sign of a storm farout to sea.

  The Sub was listless. In vain he tried to fix his mind upon the booksthe fair-haired lieutenant had lent him. It was all to no purpose.Again and again he threw down the volume and returned to the windowto look upon a vista of paving stones and an almost blank wall.

  At about three in the afternoon a shadow, travelling at a great pace,fell athwart the courtyard. It could not be a cloud, for the sky wasof a deep-blue colour and destitute of any form of condensed vapour.

  Presently he saw the reason for the shadow. It was a huge militaryZeppelin, larger than any he had yet seen. Owing to the altitude ofthe airship it was difficult to judge her dimensions, but by arough-and-ready comparison with the height of the men who formed hercrew, Hamerton came to the conclusion that she was at least eighthundred feet in length, forty-five feet in height and about seventyfeet in beam. Not only did she have three cars slung underneath, buton the upper surface of the outer aluminium envelope was a broadgangway, terminating at each end in a wedge-shaped deck-house.

  At first Hamerton could see only the rails of the gangway, but as theairship stood farther away to the eastward he discovered four guns somounted as to be able to fire in a vertical direction, besides beingable to be trained abeam.

  With the naked eye the Sub counted thirty-two men on board. Otherswere doubtless in the nacelles, so that he estimated that the crewnumbered not far short of fifty.

  Unlike the British dirigible, the craft was painted a dull grey onher under body and an olive green above the line of her greatestperimeter. The only splash of bright colour about her was the blackcross ensign of Germany that flew from a short staff at the after endof the upper platform.

  As the Zeppelin passed over the West Kalbertan Battery her speed wasat least thirty miles an hour; but even as the Sub watched shelurched forward and settled down to a pace of nearly thrice herformer rate.

  In a very few moments she was lost to sight, although flying at analtitude of nearly a thousand feet, travelling in the direction ofthe North Sea entrance to the Kiel Canal.

  "Unwieldy brute!" ejaculated the Sub. "I wonder what headway shewould make in a gale of wind? It's a fine day, so I suppose they aretaking their pet gasbag for an airing. It strikes me pretty forciblythat they'll have to be pretty sharp about it, for that ground swellis a certain sign of a gale."

  Twenty minutes later an air squadron consisting of seven seaplanesflew overhead. The Sub regarded them with curiosity. He had heardthat the German authorities, after repeated experiments, had decidedto build a number of improved seaplanes to be stationed on theFrisian coast, and now for the first time he saw them in actualflight.

  They were flying low--at less than a hundred and fifty feet above theground; but they flew none the less steadily. The floats were reallythree boats, the centre one big, about twenty feet in length, anddecked in with the exception of two small wells. Immediately in frontof the foremost one was a one-pounder automatic gun protected by aV-shaped shield. Abaft the after cockpit was a machine gun of theMaxim type.

  On either side of the main float was a subsidiary one, serving simplyas outriggers to give lateral stability to the seaplane when restingon the surface of the sea.

  Between the floats, and suspended from rods running in a fore-and-aftdirection, were a dozen cylindro-conical objects that the Subrecognized as bombs for dropping upon hostile ships andfortifications.

  It was clearly evident that all the power of offence was distributedon or between the floats, leaving the rest of the seaplane forelevating, steering, and propulsion purposes. The main planes werecomparatively short in distance from tip to tip, but broad inproportion. The fabric was apparently of light, non-flexible metal,curved with the convex side uppermost, while both planes were set atan angle of about sixty degrees to the centre line. There were twopropellers, one set slightly below the planes, the shaft being drivenby means of a chain connected with the engine. The second propeller,worked on a shaft within and projecting beyond the main shaft, was soarranged that its rotation was in an opposite direction to that ofthe after one. By this means the after propeller "gripped" the airthrown back by the foremost one, and a considerable increase in speedwas claimed to have been obtained.

  Extending right aft for a distance of ten feet beyond the verticalrudder was a long hollow pole made of aluminium. Surrounding it was acanvas covering, secured at the end nearest the main planes by ametal band. This device was supposed to be for the purpose of savinglife should the seaplane become disabled in mid-air and be unable tovolplane down to the surface of the sea. By drawing the metal bandforward the canvas would be distended by the wind and thus form ahuge parachute. Provided the crew were not thrown clear of thefalling craft they would be able to descend with it at very littlerisk.

  An experiment had been tried in Kuriche Haff only a few dayspreviously. A seaplane was hoisted to a height of two thousand feetby a dirigible. The parachute safety band was released, and the craftdropped. It fell erratically for nearly a hundred yards before theparachute became fully distended; then, tilting nose downwards, itcontinued descending in a series of spirals, its rate being greatlyretarded. Striking the surface of the water the seaplane dived tillhalf the length of her floats and a part of her main planes weresubmerged. Then, like a cork, she leapt clear of the surface andsettled naturally on her floats.

  Hamerton, of course, was ignorant of this highly-confidential test,but the unusual sight of a pole projecting far in the wake of theseaplanes attracted his attention. At first he came to the conclusionthat it was a form of aerial torpedo tube, till it suddenly occurredto him that it might be a form of arresting the attraction of gravityin the event of an accidental downward plunge.

  Almost as soon as the seaplanes passed out of sight LieutenantSchaffer entered the room, accompanied by the two men who acted asjailers.

  "You haf seen part of our Zherman air fleet?" he enquired affably.

  "Yes," replied Hamerton; then, on the spur of the moment, he added:"I see you have adopted the parachute principle in the event of anaccident?"

  "Mein Gott!" ejaculated the astonished lieutenant; "how you knowthat?"

  "Saw it with my own eyes," replied the Sub, delighted at thesuccessful guess he had made. "I thought your people would collar theidea from us sooner or later."

  "Collar? What do you mean?" asked Schaffer, completely mystified."Collar? That something is around the neck--dog collar, horse collar,stylish collar, hein?"

  "Well, crib, then."

  "Crib? Ach, I haf it! Crib something is to do with children. You sayour Zherman air fleet it is in infancy, eh? You are all wrong, as youwill see."

  "I said nothing of the sort," said Hamerton, smiling. "I said youcollared, cribbed our ideas--sneaked them."

  "I understand not still," expostulated the German lieutenant. "I hafnot learned the word 'sneak' in my vocabulary."

  "Then suppose I explain that you borrowed the idea of a parachutefrom us?"

  Schaffer literally gasped.

  "You then have a like device in England? Then it is by spies such asyou, Herr Smidt, that it was made known."

  Whatever had been his object in entering Hamerton's cell the Subnever found out, for the lieutenant lost no time in informing hissuperior officer that these English had already got to learn how toprevent disasters to aircraft heavier than air.

  As Hamerton had
foreseen, the gale began to make itself felt. Justbefore sunset a strong breeze from the east sprang up, and in lessthan twenty minutes the Sub could see columns of spray dashing highabove the seawall between the East Kalbertan Battery and the D?neFort.

  As darkness set in the wind increased in violence. Clouds of sand andsalt spray were flung against the window of the Sub's room, thefurious blasts howled over the chimney pots and through the overheadtelegraph wires.

  Then the searchlights were switched on. The giant beams swung slowlyto and fro, till at one moment the upper part of the wall oppositeHamerton's window was as brilliant as polished silver, at another asblack as Erebus.

  Still no rain fell. Up to the present it was a gale of wind, one thatwould blow itself out in a comparatively short space of time.

  Hamerton had no thought of going to bed. He stuck to his post at thewindow, fully expecting to see the giant airship come battling withthe gale in an endeavour to find shelter in the cavernous sheds onthe island of Heligoland.

  Suddenly, above the howling of the elements, a bugle rang out. Fromthe barrack quarters within the battery issued scores of men dressedin brown-canvas working suits. Without waiting to form up they ran inthe direction of the main gateway. Clearly something of the nature ofan accident had occurred to warrant this hasty nocturnal parade.

  Then Hamerton saw the reason. Picked out by several searchlights thegiant Zeppelin appeared. She was battling bravely against the wind,but slowly and surely was being driven astern. She was flying low.Her commander evidently decided that it was too hazardous to attemptto return to her proper berth, and was endeavouring to descend underthe lee of the East Kalbertan Battery, where a shallow depression inthe wake of the low walls offered the only possible though doubtfulshelter. With the thought of previous disasters fresh in their mindsthe Germans dreaded the possibility of being blown far out to sea.They would not even take the risk of sheltering to leeward of thelofty Heligoland; they preferred to attempt to secure the unwieldyairship on Sandinsel.

  Lower and lower sank the Zeppelin, till her nacelles were hidden fromHamerton's eyes by the intervening wall. Her way seemed momentarilychecked as ropes were thrown to the hundreds of waiting soldiers. Asfast as they could move, two-thirds of her crew slid down to earth,only the officers and twelve men remaining until the Zeppelin shouldbe properly secured.

  "I wish the blessed thing would smash up," thought the Sub. "Not thatI want any lives to be lost, but because the Germans crow over theirwonderful airships and construct elaborate castles in the air for thehumiliation of England."

  Even as these thoughts flashed through his mind the airship swunground broadside to the wind. In an instant swarms of men were beinglifted off the ground or being dragged over it like dead flies on aresinous string. Gamely they struggled to keep the errant aircraftunder control, but in vain.

  Rapidly the Zeppelin drifted towards the West Kalbertan Battery, tillher huge envelope loomed high above the fortifications. With a dullthud the nacelles struck the earthworks. The frail aluminium gavebefore the shock, and the remainder of her crew, with one exception,were precipitated upon the sand.

  Relieved of their weight, the Zeppelin bounded upwards for a distanceof about ten feet, just clearing the formidable wire entanglements.Then a downward eddy seemed to strike her, and she dropped till thefragments of her cars touched the pavement of the courtyard. Thenearmost portion of her aluminium envelope was now within thirtyyards of Hamerton's window. He realized that nothing short of amiracle could prevent the unmanageable craft from buckling itselfagainst the angle of the storehouse in which his cell was situated.

  With praiseworthy devotion the soldiers still hung on to the guideropes till the foremost of them were hauled to within a few feet ofthe barbed-wire fence. Thrown into a blaze of silvery light by thesearchlights, the entanglements became strikingly apparent to theluckless soldiers. It was more than flesh and blood couldstand--being slowly dragged over an expanse of sharp iron barbs. In amoment the guide ropes from the after-end of the Zeppelin wereabandoned.

  The next thing Hamerton saw was a shower of tiles, bricks, laths, andplaster falling about him, to the accompaniment of a succession ofmost appalling crashes.

  Instinctively he leapt backwards as a twisted and distorted mass ofmetal was forced through the aperture. Between the rents in themasonry the slanting beams of half a dozen searchlights played uponthe dust-laden atmosphere. The grinding of the enormous body of theZeppelin, added to the roar of the wind and the shouts of dismay ofthe baffled soldiers, formed a fitting accompaniment to the scene ofdesolation.

  A train of thoughts flashed across the Sub's mind. He realized thathe was in imminent peril of being crushed like a rat in a trapbeneath the falling brickwork, for one side of the room was alreadyshowing signs of sharing the fate of the part facing the originaldirection of the impact. A sudden resolution seized him. Better byfar to make a rush for the tangle of aluminium rods and sheeting andtrust to be lifted clear of the debris than to remain in danger ofthe collapsing walls.

  With a quick, lever-like wrench the remains of the nacelles describeda complete semicircle. The Zeppelin, free for'ard, was swinging roundon her heel, like a ship that has struck stern foremost upon asubmerged rock. Then, with a comparatively slow yet determinedmovement, the wreckage began to assume an upward motion.

  Hardly realizing what he was doing, Hamerton sprang over a heap ofbricks and dried mortar, and grasped one of the vertical rods thatstill connected the damaged car with the outer envelope of the gasbag. Half-blinded with dust, his grotesque clothing rent almost fromhis back, he found himself being raised from the ruin of his cell. Hefelt the cold breeze of the open air upon his heated forehead.

  Then, hardly knowing whether he was on or above the ground, he flunghis legs round the twisted rod to which he had clung so desperatelywith his hands. Even as he did so the side wall of his cellcollapsed. Another few seconds and he would have been crushed todeath beneath the debris.

  Released from the restraining wall, and no longer held insemi-captivity by the swarm of men, who had been compelled torelinquish their hold upon the guide ropes, the damaged Zeppelinbounded to a height of nearly a hundred feet, the while being urgedonward at a tremendous pace towards the rocky cliffs of Heligoland.

  The Sub was not one to lose his nerve even in a tight corner. Hisfirst step was to gain a place of greater security than that affordedby a trailing rod that ended in space less than three feet beneathhim. Hand over hand he climbed, till he reached a metallic beam thatat a very recent period formed one of the fore-and-aft girders of thelower gangway.

  Here he sat in comparative safety. He could rest until he regainedhis breath ere he made another bid for greater safety.

  The wind no longer howled through the chaos of broken and twistedrods. Borne along at almost the same velocity as that of the gale,the Zeppelin was apparently floating in the still air, although inreality her speed over the ground was now not much less than sixtymiles an hour. Assailed on all sides by the brilliant searchlights,the derelict aircraft was heading straight for the cliffs at BucketHorn. Unless she lifted herself sufficiently to clear the one hundredand twenty-eight feet of cliff she would inevitably be dashed topieces against the sandstone bluff.

  Shading his eyes from the blinding glare, Hamerton could see theprecipitous wall of rock momentarily growing larger and larger.Thirty feet were wanting to clear the edge of the cliff. It seemed asif nothing could save the uncontrollable Zeppelin.

  Hamerton set his jaw tightly. He fully realized the danger. He wasmentally picturing the impending disaster, the bulging sides of theenvelope charging the cliff and being crushed like an empty eggshellagainst the inflexible wall of sandstone. The remains of the nacelleswould be swung violently inwards, the concussion would result in hisbeing dislodged from his position and being flung heavily upon therocky, breaker-swept ledges at the base of the island.

  Yet the expected did not happen. An upward eddy, caused by the windbeing deflected by th
e perpendicular cliff, tossed the Zeppelin inits boisterous grip.

  Her stern portion, being lighter than the bows, since most of herweight had already been torn away from that end, swung clear of thecliff. Hamerton could see the roof of a searchlight shed slip pastbarely twenty feet beneath him. Then came a sudden jerk that wellnighdislodged the Sub from his precarious position. Only his tenaciousgrip saved him.

  The whole of the enormous bulk of the Zeppelin seemed to pausemomentarily, then with a sickening, heaving motion the aircraft shotupwards to an additional height of five hundred feet. In swingingpast the brink of the chasm the destruction of the machinerycompartment of the midship nacelle was completed, and her motors,weighing little short of a ton and a half, were precipitated to theground, rolling into a concealed gunpit and greatly damaging thebreech mechanism of the weapon.

  Just then a loud roar came from one of the forts, the powerful SpitzHorn Battery. The Germans, despairing at the loss of the pride oftheir aerial fleet, and fearful lest she should be borne by the galeto the shores of the hated England, had decided upon the expedient ofriddling her with heavy shells. In the hope that their vauntedhole-closing fabric would in this instance prove unequal to theconditions laid upon it, the gunners used the secondary armament oftwenty-six-centimetres weapons.

  With an unearthly shriek the first projectile, weighing nearly threehundred pounds, passed harmlessly above the envelope of the errantZeppelin, bursting with a lurid red flash at a distance of fivehundred yards behind her. Two more shells followed, almostsimultaneously. These fell far beneath the rapidly-moving target.Although the aim in a vertical plane was good, the artillery-men werehopelessly at a loss as regards elevation. The Zeppelin, now onlyfaintly visible in the rays of the distant searchlights, was out ofrange and well on her way across the stormy North Sea.