CHAPTER XIV
THE EVE OF BATTLE
In twenty minutes the _Ithuriel_ ran alongside the _Britain_, which wasone of the five most formidable battleships in existence. For five yearspast a new policy had been pursued with regard to the navy. Theflagships, which of course contained the controlling brains of thefleets, were the most powerful afloat. By the time war broke out five ofthem had been launched and armed, and the _Britain_ was the newest andmost powerful of them.
Her displacement was twenty-two thousand tons, and her speed twenty-fourknots. She was armoured from end to end with twelve-inch plates againstwhich ordinary projectiles smashed as harmlessly as egg-shells. Twelvefourteen-inch thousand-pounder guns composed her primary battery; hersecondary consisted of ten 9.2 guns, and her tertiary of twelve-pounderMaxim-Nordenfeldts in the fighting tops.
It was the first time that Erskine had seen one of these giants of theocean, and when they got alongside he said to Denis Castellan:
"There's a fighting machine for you, Denis. Great Scott, what wouldn't Igive to see her at work in the middle of a lot of Frenchmen and Germans,as the _Revenge_ was among the Spaniards in Grenville's time. Just lookat those guns."
"Yes," replied Castellan, "she's a splendid ship, and those guns look asthough they could talk French to the Frenchies and German to theDutchmen and plain English to the lot in a way that wouldn't want muchtranslating. And what's more, they have the right men behind them, andthe best gun in the world isn't much good without that."
At this moment they heard a shrill voice from the forecastle of thenearest destroyer.
"Hulloa there, what's the matter?" came from the deck of the _Britain_.
"Four French destroyers coming up pretty fast from the south'ard, sir.Seem to be making for the flagship," was the reply.
"That's a job for us," said Erskine, who was standing on the narrow deckof the _Ithuriel_, waiting to go on board the _Britain_. "Commander,will you be good enough to deliver this to the Admiral? I must be offand settle those fellows before they do any mischief."
The commander of the destroyer took the letter, Erskine dived below, asteel plate slid over the opening to the companion way, and when he gotinto the conning-tower he ordered full speed.
Four long black shapes were stealing slowly towards the British centre,and no one knew better than he did that a single torpedo well underwaterline would send Admiral Beresford's floating fortress to the bottominside ten minutes, and that was the last thing he wanted to see.
A quartermaster ran down the ladder and caught the letter from thecommander just as the _Ithuriel_ moved off.
"Tell the Admiral, with Captain Erskine's compliments, that he'll beback in a few minutes, when he's settled those fellows."
The quartermaster took the letter, and by the time he got to the top ofthe ladder, the _Ithuriel_ was flying through a cloud of foam and spraytowards the first of the destroyers. He heard a rattle of guns, and thenthe destroyer vanished. The _Ithuriel_ swung round, hit the next one inthe bows, ground her under the water, turned almost at right angles,smashed the stern of the third one into scrap iron, hit the fourth oneabreast of the conning-tower, crushed her down and rolled her over, andthen slowed down and ran back to the flagship at twenty knots.
"Well!" said Quartermaster Maginniss, who for the last few minutes hadbeen held spellbound at the top of the ladder, in spite of the claims ofdiscipline, "of all the sea-devils of crafts that I've ever heard of, Ishould say that was the worst. Four destroyers gone in five minutes, andhere he is coming back before I've delivered the letter. If we only havea good square fight now, I'll be sorry for the Frenchies."
The next moment he stiffened up and saluted. "A letter for you, Admiral,left by Captain Erskine before he went away to destroy thosedestroyers."
"And you've been watching the destruction instead of delivering theletter," laughed Lord Beresford, as he took it from him. "Well, I'll letyou off this time. When Captain Erskine comes alongside, ask him to seeme in my room at once."
The _Ithuriel_ ran alongside even as he was speaking. The gangway wasmanned, and when he reached the deck, Admiral Beresford held out hishand, and said with a laugh:
"Well, Captain Erskine, I understood that you were bringing me a messagefrom Commodore Hoskins, but you seem to have had better game to flyfor."
"My fault, sir," said Erskine, "but I hope you won't court-martial mefor it. You see, there were four French destroyers creeping round, andmine was the only ship that could tackle them, so I thought I'd bettergo and do it before they did any mischief. Anyhow, they're all at thebottom now."
"I don't think I should have much case if I court-martialled you forthat, Captain Erskine," laughed the Admiral, "especially after whatyou've done already, according to Commodore Hoskins' note. That must bea perfect devil of a craft of yours. Can you sink anything with her?"
"Anything, sir," replied Erskine. "This is the most powerful fightingship in the world, but I could put you at the bottom of the Channel inten minutes."
"The Lord save us! It's a good job you're on our side."
"And it's a very great pity," said Erskine, "that the airships are notwith us too. I had a very narrow squeak in Spithead about three hoursago from one of their aerial torpedoes. It struck part of a destroyerthat I'd just sunk, and although it was nearly fifty yards away, itshook me up considerably."
"Have you any idea of the whereabouts and formation of the French Fleet?I must confess that I haven't. These infernal airships have upset allthe plans for catching Durenne between the Channel Fleet and theReserve, backed up by the Portsmouth guns, so that we could jump out andcatch him between the fleet and the forts. Now I suppose it will have tobe a Fleet action at sea."
"If you care to leave your ship for an hour, sir," replied Erskine, "Iwill take you round the French fleet and you shall see everything foryourself. We may have to knock a few holes in something, if it gets inour way, but I think I can guarantee that you shall be back on the_Britain_ by the time you want to begin the action."
"Absolutely irregular," said Lord Beresford, stroking his chin, andtrying to look serious, while his eyes were dancing with anticipation."An admiral to leave his flagship on the eve of an engagement! Well,never mind, Courtney's a very good fellow, and knows just as much aboutthe ship as I do, and he's got all sailing orders. I'll come. He's onthe bridge now, I'll go and tell him."
The Admiral ran up on to the bridge, gave Captain Courtney CommodoreHoskins' letter, added a few directions, one of which was to keep on afull head of steam on all the ships, and look out for signals, and fiveminutes later he had been introduced to Lennard, and was standing besidehim in the conning-tower of the _Ithuriel_ listening to Erskine, as hesaid into the telephone receiver:
"Sink her to three feet, Castellan, and then ahead full speed."
The pumps worked furiously for a few minutes, and the _Ithuriel_ sankuntil only three feet of her bulk appeared above the water. Then theAdmiral felt the floor of the conning-tower shudder and tremble underhis feet. He looked out of the side porthole on the starboard bow, andsaw his own fleet dropping away into the distance and the darkness ofthe November night. The water ahead curled up into two huge swathes,which broke into foam and spray, which lashed hissing along the almostsubmerged decks.
"You have a pretty turn of speed on her, I must say, Captain Erskine,"said the Admiral, after he had taken a long squint through thesemicircular window. "I'm sorry we haven't got a score of craft likethis."
"And we should have had, your lordship," replied Erskine, "if theCouncil had only taken the opinion that you gave after you saw theplans."
"I'd have a hundred like her," laughed the Admiral, "only you seethere's the Treasury, and behind that the most noble House of Commons,elected mostly by the least educated and most short-sighted people inthe nation, who scarcely know a torpedo from a common shell, and weshould never have got them. We had hard enough work to get this one asan experiment."
"I quite agree with you, sir," sai
d Erskine, "and I think Lennard willtoo. There has never been an instance in history in which democracy didnot spell degeneration. It's a pity, but I suppose it's inevitable. Asfar as my reading has taken me, it seems to be the dry-rot of nations.Halloa, what's that? Torpedo gunboat, I think! Ah, there's the moon.Now, sir, if you'll just come and stand to the right here, for'ard ofthe wheel, I'll put the _Ithuriel_ through her paces, and show you whatshe can do."
A long grey shape, with two masts and three funnels between them, loomedup out of the darkness into a bright patch of moonlight. Erskine tookthe receiver from the hooks and said:
"Stand by there, Castellan. Forward guns fire when I give the word--thenI shall ram."
The Admiral saw the three strangely shaped guns rise from the deck,their muzzles converging on the gunboat. He expected a report, but nonecame; only a gentle hiss, scarcely audible in the conning-tower. Thenthree brilliant flashes of flame burst out just under the Frenchman'stopworks. Erskine, with one hand on the steering-wheel, and the otherholding the receiver, said:
"Well aimed--now full speed. I'm going over him."
"Over him!" echoed the Admiral. "Don't you ram under the waterline?"
"If it's the case of a big ship, sir," replied Erskine, "we sink and hithim where it hurts most, but it isn't worth while with these smallcraft. You will see what I mean in a minute."
As he spoke a shudder ran through the _Ithuriel_. The deck began toquiver under the Admiral's feet; the ram rose six feet out of the water.The shape of the gunboat seemed to rush towards them; the ram hit itsquarely amidships; then came a shock, a grinding scrape, screams offear from the terrified sailors, a final crunch, and the gunboat wassinking fifty yards astern.
"That's awful," said the Admiral, with a perceptible shake in his voice."What speed did you hit her at?"
"Forty-five knots," replied Erskine, giving a quarter turn to the wheel,and almost immediately bringing a long line of battleships, armouredcruisers, protected cruisers and destroyers into view.
The French Channel Fleet was composed of the most powerful ships in thenavy of the Republic. The two portions from Brest and Cherbourg had nowunited their forces. The French authorities had at last learned thesupreme value of homogeneity. The centre was composed of six ships ofthe _Republique_ class, all identical in size, armour and armament, aswell as speed. They were the _Republique_, _Patrie_ flagship, _Justice_,_Democratie_, _Liberte_ and _Verite_. They were all of fifteen thousandtons and eighteen knots. To these was added the _Suffren_, also ofeighteen knots, but only twelve thousand seven hundred tons: she hadcome from Brest with a flotilla of torpedo boats.
There were six armoured cruisers, _Jules Ferry_, _Leon Gambetta_,_Victor Hugo_, _Jeanne d'Arc_, _Aube_ and _Marseillaise_. These were allheavily armed and armoured vessels, all of them capable of manoeuveringat a speed of over twenty knots. A dozen smaller protected andunprotected cruisers hung on each flank, and a score of destroyers andtorpedo boats lurked in between the big ships.
The _Ithuriel_ ran quietly along the curving line of battleships andcruisers, turned and came back again without exciting the slightestsuspicion.
Erskine would have dearly loved to sink a battleship or one or twocruisers, just to show his lordship how it was done, but the Admiralforbade this, as he wanted to get the Frenchmen, who still thought theywere going to easy victory, entangled in the shallows of the narrowwaters, and therefore with the exception of rolling over and sinkingthree submarines which happened to get in the way, no damage was done.
The British Channel Fleet, even not counting the assistance of theterrible _Ithuriel_, was the most powerful squadron that had ever put tosea under a single command. The main line of battle consisted of theflagship _Britain_, and seven ships of the _King Edward_ class, _KingEdward the Seventh_, _Dominion_, _Commonwealth_, _Hindustan_, _NewZealand_, _Canada_ and _Newfoundland_; all over sixteen thousand tons,and of nineteen knots speed. With the exception of the giant flagships,of which there were five in existence--the _Britain_, _England_,_Ireland_, _Scotland_ and _Wales_--and two nineteen thousand tonmonsters which had just been completed for Japan, these were the fastestand most heavily-armed battleships afloat.
The second line was composed of the armoured cruisers, _Duke ofEdinburgh_, _Black Prince_, _Henry the Fourth_, _Warwick_, _Edward theThird_, _Cromwell_, all of over thirteen thousand tons, and twenty-twoknots speed; the _Drake_, _King Alfred_, _Leviathan_ and _Good Hope_, ofover fourteen thousand tons and twenty-four knots speed; and thereconstructed _Powerful_, and _Terrible_, of fourteen thousand tons andtwenty-two knots. There was, of course, the usual swarm of destroyersand torpedo boats; and in addition must be counted the ten cruisers, tendestroyers, and fifteen torpedo boats, which had escaped from Spitheadand the Solent. These had already formed a junction with the left wingof the British force.
For nearly two hours the two great fleets slowly approached each otheralmost at a right angle. As the grey dawn of the November morning beganto steal over the calm blue-grey water, they came in plain sight of eachother, and at once the signal flew from the foreyard of the _Britain_,"Prepare for action--battleships will cross front column of lineahead--cruisers will engage cruisers individually at discretion ofCommanders--destroyers will do their worst."
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