At the Fall of Port Arthur; Or, A Young American in the Japanese Navy
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CHAPTER XXV
BOMBARDING A PORT ARTHUR FORT
Larry felt very happy after having met Ben and Gilbert. He had beenafraid he should find that his brother or his friend was wounded, eventhough no mention of such an occurrence had been made in the letter hehad received. He knew from experience that Ben was in the habit ofmaking light of things that went wrong.
"I suppose it did your heart good to meet 'em both," said Luke, afterthe warship was on the way.
"You're right, Luke; it was a regular touch of old times."
"Wish I had seen 'em myself."
"Both wanted to be remembered to you." Larry paused for a moment. "Bythe way, I wonder where we are bound now?"
"Can't say as to that, lad--secret orders, I reckon," answered the oldtar.
The order to sail was evidently an important one, for scarcely was the_Shohirika_ out of sight of land than all steam was crowded on. Thelookouts were also doubled, and when night came the strictest watchpossible was maintained.
Yet, with it all, several days passed without anything out of theordinary happening. Drills and exercises went on as before, and bothLarry and Luke made themselves familiar with all parts of the warship.Both spent much time in familiarizing themselves with such orders aswere given to them in Japanese, so that they might not be too "green,"as Larry termed it, if put to the test.
During those days spent on shipboard matters concerning the great warwere moving forward steadily. In the vicinity of Liao-Yang both theJapanese and the Russians made several movements to better theirpositions. This brought on a few skirmishes and one heavy battle, inwhich the losses were several hundreds on each side. There was also anadvance on the outer forts of Port Arthur, and a fair-sized hill wascaptured by the Mikado's men, who, however held the place only at anenormous loss of life. In moving on the port the Japanese found theywould have to do a great amount of tunneling and entrenching, all ofwhich consumed time.
On the ocean the two nations were equally active. Both took severalprizes of war, and in an encounter with the Vladivostok squadron aRussian warship was hopelessly disabled and a Japanese cruiser was allbut sunk. Another ship belonging to Admiral Togo's fleet struck a mineoutside of Port Arthur and had to be sent back to Japan for repairs.
So far the weather had been warm, but autumn was now at hand and beforelong the nights became cold and raw.
"This war won't be finished this winter," said more than one. "We are infor another year of it, sure."
The _Shohirika_ had been summoned to join the fleet patrolling beforePort Arthur. Two days before that station was reached they fell in witha sister ship which brought the news of an encounter with a Russianbattleship carrying some troops from Siberia. Both warships had sufferedand become separated in the darkness.
"This war is certainly warming up," said Larry. "I hope we see somefighting before it is over."
"Maybe we'll see more of it than you wish," said Luke, grimly.
"Don't you worry--we'll see a whole lot," put in Steve Colton, who wassitting on a ditty chest, playing checkers with Bob Stanford. "Just waittill we get under Admiral Togo's eye--he'll make us be up and doing."
The chance to see some of the war came the next day, when they wereordered to bombard one of the forts to the north of Port Arthur proper.As soon as they came within four miles of the fort they received areception which was as warm as it was exciting.
"Now, here is where we show what we can do!" cried Luke, as the orderscame to begin firing, and the whole gun company jumped in to assist him.The magazines were opened up, the windlasses set to work, and soon thefirst real shell--not a mere blank for practicing--came up and was runinto the gun. Then the breech-block was swung to and locked, theelectric connection set, and Luke sighted the piece with care, afterhaving first received the proper distance from the range-finders in thetops. As soon as the "sight" was "covered" the button was pressed, and_bang!_ went the gun with a concussion that shook the whole ship. Otherguns followed in rapid succession, until Larry had to stuff cotton inhis ears to keep himself from becoming deaf. As soon as the gun wasdischarged, it was opened to let the gases out and then cleaned with wetswabs and flushed with running water to cool the barrel.
The bombardment lasted for an hour, and during that time the fort washit in a dozen places. Sand, dirt, and rocks flew in all directions, andonce there came a flash which told of an explosion of a quantity ofpowder.
"If we could only hit the magazine it would be good-by to that fort,"said Larry, but this was not to be.
After the first few shots the fort had remained silent, but now, whenthe _Shohirika_ was about to retire, the gunners opened up once more,and a rain of shot and shell flew all around the warship. One struck thebow of the vessel, tearing off a few feet of the forward deck andanother entered the forward turret, killing one of the gunner'sassistants.
"We can be thankful we weren't in that turret," said Luke, when hereceived the latter news.
"Yes, indeed!" murmured Larry, and could not repress a shiver. "I cantell you, it's mighty risky work after all!" he added, soberly.
"Well, we've got one advantage over those fellows," put in Colton, afterthe firing had come to an end, and the warship was fast getting out ofrange. "We can run away, while they have got to stay right where theyare."
"Oh, they can run away too," said Larry.
"Not unless they abandon their fort,--and that would be just as if weshould abandon our ship."
The work at the gun had been severe, and after the bombardment was overLarry was glad to clean up and take a rest. The perspiration, grime, andsmoke had made him look like a negro, and he used up several buckets ofwater before he got himself into as cleanly a condition as was habitualwith him. Luke also took a "scrubbing down," as he called it, and so didthe others.
What amazed Larry more than anything was the quietness of the Japanesesailors. Now that the bombardment was ended they said scarcely a wordabout it, but went on exactly as before.
"They are the most matter-of-fact chaps I ever saw!" he declared. "Ibelieve if the ship blew up they would say 'Very sorry' and swim away.Now on one of Uncle Sam's ships the men would be all woke up and out fora jollification. Ben says it's the same way in the army. If they getexcited at all they always seem to be sorry for it afterwards!"
"That's what ye call a characteristic o' the race, I reckon," returnedLuke. "They're taught to act that way from babyhood. It ain't polite norhigh-toned to git excited. The only thing they kin yell is _Banzai!_ an'they let thet out loud enough, goodness knows!"
"I can't understand why we didn't keep at that fort," came from Colton."I was just getting the range beautifully when orders came to shutdown."
"Well, there must be a reason for it, Steve," answered Luke.
There was a reason for it. Admiral Togo had just received word thatcertain ships of the Port Arthur squadron were going to make an attemptto break out of the harbor, either that night or the next day.Consequently the _Shohirika_ was needed further down the coast, andsteamed away in that direction as rapidly as her somewhat limited supplyof coal permitted.
"I don't think the navy will ever find its way into Port Arthur harbor,"said Larry, later on, after studying a map of that locality. "There aretoo many forts on the hills outside of the town. They could smash ourships to smithereens if we got too close."
"Trust Admiral Togo to know what he is doing," answered Steve Colton."He won't go too close. At the same time he ain't going to let theRussian ships get away any more than Schley and Sampson let AdmiralCervera get away from Santiago Harbor in Cuba."
"It's the army that will make Port Arthur a hot place to live in," camefrom Bob Stanford. "They can entrench and thus gain a little ground dayby day, and as soon as they win some high point, like say 203-MeterHill, it will be all up with General Stoessel, mark my words."
The night to follow proved to be misty, and so cold that the majority ofthe sailors were glad to don their heavy peajackets. Fearing that theenemy would try to tak
e advantage of the weather, Admiral Togo turned onall the searchlights his fleet possessed, and these were flashed in alldirections.
"False alarm," said Luke, after midnight had sounded out on the ship'sbell. "Reckon the Russians don't dare to come out."
But the old Yankee tar was mistaken. The enemy were on the alert, and atthree o'clock, when the mist was extra heavy, the movement to steal outof Port Arthur harbor was begun, two torpedo destroyers taking the lead,and several cruisers following. This brought on a heavy sea-fightlasting far into the next day, and one which came close to cost Larryhis life.