Chinese Whispers
Page 27
“So be it, Carter. Coffee, if you please. Bugger the needs of the Empire. I ain’t getting my hands that dirty.”
“No, sir. Neither you should. Can’t never wash ‘em clean again.”
The pair of ships sailed, Brave in the lead and almost visibly fretting at the slow progress of Obelisk as she climbed to her risible full speed.
“I need everything you can wring out of the boilers, Mr Lockhart. Up to twelve hours, I estimate of not less than sixteen knots, more if you can do it.”
“Chances are she will be in the dockyard for months afterward, sir.”
“Take the chance, Mr Lockhart. We must intercept a ship that might be capable of fifteen knots, and we may well then have to fight her. If that means tying the safety valves down, then so be it! I require full wartime operations of you, Mr Lockhart, and I shall note that order in the Log with immediate effect.”
“You will get all that we have got, sir. For the best, sir, I can give you a little more than sixteen knots with a slight reserve in hand for perhaps thirty minutes of sailing. I might be able to squeeze seventeen from her for that little time, but after that I will probably find that speed will fall off quite rapidly. Melted tubes are almost a certainty and some of the bearings are less robust than they used to be, and a blown steam line is always a possibility, with all that that implies.”
Magnus knew that a blown steam line would release a jet of superheated steam which could flay any man it hit or destroy his lungs. A blown line nearly always meant dead men in the engine room.
“I will record your words in the Log, Mr Lockhart. I must have the speed.”
“You will get it, sir.”
Magnus did not offer his thanks – junior officers obeyed his orders without consideration for their results. He made the entries in the Log and called Mr Knowles to read them.
“In case we take fire, Mr Knowles, and I do not survive, your report on the action will highly commend Mr Lockhart and you will push for his promotion into a bigger and newer ship.”
“Aye aye, sir. What are the chances, sir?”
“For deaths in the engine room? Too bloody high, Mr Knowles, but we must intercept this ship. You know the Gulf of Pechihli and the approach to Taku. Shallow waters for more than twelve miles offshore with bars that nothing greater than a destroyer or small sloop can cross. If this cruiser, backed up by the four destroyers at Taku, could get into the barges and small craft taking troops ashore then she could kill a brigade of soldiers before she was stopped. I would expect the soldiers to load into their landing vessels overnight so that they could go inshore with the dawn. If the cruiser brought herself in range in the darkness then she could blow them to hell before she was sunk. No way she would survive, of course, but the harm she could do in the space of even twenty minutes would be massive. We must catch her if we can, and that means pushing the engines too hard. Needs must, Mr Knowles, when the Devil drives!”
Knowles agreed – the Navy was a hard service and men died for it. That was part of the bargain an officer made. The sailor’s life was rather enjoyable, most of the time – although it would be better with a decent pay scale – but just sometimes the man must pay the price, with his life.
“Double lookouts, sir?”
“Brave will take the lead, but we have higher mastheads. Put them up, Mr Knowles.”
“Where do we expect to see her, sir?”
“Anywhere, Mr Knowles. Captain Hawkins says her captain is competent and we must assume that he will react intelligently. He may have continued on the same course at his best speed. He might have given up and have sought refuge in any Chinese port. He may have gone close inshore, hoping to crawl along the coast unseen. He may have put out to sea to make a circle perhaps as far as Port Arthur and then come in from the north. We simply do not know, and two ships are insufficient to search for her. Captain Hawkins is hoping that she will simply have held her course. Her captain may be relying on us being unwilling to interfere with a Chinese naval vessel in her own waters in peacetime.”
Mr Knowles considered that to be very likely. It was hardly to be expected that British ships would attack a Chinese in such conditions.
“If the Boxers attack the Legations and if the Imperial Army or Navy should choose to assist them, then a state of war will exist between Britain and the Qing, Mr Knowles. Captain Hawkins is merely, shall we say, jumping the gun a little.”
“That is certainly one way of expressing it, sir. When should we bring the hands to action stations, sir?”
“Not yet, Mr Knowles. I would wish to delay that as long as possible. The conditions are very unpleasant and the men should be spared them as long as possible.”
When the men made ready for action they closed all watertight doors, isolating many of the compartments. Many of the men would be stuck inside steel boxes with little in the way of comfort and, importantly, no access to the heads. Conditions could become most insanitary after a few hours.
“Will the Chinese be able to use their guns, sir?”
“God knows! If they have put trained gunners aboard, then they will not have had time to familiarise themselves with the weapons, but they will be able to use them. They have a number of gunners, we know, trained by us and the Germans and the French over the years. Their Navy has recruited a good few men over the last five years and has some officers who are well capable of training up a crew. The French may well have left a skeleton crew aboard when they sold the cruiser, to assist the new men; we do not know. We must assume that they can aim and fire their guns with some facility. We hope they are not as good as us.”
“Will we use our torpedoes, sir?”
“Not in the open sea. We are too slow to make an attack and have hardly practiced with them. Brave will, I believe.”
They met King Yuan no more than three hours south of the estuary, under full sail and with thick smoke pouring from her funnel.
“Ready to use steam when it comes to action, I presume, Mr Knowles. Yes, do you see?”
“Stripping sail, sir. Courses being furled now, and quite handily – her seamen have had some training. There are topmen in the t’gallants as well, sir.”
“But leaving her topsails in case the engine should fail her. I doubt that to be good seamanship, Mr Knowles. I can see why he is doing it, but he will lose many of the advantages of steam for still having to tack or wear ship.”
“Either or, sir. Not both.”
“Exactly, Mr Knowles. Tells us something about the captain. Any money you like, he has only sailed under steam before. Don’t know his way about sail. Like me, in fact.”
Mr Knowles had been thinking those last words but would never have dared say them. He coughed to avoid making a reply.
“Bad cough that, Mr Knowles. Ought to give up smoking!”
Knowles managed a sickly smile.
“Brave is closing her, sir. Flag hoist going up.”
The Yeoman of the Signals was watching Brave, shouted the flags as they showed.
“King Yuan stop engines. Prepare to be boarded.”
Captain Hawkins was trying to provoke a fight. No naval vessel would tolerate that command in its own waters. Few would accept it on the high seas.
“All guns load and train on King Yuan, Mr Pattishall!”
The Gunnery Officer roared his orders in the approved fashion. He watched as the five guns that would bear of each calibre turned towards King Yuan.
“Maxims, make ready.”
The gunners on either side of the bridge cocked their weapons. The loaders opened their boxes to access the reload belts, making a great play of efficiency, being within feet of the captain.
“Enemy is manning the chasers, sir. Turning them to aim on Brave, sir.”
The bow and stern guns were clearly visible. The three broadside guns were more hidden but could be presumed to be conforming.
“Port Maxim! You will destroy the gunners on the bowchase gun when action commences. Starboard, take the stern. Mr Pattis
hall, the other pair of Maxims to attempt targets of opportunity, revolving guns if visible.”
Pattishall sent his midshipman running with the word.
“Where have you placed Mr Parnell, Guns?”
“In charge of the three pounders, sir. He will be checking them now.”
They needed a better form of gun control, Magnus decided. Voice pipes to every gun were a possibility, but ineffective when firing, unheard in the great noise. Some sort of electrical telegraph should be possible, not as complex and massive as battleships used, but more suited to the needs of a smaller ship. Some form of gunlaying as well. Obelisk might fire all twenty of her guns in this action, aimed by twenty different ratings, essentially by eye and experience. Some of the gunners would be outstandingly good, but the bulk, in the nature of things, would be average.
“No signal from enemy, sir. Course unchanged.”
It was up to Captain Hawkins to decide what must happen.
“Hoist from Brave, sir. ‘Halt or I open fire’.”
“Guns, return fire instantly on King Yuan’s action. Do not fire before the Chinese. Mr Geddes! Note that order in its exact words and time.”
The Paymaster Lieutenant was on the bridge in action, his job to record all that happened, minute by minute.
“On deck!”
The lookout in the foremast shouting.
“Chinese bowchaser crew opened ready-use locker. Loader got a shell in his arms. Number two got a powder bag.”
“Reloads are ready, Mr Knowles. Well spotted by that lookout. Commend him after the action.”
“Brave increasing speed, sir. Brave twelve pounder fired, sir. Warning shot close to her bows.”
King Yuan erupted in smoke and flame, her five big guns shooting as one.
“Open fire!”
The Gunnery Officer echoed Magnus’ shout.
Brave was unhit, at a range of less than a cable. She had turned towards the Chinese ship, using her destroyer’s speed and too close for the gunners to hold on her. The revolving guns were firing and making better practice, killing the crew of the starboard six pounder.
Obelisk’s forty-five pound shells landed, four of them midships, as ordered, the fifth well off target, high on the forward deck.
The wooden-hulled cruiser slowed instantly as the engine room was exposed in a great cloud of steam. The next salvo landed in less than fifteen seconds, ripping into the open hull. She took fire and swung violently off course.
“Steering engine hit, sir.”
“Poor sod! Is she firing?”
“Broadside guns are gone, sir. Bridge structure smashed by the three pounders. Bowchaser unmanned. Sternchase gun still in action, sir.”
A heavy shell landed in the sea half a cable astern of Obelisk to emphasize Pattishall’s point.
Obelisk’s guns fired again.
“Brave firing torpedoes, sir.”
The destroyer had swung out to about five cables and had released four torpedoes. Magnus could see their tracks through the water, two at least on good line.
A few seconds and columns of water climbed at King Yuan’s bow and midships. She lurched to port and then buried her bows into the sea, her masts swinging her over as she went down.
“Cease fire!”
“All guns!” Pattishall bellowed his command, unnecessarily, the gunners having held their fire as they saw their target going down.
“Men in the water, sir. To the stern.”
“Boats crews. Starboard whaler to rescue survivors… Belay that order!”
Magnus watched as Brave came down under full steam and swung hard through the patch of swimming men, sending a great bow wave through them. There was no movement when the seas subsided and they could scan the water again.
“Brave was closing to finish her if necessary, Mr Knowles. Must have been making more than twenty-five knots. When he saw the survivors, her captain tried to pull her away rather than run them down, but he was too late.”
“Yes, sir. A most unfortunate accident, as we all saw.”
Knowles’ voice was flat, unforgiving. Magnus said no more.
# # #
Thank you for reading Chinese Whispers. The fourth book in the series is expected to be released in 2019. Note: The author’s recently completed Innocents at War Series, has received much critical acclaim and comes highly recommended. Find out more here:
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