Erskine thought that was damned clever – he would not have considered it himself.
“Didn’t know it was possible, Eskdale, teaching stokers, of all people, to do something clever like working a gun.”
“Jolly Jack can do anything, sir, when given the opportunity. Fine, reliable men, sir, given the chance to be.”
Captain Erskine did not know that he would go that far, but he agreed that the Navy made its sailors into some of the best men in the nation.
“Pity we don’t see the same done for the mass of the people ashore, Eskdale. Be fewer of these damned strikes and unions if that was so!”
Magnus was much struck by the wisdom of that comment, but he did not say whether he saw it as remarkably clever or uncommon stupid.
“The cruiser and the battleship have drawn their fires, sir. Here for a long stay, I must imagine.”
“Perhaps, Eskdale. They might be saving money, of course – coal and funds both short!”
That was in fact a sensible suggestion, Magnus thought. It was well possible from all he had heard of Russia. He would speak to Blantyre, discover whether the Russians had made contact with one of the yards for the purpose of repairs, and if so what exactly they required of them.
“No secrets in Shanghai, sir. Soon find out what they’re up to. Be interesting as well to get the lowdown on their new ships. Poltava is fresh from the builders, after all.”
“Heavily armed, they tell me. What do you think of this business of mines, Eskdale?”
“Nasty, sir. Form your line of battle and then be faced with as many as fifty floating mines across your bows, sir? What is the admiral to do?”
The logical response was to turn away, and in process expose the flanks of the fleet to the enemy’s broadsides, or to torpedoes.
“Risk the mines and hope they may not make contact, Eskdale? Awkward sort of choice to have to make. I don’t know… Let’s hope our leaders have a plan, Eskdale.”
“They will have, sir. They’ll muddle through and hope everything will come out right. God is on our side, after all.”
“Good point, Eskdale.”
Magnus was horrified to realise that Erskine had thought he was being serious; he said no more.
“Muster the men, Mr Mason. On deck where I can speak to them.”
The men stood in their lines, by division, their officers anxiously watching them and trying to make them seem at least slightly military in appearance. They were willing to make a try and fell silent politely as Magnus stood in front of them. The layout of Racoon was such that it was impossible for all of the crew to be accommodated in sight of him; some were inevitably hidden by guns and deckhouses. The men who could see and hear clearly very kindly passed Magnus’ words along so that there was a continual low buzz and he occasionally heard his own sentences coming back to him, which interfered with the flow of his oratory.
“You have all seen the three Russians who have come into Shanghai.”
They had, but they all turned their heads to look at them again.
“A new battleship and armoured cruiser and an older armoured gun vessel; more than fifteen hundred men between them.”
They nodded to each other and agreed that was a lot.
“It’s the men that are the problem. They don’t get paid and are fed badly. If they come ashore, they won’t know how to behave properly, and won’t be able to pay their way.”
Pay was very poor in the Royal Navy; the men could hardly comprehend that the Russians received even less than them. At least, they thought, they were fed a sufficient quantity, though of very poor quality food. The canned bully beef which was their staple was at least half fat.
“The Russians would think that Fanny Adams was a luxury!”
They laughed at that; the brutal murder and dismemberment of ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’ had made the headlines in newspapers in the same few days that bully beef and canned mutton had first been issued – inevitably the men had found an explanation for missing parts of the corpse and the name had stuck.
“So, when the Russians are ashore, there is the chance of trouble. I know you will have no objection to that.” They laughed again, willing to bash any number of Russians as a matter of general principle. “However, I don’t want rioting in the streets and the Provosts and Marines out to make things calm. Particularly, I don’t want the police involved, and men arrested and sent off to spend a few weeks in the local gaol, in the same cells as the Chinese.”
There was a mutter of outrage at that prospect – it was an appalling concept, wholly unacceptable.
“I am assured that the local judges in the Mixed Court will do just that, will send men down with no consideration for who or what they are. Nothing I could do to stop them – they are civilians, outside my control.”
They shook their heads sadly – what were things coming to?
“I do not want to lose any of you. We have a fine crew on Racoon and I want to keep you. So watch your step when you are ashore. I do not want to be forced to stop all shore-leave and will trust you all to be sensible. If you see Russians, keep clear of them and the trouble they will make. You will be able to recognise them easily – bearded and hairy and mostly unwashed. You won’t want to get too close anyway, in case the fleas hop across!”
There was a bellow of laughter at that stroke of wit. They all took note of the implied threat to end shore-leave for all if there was any outbreak of disorder and decided that provided the Russians behaved themselves, they would not provoke them. Of course, everything would be different if the Russians so much as looked cross-eyed at them, but that was only right.
“Jolly well said, sir. They all know exactly where they stand now, sir.”
“So they do, Mr Mason. And I wonder how many will stand in front of the captain’s table on a disciplinary charge inside a week?”
“Perhaps the Russians will not come ashore, sir.”
“I hope not.”
Mason shook his head and turned as the Yeoman of Signals came into the cabin.
“Message from Senior Naval Officer, sir. You are requested to meet him at your earliest convenience.”
“’Meet’ him?”
“That what it says, sir.”
The Yeoman left and Magnus vented his irritation.
“Not to report to him, but to speak to him on a semi-official basis, I presume. The man’s a bloody nuisance! I shall go ashore immediately, Mr Mason.”
Captain Erskine was waiting to leave the office.
“Glad you came immediately, Eskdale. Bit of a flap on. The Council, Lord Eskdale, or more precisely the Chairman, wishes to confer with us in his office. I believe there will be other interested parties present.”
“About the Russians, I presume, sir?”
“I must imagine so, Eskdale. Typical of jumped up bloody shopkeepers to send a note demanding our presence out of hand. Fearon, the Chairman’s name, some sort of Australian who is hand in glove with the Americans, to do the British down, no doubt!”
“Undoubtedly, sir. These colonial types are never quite the thing, you know.”
They took the official carriage to Soochow Road and the offices there, marched through the doors, shoulder to shoulder, their demeanour announcing that the Navy had arrived and all would now be well.
They were ushered immediately up to the Chairman’s office.
Magnus was aware that the Municipal Council, despite its innocuous name, was the sole meaningful source of government in Shanghai and that it was elected by the businessmen of Shanghai, the bulk of whom were British. It had no powers in the French Settlement and had only influence in the Chinese Area, but it controlled the great bulk of money and employment in the whole International Settlement. The Shanghai Municipal Police came under its direct control, as did the Volunteer Corps which, with the assistance currently of the Royal Marines, formed the sole military power of the Settlement, other than French colonial troops who were regarded, by the British, as most inferior beings.
They entered the large and comfortable office and were ushered to seats before being introduced to the Captain-Superintendent of Police, an Ulsterman who was for some reason at odds with Fearon, and the British Consul, who was de jure the senior British figure in Shanghai but de facto a mere nonentity.
“These Russians, Captain Erskine, seem to far outgun the Royal Navy. Is that desirable, sir?”
Erskine was dismayed by this immediate attack upon the Navy, spluttered and dithered before saying that he had contacted Hong Kong and expected a very early response from the Admiral there.
Pattison, the policeman, shook his head disparagingly.
“Poltava is a new twelve inch battleship. Your Centurion and Barfleur are no more than tens. Add the Admiral Nakhimov with her eight inchers and the outcome of any battle would be uncertain, sir.”
Erskine spluttered some more, turned to Magnus for a response.
“Should the need arise, sir, then Barfleur or Centurion will be accompanied by torpedo craft – destroyers, sir – which can deal with any battleship or heavy cruiser in the confines of coastal waters or the Yangtse. There is no need for anything greater than a second-class battleship on the China coast, sir. The first-class ships are where they belong, in Home waters and in the Mediterranean Fleet. No need to flatter the Russians by sending for anything bigger, sir.”
“Well, perhaps… I hear that you know what to do with torpedoes, Lord Eskdale. I must bow to your knowledge. The ribbon on your chest says that you are not inexperienced in the arts of war.”
Pattison cast a disparaging eye at the empty wastes of Captain Erskine’s uniform coat.
Fearon took up the main business of the meeting.
“The two larger ships are both in need of repair and have made contact with a yard here. It seems probable that the Shanghai Shipbuilding, Engineering and Dock Company had been contracted before they arrived here. One could wish they might have informed us of the fact!”
“It is annoying that they should not have, sir.” Erskine returned to his most pompous manner, “Will they be taken into the dock, sir?”
“Tomorrow, we believe, Captain Erskine. Alongside, not dry-docked. Their crews will remain aboard.”
“I presume, sir, that the crews, some fifteen hundred of them, will be our primary concern.”
“To an extent, Captain Erskine, but we have been assured that they will be given shore leave in very small numbers, rarely more than a score of trusted men at a time. Our greatest concern lies with the smallest vessel, in fact.”
“Otvajni, is it not, sir?”
“Otvajni, with a ‘vee’, Captain Erskine. She is in need of no repair but it is whispered by those who know that she is under the escort of the battleship for being untrustworthy, under poor control, mutinous, in fact!”
“Ah, I see. I presume we do not wish to allow her men ashore to perhaps desert and certainly spread dissension among the lesser folk here. I believe there are a number of Russians who are politically suspect and might be badly affected by corrupted seamen.”
Fearon shook his head, very patiently.
“No, sir. The precise opposite, in fact. The politically untrustworthy who have come to Shanghai include a number of extremist Reds who would do all they could to further subvert the seamen on the Otvajni and who must, ideally, be kept clear of them. Mr Pattison has the details.”
The Captain-Superintendent reluctantly admitted that the Municipal Police employed a Special Division, begging that they would make no mention of the fact.
“Reliable men from overseas forces mostly – British, Australian, New Zealanders and some from the Irish Constabulary as well, the latter well experienced in keeping an eye on the politically untrustworthy, as you will appreciate. There are, as well, a number of Chinese detectives who are able to mix in with the local population, which the Westerners cannot. Some of our people have made close contact with the Russian emigres and have an idea of just what they are up to.”
Captain Erskine showed a rarely honest blank face and demanded to know what they were doing.
“The normal business, Captain, just the same as they are in Europe and America. Some are anarchists who wish to destroy all government. A few are followers of Marx, but they have little to say in China, because it would seem that a Marxist Revolution cannot take place in a primarily agricultural land such as Russia or China; the Marxians, or Marxists, depending on whose translation you wish to hold to, believe that the Revolution must take place in Germany, followed by Britain and then America, where there is industry enough for what they call a Proletariat to form. That, by the way, gentlemen exhausts my knowledge of their very tedious doctrine. Most of the Russians here are simply in favour of creating a democratic government. Unfortunately, they believe that is impossible without first killing the Tsar and his family and every member of the old aristocracy. Many – the bulk in fact – of naval officers are of the aristocracy…”
“Thus, sir, the implication is that a bloody mutiny with the officers hanging at the yardarm would be much to be desired?”
“Exactly so, Lord Eskdale. I have to say that, purely personally speaking, I would lose no sleep if every brutal thug in Russia was killed, but in Russia, sir – not in my manor!”
Magnus had never met a Russian aristocrat to his knowledge, but he had heard much of them and of their undesirable habits and tended to share Pattison’s opinion. Captain Erskine was frankly lost, made a plaintive query as to what conceivable business it was of his.
“We do not want a mutinous Russian ship wandering the sea lanes of China, sir. Should the Otvajni turn pirate, then yours will be the privilege of running her down, sir. The Russians will not be able to do so, being in the hands of the shipyard.”
Erskine beamed his satisfaction – he did not have to turn into some sort of political policeman, he merely had to issue orders to the captain of his largest ship on station.
“Captain Lord Eskdale, Racoon is much of a size with Otvajni. I have no doubt that you will be able to run her down and bring her pirating to an end, should the situation arise.”
“Aye aye, sir. I am sure that Racoon could sink her in short order. I believe that we have the edge on her for speed and will be able to bring her to battle, holding out of the traverse of that single great gun of hers.”
Magnus was instantly made aware of the magnitude of his error.
“Good God, no, my lord! That would be most undesirable.”
The consul had little to say in matters of government but he was the authority when it came to Foreign Affairs.
“There may not be an act of war of such dimensions, Lord Eskdale. You must subdue the ship and return her to her duty and bring her back to Shanghai, ideally under the command of Russian officers. If all of the Russians are dead, which it appears will not be impossible, then you must take her in hand yourself, ensuring that all of the murderers are taken up and held in chains, as is proper. To sink her would be unthinkable!”
Magnus considered pointing out that he had thought of so doing, so it could not be unthinkable by definition; that might be seen as frivolous, however. He refrained from any utterance that might be accused of wit.
“Captain Erskine, it seems to me that we have a tricky diplomatic situation in the building. Will you come aboard Racoon if she sails in hot pursuit, in order to give the benefit of your greater experience, sir?”
“What? Oh no, impossible, Eskdale, though it is right of you to make the suggestion. You are rather junior for the task, I will admit. I must be located in my office, I fear, in immediate contact with the Legation in Peking and with the Admiral in Shanghai – I cannot dash off to sea and leave my responsibilities behind, much though I might wish to.”
Chapter Eleven
The Earl’s Other Son Series
Shanghai Dreams
“We are to mount a standing patrol on the pontoons along the Bund, Mr Mason. As well, the normal sentry on the brow is to be doubled, I am afraid, and the men are to car
ry rifles with a fixed bayonet at all times. So, best they should work two hours on sentry-go and two on deck, four men in total. They might prefer to stand two separate hours, but that can be decided upon by Mr Brownrigg. I want a petty officer and eight men on the patrol. The Bund is long and contains many dark corners, so the patrol will walk a beat for part of the time and take shelter where it can see what is going on for the rest. Not always in the same place but moving up and down unpredictably. Again, four will carry rifles and bayonets, the others the normal revolvers and pick-axe handles. Petty officer also to be armed. It is a damned nuisance, but I consider it to be essential for the maintenance of good order on the Bund.”
Mason wondered what that meant, tried to find the proper words to ask without seeming in any way resentful of the order. Magnus chuckled to himself as he watched the expressions crossing his first lieutenant’s face.
“That awful wreck Otvajni is close to mutiny, as we surmised, Mr Mason. Captain Erskine and the authorities regard it as important that she should have no easy communications with anarchists and their like among the Russian exiles. Better that the patrol should be naval rather than police, in their opinion. The police are less well-armed than us. Also, they are governed by considerations of the Rule of Law; we ain’t.”
There had been anarchist outrages over the previous years, mostly taking the form of assassination by bomb of Continental royalty. The several attempts to kill Queen Victoria had mostly been laid at the door of the deranged, though occasionally the Irish had been convenient, but the faint fear of the bearded extremist concealing a bomb under his cloak was still present in many English minds.
“Damned anarchists, sir! What motivates them, do you know?”
“Hatred of the Tsar and of the despotic monarchies of the Balkans in part. Lunacy to an extent, I doubt not. The wish to free one’s country of the foreign invader is also present, especially in the countries that make up the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despair is another factor, I am told. Captain Erskine asked the Police chappie, Pattison, what made anarchists tick when we were talking this morning; he offered all of those possibilities and suggested as well that many of the exiles, the emigres, had lost too much to be able to think rationally. Some of them might well be close to suicide and wish to go out with a bang, literally.”
02 Shanghai Dreams (The Earl’s Other Son #2) Page 24
