moment motionless, and then he pickedup a rammer and ran it into the muzzle of the cannon which had beendischarged. The great gun was empty. The instantaneous motor-bomb wasnot there.
Now he was convinced that the Syndicate had not mined the fortresseswhich they had destroyed.
In twenty minutes the two British officers were on board the transport,which then steamed rapidly westward. The crabs again took the repellerin tow, and the Syndicate's fleet continued its eastward course,passing through the wide expanse of glittering scum which had spreaditself upon the sea.
They were not two-thirds of their way across the Atlantic when thetransport reached St. John's, and the cable told the world that theCraglevin had been annihilated.
The news was received with amazement, and even consternation. It camefrom an officer in the Royal Navy, and how could it be doubted that agreat man-of-war had been destroyed in a moment by one shot from theSyndicate's vessel! And yet, even now, there were persons who diddoubt, and who asserted that the crabs might have placed a greattorpedo under the Craglevin, that a wire attached to this torpedo ranout from the repeller, and that the British captain had merely firedthe torpedo. But hour by hour, as fuller news came across the ocean,the number of these doubters became smaller and smaller.
In the midst of the great public excitement which now existed on bothsides of the Atlantic,--in the midst of all the conflicting opinions,fears, and hopes,--the dominant sentiment seemed to be, in America aswell as in Europe, one of curiosity. Were these six crabs and onerepeller bound to the British Isles? And if so, what did they intendto do when they got there?
It was now generally admitted that one of the Syndicate's crabs coulddisable a man-of-war, that one of the Syndicate's repellers couldwithstand the heaviest artillery fire, and that one of the Syndicate'smotor-bombs could destroy a vessel or a fort. But these things hadbeen proved in isolated combats, where the new methods of attack anddefence had had almost undisturbed opportunity for exhibiting theirefficiency. But what could a repeller and half a dozen crabs doagainst the combined force of the Royal Navy,--a navy which had in thelast few years regained its supremacy among the nations, and which hadmade Great Britain once more the first maritime power in the world?
The crabs might disable some men-of-war, the repeller might make hercalculations and discharge her bomb at a ship or a fort, but what wouldthe main body of the navy be doing meanwhile? Overwhelming, crushing,and sinking to the bottom crabs, repeller, motor guns, and everythingthat belonged to them.
In England there was a feeling of strong resentment that such a littlefleet should be allowed to sail with such intent into British waters.This resentment extended itself, not only to the impudent Syndicate,but toward the Government; and the opposition party gained daily instrength. The opposition papers had been loud and reckless in theirdenunciations of the slowness and inadequacy of the naval preparations,and loaded the Government with the entire responsibility, not only ofthe damage which had already been done to the forts, the ships, and theprestige of Great Britain, but also for the threatened danger of asudden descent of the Syndicate's fleet upon some unprotected pointupon the coast. This fleet should never have been allowed to approachwithin a thousand miles of England. It should have been sunk inmid-ocean, if its sinking had involved the loss of a dozen men-of-war.
In America a very strong feeling of dissatisfaction showed itself.From the first, the Syndicate contract had not been popular; but thequick, effective, and business-like action of that body of men, and themarked success up to this time of their inventions and theiroperations, had caused a great reaction in their favour. They had, sofar, successfully defended the American coast, and when they hadincreased the number of their vessels, they would have been relied uponto continue that defence. Even if a British armada had set out tocross the Atlantic, its movements must have been slow and cumbrous, andthe swift and sudden strokes with which the Syndicate waged war couldhave been given by night and by day over thousands of miles of ocean.
Whether or not these strokes would have been quick enough or hardenough to turn back an armada might be a question; but there could beno question of the suicidal policy of sending seven ships and twocannon to conquer England. It seemed as if the success of theSyndicate had so puffed up its members with pride and confidence intheir powers that they had come to believe that they had only to showthemselves to conquer, whatever might be the conditions of the contest.
The destruction of the Syndicate's fleet would now be a heavy blow tothe United States. It would produce an utter want of confidence in thecouncils and judgments of the Syndicate, which could not becounteracted by the strongest faith in the efficiency of their enginesof war; and it was feared it might become necessary, even at thiscritical juncture, to annul the contract with the Syndicate, and todepend upon the American navy for the defence of the American coast.
Even among the men on board the Syndicate's fleet there were signs ofdoubt and apprehensions of evil. It had all been very well so far, butfighting one ship at a time was a very different thing from steaminginto the midst of a hundred ships. On board the repeller there was nowan additional reason for fears and misgivings. The unlucky characterof the vessel when it had been the Tallapoosa was known, and not a fewof the men imagined that it must now be time for some new disaster tothis ill-starred craft, and if her evil genius had desired freshdisaster for her, it was certainly sending her into a good place tolook for it.
But the Syndicate neither doubted nor hesitated nor paid any attentionto the doubts and condemnations which they heard from every quarter.Four days after the news of the destruction of the Craglevin had beentelegraphed from Canada to London, the Syndicate's fleet entered theEnglish Channel. Owing to the power and speed of the crabs, RepellerNo. 11 had made a passage of the Atlantic which in her old naval careerwould have been considered miraculous.
Craft of various kinds were now passed, but none of them carried theBritish flag. In the expectation of the arrival of the enemy, Britishmerchantmen and fishing vessels had been advised to keep in thebackground until the British navy had concluded its business with thevessels of the American Syndicate.
As has been said before, the British Admiralty had adopted a new methodof defence for the rudders and screw-propellers of naval vesselsagainst the attacks of submerged craft. The work of constructing thenew appliances had been pushed forward as fast as possible, but so faronly one of these had been finished and attached to a man-of-war.
The Llangaron was a recently built ironclad of the same size and classas the Adamant; and to her had been attached the new stern-defence.This was an immense steel cylinder, entirely closed, and rounded at theends. It was about ten feet in diameter, and strongly braced inside.It was suspended by chains from two davits which projected over thestern of the vessel. When sailing this cylinder was hoisted up to thedavits, but when the ship was prepared for action it was lowered untilit lay, nearly submerged, abaft of the rudder. In this position itsends projected about fifteen feet on either side of thepropeller-blades.
It was believed that this cylinder would effectually prevent a crabfrom getting near enough to the propeller or the rudder to do anydamage. It could not be torn away as the stern-jacket had been, forthe rounded and smooth sides and ends of the massive cylinder wouldoffer no hold to the forceps of the crabs; and, approaching from anyquarter, it would be impossible for these forceps to reach rudder orscrew.
The Syndicate's little fleet arrived in British waters late in the day,and early the next morning it appeared about twenty miles to the southof the Isle of Wight, and headed to the north-east, as if it weremaking for Portsmouth. The course of these vessels greatly surprisedthe English Government and naval authorities. It was expected that anattack would probably be made upon some comparatively unprotected spoton the British seaboard, and therefore on the west coast of Ireland andin St. George's Channel preparations of the most formidable characterhad been made to defend British ports against Repeller No. 11 and heratten
dant crabs. Particularly was this the case in Bristol Channel,where a large number of ironclads were stationed, and which was to havebeen the destination of the Llangaron if the Syndicate's vessels haddelayed their coming long enough to allow her to get around there.That this little fleet should have sailed straight for England's greatnaval stronghold was something that the British Admiralty could notunderstand. The fact was not appreciated that it was the object of theSyndicate to measure its strength with the greatest strength of theenemy. Anything less than this would not avail its purpose.
Notwithstanding that so many vessels had been sent to different partsof the coast, there was still in Portsmouth harbour a large number ofwar vessels of various classes, all in commission and ready for action.The greater part of these had received orders to cruise that day in thechannel. Consequently, it was still early in the morning when, aroundthe eastern end of the Isle of Wight, there appeared a British
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