“The whole of the Navy ain’t stick-in-the-muds, Mr Whyte. Just most of them. Sea-going stations, Mr Whyte. Let us proceed on our patrol and attempt to make ourselves useful.”
Chapter Fou
r
The China Station
“Revolutions for eight knots.”
A boy seaman repeated the command and ran down to the engine room, to the Engineer stood on his footplate.
“Ridiculous, Mr Whyte! Why are there no voice-pipes?”
“Never seen the need for them, sir. The engines were not to be used casually, sir, not for ordinary sailing.”
“Carpenter to me, if you please, Mr Whyte.”
Another messenger ran, and the Carpenter appeared from deep in the hull where he had been checking the dockyard’s work for leakage now they were underway at sea. He presented himself on the quarterdeck and then made his way to Magnus’ side, just in front of the funnel.
“Mr Garrett, is it possible to transfer the steering position to this location?”
“Possible? Yes, sir. Six months rebuilding in the yard, sir. Require the services of a marine architect, sir. Cost as much as a new ship, I shouldn’t be surprised.”
It could not be done, Magnus realised.
“Could you install a voice-pipe from this position to the helmsman, and a second to the engine room?”
“No, sir, not and be heard at either end, for the noise of engines and boilers, sir. I did ‘ave a look at the possibility of putting a pipe in from quarterdeck to engine room, sir, and that could be done, and maybe one of them telegraph things what shows the command on a dial, sir. Got the stuff to hand, sir, being as how Captain wanted it done, so I indented to the yard for all I needed. Then he forgot about it, sir. Often forgot things, so he did, sir.”
“Could you build a sort of a conning tower on the quarterdeck, Mr Garrett, sufficient to give me a clear view all round? It would need be no more than four feet high, I suspect. Voice-pipe and telegraph installed in it.”
Mr Garrett suggested that six feet would be better, and located directly above the wheel, to give the helmsman shelter and put him within easy hearing range of the captain.
“What of the five-inch guns, Mr Garrett?”
“The guns on the beam, the broadside pieces, you might say, don’t fire direct astern, sir, for the mizzen being in the way. Two of the guns is mounted on the stern itself, sir, abaft of the helmsman’s position. Bit noisy, you might say, sir, but not in the way, like.”
Deplorably old-fashioned, Magnus thought, but impossible of change.
“Then build the conning tower for me, if you would be so good, Mr Garrett. Mr Whyte will organise your working parties, of course.”
In Magnus’ opinion such an expedient cast a poor light on the Navy, but at least two thirds of the fleet – many of the cruisers and all of the sloops and gunboats - still carried a full set of rigging and used sail by preference. The great bulk of admirals and captains believed sail to be morally preferable to steam, regarding the engines as fit only for tradesmen, not the thing for the gentleman.
“Boatswain to my cabin, Mr Whyte.”
Magnus had a suspicion that he was about to face an argument, possibly a vehement one, from the boatswain and preferred that it should not be a public process.
“Join me, Mr Whyte.”
The boatswain, Mr Orford, was old in his trade, had been appointed to Bustard at her launching several years previously. He had no expectation of another ship, thought to remain aboard the sloop for another four or five years and then to be given a shore posting in Hong Kong, or possibly Singapore, until retiring to pension and remaining in the Far East until he died. A pound was worth at least five times as much in Hong Kong as in Portsmouth and he could live there very comfortably on a pension that would be no more than a pittance in England. He did not welcome anything in the way of change aboard his ship, but he knew that he must not offend his new captain to the extent of being put ashore; he did not wish to be posted away from the China Station.
“Mr Orford, we have changes to make. Bustard is a steamer henceforth and I have no expectation of ever putting her under sail. Such being the case, I wish to reduce her top hamper to an absolute minimum, striking down the yards of a certainty, and possibly the topmasts, if that be practical. What opinion have you to offer, Mr Orford?”
“Signals, sir, demand one tall mast and yards. The mizzen would be usual.”
“Very true. Would it worsen Bustard’s handling to have just one topmast?”
“Not as how I can tell, no, sir. Make her look out of the ordinary, sir. Might handle better in a storm, sir, without the masts and yards giving her to roll, sir. Thing is, sir, if so be you strike the yards and topmasts, then down they are, sir, and not to be replaced inside a day or two of hard labour. Not, as one might say, a decision to be taken lightly, sir. Might be well to keep that old mizzen, sir, with a chance of setting a driver and maybe a topsail, sir, if the need should arise, the engines breaking down, you might say. Give two or three knots, sir, if worst came to worser.”
Lieutenant Whyte agreed – it would be embarrassing, to put it mildly, was they to be driven ashore by engine failure.
“And we shall be just offshore rather than deep sea sailing almost invariably, gentlemen. Strike yards and topmasts to fore and main.”
“Yards, sir, do make good sense. Main topmast, sir, carries stays to the mizzen and to the foremast. Not entirely sure just how might be best to rerig the mizzen, sir, in the absence, you might say, of the main topmast, which herself depends to some extent on the fore.”
Magnus tried to remember his cruise at Dartmouth, a couple of months at sea in a sail training ship. He had spent most of his year at sea aboard a battleship, where he had been far happier, fitting into big ship life very easily. The sail training ship had been cold and wet and had demanded the hardest of physical labour, running up to the topsail yards every watch and the topgallants – even higher – not infrequently. He had had to memorise the whole of the rigging, and its purposes and still had a vague memory of the cat’s cradle of ropes and cables. There had been very thick stays, he was certain, their function to secure the masts rather than to spread the sails.
“Good point, Mr Orford. Yards only to be struck down on deck and safely secured, out of the way of the real sailing of the ship. I would wish the rigging to be stripped to an absolute minimum, so as to give the guns a clear arc of fire.”
“Aye aye, sir. Make a start on it this very day, sir.”
The boatswain left, having kept his topmasts, carefully not smiling, and wondering how best to work the watch on deck with no sails to handle; forty men to keep busy, not the easiest of tasks. They would have to be exercised and more men could be trained up as gunners and the landing party could be put through its paces – which would still leave hours of idleness. He had paint, he reflected, and the old sloop would be gleaming, bright and shiny by the end of each cruise. The men must be kept busy, or there would be trouble, indiscipline, possibly outright mutiny. He spoke obliquely to Mr Whyte, who passed his worries on to Magnus.
“Idleness, sir. Not good for the hands, sir, in terms of discipline.”
“Then keep them busy, Mr Whyte. Part of a First Lieutenant’s job, I understood.”
“Yes, sir.” Mr Whyte said no more on the topic. “What course have you in mind, sir?”
“Pass through the Ladrones, as cannot be avoided, to enter the estuary of the Pearl River, and then reverse course to proceed along the coast. I have never seen the Pearl estuary, the home of the British China trade, and wish to get some slight feel of it. I would also like to get a glimpse of Lintin Island, where the opium hulks lay not so many years ago. Once on the coast, we might tie up at night in the smaller ports – there must be places which Bustard has used before?”
“Hanshan, sir, a small harbour, more than adequate for Bustard. Anchor rather than tie up, and wait for an invitation ashore. If the warlord has need for us, then there will
be a sampan within the hour, and quite possibly a berth cleared alongside. That will be followed by a formal invitation to his palace – so-called – for food and conversation. Just yourself and an escort, sir.”
“Escort?”
“Petty officer and four ratings with rifles, sir, for face – no important person ever goes unaccompanied. No escort means you value yourself low, sir. The men take turns, sir, because at the least they will get a blow-out – food and drink, sir – and if they’re lucky there will be a few ladies of the night to hand, and all for free.”
Magnus was somewhat surprised – he had not been made aware of the nature of a warlord’s hospitality.
“What of the rest of the men?”
“There will be shore leave, sir. For the whole complement, sir. Officers as well. In turns, watch and watch over a couple of days. The warlord is an enlightened gentleman, sir, one who believes that he must pay for his privileges.”
“My word. Might I ask just what privileges he will expect?”
“Well, sir, obviously, military, sir. The use of our guns. He will have different needs on every occasion, sir. Best he should explain. He will be surprised at the change of captain, sir, and will no doubt wish to talk at length.”
In previous decades the Ladrones Islands, as their name implied - ladrones means thieves in both Spanish and Portuguese - had been the haunt of pirate fleets comprising of hundreds of junks and tens of thousands of men; those days were long gone, the pirates less overt, but still to an extent active, mostly attacking Chinese rather than foreign vessels. The hundred and more of islands, most little more than bare hills protruding out of the bay, were fairly much deserted, no more than three fishing villages remaining and with tiny populations. Bustard steamed through the buoyed and charted deep-water passages and made her way into the Pearl and followed the coast, two miles offshore to avoid the mass of small boats working their way to and from Canton and fishing the local banks.
“There must be a hundred boats in sight at any moment, Mr Whyte.”
“Never fewer, sir, day and night, and mostly not bothering to go to the expense of showing a lantern in the dark.”
Fishermen under sail had right of way over steamers, irrespective of size. The ship that ran down a fisherman was almost invariably in the wrong, and the captain in person could be cast in damages if the Admiralty believed him to be at fault. Their Lordships of the Admiralty were most unsympathetic to commanding officers who indulged in collisions with sailing vessels, could be expected to leave them unassisted to pay the awards given by the courts.
“Hold out to sea at night, Mr Whyte?”
“That is the safer course, sir. But it is better far to remain at anchor in the hours of darkness, displaying riding lights.”
“How far distant is this Hanshan place, Mr Whyte?”
“Assuming that we anchor in any one of these bays north of Hong Kong overnight, sir, then four or five hours steaming at economical speed will find us there in the morning, sir. Always wise to arrive with daylight to spare, sir, just in case there is something untoward going on ashore.”
Magnus did not quite understand Mr Whyte’s meaning.
“It is unlikely, but always possible, that there will be riots going on, sir, possibly internal affairs, the local people objecting to foreign Chinese from inland or the north or wherever, or and more probable, against the missionaries of one, or all, denominations and nationalities. Or it might be that one warlord is at war with another and has suffered invasion, with his town put to the sack. The peasants in the countryside will hardly be affected, because they are needed by whichever lord shall prevail, but the people of the towns are regarded as little more than parasites and will suffer if the victor wishes to give his soldiers a day or two of amusement. Better that we should be well clear of such an event, sir.”
Magnus was revolted, agreed that they should not be in any way involved in such a business.
“Just how big is the lordship of, Hanshan, did you say, Mr Whyte?”
“I am not certain, sir. A few million people spread over a stretch of land along the river and up into the hills. Small, according to local ways of thought – the warlord is not invited to Peking, to the court of the Empress, so he is not seen as a power in the land – but by our measure, quite large, of course. Rich, in many ways. Rice land, fishing, trading – all are large, sir. I suspect there is a pirate or two busy along the coast, paying a tax to the warlord and working along the southern shores, the countries called Indo-China now, sir, or Cochin-China sometimes. The French are strong there, on land, but their naval power is limited and the pirates still enjoy a degree of success.”
Magnus was surprised to discover that to be the case, wondered that the navy should not have wiped out the pirates as a matter of ordinary practice.
“No, sir. The French have made it very clear that they wish no interference in their own colonies. They get what they ask for.”
“Only Frogs, when all is said and done. Sod them!”
“Exactly, sir. We have fired our guns on occasion, sir, for the benefit of the warlord, but not against the pirates. The warlord’s land boundaries follow the river inland, sir.”
“Ah, I see. We have perhaps discouraged belligerent neighbours?”
“Exactly, sir.”
“Is Admiral Seymour aware of such activities, would you think, Mr Whyte?”
“Not officially, sir. Jardine Matheson have a trading house in Hanshan, and they will no doubt have expressed their satisfaction to the Admiral on occasion. They will demand a peaceful town for trading purposes, and that predicates that it shall not be invaded and sacked, in the nature of things, sir.”
“They say that Trade follows the Flag, Mr Whyte I wonder if that should be reversed.”
“In China, most certainly so, sir. Our function is essentially commercial, sir – because, of course, China is an independent empire – no part of China other than Hong Kong is British.”
Magnus thought that to be very poorly arranged; surely it would have been possible to divide and conquer, as had been the case in India where the country had been given to British rule by the greed of its own maharajahs and such.
“Possibly, sir, but the emperors were clever in their own way – they divided the British from the Russians and the Germans and the Americans and played them off against each other so that none of them could become a sole conqueror. It’s too late now, sir, with the Japanese involved as well.”
Magnus was surprised at Mr Whyte’s knowledge, wondered how he had come across it.
“Reading, sir, in my cabin – my social life has been limited since the court-martial, sir. Too many officers regard me as a ‘snitch’, sir, to enjoy my company.”
Dartmouth produced good officers, but it was like the worst of public schools in its ethos of covering up scandal and protecting its own – better a hundred midshipmen should be buggered than one officer testify against another.
“Nasty, Mr Whyte. I shall press your case with Admiral Seymour, but whether I can do any good, I doubt. I am under a cloud myself, of course, and my support for you may not be too valuable.”
“Ah well, sir, we black sheep must hang together, it would seem. Lintin Island in sight on the starboard beam, sir, and the sweep of the estuary before us. Not exactly impressive, sir, except for the volume of traffic. I would recommend reversing our tracks, sir, if we are to pass Hong Kong island in daylight.”
Hong Kong was an interloper, an alien town set down on a previously bare island off the coast – it was not a Chinese city. The Chinese population far outnumbered the gwailos and had built around and in between them, but the feel of the main town was far more European than Oriental and Magnus had felt comfortable there. Hanshan, which showed little gwailo penetration, came as a shock to Magnus.
The town was crowded, and the people seemed to live in the streets. The differences in architecture were obvious, but of less significance than the habits of the people, and the noise they made.
Bustard had anchored in the roads and a sampan had come out within minutes, inviting the ship to tie up. Mr Whyte had said that the invitation would come.
“Was we to be staying out here, sir, we would already be surrounded by bumboats trying to sell us foodstuffs and do our washing as a start. None coming out means they know we shall come alongside.”
The message arrived and Mr Whyte took Bustard in. No need to think about returning to Hong Kong before dark.
“Permission to draw the boiler fires, sir?”
“No prospect that we shall need to move in a hurry, Mr Whyte?”
“I should not think so, sir. The town feels quiet – no riots here this week, I would think, sir,”
“Permission granted. Six hours notice for steam?”
“Small ship, sir. Bustard requires no more than three hours, not like these great big battleships, sir.”
Magnus smiled – he should have known that – he had made himself look incompetent. That reminded him that he had yet to speak with the Commissioned Gunner, Mr McGurk; he called him to his cabin.
“Admiral Seymour hopes there will be eight QF guns available within a few weeks, Mr McGurk. It depends on their arrival from England, of course. Will you be happy to replace the five-inch guns?”
McGurk had been made up from the lower deck, and like most Commissioned Gunners was determined to be everything that he expected of an officer. He sat to attention and showed respect to his captain in all that he did and said.
“Yes, sir. The QF guns are far more effective, sir, and accurate, and use a fixed forty-five pound projectile. The five-inch gun has a greater range and a heavier shell at fifty pounds, but it is slower and unreliable at longer ranges. It has just on five miles range, sir, but I would not guarantee to place a shell within one hundred yards of its target at that maximum. The QF gun will land three for every one the five inch manages, and far closer at practical range. The five inch is an old design, sir – black powder the Mark One used! The sole problem, sir, is that the QF will use up the ammunition stock far more quickly. Half an hour of sharp action might easily see us toothless, sir.”
The China Station (The Earl’s Other Son Series, Book 1) Page 8
