‘I am, Your Majesty. They are what are known as barbette ships, in that all the big guns, I think there are intended to be six, are mounted in a central barbette. However, these ships are being built in Sevastopol, and are intended for use in the Black Sea, so far as I have been able to learn. Also, their maximum speed will not exceed sixteen knots.’
‘That sounds fairly formidable to me,’ Mutsuhito grumbled. ‘And while they may be intended for the Black Sea, there is nothing to stop them being sent to the Far East. However, I am more concerned with the news from China.’
Nicholas nodded. ‘They have authorised the laying down of two seven thousand ton armoured turret ships. These will have four twelve-inch guns in two turrets, situated amidships, and two five-point-nine-inch, one forward and one aft. They will make fifteen knots, and it is estimated that they could be in service in five years time.’
‘Against which we can pit the Fuso, with her four nine-point-four-inch guns and her thirteen knots of speed. That means, Barrett, that the Chinese could enter any harbour in Japan with impunity, once they have those ships in commission. They could steam into Tokyo Wan and destroy this city, and there is absolutely nothing we could do about it. We simply must have battleships. Cruisers cannot fight such ships. I will make the money available, somehow.’
‘With respect, Your Majesty,’ Nicholas said. ‘Even if the money were found tomorrow, which it cannot be, given the other priorities of the country, it would still be several years, perhaps ten, before we could possibly procure battleships capable of standing up to the Chinese. But battles, especially at sea, are not won by size and armour and power alone. The power must be there in some degree, but as I think I have proved with the army, rapidity of movement, and rapidity of fire, can bring down even the heaviest of armoured opponents.’
‘Tell me what you have in mind.’
‘Well, Your Majesty, there is a class of ship just coming into use in the European navies, known as protected cruisers. These are only about three to four thousand tons, and although they have quite heavy guns, nine or ten-inch, virtually no armour. Their great asset is their speed, which can be designed to be as high as eighteen knots.’
‘Is that so great a difference?’
‘Indeed it is, Your Majesty. Three knots can make all the difference between being hit and escaping, while enabling the faster ships to outmanoeuvre the enemy.’
‘But lacking the power to sink them, Barrett.’
‘Well, Your Majesty, I have been discussing this with a French businessman, here in Tokyo, and he has told me that a French designer, Emile Bertin, has put forward the idea that it is practical to build such a cruiser as I have described, and arm it with a single very large gun, say a twelve-inch, or even a twelve-point-six. This would be sufficient to damage the Chinese vessels, while her greater speed would again save our ship from damage herself. The big gun would be supported by several smaller guns, of course, mainly quick-firers, for close work.’
Mutsuhito stroked his chin. ‘It is a compromise, and compromises are always bad.’
‘They are sometimes necessary, Your Majesty. And such ships could be built and delivered far more quickly than any battleship.’
Mutsuhito considered some more. Then he said, ‘As we have neither the time nor the money for a true battle fleet . . . find out some more about this man Bertin, and see if you can make contact with him.’
Nicholas bowed. ‘It might be more expeditious for me to go to France, Your Majesty.’
Mutsuhito smiled, and moved his finger to and fro. ‘I wish you to remain here, Barrett san. Have you forgotten you are still considered an outlaw, by the British? And now, perhaps, by the Russians as well.’
*
Whatever his disappointment at the realisation that he was never going to be given a ship, Nicholas could not help but be delighted with his new role; to him, the varying aspects of design and the progress being made in the development of warships was by far the most interesting part of his profession. And he was a rear-admiral, at just on forty. Had he remained in the Royal Navy he might well have achieved such a rank by now, but in view of his chequered career he could have done no better. Of course he was rear-admiral in a navy which existed only on paper, but that was something it was his business to correct.
There was domestic happiness, too. Countess Ito found a husband for Aki, a Lieutenant Fujimoto, from the Navy, which pleased Nicholas enormously, quite apart from the relief when the girl moved out, and left the house to Elizabeth. Takamori took to soldiering in the tradition of his father and adoptive father, and was soon commissioned in one of the front-line infantry regiments. The boy remained somewhat taciturn and withdrawn, and fiercely exemplified the samurai spirit at every opportunity, even if bushido was no longer officially recognised as a code for the Japanese army. In fact, more and more of the hitherto lower classes were being accepted into the army, and more especially the navy, at the expense of the samurai, who were far less amenable to discipline; it was sad to see these erstwhile masters of Japan gathered on street corners, ekeing out a miserable existence on their government stipend, which daily dwindled in purchasing power as the heavy expenditure on arms and public works sent inflation spiralling. But more than ever they were symbols of a dead past.
And then there was Elizabeth herself. Here was the most complete happiness he had ever known. As Mutsuhito had warned, socially they were ostracised, as a pair. Indeed Nicholas was himself otracised by the entire barbarian community, although he was still invited to official Japanese functions. But he would have preferred not to be, as he could not enter with Elizabeth on his arm.
He had expected her to be resentful, but she was not, and even her tensions began to ease when Rashnikov left Tokyo, although she could not resist the temptation to stand in the crowd watching the Russian cruiser steam down Tokyo Wan, hoping for a last glimpse of her son.
The only other time she wept was when she realised that she could not attend Aki’s wedding, even as a guest.
For the rest, she was content to be with him, and be his. Her beauty was such that sometimes he was almost afraid to touch her, for fear it would disappear in a puff of smoke. For him, cut off as he had been for the adult half of his life from European womanhood, every time he took her in his arms he felt almost virginal again, and to stroke the length of her splendid legs, caress the firm curve of her buttocks, kiss the swelling pink nipples, and slide hand or penis into her silky soft love forest was to enter an emotional wonderland he had never suspected to exist, while teaching her the Japanese ways of love was superb. Elizabeth herself was uncertain at first, but although she came from a princely and prudish Russian family – from whom she never now heard – she had in her ancestry some of the wildness of the steppes, and whether sitting in his lap, kneeling, or going down on him herself, she brought to her love-making a delicious quality of guilty enthusiasm.
And when, after no more than a few months, she became pregnant, he felt he had in some measure repaid her for her sacrifice.
*
They called the boy Alexander, after the current Russian tsar; Elizabeth did not wish to break all her links with her homeland. Nicholas was delighted with the babe, and disturbed only by Elizabeth’s occasional moods of sadness, caused both by thoughts of Paul and by her concern for Alexander’s future.
‘It will be the Navy,’ Nicholas told her.
‘The Japanese Navy?’
‘One day it will be the finest in the world. You will be proud of him.’
She looked down at the wizened face buried in her breast. ‘As long as he follows his father’s footsteps, I must be content.’
*
It was only a few months later when Nicholas, having just come in, was seated at his desk opening various items of mail, that Kisuda appeared in the doorway, bowing. ‘There is a gentleman to see you, your excellency.’
‘Well, then, show him in,’ Nicholas invited, and stood up, to gaze at Togo Heihachiro.
For
a moment the two men stared at each other.
‘Togo san!’ Nicholas held out his hand, uncertainly.
Togo came forward to take it. He had filled out well into manhood, looked trim and confident in his naval uniform. ‘You knew I had returned?’
‘I saw your name in the list of officers who had completed their overseas training. That was two years ago. I did not . . . well . . .’
‘I had to visit Kagoshima first, honourable Admiral, to see my family. Those of them who survived.’
Nicholas nodded. ‘Sit down, please. Are you very bitter?’
Togo sank into the chair before the desk, his cap carefully placed on his knees. ‘I am very sad, that such a thing should have happened, sir. But I accept that my people were wrong, so to challenge the Emperor, and so to resist the forces which are leading Japan to become a modern country. It is necessary to make a choice. I have chosen to serve the Emperor. I trust you do not consider this dishonourable?’
‘I think there is no other choice open to you, Togo san. But I also know how difficult it must be for you. Yet I am sure you would have made the same choice, had you been here.’
‘I do not know,’ Togo said. ‘It is impossible to know how I would have reacted, had Saigo-no-Takamori summoned me to fight at his side.’ He gave a quick smile. ‘Perhaps I am fortunate, that I was not there. But you also suffered a tragedy, honourable Admiral. I am sorry. You were happy, with Masaru Sumiko.’
‘Thank you. But . . . you should know that we were no longer happy, Togo. Sumiko resisted change as bitterly as anyone.’
‘And now they are swept away. You were there, honourable Admiral. Did my people fight well?’
‘They fought to the death,’ Nicholas told him.
Togo nodded. ‘I am glad to hear you say that, sir. Now I must revert to being a naval officer, and ask you, honourable Admiral, if you have a position for me.’
‘Welcome aboard,’ Nicholas said.
*
By the summer of 1886, Japan had a fleet, albeit a small one by European standards. The old Adzuma was now a rusting hulk, but Fuso remained in full commission, the flagship and veteran of the navy. Also still in commission were the armoured corvettes Kongo and Hiei, even though all three ships, with their maximum speeds of fourteen knots and their limited armament, were outclassed by the new vessels Nicholas had recommended and which had now been laid down.
Of these, the most important were the protected cruisers. Naniwa and Takachiho were sisters, displacing a little more than three and a half thousand tons, armed with two ten-point-three-inch in a single turret, and six five-point-nine-inch in separate turrets, and capable of eighteen-and-a-half knots.
These two vessels had been built at the British yard of Armstrong Walker, and they were both fine ships; Naniwa was completed in December 1885, and Takachiho in March 1886. But Mutsuhito did not wish to place all his ships in one basket, as it were, and he remained interested in what Nicholas had told him about the ideas of Emile Bertin. Thus the third ship, using one of Bertin’s designs, was laid down at Forges et Ch in Le Havre, in May 1884. She was called Unebi, and the concept was, within the same tonnage, to increase the hitting power. But the new twelve-point-six inch guns were not yet available, and thus Unebi was armed with four of the Krupp nine-point-four-inch, in separate mountings, as well as no less than seven of the five-point-nine-inch, again in separate mountings. To accommodate the considerable additional weight of the gun mountings, within the same overall tonnage as the Naniwa Class ships, had meant using a smaller engine, which in turn had meant a decrease in speed of a knot, but the designers had sought to overcome this, and increase the range of the vessel, by reverting to auxiliary canvas, and Unebi was in fact a three-masted barque-rigged ship.
Launched in April 1886, she was completed only six months later, and made her voyage to Japan immediately. Ito and Nicholas boarded her at Yokohama for acceptance trials, accompanied by Togo, and they steamed out of Tokyo Wan and into that stretch of water which Nicholas remembered so well from the loss of the Juno. Here he took the helm himself, while speed was worked up to the maximum seventeen knots, the ship tossing clouds of spray over her bows as she breasted a stiff south-easterly breeze.
‘She is light on the helm,’ Nicholas remarked, and Togo made a note.
‘Perhaps she requires a little more ballast,’ Ito commented. ‘Have the crew make sail.’
The French captain gave the orders, and the seamen swarmed aloft to release the canvas on the square yards. Nicholas brought her about so that they could run downwind, and reduced speed to let the sails achieve their maximum effect. Once again he became aware of a curious lightness; the wind was no more than fifteen knots, yet he felt the ship was about to run away with him.
‘Hand sails, and resume power,’ Ito commanded after half an hour, and went down to the captain’s day cabin, accompanied by his officers. ‘Are you prepared to take delivery of the ship, Barrett san?’
‘I think she is topheavy, honourable Admiral,’ Nicholas said.
‘Dangerously so?’
Nicholas considered. Unebi was the first ship built by the French yard, and there were tentative orders out for three more, ships that were desperately needed by the Imperial Japanese Navy. His instincts told him to reject her as she stood, but to do that might be to jeopardise the entire order, and set back the naval expansion a dozen years.
‘Much will depend on how she is handled, honourable Admiral. With proper care I do not think she should be dangerous.’
‘Then we will sign acceptance forms. I am glad you feel that way, Barrett san, because it is my intention to give this ship to Captain Fujimoto.’
Aki’s husband had recently been promoted, at least partly because he was Aki’s husband.
‘I am most flattered, honourable Admiral.’ Nicholas glanced at Togo, who he knew was also hoping for a command.
Ito caught the exchange of glances, and also Togo’s expression, and smiled. ‘I have not forgotten you, Captain Togo. I am going to give you Naniwa.’
‘Honourable Admiral!’ Togo was struck dumb with delight.
Ito stood up. ‘So, let us relieve the minds of our French friends by telling them we are ready to sign acceptance forms.’
*
Fujimoto Yoshi came to visit Nicholas a few days later, bringing with him Aki and their infant son, whom they had named Nicholas, to his great gratification. He really felt that particular crisis was behind him.
‘I do not know how to thank you, honourable Father,’ Fujimoto said.
‘The appointment was made by the commanding admiral, Fujimoto san.’
‘Nonetheless, I would not have received it were I not your son-in-law, honourable Father. I know this.’
Aki kissed her father. ‘I am so proud of him. I am so proud of both of you. They are saying Unebi is the most powerful ship in the Navy.’
‘At the moment, she is that,’ Nicholas agreed. ‘Now I must ask a favour of you, Fujimoto san. I would like to come on your shakedown cruise.’
‘But of course, honourable Father. It will be an honour.’
*
‘You are worried about this ship,’ Ito remarked, when Nicholas applied for leave of absence from the Admiralty.
‘I wish to be sure that Captain Fujimoto understands her, honourable Admiral.’
‘I am sure we all wish that. Now here are the designs for the new ships. These are altogether larger, more than four thousand tons. But they are twenty feet shorter in overall length, and they are a knot slower than Unebi. I find this very disappointing, Barrett san. They are a negation of our entire strategy. They are hardly any faster than the Chinese battleships, at little more than half the tonnage, and virtually no armour. They will be useless.’
‘Except for the gun, honourable Admiral.’
The new ships were each to be armed, as Nicholas had long wanted, with a single huge cannon, the Canet twelve-point-six-inch, at last available.
‘One twelve-point-six
-inch cannon, against four twelve-inch,’ Ito remarked. ‘And as we are going to be able to afford only four of these ships, we are talking about four heavy guns, against eight Chinese.’
‘There is also the question of seamanship, honourable Admiral. The sea is in the blood of every Japanese. This does not apply to China. I believe these ships will serve their purpose, which is to deter an attack by the Chinese, until we can afford battleships of our own.’
‘Well, Barrett san, we must pray to our ancestors that you are right. Enjoy your cruise in Unebi.’
*
It should have been a most enjoyable cruise. The ship was a comfortable one, and the officers and crew went out of their way to please and impress their captain’s father-in-law. Nor could Nicholas fault their seamanship, except that it was perhaps too enthusiastic. Fujimoto really wished to put the cruiser through her paces, and while Nicholas did not like to interfere, he was sometimes concerned that she was carrying too much canvas, as she rolled scuppers under.
‘We will of course have to reduce sail to fire with any accuracy,’ Fujimoto remarked at dinner.
‘I’m afraid you will,’ Nicholas agreed. ‘In fact, I wonder if, in view of this excessive rolling, you are not wasting your time in carrying so much canvas at all. You must be losing speed through the water.’
‘I understand, honourable Father, and it is something I will bear in mind. But it is necessary to discover exactly how the ship will behave, is it not, in every possible set of circumstances?’
Nicholas couldn’t fault the reasoning, and Fujimoto appeared a most sensible fellow. But he made up his mind to discuss with Ito the possibility of taking out two of the heavy guns, and perhaps even a couple of the five-point-nines, which would not reduce the fighting capacity of the ship to any great extent, but which would greatly help to stabilise the hull.
*
But he returned to a crisis, and could hardly believe the reports that lay on his desk. ‘What exactly happened?’ he asked his secretary, Lieutenant Hamagushu.
Bloody Sunrise Page 25
