 CHAPTER 12 PART 1 THE BATTLE OF THE YALU, 1894 One result of the victory won by Tegithoth at Lyssa was that an exaggerated importance was for many years to come attached to the ram as a weapon of attack. In every navy in the world ships were built with bows specially designed for ramming. The sinking of the rey de Italia had made such an impression on the public mind that it was in vain for a minority among naval critics to urge that the ram was being overrated, and to point out that even at Lyssa for one successful attempt to sink an enemy by running her down there had been an untold number of failures. It was very gradually that the majority was brought to realize that a ship under full control could generally avoid a ramming attack, and that it could only be employed under exceptional circumstances and against an already disabled enemy. Then the progress of invention and armaments introduced features into naval warfare that made it extremely difficult and dangerous for a large ship to come to such close quarters as an attempt to ram implies. First, the introduction of the Whitehead torpedo as part of the auxiliary armament of battleships and cruisers gave the ship attack a means of sinking the aggressor as she approached, and the increase in the power of guns led naval tacticians to accept as a principle that fleet actions must be fought at ranges which were regarded as too distant for any effective action in earlier days. But for nearly 30 years after Lyssa there were no fleet actions. Ships, armor, guns were all improved and the great naval powers built on a larger and larger scale. Steel took the place of iron as the material for shipbuilding and armor. Naval gunnery became a precise science, torpedoes were introduced, and with them such new types of ships as the swift torpedo boat and the destroyer. But there was very little fighting on the sea, though in the same period there were colossal conflicts on land. Hundreds of armor clads were built that became obsolete and were turned over to the shipbreaker without ever having fired a shot in action. Theories of tactics for fleet actions were worked out on paper and tested to some extent at naval maneuvers, but the supreme test of battle was wanting. In the Franco-German War of 1870 the French Navy had such a decided superiority that the few German warships of the day were kept in their harbors protected by batteries and sunken mines. The only naval action of the war was an indecisive duel between two gunboats. In the second stage of the war the officers and men of the French Navy fought as soldiers in the defense of France. Wars were taken from the ships to be mounted on land fortifications. Admiral's commanded divisions formed largely of naval officers and blue jackets. Again in the war of 1878 between Russia and Turkey the Russians had only a few light craft in the Black Sea, and the Turkish fleet under Hobart Pasha, a weak as it was, held the undisputed command of these waters and had only to fear some isolated torpedo attacks. In South American civil wars and international conflicts there were duels between individual ships and some dashing enterprises by torpedo boats, but nothing that could be described as a fleet action between ironclads. The only time a British armored fleet was in action was against the batteries of Alexandria on the occasion of the bombardment in July 1882. The forts, badly armed and constructed and inefficiently defended, were silenced, but a careful examination of them convinced experts that if they had been held by a better trained garrison the victory would not have been such an easy matter. This and subsequent experiences have led to the general acceptance of the view that it will be seldom advisable to risk such valuable fighting machines as first class battleships and armored cruisers in close action against well constructed and powerfully armed shore defenses. It was not till the summer of 1894 that at last there was another pitched battle between fleets that included a large proportion of armored vessels. That action, off the mouth of the Yalu River, will be always remembered as the event that heralded the coming of a new naval power. A long rivalry between China and Japan for the control of Korea had resulted in an outbreak of war between the two empires of the Far East. For an island state like Japan, the command of the sea was a necessary condition for successful operations on the mainland of Asia, and for some years she had been building up a powerful fleet, the ships being constructed in foreign yards as the Japanese yards were not yet in a position to turn out large warships. In the memory of living men, the Japanese fleets had been made up of primitive looking war junks. After failures to build ships in Japan on the European model, the government had in the middle of the 19th century purchased some small steamships abroad, but it was not till 1876 that the first Japanese armor clad, the Fuso, was constructed in England from designs by the late Sir Edward Reed. Naval progress was at first very slow, but solid foundations were laid. Young naval officers were attached to the British and other navies for professional training, and on their return to Japan became the educators of their fellow countrymen in naval matters. A serious obstacle to the acquisition of a numerous and powerful fleet was a financial question. Japan is not a rich country. At first, therefore, the Japanese did not venture to order battleships, but contented themselves with protected cruisers. They thought that these would be sufficient for the impending conflict with China, which possessed only a fleet of weak, protected cruisers of various types, and a couple of small coast defense ironclads that might be counted as inferior battleships. When war broke out between China and Japan in 1894, the fleet of the latter consisted of older ships of miscellaneous types and a number of new protected cruisers, some of them armed with quick-firing guns, a type of weapon only lately introduced into the world's navies. Of these modern cruisers, most had been built and armed in French yards, but the best and swiftest ship was a fine cruiser delivered not long before from Armstrong's yard at Ellswick. The following lists give some details of the Japanese and Chinese fleets. Only the ships engaged at the Yalu Battle being included, but these ships represented almost the entire strength of the two rival navies, and no really effective ship was absent on either side. While to make up the two squadrons, ships were sent to see that in a European navy would have been considered obsolete and left in harbor. A comparison of these two lists brings out some interesting points. The advantage in gun power was clearly on the side of the Japanese. Of the heavier class of guns, they had 70 to 55, and there were no weapons in the Chinese squadron equal to the long 12.5 inch rifled breech loaders of Frenchmake carried by four of the Japanese cruisers. But there was a further gain in gun power for the Japanese in the possession of 128 quick-fireers, some of them a fairly heavy caliber. The quick-firing gun was then a new weapon. It is really a quick loader, a gun fitted with a breech action that can be opened and closed by a rapid movement, and so mounted that the recoil is taken up by mechanism in the carriage, which at once automatically runs the gun back into firing position. While the process of loading is further accelerated for the smaller caliber guns by making up the ammunition like that of a rifle with projectile in charge and a big brass cased cartridge, so that the gun can be loaded up by one movement and the cartridge contains its own means of ignition and is fired by pulling off a trigger. The lighter quick-fireers are further mounted on pivots so that they can be easily moved through an arc of a circle by one man who keeps his eyes on a moving target and his finger on the trigger ready to fire. The storm of shells that poured from the Japanese quick-fireers was even more terrible for the Chinese than the slower fire of the heavy guns, and of these new quick-firing guns, the Chinese only had three on the little quang ping. Japanese fleet. Ship Yoshino, tonnage 4,150. Quick-fireers 44. Notes. Swiftest ship in either fleet. Speed 23 knots, two-inch steel protective deck. Built by Armstrong. New protected cruisers. Ship Matsushima, tonnage 4,277. Heavy guns, 12. Quick-fireers 16. Machine guns, six. Notes. Two-inch steel protective deck. Barbette forward covered with 12-inch armor and armed with a long canne 12.5-inch gun. Ship Ikitsushima, tonnage 4,277. Heavy guns, 12. Quick-fireers 16. Machine guns, six. Notes. Two-inch steel protective deck. Barbette forward covered with 12-inch armor and armed with a long canne 12.5-inch gun. Ship Hashidate, tonnage 4,277. Heavy guns, 12. Quick-fireers 16. Machine guns, 15. Notes. Two-inch steel protective deck. Barbette forward covered with 12-inch armor and armed with a long canne 12.5-inch gun. Ship Takachiko, tonnage 3,650. Heavy guns, 8. Machine guns, 12. Notes. Three-inch steel protective deck. Speed 18 knots. Ship Naniwakan, tonnage 3,650. Heavy guns, 8. Machine guns, 12. Notes. Three-inch steel protective deck. Speed 18 knots. Ship Akitsushima, tonnage 3,150. Heavy guns, 1. Quick-fireers, 12. Machine guns, 10. Notes. Two-and-a-half-inch steel protective deck. One long 12-and-a-half-inch canne gun. Ship Chiyoda, tonnage 2,450. Quick-fireers, 24. Machine guns, 13. Notes. Small partly armored cruiser, four-and-a-half-inch armored belt over two-thirds of length. One-inch steel protective deck. Old ironclads launched 1877 and 8. Ship Fuso, tonnage 3,718. Heavy guns, 6. Machine guns, 8. Notes. Four-and-a-half-inch armored belt to midships. Ship Hayei, tonnage 2,200. Heavy guns, 9. Notes. Seven-inch armored belt, nine-inch armor on battery. Ship Akagi, tonnage 615. Heavy guns, 2. Machine guns, 2. Notes, gunboat. Ship Saikiomaru, tonnage 600. Quick-fireers, unknown. Notes. Armed merchant steamer carrying only a few small quick-fireers. Total heavy guns, 70. Total quick-fireers, 128. Total machine guns, 84. Chinese fleet. Armored. Ship Chenyuan, tonnage 7,430. Heavy guns, 6. Machine guns, 12. Notes. Coast defense battleships, 14-inch armor belt, four 12-inch guns on each ship mounted in pairs and turrets with 12-inch armor. Ship Tingyuan, tonnage 7,430. Heavy guns, 6. Machine guns, 12. Notes. Coast defense battleships, 14-inch armor belt, four 12-inch guns on each ship mounted in pairs and turrets with 12-inch armor. Ship Laiyuan, tonnage 2,850. Heavy guns, 4. Machine guns, 8. Notes. Armored cruisers, 9.5-inch armor belt, 8-inch armor on Barbets forward. Ship Kingyuan, tonnage 2,850. Heavy guns, 4. Machine guns, 8. Notes. Armored cruisers, 9.5-inch armor belt, 8-inch armor on Barbets forward. Ship Pingyuan, tonnage 2,850. Heavy guns, 3. Machine guns, 8. Notes. Armored cruiser, 8-inch armor belt, 5-inches on Barbets. Unarmored. Ship Xiyuan, tonnage 2,355. Heavy guns, 3. Machine guns, 10. Ship Qingyuan, tonnage 2,300. Heavy guns, 5. Machine guns, 16. Notes. Quickest ships in the fleet. Speed, 18 knots. Ship Qiyuan, tonnage 2,300. Heavy guns, 5. Machine guns, 16. Notes. Quickest ships in the fleet. Speed, 18 knots. Ship Yangwei, tonnage 1,350. Heavy guns, 6. Machine guns, 7. Ship Chaoyang, tonnage 1,350. Heavy guns, 6. Machine guns, 7. Ship Kuangcha, tonnage 1,300. Heavy guns, 7. Machine guns, 8. Ship Kuangping, tonnage 1,030. Quickfires, 3. Machine guns, 8. Four torpedo boats and three small gun boats. Total heavy guns, 55. Total quickfires, 3. Total machine guns, 120. The Chinese fleet had more armor protection. The two coast defense battleships were heavily armored and there were three other less completely protected ironclads, although seven other ships had no armor, whatever. In the Japanese fleet, the only armored vessels were the two old ironclads belonging to an obsolete type and the armor-beltage Chiyoda. The real fighting force of the fleet was made up of the seven new protected cruisers. Some of these had armor on the barbets in which their long bow guns were mounted, but their protection consisted in a deck plated with steel covering the vitals of the ship, boilers, engines, and magazines, all placed as low as possible in the hull. There was some further protection afforded by the coal bunkers placed along the waterline and midships. The theory of the protected cruiser was that everything below the waterline was safeguarded by this armored deck and as the overwater portion of the ship was further divided by bulkheads into numerous watertight compartments, the danger of the ship being sunk was remote. The protected cruiser is no longer regarded as having a place in the main fighting line, but the Japanese cruisers gave such good results in the Yalu battle that for a while an exaggerated value was attached to it. But in one point and the most important of all, the Japanese had an overwhelming advantage. The Chinese officers and men were mostly brave enough, but almost entirely unskilled. The only really efficient officers and engineers they had were a few Englishmen and Americans and two Germans. The Japanese from Admiral Count Ito, who commanded down to the youngest of the blue jackets, were not only brave with the inherited recklessness of death and suffering, which is characteristic of their race, but were also highly trained in every branch of their profession, first-rate sailors, excellent gunners. And the fleet had for years been exercised in maneuvers so that the ships could work together as an organized whole. The spirit which animated it was that of no surrender, victory at any cost. It is a standing order of the Japanese Navy that if a ship should strike her colors, the first duty of her consorts is not to try to recapture her, but to endeavor to sink her and her crew. The Mandarin Ting, who commanded the Chinese fleet, was more of a soldier than a sailor, but he had some sea experience and was a thoroughly brave man. As soon as war was declared, he was anxious to go in search of his enemy. He urged upon the Peking government that the first step to be taken was to use the Chinese fleet to attack the Japanese transports, which were conveying troops to Korea. This would, of course, lead to a battle with the enemy's fleet, but Ting was quite confident that he would defeat the Japanese if he met them. In giving this advice, the Chinese admiral was reasoning on correct principles, even if his confidence in his own fighting power was not justified by facts. To keep the fleet idle at Port Arthur or Way Highway would be to concede the command of the sea to Japan without an effort to dispute it. But the mandarins at Peking would not accept their admiral's view. In the first place, they were alarmed at the fact that in a minor naval engagement off the Korean coast at the very outset of the conflict, the weak Chinese force in action had fared very badly. The quarrel in Korea had begun without a regular declaration of war. On the coast, there were the Chinese cruiser C-U-N and a small gunboat, the Kwang Yi. On 24 July, the two ships had gone to sea to look for and give their escort to some transports that were expected with reinforcements from China. In the gray of the morning on the 25th, they fell in with and were attacked by three of the swift protected cruisers of the Japanese fleet, the Yoshino, Akitsushima, and the Naniwa Khan. The fight was soon over. The gunboat was sunk and the little cruiser was attacked at close quarters by the Naniwa Khan, whose shells riddled her weak conning tower, killing all within it. The C-U-N fled, pursued by the Naniwa, whose commander, by the way, was Captain Togo, famous afterwards as a victorious admiral of the Russo-Japanese War. The C-U-N made good to escape only because the chase brought the Naniwa Khan on the track of the transport, Kaoxing, and Togo stopped to dispose of her by sending her to the bottom. This incident made the Pekin government nervous about the fighting qualities of their ships, and then they were afraid that if Ting went to sea with all his ships, the Japanese fleet would elude him and appear with an expeditionary force at the mouth of the Pei Ho, capture the Taku forts and land an army to march on Pekin. They therefore ordered Admiral Ting to collect his fleet at Port Arthur and watch the sea approach to the capital. The Japanese were therefore able to land their troops in Korea without interruption and soon overran the peninsula. When they were advancing to capture Pingyang, the Chinese began to concentrate a second army to defend the crossing of the Yalu River, the entrance into southern Manchuria. It was now evident, even to the Pekin mandarins, that the Japanese plans did not at this stage of the war include a raid on the Pei Ho and the Chinese capital, so Admiral Ting was at last allowed to go to sea in order to protect the movement of transports along the western shores of the Korean Bay to the mouth of the Yalu. On 14 September, five large steamers crowded with troops left Taku under the convoy of six Chinese cruisers and four torpedo boats bound for the mouth of the Yalu River. Next day, as they passed Talianwan Bay near Port Arthur, they were joined by Ting with the rest of the fleet. On the second day, they safely reached their destination and the troops were disembarked, and early on the 17th, Ting again put to sea with his fleet to return to Port Arthur. He had expected to have to fight the Japanese on his outward voyage, and he knew that there was a still greater chance of meeting them on his way back down the bay. He had a few white officers with him. On board his flagship, the armor-clad Ting Wen was a German artillery officer, Major Von Hanekin. On the other battleship was Commander McGiffen, formerly of the United States Navy, nominally second in command to the Chinese captain of the Chen Wen, but practically acting as her commander. On some of the other ships, there were a few British-born engineer or gunnery officers, and some of the latter had been petty officers in the English Navy. By the advice of these non-Chinese officers, Ting had done something to remedy the defects of his fleet. A good deal of woodwork had been cut away and thrown overboard, though far too much of it still remained, and on several ships, there was a dangerous quantity of carved ornamental wood on the upper works, much of it all the more inflammable because it was gilded and lacquered in bright colors, which it was the practice to clean with oiled rags. The thin steel roofs of barbettes and the shields of many of the guns had been removed, as the Cuen's experiences in the fight with the Naniwa Khan had shown that such light steel did not keep out the shells of the Japanese quick-fireers, but served only to ensure their bursting with deadly effect. Sometimes a gun shield had burst a shell, which if there had been no such attempted protection would perhaps have passed harmlessly over the heads of the gunners. Around the barbettes of the ships, sacks of coal were stacked as an emergency method of strengthening these defenses. Of coal, the fleet had an abundance, but it was woefully short of ammunition, and much of what was on board was old and defective. If Ting had had more professional knowledge and training, he would have been more anxious as to the probable result of a battle. Where were Admiral Edo and the Japanese fleet? Early in August, he had crossed the Yellow Sea with his cruiser squadron and shown himself before Port Arthur and Wei Hai Wei. He drew the fire of the Seaward Forts at long range and replied with a few shots, but he made no attack. He was engaged only in reconnaissance and was quite satisfied when he ascertained that the Chinese ships were remaining in harbor. He then returned to the Korean side of the Yellow Sea until nearly the middle of September was employed in escorting the convoys of transports from Japan and protecting the disembarkation of the reinforcements they were bringing to Korea. On Friday, 14 September, the same day on which the Chinese convoy with the reinforcements for Manchuria left Taku, Edo had completed his work in connection with the transport of Japanese troops, having landed the last detachments at Chinampou in the estuary of the Tautang River. Higher up the river, General Nadzu's army was attacking the Chinese walled town of Pingyang. Edo sent his gunboats up the Tautang to cooperate with Nadzu and leaving his torpedo boats at the river mouth went to sea with his fleet. He steered for the mouth of the Yalu River, intending to reconnoiter the Chinese positions there and obtain information as to the reported concentration of troops near the river mouth, but under the belief that the enemy's fleet was still at Port Arthur, Admiral Ting was just as ignorant of his enemy's position in movements. Early on the morning of Monday, 17 September, he had expended some ammunition in practice at floating targets off the mouth of the Yalu. The fleet had then anchored and the men were given a rest while the cooks got dinner ready. This was about 11 a.m. A little later there was unexpected news that interrupted the cooking. The lookouts at the mast heads of the anchored fleet reported that the smoke of many steamers was rising above the horizon far away to the southwestward. It was a bright sunny day with a perfectly smooth sea, clear air and a blue sky and the lookout men could easily make out that the smoke rising above the skyline came from a long line of funnels. Admiral Ting had no doubt it was the Japanese fleet and he gave orders to weigh anchor and clear for action. Early that morning, Admiral Edo had heard from coasting craft that the Chinese fleet was at sea and one trader retailed to him a rumor that the fleet was anchored behind Haiyang Island where there was a sheltered roadstead, but on reaching Haiyang he found only a few fishing boats lying behind the island. He continued his voyage towards the Yalu now anticipating a meeting with Ting unless the Chinese admiral had already run down the other coast of the bay and so passed him at a distance during the previous night. Edo's fleet was steaming in line ahead and was organized in two squadrons. The van squadron was led by his second in command, Admiral Suboi, who had hosted his flag on the fast cruiser Yoshino. After her in succession came the cruiser's Takachiko, Akitsushima, and Naniwakan. Then there was a considerable interval between the van squadron and the leading ship of the main squadron, the cruiser Matsushima, flying Count Edo's flag. Next to her came the armored cruiser Chiyoda and then the Matsushima's two sister ships, the cruisers Akitsushima and Hashidate. The four ships of the van squadron and the four leading ships of the main squadron represented the chief strength of Edo's fleet, his eight modern cruisers. After them came the two old ironclads Kiei and Fuso, the gunboat Akagi and the small armed merchant steamer, Saikyo Maru. The long line of warships steaming swiftly through the sunlight must have looked more like a fleet arrayed for some festive occasion than squadrons prepared for imminent battle. For every ship was painted a brilliant white with the gilded device of the chrysanthemum forming a broad golden shield on her bows and the red and white sun flag of Japan flew from every mast head. At half past 11, half an hour after the Chinese perceived the approach of the Japanese fleet, the Yoshino, which was leading the advancing line of the van squadron, signaled that there was a dense mass of black smoke on the horizon inshore. This was a smoke produced by Ting's furnaces as his ships hardly stoked their fires to get full pressure on the boilers. Then the Chinese fleet was seen coming out and forming in line of battle. End of Chapter 12 Part 1. Recording by Nick Number. Chapter 12 Part 2 of Famous Sea Fights by John R. Hale. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nick Number. Famous Sea Fights by John R. Hale. Chapter 12 Part 2. Admiral Ting formed his ships in line abreast that is side by side with every bow towards the enemy. In the center were the two little battleships with the armored cruisers Lai Yuan and Qing Yuan to right and left of them. On each flank of these four heavy ships, there was a group of three unarmored cruisers, the Qing Yuan, Chaoyang, and Yang Wei on the right, and the Qi Yuan, Kuang Jia, and Si Yuan on the left. These were the 10 ships on which he relied to bear the brunt of the fighting. Away to the left flank and rear of the line and nearer the shore was a small armored clad Ping Yuan, the Corvette Kuang Ping, and four torpedo boats. The Chinese fleet was under easy steam. The ships were painted a dull black but had a large amount of gilding and color on their bows, upper works, and deck houses, and they were all dressed with flags. The decks had been strewn with sand to prevent accidents by men slipping and flooded with water from the fire hose to minimize the danger of fire. The fleets were now rapidly closing. McGiffen, the American officer of the Chen Yuan, was impressed with the holiday aspect of the scene. The 22 ships, he wrote in an account of the battle, trim and fresh in their paint and their bright new bunting and gay with fluttering signal flags presented such a holiday aspect that one found a difficulty in realizing that they were not there simply for a friendly meeting. When the range of the leading Japanese ship, the Yoshino, was just 5,400 meters or something less than three and a half miles, the Chinese admiral fired one of his heavy Barbette guns at her from the Qing Yuan. The shot fell short, throwing up a great fountain of foaming water. The guns of the other Chinese ships roared out and the line was wrapped in smoke, but the gunners had not the range in most cases and their shooting was everywhere bad. Untouched by the hostile fire, the Japanese fleet came silently on. At first the Japanese line had been heading directly for the Chinese center. It now altered its course, ship after ship, the Yoshino leading the line so that it would pass obliquely across the right front of the enemy and beyond the extreme right of his line, the wing of Ting's fleet that was furthest from the shore. At a range of about two miles, the Yoshino began replying to the Chinese fire with her bow guns and her starboard battery and the other ships opened as they reached the same range. Thanks to McGiffen's narrative, we know what was the impression made on the few skilled observers in the Chinese fleet. The advancing line of hostile cruisers was wrapped in a dense cloud of smoke, out of which rose their tall masts. Through the smoke came a continual flicker of the long red flashes of the Japanese quick fires. To men used to the old guns, the rapidity of the fire was something startling, but the Japanese had just missed getting the range. The showers of shells were falling ahead of the Chinese ships. The sea in front of their bows was a mass of spurting columns and fountains of foam, and some of these geysers of seawater shot up so close ahead that they splashed over the Chinese ships and numbers of men on their forward decks were drenched to the skin. But as the rain shortened, the rain of shells began to find its target and fell crashing and exploding on the hulls and upper works of the Chinese line. It had now lost something of its first formation. The center had surged forward, the wings had hung back, and it had become slightly convex. Edo in his report stated that Admiral Ting had adopted a Crescent formation, but this was only the result of his ships not keeping station correctly. His order had been to fight in line abreast. Presently the line became so irregular that some of the Chinese ships were masking each other's fire. The slow fire of the Chinese guns, ill-directed as it was, did little damage to the Japanese cruisers, but the Chinese ships were already suffering from the shower of shells. The Japanese found themselves faced with an unexpected difficulty of detail. In the older type of guns, the silk cartridge case was burned when the shot was fired. But with the quick fires, the solid, drawn brass case of the cartridge, a thing like a big metal can, is jerked out by an extractor as the breech block is swung back after firing, and these brass cases began to accumulate in heaps at the gun positions. Extra men were sent to the batteries to throw them overboard. The Yoshino was now on the extreme flank of Ting's right, about a mile away from the Yang Wei. Count Edo signaled from the Matsushima for the van squadron to circle around the enemy's fleet by changing its course to starboard. This would bring the weaker ships of the hostile squadron under a crossfire from the van squadron, sweeping round a stern of them and the main squadron crossing their bows obliquely. At the same time, the ships on the Chinese left had most of their guns masked by their consorts and could only fire at relatively long range with their bow guns at the rearward ships of the Japanese main squadron. Ting was out-generaled and was paying the penalty of a bad formation. His weak right wing was in imminent danger of being crushed by superior numbers and weight of fire. The two ironclads in the Chinese center had been made the target of the heaviest guns in Edo's fleet. Theoretically, these guns should have been able to pierce even the heavily armored plating of the Barbets, but no projectile penetrated the armor of the two ships, though shot after shot came thundering against them. Their unarmored parts were pierced again and again, the shells bursting as they entered and lighting several fires that were extinguished with difficulty. But the unarmored ships on the Chinese right were suffering terribly under the crossfire of the enemy's van and main squadrons. The two outer ships on this flank were the Chaoyang and the Yangwei. Each of these ships had a Barbette armed with a 10-inch gun fore and aft. Amid ships was a raised structure carrying machine guns on its roof and having on each side of it a passage, off which opened a range of wooden cabins, oil painted and varnished. Under the rain of bursting shells, these masses of dry, inflammable woodwork were soon ablaze. The fire spreading rapidly made it impossible to bring up ammunition for the guns and the two cruisers drifted helplessly out of the line, each wrapped in clouds of black smoke through which long tongues of red flame shot up into the air. On the other flank, practically no damage had been done by the few shots fired by the Japanese in this direction. But here there was a miserable display of cowardice on the part of the Chinese. The ship on the extreme left was the CUN, which still bore the marks of her encounter with the Naniwa Khan in the first days of the war. The experiences of that adventure had evidently got on the nerves of Captain Feng who commanded her. As the Japanese line swung around the other flank, he suddenly left his station and steamed at full speed away from his admiral, crossing a stern of the Japanese at what he thought a safe distance and heading for Port Arthur. The rearmost Japanese cruiser, the Chiyoda, sent a shell after him that dismounted one of his guns and added wings to his flight. The Kuang Cha, the next ship in the Chinese line, followed his bad example and leaving the battle raging behind them, the two cruisers soon disappeared over the southwestern horizon. Feng, with the CUN, reached Port Arthur. He said he had been in the thick of the fight and only left it when the day was lost, but the evidence of his own crew was against him. He was promptly tried by court-martial and beheaded. The other ship, the Kuang Cha, never reached Port Arthur. She was wrecked during the night after the battle with much loss of life on a reef outside Talianuan Bay. There were some other instances of half-heartedness or worse among the Chinese as the fight developed, but on the whole they fought bravely and many showed the most self-sacrificing courage. While the large Japanese cruisers of the two squadrons kept perfect station and distance and enveloped the Chinese right wing with as much precision as if they had been carrying out a fleet exercise in peace maneuvers, the older ships in their line, less speedy and handy, had dropped a stern and were under fire from Ting's two ironclads in the center. The Fuso was at one time so close to them that one of the ironclads made an attempt to ram her, but the Japanese ship evaded it and running along the broken front of the enemy rejoined the main cruiser squadron. The other of the old Japanese ironclads, the Heyei, boldly steamed between the Chinese battleships amid a storm of fire. Two torpedoes were discharged at her, but both missed and she joined the van squadron in the Chinese rear. The little Akagi was for a while the target of many of the Chinese guns and one of her masts went over the side. Ido had signaled to her and to the armed merchantmen Saikiomaru that they might keep out of the fight, but Japanese courage would not allow this. The Saikiomaru had a narrow escape. As the two burning cruisers drifted away from the Chinese right, making for the Yalu, the Saikio pursued them, firing her light guns. Two Chinese gunboats opened upon her and four torpedo boats steamed out to attack her, but she turned her fire on them and some of the Japanese cruisers helped her by accurate shooting at long range. The Chinese flotilla, which had expected an easy prey turned back and gunboats and torpedo boats disappeared in the Yalu estuary. But in the brief encounter, the Saikiomaru had received a good deal of damage from the light guns of the hostile flotilla. Her funnel was riddled and several steam pipes cut through. She retired from the engagement. With her went the Hiei, which had been seriously damaged in her dash through the Chinese center. The Akagi also withdrew to clear her decks, which were encumbered with wreckage. The fall of her mast had killed her captain Sakamoto and her two lieutenants were badly wounded. So far Ting had lost four of his unarmored cruisers and Ido had sent out of the fight three of his ships, the old ironclad Hiei, the gunboat Akagi and the armed steamer Saikiomaru. But none of these were fighting units of serious value. His two squadrons of protected cruisers were intact and it was on these he counted for victory. The second phase of the battle was a prolonged cannonade at a range of from one to two miles. Thanks to the superior speed of the Japanese fleet, Ido could choose position and distance and the training of his officers and men enabled him to concentrate his fire now on one part, now on another of the straggling Chinese line. His ships poured out a steady shower of shells whose heavy bursting charges not only scattered hurtling fragments of steel among the Chinese crews, but also had a tendency to light a hot fire wherever they exploded. The Chinese had a very poor supply of inferior ammunition, most of it armor piercing projectiles that were practically solid shot. Their fire was slow and ill directed and even when it found its target, the damage done was seldom serious. Two more Chinese ships were soon disposed of. The cruiser Qi Yuan had been pluckily fought by her Chinese captain Tang and her English engineer Purvis. She had received several shots between wind and water and was leaking badly. Tang knew she could not be long kept afloat and he made a desperate resolution to attempt to ram a Japanese ship before he went down. As the enemy's van squadron headed by the Yoshino came sweeping to closer range with the Chinese left, the Qi Yuan made a dash for the leading cruiser. Even if she had not been half sinking already, the Chinese ship had neither the speed nor handiness to ram the swiftest ship in the enemy's line. As the Qi Yuan came on, the guns of the van squadron were concentrated on her. She was enveloped in a fierce storm of bursting shells and suddenly her bows plunged in the sea, her twin screws whizzed for a moment in the air and then all that was left to show where she had sunk was floating wreckage and drowning men. Purvis went down with his ship. Tang was seen swimming on an oar for a few minutes with a big dog, a pet of his, paddling near him. Then the dog put its paws on his shoulders and he was forced under and drowned. Another Chinese cruiser, the Lai Yuan, which lay in the line to the right of the two armor clads was now seen to be burning fiercely. On board this ship, the Chinese engine room staff showed devoted courage. While the fire spread through the upper works so that after the fight, many of the iron deck beams were bare and twisted out of shape, not one of the brave men below quitted his post. Stokers, engineers, mechanics worked almost naked in heat like that of a furnace. Some died, all were in the doctor's hands after the fight, but they kept the engines going, obeyed orders and brought the half-burnt ship out of action. More than half of the Chinese fleet had now been destroyed or beaten off without any loss to the main fighting force of the Japanese. Disregarding the Chinese cruisers, which were now badly cut up and firing harmlessly at long range, Ido concentrated his attack on the two armor clads. Though each ship was hit more than 400 times, their armor was never pierced, yet the Japanese had some guns that theoretically should have penetrated it. Battle results are, however, often very different from experimental work on the testing range. Early in the fight, a Japanese shell had cut down the formast of the Chinese flagship, sending overboard and drowning seven men who manned the top, carrying away also the signal yards so that no orders could for some time be conveyed to the fleet. But for more than an hour, Admiral Ting was in no condition to give orders. Almost at the outset, he had carelessly taken a position that brought him within the danger arc of the blast from his own big Barbette guns. He was stunned and for a while it was thought that he was dead. The ship was fought by two European officers, Er Albrecht, a German, and Mr. Nichols, who had formerly been a petty officer in the British Navy. Albrecht distinguished himself by more than once going to terribly exposed positions and personally handling the hose with which he extinguished the fires lighted by the Japanese shells. Nichols directed the Barbette guns with a cool courage worthy of the service in which he had been trained until he was killed by a bursting shell. Two other white men, the German soldier Captain Von Hanneken and the American commander, McGiffen, took a prominent part in the fighting on board the other armor clad, the Chen Yuan. Both had more than one narrow escape. Von Hanneken was stunned for a while by an explosion and slightly wounded while at the Barbette guns. When the lacquered woodwork of the bow burst into flame and smoke and none of the Chinese would go forward to extinguish it, McGiffen, who was in command of the ship, dragged the fire hose to the danger point. Just as he had drowned the fire, he was wounded in two places and stunned by a bursting shell. He had told the men in the Barbette not to reopen fire till he rejoined them, but to his horror, as he recovered from the shock, he saw the guns swing round and point directly over the bow. He escaped being blown to pieces by dropping through an open hatchway. Altogether during the fight, the Chen Yuan was on fire eight times. Most of the Chinese crew fought pluckily, but there were some skulkers. McGiffen tells how once, when there was something wrong with the revolving gear of the Barbette guns, and he went down into a recess under the Barbette to clear it, he saw a group of frightened men huddled in the semi-darkness and heard the voice of a Chinese officer saying, "'You can't hide down here, there are too many of us already.'" But he tells also of the courage of others. The captain of one of the guns was killed as he prepared to fire, the man's head being shattered by a shell and his brain scattered over the gun. Another man dragged the corpse away, took the lanyard, looked along the sights, and fired without a moment's hesitation. Cao Kai, the gunnery lieutenant, was badly wounded and taken below. He had brought his brother, a mere boy, on board for a holiday and had him beside him in the Barbette. The boy remained there to the end, helping to pass up ammunition and apparently regarding the fight as an interesting game, though he was the only unwounded individual in the Barbette when the battle ended. MacGiffin asserts that when the fight began that Chen Yuan had in her magazine besides a quantity of armor-piercing, almost solid shot, only three really effective shells for the 12-inch guns. Two of these were fired early in the day. In the afternoon, in handling the ammunition, a third was discovered. It was fired at the Matsushima, Ido's flagship, and did terrible execution. Ido, in his report, says that the incident occurred at 3.26 p.m. that the shell came from the Ting Yuan, but this appears to have been a mistake. The shell dismounted a five-inch gun, seriously damaged two more and exploded a quantity of quick-firing ammunition that was lying ready near the guns. According to the Japanese official report, 46 men were killed or badly wounded. Unofficial narratives make the loss even greater. One officer was simply blown to pieces. The flame of the explosion set the ship on fire and she was for a while in imminent danger of destruction. The crew, writes Mr. H. W. Wilson, with unabated gallantry and courage, divided their attention between the fire and the enemy. The bansmen went to the guns and though the position of the ship was critical and her loss appalling, there was no panic. The fire was on the lower deck, just above the magazine. In charge of the magazine were gunners made in a semen. The shell had apparently dented the plating over the powder and the red glow through the crevices showed the danger, but these brave men did not abandon their post. Stripping off their clothes, they crammed them into the cracks and saved the Matsushima. Though nearly a third of the men above the water line had been put out of action, the remnant got the fire under. While the fire was still burning, the Matsushima steamed out of the fight and Ido transferred his flag to the cruiser Hashidate. This was really the second narrow escape that Matsushima had experienced during the battle. Early in the fight, a 10 inch shell had passed through her side, killed four men in her torpedo room, narrowly missed a loaded torpedo, smashed up an oil tank and then broke into pieces. Examination of the fragments showed there was no trace of a fuse and a plug of cement filled the place where the bursting charge should have been. It was really a bad specimen of a solid shot. If it had been a live shell, it might well have destroyed the Matsushima. It was thanks to the wretched ammunition supplied by swindling contractors to the mandarins that the Japanese were able to fight the battle with such trifling loss. After the transfer of Ido's flag to the Hashidate, the battle became a cannonated and increasing range. The Chinese ammunition was running low and Ido, after having had his quick fires in action for hours, had also his magazines nearly empty. The heavy fire of the afternoon had failed to destroy the two little battleships that represented the only remaining effective units of the Chinese fleet. Ido had accomplished enough in the destruction of the Chinese cruisers and he had no intention of giving their torpedo boats a chance by spending the night near the mouth of the Yalu River. At half past five, he broke off the engagement. Shortness of ammunition supply and exhaustion of officers and men were probably his real reasons for the explanation he gave in his official report is not very convincing. About 5.30 p.m., he writes, seeing that the Chen Yuan and the Ting Yuan had been joined by other ships and that my van squadron was separated by a great distance from my main force and considering that sunset was approaching, I discontinued the action and recalled my main squadron by signal. As the enemy's vessels proceeded on the southerly course, I assumed that they were making for way high way and having reassembled the fleet, I proceeded upon what I supposed to be a parallel course to that of the enemy with the intention of renewing the engagement in the morning, for I judged that a night action might be disadvantageous owing to the possibility of the ships becoming separated in the darkness and to the fact that the enemy had torpedo boats in company. However, I lost sight of the Chinese and at daylight there were no signs of the enemy. There really were no ships of any importance available to join the Chinese ironclads, so one is puzzled to imagine what Edo saw. It was only when the firing died away that Admiral Ting sent orders to the Kuang Ping, the transports, gunboats, and torpedo craft to come out. Only the Kuang Ping and the torpedo boats obeyed. As the sun went down, he formed line ahead and steered for Port Arthur. First came the two ironclads, then the Lai Yuan where their upper works still on fire in places. Then the Qing Yuan, Ping Yuan, Kuang Ping, and the torpedo boats. Far astern, the abandoned Chaoyang blazed like a bonfire in the twilight. Ting honestly believed he had beaten off the Japanese fleet and on his arrival at Port Arthur reported a victory. But though Japanese opinion was not quite satisfied, Edo had so damaged the Chinese fleet that henceforth he held command of the sea. He had won his success with comparatively small loss. Of all the units of his fleet, his flagship, the Matsushima had suffered most. She had two officers killed and three wounded and 33 men killed and 71 wounded, a total of 109, and about a third of the losses in the entire fleet. The Hayae came next in the casualty list with 56 killed and wounded. The losses of the other ships were trifling. The Akitsushima had 31 killed and wounded. The Akagi 28, the Akitsushima 15, the Fuso 14, and the Yoshino and Sayikiyo each 11. The Takachiko had an officer and two men wounded. The Naniwakan, Captain Togo's ship, one man wounded. The Chiyoda, which lay next to the Matsushima in the main squadron, had not one single casualty. The official return of losses gave these totals. Officers killed 10. Officers wounded 16. Total officers lost 26. Men killed 80. Men wounded 188. Total men lost 268. Total killed 90. Total wounded 204. Total losses 294. There are no available returns of the Chinese loss. It was certainly much heavier, perhaps 1,000 men, but thanks to their armor, the two battleships suffered comparatively little loss, notwithstanding the terrible fire to which they were exposed for hours. The Tingyuan had 14 killed and 20 wounded. The Chenyuan seven killed and 15 wounded. The two ships afterwards took part in the defense of Weihai Way, where one was torpedoed and the other captured by the Japanese. When the first reports of the Yalu battle reached Europe, there was much exaggerated talk about the value of the protected cruiser. It was even said by amateur naval experts that this type and not the battleship would be the warship of the future. It is almost needless to say that the battle conveyed no such lesson. If anything, it rather proved the enormous resisting power of the armored ship. If Ting, instead of his two antiquated coast defense armor clads, had had a couple of up-to-date battleships manned with trained crews, he would certainly have disposed of a good many of the Japanese cruisers. The Japanese quite realized this and proceeded to build a heavily armored fleet. The most valuable lesson of the battle was a warning of the danger of fires lighted by exploding shells. This had an immediate influence on ship construction and on the methods adopted by all navies in clearing for action. But the most important point of all was that the conduct of the Japanese officers and men in the battle and in the subsequent naval operations in the Siege of Wei-Hai-Wei made the world realize that a new naval power had arisen in the Far East. End of Chapter 12 Part 2. Recording by Nick Number. Chapter 13 of Famous Sea Fights by John R. Hale. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alan Winteroud. Famous Sea Fights by John R. Hale. Chapter 13, Santiago de Cuba, 1898. The United States Navy had taken a decisive part in securing victory for the Union in the War of Succession. It had effectively blockaded the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the Confederacy, captured New Orleans, given valuable help to the Army in seizing the line of the Mississippi. And by combined effect of these operations, isolated the Confederate states from the rest of the world, destroyed their trade and cut off their supplies. One would have expected that the importance of sea power would have been fully appreciated in the United States after such experiences, and that steps would have been taken to form and maintain an effective fleet. But for some 20 years after the war, the American Navy was hopelessly neglected. During this period, the fleet consisted mainly of some of the miscellaneous collection of ships of various types built or purchased during the years of conflict. Old monitors that had engaged the batteries of Charleston figured in the Navy list, besides sloops and steam frigates that were little better than armed merchantmen. The only good work that was done by the Navy Department was the training and maintenance of a Corps of Excellent Officers, and to their influence, it was due that at last a beginning was made of the building of a new Navy. The first ships built were of two classes. Public opinion was still clinging to the idea that the monitor was a supremely effective type of warship, and accordingly, considerable sums were expended on the building of coast defense vessels of this type, low freeboard turret ships, carrying a couple of heavy guns in an armored turret. But ships were also required that could make ocean voyages and show the flag in foreign waters. And for this purpose, a number of protected cruisers were built, full-rigged, masted steamers with their guns in broadside batteries. Still, the United States possessed only a fourth or fifth-rate fleet and could not have sent to sea a squadron that could rank with a fleet kept in commission regularly by several of the European powers. Advocates of the old American plan of having no foreign policy even maintained that the country had no need of an ocean-going fleet and required only coast defense ships and a few light cruisers. It was not till the end of the 80s that American opinion was aroused to the danger of neglecting the sea power of the States. The splendid American Navy of today is the creation of less than 20 years of systematic development. When the war broke out between the United States and Spain over the Cuban question, several of the new cruisers and battleships were available, but many older ships were still in the service and a number of armed liners and other makeshift auxiliaries were taken into the Navy. During the period of tension that immediately preceded the war, two fleets were concentrated on the Atlantic coast. The North Atlantic fleet under Admiral Samson at Key West, Florida and their reserve fleet, officially known as the Flying Squadron, under Commodore Schley at Hampton Roads. The Pacific Squadron under Commodore Dewey was at Hong Kong, waiting to sail for the Philippines as soon as war was declared. In the following list of Samson's and Schley's squadrons, beside the displacement of each ship, the date of her launch is noted so as to distinguish between the older and the newer types of warships. North Atlantic Squadron, Armored Cruiser and Flagship, New York. Displacement, 8,480 tons. Launched in 1891 with a speed of 21 and a half knots. Battleships, Iowa, with a displacement of 11,296 tons. Launched in 1896, speed of 16 and a half knots. The Indiana, displacement of 10,231 tons. Launched in 1893, speed of 15 and a half knots. Cruisers, Cincinnati, with a displacement of 3,100 knots. 183 tons. Launched in 1892, speed of 19 and a half knots. The Detroit, the Montgomery, and the Marblehead, all with a displacement of 2,000 tons. Launched in 1892, and a speed of 19 and a half knots. Monitors, the Puritan, a displacement of 6,060 tons. Launched in 1883, speed 12 and a half knots. And the Terror, 3,990 tons. Launched in 1883, speed of 12 and a half knots. Torpedo boats, the Cushing, at 105 tons. Launched in 1890, the speed of 22 and a half knots. The Erickson, 120 tons. Launched in 1892, the speed of 23 and a half knots. The Rogers, displacement of 142 tons. Launched in 1896, speed 25 and a half knots. The Foot, displacement of 142 tons. Launched in 1896, the speed of 24 and a half knots. The Porter, at 185 tons displacement. Launched in 1896, speed of 28 and a half knots. The DuPont, 185 tons displacement. Launched in 1896, speed of 27 and a half knots. The Winslow, at 142 tons. Launched in 1897, speed of 24 and a half knots. Besides this, there were gun boats and tenders. The Flying Squadron, the Armored Cruiser and flagship Brooklyn. Displacement of 9,153 tons. Launched in 1895, speed of 17 and a half knots. Battleships, Texas. Displacement of 6,315 tons. Launched in 1892, speed of 28 and a half knots. The Massachusetts, 10,231 ton displacement. Launched in 1893, speed 16 and a half knots. The Cruisers, Columbia. Displacement of 7,475 tons. Launched in 1892, speed of 23 and a half knots. The Minneapolis, displacement of 7,475 tons. Launched in 1893, speed of 23 and a half knots. These were the two fleets available for the blockade of Cuba, and the operations of attacking coast fortifications, covering the transportation of the army of invasion, and dealing with any naval force Spain might send to these waters. Other units were subsequently added to the fleet after both squadrons had concentrated under Samson's command. In West Indian waters, the Spaniards had only a few light crafts, and the old cruiser, Rayana Mercedes, at Santiago, with her boilers and engines in such a state that she could not go to sea. For many years, the Spanish Navy had been sadly neglected, but since 1890, some armored cruisers had been built, and a flotilla of torpedo boat destroyers added to the Navy. A number of antiquated units figured on the Navy list, including useless battleships dating from the 60s, and small unarmored cruisers little better than gunboats. There was one fairly modern battleship, the Palaio, dating from 1887, but expert opinion was very divided about her value. When the war broke out, the Spanish Pacific Squadron, under Admiral Montoyo, was a manila. To use the words of an American naval officer, it was made up of a number of old tubs not fit to be called warships. It was promptly destroyed by Commodore Dewey's squadron from Hong Kong, the Battle of Manila Bay, Sunday, the 1st of May, 1898. It was the first American victory in the war, and in the national rejoicing, there was much exaggeration as to Dewey's exploit, which was compared to Nelson's victories. On the eve of the war, a Spanish fleet, officially known as the Atlantic Squadron, had been concentrated under the command of Admiral Carvera, in the Portuguese harbor of St. Vincent, in the Cape de Verde Islands, and the local authorities somewhat strained the laws of neutrality by allowing Carvera to use the port to complete his preparations for some time after the outbreak of the war. The composition of the squadrons was as follows. Armored cruisers, the Infanta Maria Teresa, the flagship. Displacement of 6,890 tons, launched in 1891, speed of 20 knots. The Vizcaya, displacement of 6,890 tons, launched in 1891, with a speed of 20 knots. The Almorante-Oquendo, the Almorante-Oquendo, displacement of 6,980 tons, launched in 1890, speed of 20 knots. The Cristobal-Colon, 6,480 tons displacement, launched in 1896, with a speed of 20 knots. Torpedo boat destroyers, the Terror, the Furor, and Pluton, all of this placed 400 tons, were launched between 1896 and 1897, and all had a speed of 28 knots. The torpedo boats, Azor, Areyete, and Reo, and the auxiliary cruiser Cuidad de Cadiz, an armed liner acting as a mothership to the torpedo boats. The armored cruisers were all of the same type, ships with an armored deck underwater protecting the engines and magazines, a six-inch armor belt, and an armored barbet four and a half, mounting a nine-and-a-half Hunteria gun. They had a secondary armament of 10 six-inch quick-fires, besides a number of lighter guns for defense against torpedo craft, and had maxims mounted in their fighting tops. The Cristobal-Colon, originally built for the Italian Navy as the Giuseppe Garibaldi, and purchased by Spain and renamed, had only the quick-fires and had no guns in her barbettes. These had originally been armed with Armstrong guns. The heavy Armstrongs were taken out of her at Cadiz to be replaced by Hans Arias, but these were not ready when the war came, and the Cristobal-Colon sailed for Saint Vincent without them. The torpedo boat destroyers were of the best and latest type of their class, and recently built on the Clyde. The war in the Atlantic began by Samson Squadron leaving Key West, establishing the blockade of western Cuba, reconnoitering the sea defenses of Havana, and exchanging some shells with them at long range. Then, in order to satisfy popular feeling in America, Samson bombarded the batteries of San Juan in Puerto Rico, an operation that had no real effect on the fortunes of the war, and inflicted only trifling local loss on the Spaniards. An army had been assembled at Tampa in Florida, and a huge fleet of transports was collected to ferry it over to Cuba. Its destination was supposed to be the western end of the island, where, in cooperation with the insurgents by land and the fleet by sea, it would besiege and capture Havana. But again and again the sailing of the fleet was delayed, and there was alarm in the cities of the Atlantic states, because the newspapers published wild reports of Phantom Armadas hovering off the coast. When news came that Carvera had sailed from Saint Vincent, and for many days there was no trace of his movement, there was a quite unnecessary alarm as to what the Spanish squadron might do. A wise press censorship would have been very useful to the United States, but there was little or no attempt to control the wild rumors published by the newspapers. For some days after the declaration of war, the 23rd of April, Carvera squadron lay at Saint Vincent. All the ships were repainted a dead black, some coal was taken on board, and quantities of ammunition transferred from the holes of the Cuiadada de Cadiz to the magazines of the cruisers. At last on 29th of April, Carvera sailed, leaving the torpedo boats and the armed liner in port, and taking with him only his high speed ships, the four armored cruisers and the three destroyers. His course was westward, and it was conjectured that San Juan de Puerto Rico was his destination. The distance is about 2400 miles, and supposing that he would proceed at a cruising speed of 10 knots in order to economize his coal, it was calculated that he would be across the Atlantic in 10 days, reaching the West Indies about 9th of May. Two swift armed liners that had been attached to Schley's squadron were sent out to sweep the western Atlantic, and it was expected that by the end of the first week in May, they would bring back news of the enemy, but the 7th of May came and brought no news. Ships arriving in ports on both sides of the ocean, told of having seen the smoke of a squadron on the horizon in so many places that it seemed as if the Atlantic must be full of fleets. Lookout stations as far north as the New England States, told us glimpses of warships seen far off in the morning twilight, or vaguely distinguished through mist and rain, but definite news of Cavera there was none. It seemed as if his squadron had vanished into space. Then there were theories started to account for his disappearance. It was suggested that he had altered his course and gone to the coast of South America to intercept the battleship Oregon, which had come round from the Pacific to reinforce Samson's fleet, or perhaps he was making for the Cape or the Horn bound on a long voyage for Manila to destroy Dewey's unarmed cruisers and restore Spanish supremacy in the Philippines, or he was ranging the oceans to prey upon American commerce. Then came a strange report, worth remembering as a caution against too easily accepting rumors of wartime. From Cadiz came American press dispatches duly passed by the Spanish censor, stating that Cavera squadron had steamed back into that port. The start westward from St. Vincent was said to be a mere faint. The Spaniards had hoped to draw some of the swifter American ships out into the Atlantic and score a victory by fighting them in European waters. Naval experts gravely discussed Cavera's tactics. Correspondents described the position of his fleet in Cadiz Harbor. Perhaps the Spanish censor helped the misleading rumors into circulation by letting Americans at Cadiz imagine that ships fitting out in the harbor were the missing fleet. At last, on 12th of May, came definite news of one unit of the squadron. The night before, the destroyer Feroir had paid a flying visit in the dark to the French port of St. Pierre in Martinique, probably calling for cable information and orders. On the 12th, the terror visited the same port in broad daylight. That evening, from the hills of Martinique, four large cruisers were seen far out at sea, steering northwards under easy steam. The cable from Martinique to St. Lucia to the States was out of order and it was not until the 15th that Admiral Samson received the news. Several of his heavy ships were coaling at Key West. He hurried on the work and sent his lighter ships to watch the windward and Mona passages. He sent off Schley with a flying squadron to the south of Cuba with orders to sweep the island-fringed Caribbean Sea and watch the Yucatan Channel with his cruisers. As soon as he completed coaling, he himself sailed for the waters north of Cuba. Once more, there was for a while no news of Cavera. After dark on the 12th of May, he had altered his northern course and steered a little south of west, making for the Dutch island of Curacao, where he expected to find some tramp steamers laying with coal and other supplies awaiting him. On Saturday the 14th of May, the Maria Teresa and the Vizcaya entered the port, the two other cruisers accompanied by two destroyers remaining outside. The expected colliers had not arrived. The Dutch authorities insisted on Cavera leaving Curacao within 24 hours and he sailed on the Sunday without being able to fill up his bunkers. Once more, the United States cruisers failed to sight him as he steamed slowly across the Caribbean Sea, husbanding his coal and steering for Cuba. On Wednesday the 18th of May, three American warships were off Santiago de Cuba. They came so close in that the morrow battery at the entrance fired upon them. Before sundown they steamed away. They had missed Cavera by a few hours. For at sunrise next morning, he brought his four cruisers and two destroyers into Santiago Harbor. Santiago was the oldest Spanish city in Cuba and was its capital in the early days before Havana was founded. The old city stands at the head of a landlocked arm of the sea, surrounded by forest clad hills and approached through narrow ravine-like straits. Cavera had come there to obtain coal and supplies. If he had made it only a temporary base and had been able to coal immediately and put the sea to attack the American cruisers scattered over the Caribbean waters, he might have scored successes for a while, but he waited at Santiago till he was hopelessly blockaded. For some days the Washington government, mindful of the Cadiz hoax, refused to believe reports that the Spanish fleet was hidden behind the headlands of Santiago Harbor. It was not until 27th of May that Admiral Schley obtained definite proof of the fact and formed the blockade of Santiago with his squadron. Admiral Samson then brought his fleet round and took over the command. Until he reached Santiago, Cavera had shown no lack of energy, but now he was strangely devoid of enterprise. He allowed an American armed liner to capture, off the port, a steamer that was bringing him 3,000 tons of much needed coal, though he might have saved her by sending one of his cruisers outside the headlands. He allowed an inferior force to blockade the entrance for some days without bringing out his cruisers by day to engage them or sending out his destroyers by night to torpedo them. He waited until there was an overwhelming force assembled off the harbor. Then came a month of deadlock. He was blockaded by a vastly superior force that watched the narrow pass through which, if he left the harbor, his fleet must come out one by one, but so long as he was within the headlands he was unassailable. Admiral Samson declined to risk his ships in an attempt to force the narrow entrance and destroy the Spanish squadron inside. An attempt to bottle up Cavera by sinking a tramp steamer at the Merrimack in the entrance proved a failure. Long-ranging bombardments produced no effect on the Spaniards. All the plans formed at Washington for the Cuban campaign were disorganized. The blockade of the island had become the blockade of the one port of Santiago. If the United States government had known how short of supplies were the city and garrison of Santiago and Cavera's fleet, it might have trusted to the blockade by sea and the operations of the insurgents by land with the help of a few reguars to force the Spanish Admiral either to surrender or come out and fight. But it was decided to abandon for the present the projected attack on Havana and send the army, collected for this purpose at Tampa, to attack Santiago by land and so deprive Cavera of his refuge in the harbor. Santiago was defended by lines of entrenchments with some improvised outworks and garrisoned by a division under General Inares. The American transport from Tampa began to arrive on 20th June and the expeditionary force under General Shafter was disembarked during the following days some miles east of the city. There was then an advance over mere forest tracks through hilly country covered with dense brush. Cavera landed seamen gunners with machine guns and light quick fires to strengthen the defense and anchored one of his cruisers so that her heavy artillery could infill out an attack on the entrenchments nearest the harbor. On 1st of July Shafter made his attack. The Spaniards defended themselves with such obstinate energy that after fighting through a long summer day only two outposts had been taken by the Americans and at the cost of heavy loss. Next day there was desultory fighting along the front but no progress. It was difficult to bring up supplies along the forest tracks now sodden with tropical rains. Sickness had broken out in the American lines. The resistance of the Spaniards showed a dogged determination that was a surprise to the invaders. Shafter himself was ill. Late on Saturday the 2nd of July he appealed to Admiral Samson to help him by forcing the narrows at all costs and in the early hours of Sunday the 3rd he sent off to his government a dispatch which was a confession of failure. The discouraging report was cabled to Washington early on the Sunday morning and caused deep dismay at the White House but before evening news arrived of events that had changed the whole situation. The evening before 2nd of July Mr. Ramsden the British Council at Santiago had written in his diary. It seems incredible that the Americans with their large force have not yet taken the place. The defense of the Spaniards has been really heroic the more so when you consider that they are half starved and sick. It was affirmed today that the squadron would leave this evening but they have not done so though the pilots are on board. I will believe it when I see them get out and I wish they would. If they do they will fare badly outside. During the Saturday Cavera had re-embarked the seaman landed for the defense of the city and had got up steam. He was going out because the presence of his crews now only added to the difficulty of feeding the half starved garrison and population of the place. He had a short supply of inferior coal and the most he hoped for was that some of his ships would elude or fight their way past the blockading squadron and reach Havana. It is impossible to understand why having decided to go out he did not make the attempt in the darkness of Saturday night instead of waiting for broad daylight next day. In one respect he was fortunate. His coming out was a complete surprise for the Americans and found them quite unprepared with some of their best ships far from the scene of action. Admiral Samson had steamed off to the eastward in his flagship to New York intending to land at Saboni for his interview with General Shafter. The battleship Massachusetts had gone with two of the lighter cruisers to coal at Guantanamo. But there were quite enough ships left off the seaward opening of the Narrows where four battleships and armored cruiser and two light craft were keeping up the blockade. It was a bright summer day with a light wind and a smooth sea. Due south of the harbor entrance and about five and a half miles from it lay the battleship Iowa. To the east of her lay the Oregon with the Indiana between her and the land and about two miles near in west of the Iowa was the battleship Texas with the armored cruiser Brooklyn Commodore Schley's flagship lying between her and the land and still near in the small armed revenue cruiser Vixen lying about three miles southwest of Marrow Castle. On the other side of the entrance close to the land was a small armed steamer the Gloucester. She had been purchased by the Navy Department on the outbreak of the war from Mr. Pierpont Morgan the banker and renamed. Before this she had been known as a steam yacht Gloucester. She was commanded by one of the best officers in the United States Navy Captain Wainwright who had been second in command of the Maine when she was blown up in Havana Harbor. Wainwright was to show this day that even an armed steam yacht may do good service in a modern naval action. All the ships except the Oregon and the little Gloucester had let their fires burn low and had hardly any steam pressure on their boilers. At half past nine the order was given for the crews to fall in for general inspection. A few minutes later an apprentice on board the Iowa called attention to a mass of black smoke rising over the headlands of the Harbor mouth. And then between the cliffs of Marrow and Socopa points appeared the bowels of Carvera's flagship. An alarm gun rang out from the Iowa the signal enemy escaping clear for action fluttered out from the hall yards of the Brooklyn and on every ship the bugle sounded. The men rushed to their battle stations and the stokers worked madly to get steam on the boilers. Admiral Carvera guided by a local pilot Miguel Lopez had led his fleet down the harbor the Maria Teresa being followed in succession by the cruisers Vizcaya, Cristobal Colón and Okendo and the destroyers Pluton and Fioror. As the flagship entered the ravine of the Narrows Carvera signal to his captains I wish you a speedy victory. Miguel Lopez who was with them in the conning tower remarked that the captain gave his orders very deliberately and showed no sign of anxiety or excitement. He had asked Lopez to tell him how soon he could turn to the westward. On a sign from the pilot he gave the order starboard to the helmsman put the engine room indicator to full speed and told his captain to open fire. As the guns roared out Carvera turned with a smile to Lopez and said you have done your part well pilot I hope you will come out of this safe and be well rewarded you have deserved it. The cruisers had run out with an interval of about 600 yards between the ships. There was a longer gap between the last of them and the destroyers but the Fioror was out within a quarter of an hour of the Maria Teresa's appearance between the headlands. That quarter of an hour had been a busy time for the Americans. The Brooklyn and the four battleships had at once headed for the opening of the harbor. The Oregon making the best speed till the steam pressure rose on the boilers over consorts. They were no sooner moving than they opened fire with their forward guns. The Spanish cruisers and the batteries of Socopa and Morrow replying with shots every one of which fell short. As Carvera turned westward the American ships also altered their course in the same direction and now as the huge ships of the blockading squadron each wrapped in a fog of smoke from her guns converged upon the same course there was a momentary danger of disastrous collision between them a danger accentuated by an unexpected maneuver of Commodore Schley's ship the Brooklyn. The Texas and the Iowa just cleared each other in the smoke cloud as they sheared off from each other the Oregon which had been following the Iowa came rushing between the two ships and the Brooklyn circled past their bowels suddenly crossing their course. Schley in the first dash towards the Spaniards had brought his great cruiser within 3,000 yards of the Maria Teresa then seeing the Spanish flagship turning as if to ram he swung round to starboard bringing his broadside to bear on the enemy but at the same time heading for his own battleships he cleared them by completing a circle coming back thus to the westward course which had at the same time been resumed by the Spanish flagship as the Brooklyn turned the battleship swept up between her and the enemy masking her fire the Oregon leading but the speed of Schley's ship soon enabled him to secure a forward place in the chase near the Oregon while the giants were thus maneuvering the little Gloucester had come pluckily into action running in close under the morrow batteries commander Wainwright had fired some shots at the enemy's cruisers then realizing that his light guns could do them no vital harm he almost stopped his way on his ship and waited to engage the destroyers out came the furor and pluton turning eastward as they cleared the entrance and dashing for the Gloucester with a mass of foam piling up over their bowels the Indiana the rear most of the battleships fired some long-range shots at them but it was a stream of small shells from the Gloucester's quick fires that stopped their rush the furor was soon drifting toward the cliffs enveloped in clouds of escaping steam the Gloucester's fire had killed her helmsman wrecked her steering gear and cut up several of her steam pipes making her engine room uninhabitable the pluton not so badly crippled but with her hull penetrated in several places was next turned back the new york hurrying up from the eastward of the sound of the firing escorted by the torpedo boat erikson fired on her at long range the pluton kept her engines going just long enough to drive her ashore under the sycopa cliffs the furor sank before she could reach the land there was now a running fight the four spanish cruisers steaming westward close to the wooded shore the american ships following them up and pouring in a deadly fire from every gun that could be brought to bear it was soon evident that the spaniards could not get up anything like their trial speed and their gunnery was so defective there was small chance of their stopping any of the pursuers by well-aimed fire or of even inflicting any appreciable loss or damage on them the maria teresa was the first to succumb as she led the line out of the harbor she received the converging fire of the american ships but she had not suffered any serious injury until the american ships got up full steam the spaniards had gained a little on them an englishman mr mason who watched the cruisers from a hill near morrow till at 10 o'clock the curve of the coast westward hid them from view thought they were successfully escaping so far as he could see they had not been badly hit and none of the americans were yet abreast of them but soon after the ships disappeared from the point of view near morrow and when the maria teresa was only some six miles from the entrance she suffered a series of injuries and rapid succession that put her out of action it was the secondary armament of the american ships the guns of medium caliber that proved most effective in the running fight it appears that the big 13 and 12 inch barbet and turret guns only made two hits in the whole day two 12 inch shells fired simultaneously from a pair of guns struck the maria teresa just above the waterline on the port side aft and below her stern turret they burst in the torpedo room killing and wounding everyone there blowing a jagged hole in the starboard side and setting the ship on fire an eight inch shell came into the after battery and exploded between decks causing many casualties a five inch shell burst in the coal bunkers and midships blew up the deck and started in a second fire another destructive hit was made by an eight inch shell a few feet forward of the course where the pair of 12 inch shells had come in the official report thus describes its course an eight inch shell struck the gun deck just under the afterbar bet passed through the side of the ship and exploded ranging aft the damage done by the shell was very great all the men in the locality must have been killed or badly wounded the beams were torn and ripped the fragments of the shell passed across the deck and cut through the starboard side the shell also cut the fire main shells from the lighter artillery of the american ships riddled the funnels and cut up the deck houses one of these shells bursting near the forward bridge wounded admiral cavera slightly in the arm he had come outside the conning tower the better to watch the progress of his squadron the armor belt had kept the waterline of the ship intact and her barbettes and heavy guns were also protected efficiently by the local armor but the enemy's shell fire had told on the unarmored structure inflicted heavy loss and started two serious fires all efforts to get these underfailed the blazing tropic heat had scorched the woodwork of the ship in the tender the movement of the vessel produced a draft that made the burning bunkers and decks roaring masses of flame the men were driven by the heat from battery and engine room the maria teresa with silent guns and masses of black smoke ascending to the sky was headed for the land at a quarter past ten she drove ashore at nema nema six and a half miles west of morrow castle some of the men swam ashore others were taken off by the boats of the gloucester which came up just in time to help in saving life commander wainwright had to land a party to drive off a mob of cuban gorillas who came down to the shore and were murdering the hapless spaniards as they swam to the land one of the gloucesters boats took out of the water admiral carvera and his son lieutenant carvera they were brought on board the yacht where wainwright chivalrously greeted the unfortunate admiral with the words i congratulate you sir on having made as gallant a fight as ever was witnessed on the sea at half past ten another of them spanish cruisers was a helpless wreck only half a mile westward of the stranded and burning flagship this was the almarante okendo whose station had been last in the line this drew upon her a converging fire from the guns of the pursuing battleships and cruisers the destruction was terrible two guns of the secondary battery were disabled a shell came through the roof of the forward turret killed and wounded all the gun crew and put the gun permanently out of action ventilators and deck fittings were swept away the funnels cut up and the unarmored part of the sides repeatedly pierced by shells that started several fires the midships it was these that made further effort to keep up the fight hopeless after her captain won las aga had been killed by a bursting shell the okendo now on fire in a dozen places was driven ashore to save life she blew up on the beach the explosion of her magazines nearly cutting the wreck in two of the spanish squadron only the crystal ball cologne and the viscaya still survived the cologne best and newest of the cruisers was making good speed and was furthest ahead the viscaya lagged behind her hard-pressed by several american ships led by the iowa the viscaya had suffered severely from the fire of the pursuit her coal bunkers were ablaze on one side and there was another fire making steady progress in the gun deck schlay in a brooklyn urging his engines to the utmost rushed past the iowa and attempted to head off the viscaya her gallant captain and tonio yulate realized that the brooklyn was the swiftest ship in the pursuit and that her destruction would materially increase the chance of the cologne escaping so he made a last effort to ram or torpedo the brooklyn before his own ship succumbed he headed for schlay with the torpedo ready in his bow overwater tube a shell from the brooklyn's battery struck it fair exploded the torpedo in the tube and blew up and set fire to the four part of the viscaya yulate then headed his ship for the land and she struck the shore under the cliffs at aceridores 15 miles west of morrow at a quarter past 11 the brooklyn the iowa and the oregon were pouring their fire into her as she ran aground another explosion blew up part of her burning decks and yulate hauled down the flag the americans cheered as they saw the flag coming down amid the clouds of smoke but captain robley evans of the iowa called out from the bridge to stop the cheers of his men don't cheer boys those poor fellows are dying he said evans with the iowa stood by the burning ship to rescue the survivors the cologne alone remained she had a lead of a good six miles and many thought she would escape the brooklyn led to pursuit followed closely by the battleships origan and texas and the small cruiser vixen with samson's flagship to new york far astern too far off to have any real share in the action on her trials the cologne had done 23 knots if she could have done anything like this in the rush out of santiago she would have simply walked away from the americans but she never did more than 14 for some time even at this reduced speed she was so far ahead that there was no firing it was not until 10 minutes past one that the brooklyn and origan at last got within range and opened fire with their forward heavy guns the cologne with her empty barbettes had nothing which would she reply at the long range in the earlier stage of the fight she had been hit only by an eight inch shell which did no material damage as the pursuers gained on her she opened with her secondary battery even now she received no serious injury and she was never set on fire but her captain morrow realized that lack of speed had put him at the mercy of the enemy as they closed in upon him and opened fire with their heaviest guns he turned his ship into the creek surrounded by towering heights amid which the little tarquino river runs into the sea 48 miles west of morrow castle he hauled down his flag as he entered the creek without his orders the engineers opened the kingston vows in the engine room and when the americans boarded the cologne she was rapidly sinking she went down by the stern under the cliffs on the east side of the inlet and lay with her bow above water and her afterdecks a wash it was 20 minutes past one when she surrendered the men of the iowa and gloucester had meanwhile rescued many of the survivors of the viscaya not without serious risk to themselves for there were numerous explosions and the decks were red hot in places some of the spaniard swam ashore made their way through the bush to santiago and joined the garrison captain yulate was brought on board the iowa and received by a guard of marines who presented arms as he stepped from the gangway he offered his sword to roebly evans but the american captain refused to take it you have surrendered he said to four ships each heavier than your own you did not surrender to the iowa only so her captain cannot take your sword never in any naval action was there such complete destruction of a fleet of the six ships that steamed out of santiago that summer morning the furor was sunk in deep water off the entrance the pluton was ashore under the sycopa cliff at various points along the coast columns of black smoke rising a thousand feet into the sunlit sky showed where the burning wrecks of the maria teresa the okendo and the viscaya lay and nearly 50 miles away the cologne was sunk at the mouth of the tarquino river and never was success obtained with such a trifling loss to the victors the spanish gunnery had been wretchedly bad the only ships hit were the brooklyn and the iowa and neither received any serious damage the only losses by the enemy's fire were on board the brooklyn where a signalman was killed and two seamen wounded nine men were more or less seriously injured by the concussion of their own guns it must be confessed that the gunnery of the americans was not of a high order some 6500 shells were expended during the action the spanish wrecks were carefully examined and all hits counted fires and explosion perhaps obliterated the traces of some of them but so far as could be ascertained the hits on the halls on the upper works were comparatively few and of hits by the heavy 13 inch and 12 inch guns only two could be traced anywhere the spanish squadron had 2,300 officers and men on board when it left santiago of these 1600 were prisoners after the action it was estimated that in the fight 350 were killed and 150 wounded this leaves some 200 to be accounted for nearly 150 rejoined the garrison of santiago after swimming ashore this leaves only 50 missing they were probably drowned or killed by the cuban gorillas the fact that three of the spanish cruisers have been rendered helpless by fires lighted on board by the enemy shells accentuated the lesson already learned from the battle of the yalu as to the necessity of eliminating inflammable material in the construction and fittings of warships the damage done to the viscaya by the explosion of one of her own torpedoes in her bow tube proved the reality of a danger to which some naval critics had already called attention henceforth the torpedo tubes of cruisers and battleships were all made to open below the waterline the result of the victory was a complete change in the situation at santiago the destruction of caveras fleet was the beginning of the end for the spanish power in cuba end of chapter 13 recording by allen went around boom coach dot blogspot dot com