Armageddon

Chapter 16

“Gentlemen, the Japanese seem to be somewhat worked up over an incident lately reported in the Sea of Japan,” Captain Baker was addressing his bridge crew aboard HMS King Alfred. “We have just received word of large fleet movements in the Tsushima and Korea Straits, and Admiral Meux has informed us that this squadron is to sail forthwith to observe the situation. Mister Tovey…”

“Sir.” Tovey stood just a little taller, hands folded behind his back and seeming to be at attention in spite of the “at ease” permission given by the Captain. “You will supervise posting of the lookouts, and stand watch on the weather bridge. Lookouts should be especially vigilant once we pass Jeju Island. We have no specific details but the gist of the situation is this gentlemen. The Russians and Japanese seem to be at it again. Several engagements have been reported describing a large Russian dreadnought.”

“A dreadnought, sir?” Tovey was surprised to hear that a ship of that class would be in these waters, particularly after the beating the Japanese gave to the Russian Navy a few years back.

“Yes, a dreadnought, Mister Tovey, reported to be as big and unsavory as our own ship by that name. We’ve no specific information, but if this is the case, then it must have arrived from the Baltic or Black Sea in recent weeks.”

“But wouldn’t it have passed through Suez, sir?”

“If it was as big as HMS Dreadnought, Mister Tovey, it would be too large for the canal, as you should well know. That said, and given the fact that we had no notice of this ship’s arrival in these waters, a transit there seems unlikely. It must have gone round the Cape of Good Hope, and the general notion is that it was sent here as a reinforcement for the Russian cruisers remaining in Vladivostok.”

“And this ship is operating alone, sir?”

“My, my, Mister Tovey. Full of questions this morning, are we? Yes, it is operating alone, and it appears to have ruffled quite a few skirts of late. We’ve been ordered by Admiral Meux to get down there to the straits and have a look around, and you, Mister Tovey will do the looking.”

“Very good, sir.”

The British China Station, established in 1865, had seen ships come and go, assigned as the situation warranted, year after year. In the volatile years between 1901 and 1905, as many as six battleships might have been anchored there, but now the station consisted of a smaller armored cruiser squadron. They were already a day out of port at Weihaiwei, and HMS King Alfred was leading the way south through the Yellow Sea.

Young Lieutenant John Tovey was soon out on the weather bridge, the wind in his face and eyes squinting through binoculars. As the squadron completed a wide turn, he looked back at the graceful line of ships, the skies charred up with smoke from their full coal bunkers. Behind the flagship, the three Monmouth Class cruisers assigned to the squadron followed in line, HMS Kent, HMS Bedford and then HMS Monmouth herself. These were 9,800 ton ships with a battery of fourteen 6-inch quick firing guns. In their wake the end of the tail wagging behind was HMS Astraea and HMS Flora, smaller at a little over 4,300 tons each. The squadron dispatch ship HMS Alacrity had been left behind, as it was an older clipper style light cruiser that could make only 17 knots.

The squadron seems in a bit of a hurry, thought Tovey. I hope I wasn’t out of place with my questions on the main bridge this morning, but a Russian ship the size of Dreadnought coming all this way around the cape without being noticed was most irregular. We have ships posted all along that route, at the East Indies Station, Colombo, Indian Ocean and Australia. Surely someone would have seen and reported on this ship. Well, now that I’ve been named the lookout watch officer of the deck, we’ll amend that oversight. I want to be the first British officer to sight this ship…that is if the Japanese don’t put it on the bottom of the sea first.

Tovey did not yet have much experience at sea, but he was already developing a nose for the smell of battle. He could feel something, a strange presentiment of foreboding in the back of his mind and an odd feeling of deja vu. It almost seemed to him that he had been in the vanguard of other squadrons, hunting at sea for another strange, unaccountable sea raider-that he had done this all before.

Little did he know that many such adventures at sea awaited him. He would stand a watch in the cold icy waters near Iceland when the Germans tried to push Bismarck through in 1941, and he would see that ship to a timely end aboard King George V. Then, a year later, he would get news of yet another strange raider heading for the Atlantic, and at a most unfortunate time when the Prime Minister, Churchill himself, was putting to sea for a conference with the American President Roosevelt. Tovey knew none of that, however, as it was all long years away in a distant tenuous future, yet somehow, he could feel it all coming, just as he could feel this strange Russian dreadnought coming as well. And through it all he had the odd feeling that he was somehow fated to meet this ship at sea, though he did not know why he should think this.

His muse was interrupted when Captain Baker stepped out onto the weather bridge for some air and was again at Tovey’s side.

“Fair weather for sighting, Tovey,” said the Captain. “I trust you’ve posted good eyes on the main mast.”

“I have, sir, Jameson and Wilson-a pair of sharp eyed hawks.”

“Good then. Word is this Russian ship is a big fellow, so they will have no trouble spotting it. But mind your recognition silhouettes as well. Your first sightings will more than likely be Japanese ships.”

“Of course, sir.”

“Well then, here’s another bit of news for you. The Americans might be sticking their thumb into the pie as well. President Roosevelt has apparently altered the itinerary of the Great White Fleet. This Russian ship fired on an RMS mail ship out of Shanghai bound for Vancouver and three U.S. citizens were killed. That gets Mister Roosevelt a bit worked up, and he’s cancelled the fleet’s port-of-call in Manila and ordered it to these waters instead.”

“Indeed, sir? That is a rather important development.”

“Yes it is. With all of sixteen battleships it will be the most powerful naval force in the region. Oh, I suppose the whole of the Japanese fleet would overmatch it, but for sheer, concentrated power in one place, sixteen battleships will outgun anything the Japanese have, and anything we have here as well. We might have made a better show of things some years ago when Canopus led the whole of her class out here, but now the squadron in our wake will have to do. We’ve no quarrel with the Americans, of course, but I tell you this as officer of the watch so that you might be aware of it should a long line of ships suddenly appear on your horizon.”

“I see, sir. Any idea where the American fleet is heading?”

“They were scheduled to visit Yokohama, but that would put them on the wrong side of the island for anything developing here. My guess is that they’ll steam south of the main island, possibly into the Inland Sea, or even further south. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear you report them off your starboard bow, Mister Tovey. Do be vigilant.”

“I will, sir. And thank you for informing me.”

Well, well, well, thought Tovey. This was another interesting development. He didn’t think he’d get a look at the Great White Fleet until much later in the year, but now the whole itinerary was turned on its head.

“An interesting stew on the boil, sir,” he said.

“Yes, Japanese ships, American ships, British ships, and this Russian raider all in the mix. Very interesting, unless someone tips the kettle.”

The lighthouse of Ko Saki was one of the oldest under Japanese management, and sat at the edge of a sheer cliff of striated black stone on the southern edge of Tsushima Island. It was built to warn ships skirting the edge of the island, or approaching the small fishing hamlet of Izuharamachi Azamo, but now it served as a beacon to rally the gathering squadrons of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Ten ships under Vice Admiral Kataoka were already there, waiting in the restless waters, their flags and masts stirred by the prevalent rising winds that were common here. They were blowing from the southeast that night, chasing dark clouds across the sharply defined morning crescent moon where it hung low on the sea just an hour after midnight. The sun would rise in about four more hours, and with it would come Vice Admiral Dewa, who had signaled that he now led his squadron of eight cruisers and destroyers here to the rendezvous point as ordered.

Dewa was restless that early morning, awake on the bridge after having taken a long sleep the previous afternoon and evening. He was still troubled by the news that Vice Admiral Kamimura had been unable to deal with the Russian dreadnaught. Knowing Kamimura’s squadron was bigger and more powerful than his own whispered the quiet meaning in the orders he received the previous day. He was to be in the straits west of Iki Island by 08:00 hours this morning, and he was early, eschewing the coaling operation at Oshima as he had topped off his holds much earlier, and had ample fuel.

The journey south sighted an unusually large number of fishing boats, and that had proved revealing as well. There were many eyes in the straits now, and some of those boats held more than fishermen. They were joined by six torpedo boats scattered in the wake of his squadron, and more eyes were on the hills and coastlines of every island in the region. All would be searching the gray dawn for any sign of the Russian ship, and Dewa had little doubt that battle would soon follow any sighting.

Now he was to join with Vice Admiral Kataoka south of Tsushima Island and be in a position to move either east or west depending on what that sighting would reveal of the enemy’s intentions.

It will be in the Korea Strait this time, he thought. The Russians have bad memories of their last visit to Tsushima. Then again, if this ship is trying to avenge the humiliating defeat they suffered in those waters, it might just return there again just to taunt us. Good. That would mean that my squadron would be the first engaged, with Kataoka behind me and then Admiral Togo swinging down from the Korea Strait. By the time he arrives I will be ready to hand him news of another victory here.

Tonight he was to find Kataoka and meet with him aboard his Squadron Flag. To do so he elected to leave his flagship with his squadron and board one of the faster destroyers he had with him, the Asagiri. More talk, he thought. Well, the faster I get there the quicker I will get back. Then we can do the fighting. But when he reached the anchorage near the lighthouse at sunrise, and took the longboat over to the old battleship Chinyen, he was discourage to learn that no engagement was to be permitted!

“What do you mean, Kataoka? What are we here for then?”

“We are to spot this ship, report its heading and intended course, and to move away from it, to this location hidden by the headland of Tsushima Island.”

“To do what? Go fishing? Enjoy the scenery? Watch that stupid lighthouse spin round and round? It’s time we went after this Russian Captain and settled the matter!”

“I know that is what is in your mind, Dewa, but this signal comes directly from Admiral Togo. We are to wait here, and outlying ships should attempt to lead the enemy here as well. Mines are to be placed on the approaches to the headlands, and then, when Admiral Togo arrives with the First Division, we will all engage the enemy as one.”

It was very much like Togo, to gather all his hounds together before the hunt. To spin out lines of fast destroyers and torpedo boats as taunting lures, beckoning the enemy to advance across his cleverly laid minefields. But Dewa remembered the sharp crack of the guns, the smell of the battle, the anger in Tsushima Strait those years ago when they had met the whole Russian Baltic fleet and dismembered it, ship by ship.

“This is but one ship,” he said, shaking his head. “Why must Togo mass the whole of the Imperial Navy to face it? My squadron alone should be more than enough.”

“That is what Vice Admiral Kamimura thought,” said Kataoka. “Now Tango and Mishima are gone and he has one cruiser laid up in port, another beached on Dozen Island and four others black as charcoal from the fires set by enemy guns!”

Dewa was astonished to hear this. “What? Tango and Mishima gone? Where?”

“They were sunk, Dewa.”

“I cannot believe this… It was confirmed?”

“The final report was sent three hours ago to Admiral Togo by wireless telegraphy. Kamimura himself was wounded! So do not be so eager to rush in with your four cruisers and four destroyers. This report has everything to say why Admiral Togo has issued these orders.”

Dewa frowned, troubled by the news. “Then the reports are true,” he said darkly. “Some of the fishing boats we encountered told us word has spread all down the west coast of Honshu. It is said this ship was a great sea dragon, a monster that could breathe fire and devour an entire ship in one blow.”

“This is what we have heard…” Kataoka lowered his voice now, so that none of the younger staff officers would hear him. “ Tango and Mishima were struck by something we do not yet comprehend. They died in minutes, burned within and without in terrible flame. It was said that a flaming lance was thrown at them by this Russian ship, faster than an arrow, and deadly accurate-a rocket weapon. We have never faced anything like this. Now do you understand why Togo disposes the fleet as he does? He wishes to mass our fist against this enemy, to make certain the victory that will surely be ours.”

“I would see this with my own eyes first,” said Dewa stubbornly. “Let them throw their fire arrows. As for me, I will use my cannon and torpedoes.”

Kataoka smiled. “You are early, Dewa, but yet your squadron still lingers in the strait. I know you all too well, my friend. You are hoping yours will be the first to spot and engage this Russian ship. Well remember the old saying: be careful what you wish for…”

Dewa looked at him, with a disapproving frown, but something in Kataoka’s eyes disturbed him. If he did not know the man better, having seen him in battle before, he would think it was fear in those eyes, though he could never say as much to Kataoka.

Yes, I want battle, and I will find one soon enough, he thought. That was the way of things. But I will not be frightened by fisherman’s tales of sea dragons and fire lances. No. I will see this ship for myself, and watch as my gunners bring it to heel.

Or I will die trying.