Chapter III The Fitting Out of a Squadron
Helston Tricks the Doctor—Valuable Information—The Doctor makes a Bargain—The Squadron Assembles
A month had passed by, during which time the Doctor saw by the papers that Helston had acquired a cruiser at Elswick, built on “spec”, an armoured cruiser being built by Laird’s, for a South American republic which had waived its claim to her, and three destroyers which were being completed at Yarrow’s, Thorneycroft’s, and Laird’s works respectively. At the end of the month he ran up to London, in response to a telegram, and met Helston at Waterloo.
“I should hardly have known you,” he said, grasping his hand; “you look twice the man you did six weeks ago. What fool’s errand have you brought me here for?”
“Going to show you round my little fleet, old chap. How’s Milly and her old father?”
“She’s all right. Asked after her Don Quixote the last time I saw her; but confound you, I’m hungry, I don’t want to see your ships. I’ve seen enough in my lifetime; you ought to have known that.”
“Come along then, old chap, we’ll have some grub and put you in a better temper,” answered Helston, smiling, and took him to his hotel.
They visited Yarrow’s yard that afternoon, and next day went up the river to Chiswick, where Thorneycroft’s destroyer lay almost ready for launching, with her engines and boilers on board. “Funny state of affairs, Doc, old boy,” began Helston, as he patted her smooth sides, “for me to be buying ships. Fancy imagining six weeks ago that I should ever be signing cheques to the value of three-quarters of a million and thinking nothing of it!”
“How much did this one cost you?” asked the Doctor grimly.
“Just over £40,000—a mere fleabite,” laughed Helston; “and she’s to do her trials next week—a guaranteed thirty knots. That would shake up your wretched liver, Doc, rushing along at more than thirty-five miles an hour! It’s a funny thing, but they have had several bids for her during the last few days, so I wrote out a cheque on the spot and got her. The others were a little doubtful about cash.”
“Some of these smaller republics always are,” laughed the manager, who was standing near them.
“It was Patagonia, too, of all others,” continued Helston. “She tried to get all my ships, and, strangely enough, has never been in the market before, and doesn’t possess such a thing as a ship.”
“I expect she wants to become as civilized as some of her neighbours, and get up a rebellion against the army,” added the manager.
After dinner that night Helston showed the Doctor a list of officers he had chosen, among whom there were several they had known in the old days. The Admiralty had put them all on half-pay and lent them to the Chinese Government for eighteen months directly Helston had made out their temporary commissions for the squadron he was fitting out. The Chinese ambassador had been empowered to sign their commissions, and the ships were to fly the Yellow Dragon.
“I see you have no doctors yet,” said the Doctor. “I suppose no one has been such a fool as to volunteer.”
Helston opened a drawer in his desk.
“There you are, nearly five hundred of them, men in the navy, army, and from every corner of the world.”
“I didn’t know there were so many fools on earth,” growled the Doctor. “To whom are you going to give the opportunity of being drowned or blown up?”
“Oh, I’m not going to select them. I leave that job to my principal medical officer.”
“What idiot have you managed to get hold of to do that?”
“You, old chap,” replied Helston, slapping him on the shoulder; “you were the very first to volunteer.”
“I!” said the Doctor angrily. “Why, I’d as soon think of volunteering for a trip to the moon!”
“Can’t help that, Doc; you told me that night at Fareham, when you were in such a bad temper, that you would come with me if I got a ship, and here’s your commission made out—‘all belong ploper, savez’. Come on, old fellow, don’t leave me in the lurch; come and have another look at China. We will look in at our old places in Japan and fancy ourselves young again. I’ll make you as comfortable as you possibly can be on board a ship.”
“Well, you have played a trick on me,” answered the Doctor, after he had stamped and fumed about the room, “and if you were not steeped in fever and ague, I would see you at Jericho first; but I’ll see you safely through this foolery—more for Milly’s sake, though, than for yours, you sly brute.”
“I knew you’d come, Doc; you aren’t doing yourself any good moping down at Fareham, and the practice can manage itself pretty well, can’t it? You’ll get fleet-surgeon’s pay, and Jenkins will be able to look after us both.”
So this being settled, the two men discussed plans far into the night.
On the way to Newcastle next morning, and as the train was leaving King’s Cross, a man jumped hurriedly into their carriage, his bags were thrown after him, and the door slammed violently.
“I’m sort of intruding,” he said, by way of introduction and apology. He was a young and very handsome man, typically American from the long hair brushed off his forehead to his long pointed boots, his Western accent very strong and nasal.
“Guess you two ain’t lived all your lives on land. I’ve been six years in the United States navy, and can spot a navy man like a pointer.”
“Yes, we are both in the navy,” answered Helston, smiling.
“There you are; you Britishers always call your navy the navy. Why, our American ships—ship for ship—would give ’em all points and knock spots out of them. We ain’t got so many just now, but we’re just scurrying around, and we’ve got the iron and the brains, and Congress will find the dollars. I’m quit of the navy. The guv’nor curled up and left me a pile, so I just sent in my commission and been enjoying myself ever since—that’s four years ago next fall. Going out to China in a few weeks—shake up the oil business. The old man was in oil—see! Ever been in China—Asiatic station we call it—and met the old Monocacy?”
“Twice,” said Helston, much amused.
“Well, I was a cadet for two years in that old packet—Reginald S. Hopkins, my tally—and I guess we have mutual acquaintances out there.”
“My name is Helston.”
“Helston!” ejaculated the American. “Why, I know your face—couldn’t guess where I’d seen it before seen your picture in every illustrated journal I’ve taken up for the last ten days—shake, sir, shake,” and he grasped Helston’s hand warmly. “Very pleased to make your acquaintance. I reckon you’re just about the most talked-of man walking the face of this earth just now.”
The conversation naturally turned on the approaching expedition, in which Hopkins was keenly interested. “I guess I can give you some middling-sized information about those ships the Chinese ran ashore. I was out with the Japs at Wei-hai-wei, just looking round—kind of correspondent for a Boston journal—and went on board some of them. I reckon the silly idiot who bought that lot of scrap iron wished he had left ’em there. There ain’t a dockyard in the States that could make ’em keep pace with a funeral. Why, I went aboard one of the torpedo-boats—high and dry she was—I’m mighty inquisitive, I tell you—her boiler had burst and blown up her deck, when she went aground, I reckon. I’ve never seen such a mess as the engines were—two horrid staring corpses been there a week, too—ugh!”
“Very lucky that I met you,” Helston said eagerly. “I’ve telegraphed to a dozen men who were up there, and none know anything beyond doubtful rumours.”
“I guess most of the Europeans were just searching around about that particular time, and looting or getting quit of the place, if they’d been aiding the Pigtails,” drawled the stranger.
“You didn’t hear anything about the cruisers which went ashore, I suppose?” asked Helston.
“Didn’t I! Didn’t I! I knocked up against a little Scotchman—chief engineer aboard the Mao Yuen when her old skipper shoved her nose on shore and cut. He was just about in a hair-raising funk, for the mandarins wanted his head, and the Japs his body. I packed him off in a steamer, and he was mighty glad to take his head with him, you bet!”
“Did he tell you anything of the condition of his ship?” asked Helston, “for she is one of those which have disappeared.”
“Didn’t he!” roared the American, smacking his thigh. “Why, all the time he was under my wing he kept shouting out, ‘Oh God! Oh God!—two hundred dead bodies on board, burning fore and aft—they’ll kill me if I go on deck—the boilers won’t stand the pressure, and my home’s in Glasgy’. He was just on being properly crazed, and during the night woke me by shrieking, ‘We’re on the rocks, we’re on the rocks—the steam-pipe’s burst, and I can’t get on deck—the steam, the steam’, and I found him trying to climb up the wall.”
“She must have damaged herself very badly if the shock smashed her main steam-pipe,” said Helston; “and they tell me at the Embassy that the Yao Yuen, her sister ship, which was also reported refloated, was completely gutted. It seems to me that any amount of patching up won’t make these two much of fighting ships.”
“You’ve just hit it, Captain. Give me the old Monocacy—you remember the old tub—and I reckon I’d wash out the whole crowd.”
He left the carriage at their first stopping-place.
“Lucky we met him, Doc,” said Helston; “his information may be very valuable, and he seems a fine type of an American naval officer.”
“They are all tarred with the same brush,” growled the Doctor—“think their own country the only one in the world, and they themselves its brightest ornament. A conceited, bragging liar I should call him.”
“Liver bad this morning,” thought Helston.
They went down to Elswick that afternoon and inspected the cruiser which Armstrong’s had almost completed. She was, in fact, preparing for her engine and gun trials. She had been built as a speculation, and Helston had eagerly snapped her up for a trifle of £290,000. “We should have made another £20,000 if you hadn’t settled at once,” said the manager ruefully, “for the Patagonian agent offered us £310,000 next morning.”
They next travelled to Birkenhead and saw Laird’s destroyer, which was nearly ready for sea, and the armoured cruiser which was to be Helston’s flagship, and had been promised in two months.
They were inspecting the cabins aft.
“If I’m coming with you, you’ll have to knock those two into one,” said the Doctor. “I’m not going to be cramped up in the ordinary cabin at my time of life.”
“All right, old chap,” replied Helston, giving the necessary directions, “what will happen if you don’t get your own way?”
“Invalid myself home,” answered the Doctor, with a twinkle in his eye. “Did the Patagonians want this one?”
“Did their best,” smiled Helston, “but ready money did the trick.”
“It seems to me that someone is very anxious you should not buy your ships, Helston. Somewhat fishy, isn’t it?” suggested the Doctor, on their way back to London.
Two days later the papers published lists of temporary commissions granted by the Chinese Government to officers in the Royal Navy lent to a squadron now fitting out in England.
To Helston the Admiralty had granted leave to assume the rank of captain whilst he was in command of his squadron.
The rest of the officers, commanders, lieutenants, doctors, engineers, paymasters, marines, and warrant officers were all detailed for various duties—fitting out the ships, buying and supervising stores and provisions, and recruiting the crews.
The Admiralty lent the entire crews for the three destroyers and skeleton crews for the two cruisers, consisting of petty officers, seamen gunners, engine-room artificers, armourers, and also a small detachment of marines, whilst, acting on the advice of the Foreign Office and the Chinese Embassy, both of which threw out hints of the possibility of treachery, the remainder of the crews were taken exclusively from Naval Reserve men of known good character.
During the following three weeks several suspicious incidents occurred which suggested that influences were at work to retard or damage the expedition.
Thorneycroft’s destroyer broke down on two occasions. On the second trial the finding of a loose nut in the high-pressure cylinder whilst the engines were being preliminarily turned, averted a terrible catastrophe. It was highly probable that it had been placed there intentionally.
Laird’s cruiser developed several small break-downs, attributed to improperly fastened locking nuts, whilst the main bearings of one of her screw shafts became almost red-hot, and it was found that sand had been mixed with the water that was pumped over it during the full speed trial. This alone delayed the departure of the expedition for a month, as the huge casting had to be removed. Laird’s destroyer was also run down one night by a tug-boat whilst lying anchored off Birkenhead, and as it was a perfectly clear night, and she was not in the usual course of tugs, this was very suspicious. Fortunately the damage was not serious.
Most serious of all was the discovery of a man, dressed as a dockyard labourer, tampering with the magazine locks of Armstrong’s cruiser, with many yards of fuse and a dynamite cartridge in his pocket, which naturally he could not account for.
However, three months after the receipt of Ping Sang’s letter, Armstrong’s cruiser, named by Helston the Strong Arm, the three destroyers “No. 1”, “No. 2”, and “No. 3”, and a stout little merchant steamer, the Sylvia, to be used as store-ship, were lying at Spithead, gaily flying the Yellow Dragon at their ensign staffs, and only awaiting the completion of the repairs to Laird’s ship, which Helston named the Laird.
Helston, the Doctor, and two or three officers were still remaining in London completing the work of fitting out the squadron.