第14章 THE GREAT WAR SYNDICATE(14)

They had attempted to prove this by announcing that at a certain time a bomb should be projected into a certain fort.Precisely at the specified time the fort had been destroyed, but nobody believed that a bomb had been fired.Every opinion, official or popular, concerning what it had done and what might be expected of it, was promptly forwarded to the Syndicate by its agents, and it was thus enabled to see very plainly indeed that the effect it had desired to produce had not been produced.Unless the enemy could be made to understand that any fort or ships within ten miles of one of the Syndicate's cannon could be instantaneously dissipated in the shape of fine dust, this war could not be carried on upon the principles adopted, and therefore might as well pass out of the hands of the Syndicate.Day by day and night by night the state of affairs was anxiously considered at the office of the Syndicate in New York.A new and important undertaking was determined upon, and on the success of this the hopes of the Syndicate now depended.During the rapid and vigorous preparations which the Syndicate were now making for their new venture, several events of interest occurred.Two of the largest Atlantic mail steamers, carrying infantry and artillery troops, and conveyed by two swift and powerful men-of-war, arrived off the coast of Canada, considerably to the north of the blockaded city.The departure and probable time of arrival of these vessels had been telegraphed to the Syndicate, through one of the continental cables, and a repeller with two crabs had been for some days waiting for them.The English vessels had taken a high northern course, hoping they might enter the Gulf of St.Lawrence without subjecting themselves to injury from the enemy's crabs, it not being considered probable that there were enough of these vessels to patrol the entire coast.But although the crabs were few in number, the Syndicate was able to place them where they would be of most use; and when the English vessels arrived off the northern entrance to the gulf, they found their enemies there.However strong might be the incredulity of the enemy regarding the powers of a repeller to bombard a city, the Syndicate felt sure there would be no present invasion of the United States from Canada;but it wished to convince the British Government that troops and munitions of war could not be safely transported across the Atlantic.On the other hand, the Syndicate very much objected to undertaking the imprisonment and sustenance of a large body of soldiers.Orders were therefore given to the officer in charge of the repeller not to molest the two transports, but to remove the rudders and extract the screws of the two war-vessels, leaving them to be towed into port by the troop-ships.This duty was performed by the crabs, while the British vessels, both rams, were preparing to make a united and vigorous onset on the repeller, and the two men-of-war were left hopelessly tossing on the waves.One of the transports, a very fast steamer, had already entered the straits, and could not be signalled; but the other one returned and took both the war-ships in tow, proceeding very slowly until, after entering the gulf, she was relieved by tugboats.Another event of a somewhat different character was the occasion of much excited feeling and comment, particularly in the United States.The descent and attack by British vessels on an Atlantic port was a matter of popular expectation.The Syndicate had repellers and crabs at the most important points; but, in the minds of naval officers and a large portion of the people, little dependence for defence was to be placed upon these.As to the ability of the War Syndicate to prevent invasion or attack by means of its threats to bombard the blockaded Canadian port, very few believed in it.Even if the Syndicate could do any more damage in that quarter, which was improbable, what was to prevent the British navy from playing the same game, and entering an American seaport, threaten to bombard the place if the Syndicate did not immediately run all their queer vessels high and dry on some convenient beach? A feeling of indignation against the Syndicate had existed in the navy from the time that the war contract had been made, and this feeling increased daily.That the officers and men of the United States navy should be penned up in harbours, ports, and sounds, while British ships and the hulking mine-springers and rudder-pinchers of the Syndicate were allowed to roam the ocean at will, was a very hard thing for brave sailors to bear.Sometimes the resentment against this state of affairs rose almost to revolt.The great naval preparations of England were not yet complete, but single British men-of-war were now frequently seen off the Atlantic coast of the United States.No American vessels had been captured by these since the message of the Syndicate to the Dominion of Canada and the British Government.But one good reason for this was the fact that it was very difficult now to find upon the Atlantic ocean a vessel sailing under the American flag.As far as possible these had taken refuge in their own ports or in those of neutral countries.At the mouth of Delaware Bay, behind the great Breakwater, was now collected a number of coastwise sailing-vessels and steamers of various classes and sizes; and for the protection of these maritime refugees, two vessels of the United States navy were stationed at this point.These were the Lenox and Stockbridge, two of the finest cruisers in the service, and commanded by two of the most restless and bravest officers of the American navy.The appearance, early on a summer morning, of a large British cruiser off the mouth of the harbour, filled those two commanders with uncontrollable belligerency.That in time of war a vessel of the enemy should be allowed, undisturbed, to sail up and down before an American harbour, while an American vessel filled with brave American sailors lay inside like a cowed dog, was a thought which goaded the soul of each of these commanders.There was a certain rivalry between the two ships; and, considering the insult offered by the flaunting red cross in the offing, and the humiliating restrictions imposed by the Naval Department, each commander thought only of his own ship, and not at all of the other.It was almost at the same time that the commanders of the two ships separately came to the conclusion that the proper way to protect the fleet behind the Breakwater was for his vessel to boldly steam out to sea and attack the British cruiser.If this vessel carried a long-range gun, what was to hinder her from suddenly running in closer and sending a few shells into the midst of the defenceless merchantmen? In fact, to go out and fight her was the only way to protect the lives and property in the harbour.It was true that one of those beastly repellers was sneaking about off the cape, accompanied, probably, by an underwater tongs-boat.But as neither of these had done anything, or seemed likely to do anything, the British cruiser should be attacked without loss of time.When the commander of the Lenox came to this decision, his ship was well abreast of CapeHenlopen, and he therefore proceeded directly out to sea.There was a little fear in his mind that the English cruiser, which was now bearing to the south-east, might sail off and get away from him.The Stockbridge was detained by the arrival of a despatch boat from the shore with a message from the Naval Department.But as this message related only to the measurements of a certain deck gun, her commander intended, as soon as an answer could be sent off, to sail out and give battle to the British vessel.Every soul on board the Lenox was now filled with fiery ardour.The ship was already in good fighting trim, but every possible preparation was made for a contest which should show their country and the world what American sailors were made of.The Lenox had not proceeded more than a mile out to sea, when she perceived Repeller No.6 coming toward her from seaward, and in a direction which indicated that it intended to run across her course.The Lenox, however, went straight on, and in a short time the two vessels were quite near each other.Upon the deck of the repeller now appeared the director in charge, who, with a speaking- trumpet, hailed the Lenox and requested her to lay to, as he had something to communicate.The commander of the Lenox, through his trumpet, answered that he wanted no communications, and advised the other vessel to keep out of his way.The Lenox now put on a greater head of steam, and as she was in any case a much faster vessel than the repeller, she rapidly increased the distance between herself and the Syndicate's vessel, so that in a few moments hailing was impossible.Quick signals now shot up in jets of black smoke from the repeller, and in a very short time afterward the speed of the Lenox slackened so much that the repeller was able to come up with her.When the two vessels were abreast of each other, and at a safe hailing distance apart, another signal went up from the repeller, and then both vessels almost ceased to move through the water, although the engines of the Lenox were working at high speed, with her propeller- blades stirring up a whirlpool at her stern.For a minute or two the officers of the Lenox could not comprehend what had happened.It was first supposed that by mistake the engines had been slackened, but almost at the same moment that it was found that this was not the case, the discovery was made that the crab accompanying the repeller had laid holdof the stern-post of the Lenox, and with all the strength of her powerful engines was holding her back.Now burst forth in the Lenox a storm of frenzied rage, such as was never seen perhaps upon any vessel since vessels were first built.From the commander to the stokers every heart was filled with fury at the insult which was put upon them.The commander roared through his trumpet that if that infernal sea-beetle were not immediately loosed from his ship he would first sink her and then the repeller.To these remarks the director of the Syndicate's vessels paid no attention, but proceeded to state as briefly and forcibly as possible that the Lenox had been detained in order that he might have an opportunity of speaking with her commander, and of informing him that his action in coming out of the harbour for the purpose of attacking a British vessel was in direct violation of the contract between the United States and the Syndicate having charge of the war, and that such action could not be allowed.The commander of the Lenox paid no more attention to these words than the Syndicate's director had given to those he had spoken, but immediately commenced a violent attack upon the crab.It was impossible to bring any of the large guns to bear upon her, for she was almost under the stern of the Lenox; but every means of offence which infuriated ingenuity could suggest was used against it.Machine guns were trained to fire almost perpendicularly, and shot after shot was poured upon that portion of its glistening back which appeared above the water.But as these projectiles seemed to have no effect upon the solid back of Crab H, two great anvils were hoisted at the end of the spanker-boom, and dropped, one after the other, upon it.The shocks were tremendous, but the internal construction of the crabs provided, by means of upright beams, against injury from attacks of this kind, and the great masses of iron slid off into the sea without doing any damage.Finding it impossible to make any impression upon the mailed monster at his stern, the commander of the Lenox hailed the director of the repeller, and swore to him through his trumpet that if he did not immediately order the Lenox to be set free, her heaviest guns should be brought to bear upon his floating counting-house, and that it should be sunk, if it took all day to do it.It would have been a grim satisfaction to the commander of the Lenox to sink Repeller No.6,for he knew the vessel when she had belonged to the United States navy.Before she had been bought by the Syndicate, and fitted out with spring armour, he had made two long cruises in her, and he bitterly hated her, from her keel up.The director of the repeller agreed to release the Lenox the instant her commander would consent to return to port.No answer was made to this proposition, but a dynamite gun on the Lenox was brought to bear upon the Syndicate's vessel.Desiring to avoid any complications which might ensue from actions of this sort, the repeller steamed ahead, while the director signalled Crab H to move the stern of the Lenox to the windward, which, being quickly done, the gun of the latter bore upon the distant coast.It was now very plain to the Syndicate director that his words could have no effect upon the commander of the Lenox, and he therefore signalled Crab H to tow the United States vessel into port.When the commander of the Lenox saw that his vessel was beginning to move backward, he gave instant orders to put on all steam.But this was found to be useless, for when the dynamite gun was about to be fired, the engines had been ordered stopped, and the moment that the propeller-blades ceased moving the nippers of the crab had been released from their hold upon the stern- post, and the propeller-blades of the Lenox were gently but firmly seized in a grasp which included the rudder.It was therefore impossible for the engines of the vessel to revolve the propeller, and, unresistingly, the Lenox was towed, stern foremost, to the Breakwater.The news of this incident created the wildest indignation in the United States navy, and throughout the country the condemnation of what was considered the insulting action of the Syndicate was general.In foreign countries the affair was the subject of a good deal of comment, but it was also the occasion of much serious consideration, for it proved that one of the Syndicate's submerged vessels could, without firing a gun, and without fear of injury to itself, capture a man-of-war and tow it whither it pleased.The authorities at Washington took instant action on the affair, and as it was quite evident that the contract between the United States and the Syndicate had been violated by the Lenox, the commander of that vessel was reprimanded by the Secretary of the Navy, and enjoined that there should be no repetitions of his offence.But as the commander of theLenox knew that the Secretary of the Navy was as angry as he was at what had happened, he did not feel his reprimand to be in any way a disgrace.It may be stated that the Stockbridge, which had steamed for the open sea as soon as the business which had detained her was completed, did not go outside the Cape.When her officers perceived with their glasses that the Lenox was returning to port stern foremost, they opined what had happened, and desiring that their ship should do all her sailing in the natural way, the Stockbridge was put about and steamed, bow foremost, to her anchorage behind the Breakwater, the commander thanking his stars that for once the Lenox had got ahead of him.The members of the Syndicate were very anxious to remove the unfavorable impression regarding what was called in many quarters their attack upon a United States vessel, and a circular to the public was issued, in which they expressed their deep regret at being obliged to interfere with so many brave officers and men in a moment of patriotic enthusiasm, and explaining how absolutely necessary it was that the Lenox should be removed from a position where a conflict with English line-of-battle ships would be probable.There were many thinking persons who saw the weight of the Syndicate's statements, but the effect of the circular upon the popular mind was not great.The Syndicate was now hard at work making preparations for the grand stroke which had been determined upon.In the whole country there was scarcely a man whose ability could be made available in their work, who was not engaged in their service; and everywhere, in foundries, workshops, and ship- yards, the construction of their engines of war was being carried on by day and by night.No contracts were made for the delivery of work at certain times; everything was done under the direct supervision of the Syndicate and its subordinates, and the work went on with a definiteness and rapidity hitherto unknown in naval construction.In the midst of the Syndicate's labours there arrived off the coast of Canada the first result of Great Britain's preparations for her war with the American Syndicate, in the shape of the Adamant, the largest and finest ironclad which had ever crossed the Atlantic, and which had been sent to raise the blockade of the Canadian port by the Syndicate's vessels.This great ship had beenespecially fitted out to engage in combat with repellers and crabs.As far as was possible the peculiar construction of the Syndicate's vessels had been carefully studied, and English specialists in the line of naval construction and ordnance had given most earnest consideration to methods of attack and defence most likely to succeed with these novel ships of war.The Adamant was the only vessel which it had been possible to send out in so short a time, and her cruise was somewhat of an experiment.If she should be successful in raising the blockade of the Canadian port, the British Admiralty would have but little difficulty in dealing with the American Syndicate.The most important object was to provide a defence against the screw-extracting and rudder-breaking crabs; and to this end the Adamant had been fitted with what was termed a "stern-jacket." This was a great cage of heavy steel bars, which was attached to the stern of the vessel in such a way that it could be raised high above the water, so as to offer no impediment while under way, and which, in time of action, could be let down so as to surround and protect the rudder and screw-propellers, of which the Adamant had two.This was considered an adequate defence against the nippers of a Syndicate crab; but as a means of offence against these almost submerged vessels a novel contrivance had been adopted.