Part 35

The Japanese torpedo flotilla consists of 41 boats more than 100 feet in length; but, as we shall have occasion to see later on, torpedoes were of not much importance in the Yalu battle, owing to the manner in which it was fought, and few of those were present.

The principal dock-yard and naval arsenal of Japan is at Yokosuka; and the whole country is divided into two naval districts or departments, each subject to a vice-minister under the naval minister at Tokio, the capital. The discipline and regulations of the Japanese fleet are modelled upon those of Europe and America much more closely than that of China, and the ships are manned by efficient and well-trained crews, who have excellent and well-instructed officers. So many of the population are engaged in maritime pursuits--either in the fishery or in coasting and carrying on the active communication between the islands composing the empire--that there is a large reserve of hardy, seasoned men to draw upon for service in the navy.

Many of the officers have been educated abroad, some of them being graduates of our own Naval Academy at Annapolis, where, as a rule, they have always stood well in their classes in spite of the difficulty of carrying on their studies in a foreign language. These naval cadets were received at the request of the Japanese government and wore the uniform and were treated in precisely the same way as our own cadet midshipmen, but the Japanese government paid all their expenses.

Thus, though apparently weaker than the Chinese fleet, except in the matter of swift cruisers, the Japanese navy had qualities which gave it the real, practical advantage in the battle of the Yalu. More than ever has it confirmed the theory that speed is the greatest requisite in the sea-fighting of the present day; for it was the swiftness of the Japanese vessels which gained them the advantage in the first place, seconded by rapid and accurate gun-fire.

We shall see that torpedoes had not much opportunity for action, and when used by the Chinese (rather clumsily), failed in taking effect, while there was no use of the ram at all--a manner of offence which many looked to see exemplified in the first great naval battle.

The great sea-fight at the Yalu will not be completely elucidated for some time to come--probably many months--but we know enough about it to be able to give its leading features, mostly from the report made to the Japanese Emperor by an aide of Admiral Ito, who commanded the fleet of Japanese vessels.

This fleet had been for several days in the estuary of Ping-Yang, in the Bay of Korea, co-operating with the land forces upon the river Ta-Tong. On the morning of September 16th the Admiral was advised that Ping-Yang had been captured, and he at once got under way, proceeding to the northward with eleven ships, the names of which have already been given, and the Saikio, a light-armed vessel having on board Admiral Kabiyama, who was senior to Ito, but who did not assume command, as he was only upon a tour of inspection and his vessel was not intended for fighting. The ships were in two divisions.

On the 17th, in the bay of Takuchao, on the coast of Manchouria, they discovered the Chinese fleet, of fourteen ships and four torpedo-boats. It was then about mid-day. As the opposing forces rapidly approached each other it was seen that the Chinese were coming out of the bay in a formation not unlike a closed crescent or wide V; the Japanese fleet being in line abreast, with the Admiral in the centre in the Matsushima. The little Saikio also took place in line, in spite of her feeble armament.

When about 4000 metres distant the Chinese Admiral and some other of his vessels opened fire, but the Japanese waited until the distance had decreased to 3000 metres before making any reply. Even then they fired but a few shots, after which Admiral Ito, seeing that the Chinese retained their peculiar and very disadvantageous formation, signalled to the van squadron to attack the enemy on the right and the rear squadron to attack the left. At the same time he ordered the Akagi and the Saikio to get on the port or outer side of the rear squadron, for safety. The presence of the two large and heavily plated German-built battle-ships in the Chinese fleet convinced Admiral Ito that he would have to fight the battle under full steam, and, by attacking the Chinese on their flanks, break their formation and throw them into confusion. Seeing that he was exposing first one wing and then the other of his fleet to a concentrated fire which he could only partially return, Admiral Ting now tried to get his vessels into line, and a tremendous cannonade ensued, at a distance varying from a mile to a mile and a half. The ocean fairly shook as the ships swept on, rapidly firing pieces of heavy modern ordnance. The Chinese vessels presented a strange appearance, for not a moving man could be seen upon their upper decks, nor were there any boats at their davits or on their decks. It was said that they had purposely left their boats behind to prevent their crews from deserting.

At first the Chinese fire was fairly accurate; but that of the Japanese, coolly handled, and with the newest pattern of guns, had a terrible precision. The wheeling movement of the Japanese on the right and left flanks, and the terrific effect of their rapid-fire guns, seemed to throw the line of their enemies into disorder and to demoralize their gunners.

During this tremendous and incessant fire one of the Chinese vessels, the Lai-Yuen, an armored cruiser, was badly injured, and the Japanese particularly concentrated their fire upon her as well as others of the Chinese fleet which seemed to be damaged. The Lai-Yuen then began to get low in the water, but her gunners continued to fire almost to the last, when she sank, stern foremost. As her stern went under, her bows rose out of the water, and she is said to have remained in this position for about a minute and a half before she finally disappeared. This fine vessel was sunk by shot, as not a torpedo had been discharged. Then came the turn of the Tschi-Yuen, which showed signs of being in trouble, and with a concentrated fire directed upon her she soon sank, with every soul on board.

While the rear of the Japanese main squadron was turning the left of the Chinese the Hi-Yei came so close to the latter that, to avoid receiving their fire broadside on, she left the main squadron and steamed straight for the Chinese line, passing between the two large ironclads, the Ting-Yuen and Lai-Yuen. Both these great floating forts fired at her as she passed, and also launched two torpedoes, both of which missed, and on went the Hi-Yei, cheering and firing from both batteries. She had a great number of killed and wounded, but had passed more than half-way through, without serious damage to hull or machinery, when a shell from one of the battle-ships hit her aft, about three feet above the water line, and shattered her mizzenmast and killed her paymaster, both her surgeons, all the medical attendants, the men at the spare steering-gear, and many of the powder division. These were all in the ward-room, which was the surgeon’s quarters in action. Besides this damage the shell set her on fire, and her commander, named Sakurai, was obliged to run out of the line of fire until he could subdue the flames.

The Saikio, which was only a steamer of commerce turned into an armed vessel, had a somewhat similar experience with the two great Chinese ironclads. A shell from the Ting-Yuen struck her and destroyed her steering apparatus, so that she had to withdraw from the line of battle, steering as well as she could by means of her screw propellers. It was evident that the Chinese thought she was trying to ram, for the two steered apart and made an opening through which the Saikio passed, escaping the torpedoes launched by the Chinese. During these exciting moments the fire slackened a little on both sides, but was renewed, as soon as the little vessel was safely out of the way, with greater force than ever.

By this time the Chinese cruiser Tchao-Yung had become disabled in her machinery, and was forced onto a reef of rock; but she continued to use her guns vigorously against two of the Japanese fleet which had closed with her, the effect of whose fire was such that she soon went down by the head and slipped off to sink in deep water, leaving about two-thirds of her masts above the surface. All of her crew who could do so took refuge in the rigging and raised pitiable yells of distress. But the fighting was still going on so desperately that no assistance could be rendered to these unfortunate people. Then another Chinese ship came to grief, the Yang-Wai, which retired slowly from the battle, evidently hard hit and rolling heavily, while dense masses of smoke came up from her.

Seeing that she was _hors de combat_, the Japanese did not pursue her. Indeed, the fight was too close to permit them to detach any of their ships. Although they had not suffered so much as the Chinese their damages were very considerable. A shell had struck the Matsushima which had dismounted her forward rapid-fire gun and killed and wounded a number of her crew. The gun was thrown across her deck with such force as to damage the hull of the vessel very considerably. Indeed, as flag-ship, the Matsushima had been the object of particular attention from the Chinese ever since the battle began. She had her commander and her first lieutenant killed and one hundred and twenty of her ship’s company killed and wounded. Yet, in spite of the treatment she had received, she seemed in no danger of sinking.

But Admiral Ito needed a flag-ship in better fighting condition than that to which the Matsushima was reduced, and so he had a boat lowered, and accompanied by his staff passed to the Hashidate and hoisted his flag there. The Japanese cruiser Yoshino bore a very conspicuous part in the engagement; and when her captain perceived that the Hi-Yei was disabled, he manœuvred his ship in such a way as to cover her withdrawal, and then taking her place, attacked her enemy with the greatest vigor. She was struck many times and her forward barbette and gun were seriously damaged, but the damages were promptly repaired, and she was not forced out of action.

During the battle the Chinese tried to use torpedoes several times, but the Japanese kept a good lookout for them, and not one made a hit. The captain of the gun-vessel, Akagi, stationed himself in the foretop and followed all the movements of the Chinese, so that whenever they prepared to launch a torpedo he signalled the fact. But at last a shot struck the mast, cut it in two, and, as it fell to the deck, it killed the captain and the two signal-men who were aloft with him. The first lieutenant assumed command, cleared the wreck, and continued the fight until night put an end to it.

As the evening drew near a dense smoke arose from the ironclad Ting-Yuen and from two of the Chinese cruisers, and they were supposed by the Japanese to be on fire, especially as their batteries had very much slackened and only fired intermittently. But they still held their ground, and it was not until sundown that they were seen to be in full retreat.

The Japanese fleet hauled off seaward, expecting to renew the action in the morning and fearing to follow too closely, perhaps on account of torpedoes, while their speed was necessarily slow, as it had to be regulated by that of their own damaged vessels.

When day dawned not a sign of the Chinese fleet was to be seen. They had made the best of their way to the secure refuge of the naval arsenals and docks at Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei. Admiral Ito then steamed toward Talu Island, where, aground and abandoned by her officers and crew, they discovered the Yang-Wei. She was at once destroyed by a torpedo, which, it is interesting to remark, was the only one used on the Japanese side during the whole of the operation.

The Japanese fleet then repaired to the rendezvous off the mouth of the Ta-Tong River, from whence the Akagi, Matsushima, Hi-Yei, and Saikio were sent home for repairs, Admiral Ito’s flag being on board the Hashidate, where it had been transferred while the action was in progress.

On September 23d the Japanese fleet, reconnoitring the neighborhood of Port Arthur, discovered the Chinese cruiser Kuang-Ki on shore in Talien-Wan Bay, and, as the Japanese drew near, they saw the Chinese abandon and blow her to pieces.

This was the fifth war-ship lost by the Chinese since the beginning of the battle of the Yalu. Though some were much damaged, not a Japanese vessel was lost. Twelve Japanese officers and 98 men were killed, and 13 officers and 170 men were wounded. The Chinese loss, including those who were drowned, was estimated at 2000; but the exact number will probably never be known. From the accounts of eye-witnesses the sea was full of drowning Chinamen at the time the three vessels were sunk during the battle, and few could have been saved, as the severest fighting was going on and the Chinese vessels, as we have said above, had no boats.

The condition of the Chinese fleet, when it had with difficulty reached Port Arthur under cover of night, was most deplorable. The ironclad Ting-Yuen had more than 200 holes in her made by projectiles, but her armored belt was not seriously damaged, the heaviest dents not being much more than a few inches deep. Her sister ship, the Chen-Yuen, was less frequently struck; but the damage she sustained was more important. She almost sunk before she could be secured at her safe anchorage, being several feet by the head. According to the Chinese accounts, it was the rapid-fire guns of comparatively small calibre which inflicted such serious injury.

The captain of one of our American war-ships on the Asiatic station, in describing a visit to the Japanese field-hospital, near Nagasaki, says: “There I got a fair conception of the killing and wounding qualities of the small-bore rifle that all Europe is adopting. The Japanese infantry arm is the Murata, the invention of General Murata, now Chief of Ordnance of Japan. The calibre of the gun is .315, and the bullet weighs 235 grains. I saw a Chinese officer who had been struck in the knee-joint by one of these bullets, fired at a distance of about 1000 yards. The thin steel envelope of the bullet had broken, and the joint was simply a mass of finely comminuted bone splinters. The knee was perfectly soft, without a bone in it unbroken an inch long. Of course, the leg had to be amputated.

“The hospital was the admiration of the French and English surgeons as well as our own. The medical staff were all Japanese who had graduated in medicine and surgery either in America or England, then taken a post-graduate surgical course in clinics at the Paris and Berlin hospitals. They had the best modern instruments and systems, the newest antiseptics--everything a hospital on modern lines should have. And all this is the work of a generation. Truly, the Japanese is a wonderful man.

“I saw something, too, of the effect of the modern shell fire on the cruiser of the period at the battle of the Yalu River’s mouth. The Akagi was hit several times by eight-inch shells of the Vavasour-Palliser pattern. One of these, fired from the Chinese cruiser Chin-Yuen, tore off nearly one-half the iron and steel port-quarter of the Akagi, killed Captain Sakamato, her commander, and killed and wounded a dozen more officers and men. A second shell, from a 200-pounder, made a hole eight feet in diameter in the side of the Akitsu. Had the service of the Chinese great guns been equal to that of the Japanese, the Akagi, the Hashidate, and Matsushima must have been sunk. The Japanese fire was terribly accurate and deadly. The Chinese ship Chen-Yuen was hit nearly one hundred times. Nothing was left above water of her; of her crew, 460 strong, over 350 were killed or died of wounds. All this was from the fire of six-inch and eight-inch rifles, at a distance from 1000 to 1600 yards. The Chinese had the heavier ships at Yalu, but the Japanese out-manœuvred them and out-fought them. Man for man, and ship for ship, my professional opinion is that the Japanese commanders are equal to any in Europe. They have courage, a high professional knowledge, and a fierce fighting spirit that nothing daunts.”

The paper from which this report is taken adds that the American commanders attribute much of Japan’s success to the fact that so many of her naval officers were educated at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

The following description of the condition of things on the decks of Admiral Ting’s flag-ship Chen-Yuen, after her fight with the two Japanese cruisers Naniwa and Yoshino, was sent to an English paper by an officer of the British squadron at Chefoo: “The slaughter has been awful, blood and human remains being scattered over the decks and guns. Three of the five men working the four-ton gun in the after-turret were blown to pieces by a six-inch shell from one of the Naniwa’s quick-firing guns, and a fourth was shot down while attempting to leave the turret. The remaining gunner stuck to his post and managed to load and fire three rounds at the Naniwa, and, one shell entering her engine room and another blowing her forebridge away, she hauled off. The Chinese Admiral awarded the plucky gunner 1000 taels. One shell struck the Chen-Yuen’s steel deck and, glancing off, passed up through the conning-tower and exploded, blowing the gunnery lieutenant to pieces and leaving his head hanging on one of the voice-pipes. Huge fragments of armor and backing had been torn from their fastenings and carried inboard, crushing a number of poor wretches into shapeless masses, even the upper part of the funnels being splashed with blood. An engineer officer (European) was sent for to repair the steam-pipe of the steering-engine, and tried to grope his way through the smoke of bursting shells and heaps of killed and wounded lying on the deck, when a shot struck his assistant and disembowelled him, covering the engineer with blood. He nevertheless managed to reach the steering-engine and repaired the pipe, for which he received a rather handsome reward from the Admiral. This engagement lasted about one and a quarter hours, when the Japanese hauled off and the Chen-Yuen made the best of her way to Wei-hai-wei, their naval station, where she arrived the next day in just the same condition as she had left the scene of action, no attempt having been made to wash away the blood or remove the dead bodies.”

A French writer, in speaking of the battle, says: “As was to be expected, recriminations were rife among the officers of the defeated fleet. Each one tried to throw the responsibility upon his neighbor, while the captains were the objects of all sorts of reproaches, some of them being charged with downright cowardice. But, if his subaltern officers failed in their duty, Admiral Ting cannot avoid the greater part of the responsibility for the defeat. During the years that he has commanded the fleet in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li he has not known how to make it a naval force worthy of the name. The fire of his ships was more than mediocre, and the Japanese, in that respect, had a vast advantage over the Chinese gunners. On the other hand, this general officer has proved himself absolutely ignorant of the general principles of naval tactics. He hastily got under way and took a formation in the shape of a closed crescent, something like a V, which no sailor before him ever dreamed of doing; his ships mutually paralyzed each other, and at a glance Admiral Ito took in the situation and overwhelmed the branches of the V, one after the other.

“Admiral Ting would only have been excusable if he had not had time to form line of battle; but in this case he must be reproached for not having lookout vessels far enough away, as he must have known that the conditions were favorable for Japanese vessels to make raids in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li and the Bay of Korea. He appears to have known nothing of the movements of his enemy, and if he took any interest in them it was purely a speculative one. Personally, Admiral Ting conducted himself with bravery; but personal courage is not the only requisite in those on whom is conferred the fearful responsibility of chief command.”

To sum up the result, the battle of the Yalu was won by guns, on fast ships-by guns alone, just as in former naval engagements; for neither torpedoes nor rams played any part. If the Japanese torpedo-boats had been present, it is quite likely that the destruction would have been greater. The Japanese guns were a little more modern than those of the Chinese.

The Japanese had among their artillery some large Canet guns and Armstrong rapid-fire guns of moderate calibre. The Chinese had Krupp and Armstrong guns of more ancient model, and it would appear that the only rapid-fire guns they possessed were of very small calibre--such as are intended for defence against torpedo-boats, of which the Japanese had none in the battle.

The Chinese fleet showed great want of concerted movement, and as a consequence a defective formation--a lack in the commanding officers of ability in manœuvring--and the crews were insufficiently drilled. When the Matsushima received such injuries that Admiral Ito was obliged to shift his flag to the Hashidate, there must have been a period of hesitation and delay among the Japanese ships, but Admiral Ting does not appear to have taken advantage of it. He either did not see it or he did not know how to profit by it.

The Japanese, on the other hand, showed admirable decision, and took the offensive with a precise and definite knowledge of what they wished to accomplish, while their Admiral, by a manœuvre worthy of all praise, concentrated the whole of his force upon each wing of his enemy’s fleet in succession. Their crews were well drilled and instructed and full of patriotic ardor, all having the same end in view--to win the battle at all costs. This is always the case when battles are won, either at sea or on land. Victory is the reward of worthy effort and methodical preparation. The Japanese have appreciated and adopted European methods, have assimilated Western ideas, and put them in practice with an ability which is the more astonishing when we consider that thirty years ago they were armed with the weapons of feudal days.

It was reserved for the last comer into the family of nations--the last to assume fellowship--to give lessons to the rest in the art of naval warfare.

No doubt, if two first-class European or American fleets had cannonaded each other for five long hours, as the Japanese and Chinese did at the Yalu, there would have been even more terrible destruction; but the deduction is nevertheless to be made, from the late battle, that the victory was won by the side which knew best how to prepare for it. The lesson it teaches to all nations is the necessity of careful preparation and sedulous training. Modern men-of-war take a long time to build and modern arms a long time to construct, while the training of an efficient ship’s company takes almost equally long, even when good and conscientious officers devote to it their best abilities.

After the date of the battle of the Yalu, events of great import and influence upon the course of the war followed each other with great rapidity, and the telegraph conveyed to the Western world reports of marches, battles and sieges, in which, however, the Japanese navy bore only a secondary but still very important part.

The Chinese, weakened in vessels and depressed in spirit by their losses at the Yalu, did not attempt any further naval operations.