A page or two back I mentioned Israel Harding, chief gunner, as a third naval hero of the live shell. It was many years after the Crimean War that his opportunity came, but his exploit may well be noted down here.
Harding was a gunner on board H.M.S. Alexandra, when, in July 1882, Sir Beauchamp Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester) with his fleet bombarded Alexandria. On the first day of the action (the 11th), a big 10-inch shell from an Egyptian battery struck the ironclad and lodged on the main deck. The alarm was raised, and at the cry “Live shell above the hatchway!” Harding rushed up the companion. There was luckily a tub of water handy, and having wetted the fizzing fuse he dumped the shell into the tub just in the nick of time.
As in Lucas’s case, promotion quickly followed with the gunner, while the V.C. was soon after conferred upon him. The shell, it may be of interest to note, is now among the treasures of her Majesty the Queen.
So many naval heroes call for attention that I must hurry on to speak of Lucas’s comrades in the Baltic who also won the coveted decoration.
There was Captain of the Mast George Ingouville, serving in the Arrogant. On the 13th of July 1855, the second cutter of his vessel got into difficulties while the fleet was bombarding the town of Viborg. A shell having exploded her magazine, she became half swamped and began to drift quickly to shore. Observing this, Ingouville dived off into the sea and swam after the runaway. He was handicapped with a wounded arm, but being a strong swimmer he reached the cutter just as it neared a battery. With the painter over his shoulder he struck out again for the Arrogant, and towed his prize safely under her lee.
At about the same time a gallant lieutenant of Marines—now Lieut.-Col. George Dare Dowell, R.M.A.—did much the same thing. When a rocket-boat of the Arrogant was disabled he lowered the quarter-boat of his ship the Ruby, and with three volunteers rowed to the other’s aid. Dowell not only succeeded in saving some of the Arrogant men, but on a second journey recaptured the boat.
It was a lieutenant of the Arrogant, however, who eclipsed both these deeds, brave as they were. The exploit of John Bythesea and his ship’s stoker, William Johnstone, on the Island of Wardo, reads more like fiction than sober fact. This is the story of it.
Early in August of 1854 Lieutenant Bythesea learned from a reliable source that some highly important despatches from the Tsar, intended for the General in charge of the island, were expected to arrive with a mail then due. At once he conceived the daring idea of intercepting the despatch-carrier and securing his valuable documents. His superior officers thought the project a mad one when he first broached it, but Bythesea would not be gainsaid. The thing was worth trying, and he and Johnstone (who had volunteered his services) were the men to carry it through with success. In the end he had his way, though when the two plucky fellows quitted the ship on their hazardous errand their shipmates bade them good-bye with little expectation of ever seeing them again.
The lieutenant and the stoker had disguised themselves very effectively in Russian clothes, and managed to get to land safely. Here they learned from their informant, a Swedish farmer, that the mail had not yet arrived, but was expected at any hour. When darkness fell, therefore, the two Englishmen found a good hiding-place down by the shore, and commenced their vigil.
This was the evening of the 9th of August. It was not until the 12th that the long-awaited mail came to land. For three whole days and nights they had not ventured from their concealment, save once or twice when the vigilance of Russian patrols had forced them to take to a small boat and anchor about half a mile off the coast.