Taking the Admiral to the Final Conference on H.M.S. “Centurion.”
[page 22.
In consequence of this report it was decided by the various senior naval officers, at a conference on board the “Centurion,” that it was no use waiting until matters got worse, and that the Powers would therefore land brigades early next morning, and that the whole force under Sir Edward Seymour would try to push their way through to the aid of the beleaguered Legations. Amidst immense enthusiasm the sailors got ready for service, and the tugs belonging to the ‘Taku Tug and Lighter Company’ having been requisitioned, the force was landed at an early hour on the morning of the 10th. They left Tientsin on the same morning, and during the day more reinforcements were poured into the settlements from the now almost denuded fleet. On this date also fifty bluejackets were sent to Tongshan to protect the important railway works at that place. The work of the Naval Brigade was beginning.
On the 11th, trade in the settlement practically ceased; once busy thoroughfares were now desolate, and a sort of hushed expectancy took the place of the usual busy stir in the town. Armed men, however, were at this time of more importance than any number of Chinese hawkers, and a valuable addition to the powers of resistance arrived in the person of Commander Beatty, D.S.O. and a hundred and fifty men, shortly followed by two “Maxims.” The day was spent in drawing up a more elaborate system of defence than had been thought necessary before, and an attempt was made to overawe the natives by a march round the suburbs.
In the afternoon there occurred the first piece of official interference on the part of the Viceroy, who refused to allow a train to proceed up the line, which was packed with German troops. Now the Germans, when on active service, don’t understand this sort of treatment, and the disorderly mob which, as is usual on these occasions, quickly gathered, was swept out of the way by the display of fixed bayonets, backed by the evident intention of using them if needs be. On this display of force, the Viceroy no longer withheld his permission for the train to proceed, and the Germans reached their destination without further molestation. From this date communication practically ceased with the fleet, but 1770 Russians just managed to arrive in the nick of time, before ingress was finally barred.
Naturally the landing of a brigade, and the supplies necessary for its maintenance, entailed a large amount of work on the sadly depleted crews of the fleet outside the bar; but nobody was idle, and the work of equipping a further force was steadily proceeded with. Orders for stores, ammunition, men, and even cruisers followed one another with astonishing rapidity, and it was decided to telegraph to the General commanding troops at Hong-Kong to hold part of the garrison in readiness for immediate shipment to the troubled province. Meanwhile the Chinese were by no means idle; large stores of rice and munitions of war were daily poured into the strong forts at the mouth of the river. As a further step, they proceeded to mine its mouth, and it became apparent that they intended to block the only means of communication with the interior, and with the soon-to-be-allied gunboats, which were already anchored some distance up the waterway.
On the 15th a tug was dispatched in charge of a midshipman about thirty miles down the coast, to rescue some missionaries who were reported to be in distress; and in the evening the expectant fleets heard that Sir Edward Seymour had been in touch with the Boxers.
The Naval Brigade’s work had commenced!
Conferences had been a matter of daily occurrence for some time, and on the morning of the 16th, on board the Russian Flagship, at a conference which proved to be the most momentous of all, the Admirals agreed that the situation was such as to demand immediate action, which should take the form of an allied occupation of the Taku Forts. Accordingly an ultimatum was sent to the general in command, to the effect that if they were not evacuated by midnight 16th June, the allied forces would bombard and storm them.
During the morning the tug returned, the officer having successfully performed his task, and having reached his destination just in time to baulk the Boxers, who were in pursuit, of their prey.