Photo. Cribb, Southsea
Meanwhile the Powerfuls had formed a naval brigade of their own, and in response to the appeal made by Sir George White, the defender of Ladysmith, for more guns, Captain the Hon. Hedworth Lambton of that ship rushed up 17 officers and 267 men with two 4·7 guns, four 12-pounders, and four Maxims, just managing to get into the beleaguered town in time. On the very first day the 12-pounders managed to put the Boer "Long Tom", which was lobbing its big projectiles into the place, out of action, and their presence undoubtedly saved the situation. Another naval brigade formed part of the relieving force and fought at Colenso. This force comprised 20 officers and 403 bluejackets and marines, to whom must be added 2 officers and 50 men belonging to the Natal Naval Volunteers. A formidable battery of one 6-inch, five 4·7-inch, and eighteen long 12-pounders accompanied this brigade, which was of the greatest possible assistance to the army.
About this time the Boxer outbreak in China led to the formation of other naval brigades. Though hardly to be termed a naval brigade, it may be noted that the British portion of the small international force which so stoutly defended the Pekin Legations consisted of 79 Royal Marines and 3 officers, together with a leading signalman, an armourer's mate, and a sick-berth steward. But the relief column, under Vice-Admiral Sir E. H. Seymour, was a big naval brigade of various nationalities, of which about half were British—62 officers, 640 seamen, and 218 marines. The British were under the immediate command of Captain J. R. Jellicoe, C.B., C.V.O.,[66] the marines being under Major J. R. Johnstone, R.M.L.I.[67] A determined attempt was made to advance along the railway line to Pekin, but the Chinese troops, who were exceedingly well armed, having thrown in their lot with the Boxers, the brigade was unable to get farther than An-tung, which was occupied by Major Johnstone with sixty men, while preparations were made to fall back on Tien-tsin. The force had come up in a series of trains, but, the railway having been broken behind it in more than one place, a great part of the return journey had to be carried out on foot. Village after village had to be stormed, and not far from Tien-tsin the retreating column had to pass close under the walls of the important Chinese arsenal of Hsi-ku, which stood on the opposite bank of the river. From this big fortified enclosure a heavy fire was poured upon the Europeans at short range. It was a regular death-trap. However, the principal part of the column sought what cover the rather high bank of the river afforded, while Major Johnstone, with the British marines and half a company of bluejackets, contrived to get across in junks a little higher up, and, forming under cover of a small village, fixed bayonets and stormed the enclosure in flank with a tremendous rush, driving out the garrison before him. The column halted for the night and for the next day or two inside the arsenal, where it was attacked again and again till a relief column moved out from Tien-tsin and brought off the harassed naval brigade. In the meanwhile Admiral Seymour's brigade were fighting fiercely in Tien-tsin itself. The Pei-Yang Arsenal held by the Chinese had to be stormed, the European quarter defended, and finally the high-walled native city had to be taken by assault, an operation in which the British seamen and marines suffered very heavily.
This is the last important occasion on which a naval brigade was in action until the European War. So far no naval brigade, in the sense of a force of bluejackets and marines disembarked from their ships, has taken part in the fighting, except perhaps at the Dardanelles. The Naval Division which went to Antwerp was composed of marines and reservists from their head-quarters and of naval reservists and volunteers, but we have so little reliable information of what happened on that occasion that it would be very inadvisable to attempt to give any account of its performances at the present time.
CHAPTER XIV
War-ships of all Sorts
"The King's Navy exceeds all others in the World for three things, viz.: Beauty, Strength, and Safety. For Beauty, they are so many Royal Palaces; for Strength, so many moving Castles and Barbicans; and for Safety, they are the Most Defensive Walls of the Realm. Amongst the Ships of other Nations, they are like Lions amongst silly Beasts, or Falcons, amongst fearful Fowle."—Lord Cokes Fourth Institute.
In a previous chapter was set forth the story of the evolution of our battleships, up to and including the famous Dreadnought of 1907, the so-called "first all-big-gun type". As there had been several "all-big-gun ships" among our earlier ironclads, this description seems hardly warranted. However, the Dreadnought stands pre-eminent as the first of the modern type of battleship, though in power, speed, tonnage, and general efficiency she has been far out-classed by the successive batches of Super-Dreadnoughts which have followed her, which are represented by the Bellerophon, St. Vincent, Colossus, Orion, King George V, Iron Duke, and, last of all, the monster Queen Elizabeth, or "Lizzie" as she is irreverently called. To describe this latest product of the naval designer's art is the best way of explaining what a really modern battleship is like.