With the Allies to Pekin: A Tale of the Relief of the Legations

by G. A. Henty

“Of course, all this part of the business I am telling you from hearsay, for we were necessarily only spectators of the affray; and you can imagine, Bateman, that we were hopping mad with being altogether out of it. It was enough to make one tear oneʼs hair. However, the great part of the blue–jackets and marines were ashore, and would soon be having a look–in; but there were we, as much out of it as if we were off Spithead. Well, of course, now that I have had my turn ashore here I am satisfied, but at the time it was maddening.

“Nevertheless it was a splendid sight, I can tell you. All the forts had now joined in, and the flashes that burst from them and from the gun–boats were almost incessant. In a few minutes the Iltis steamed down at full speed from her wharf and joined the three Russians and the Algerine, the crews of which cheered her enthusiastically as she went into action. Shortly afterwards the French Lion also came down. She had been lying with her head up the river, and so had taken longer than the Iltis. She, too, was warmly welcomed. The whole of the forts were now pouring in a heavy cannonade, and every gun that could be brought to bear from the six gun–boats replied at a range of hardly a mile. The Iltis, with her eight 3.4 quick–firers, and the Algerine, with her 4–inch guns, engaged the north fort. The Lion, with her two 5.5–inch guns, joined them, while the three Russians directed their fire on the south forts. They were all heavily armed, the Bobr had a 9–inch gun in her bows, and a 6–inch in her stern. The Corkoretch had two 8–inch guns and one 6–inch, and the Gilyak had one 4–inch gun in her bows, two 2.6–inch guns and four 1.8–inch guns in her military top.

“All the ships kept up a heavy and methodical fire from the machine–guns in their tops, and so searched out the bastions; while the heavy guns made it impossible for the gunners to stick to their work. It was, however, difficult to keep up an accurate fire against a gun in the shade of the forts. Many of the Chinese soldiers left the fort, and, taking cover among the mud–houses, maintained a heavy fire on the men on deck and in the tops, and the Gilyak, which was closest to the village, suffered heavily.

“Meanwhile the Fame and the Whiting had been ordered to attack the four Chinese destroyers lying in dock. As they approached, however, the Chinese crews jumped ashore and bolted. The Fame grappled one, and towed it down the river to Tongku, two tow–boats belonging to a mercantile company took the two others in charge, and the Whiting brought out the fourth. These four splendid destroyers, if they had been manned with resolute crews, could have sunk six gun–boats without difficulty.

“The battle raged till morning. The gun–boats were doing their utmost to keep down the fire of the forts; but although the practice was excellent, they quite failed to do so owing to the fact that it was impossible to get the exact range. Fortunately the fire of the Chinese was extremely inaccurate. The gunners were evidently unaccustomed to work heavy guns, such as they were now handling, and although they stuck gallantly to their work in spite of the large number of casualties, they did little damage. Sometimes the powder charges were altogether too heavy, sometimes so light that the shot never reached the ships. Their shells almost all failed to burst. Sometimes a shot would fall close alongside, and the next would go clean overhead.

“As daylight approached, the boats got up anchor, with the exception of the Gilyak, which had received a heavy projectile on her water–line. She made water fast, but still maintained a heavy fire, and remained at her moorings while the damage was being temporarily repaired, though she suffered severely in consequence. You may imagine what a state of mind we were all in on board the larger ships. There were those six little boats fighting against a whole chain of huge forts that ought to have sunk them at the first round.

“Meanwhile, of course, our fellows, the Russians, and Japs, who had landed the day before, were not idle. Naturally they got under arms as soon as the first gun was fired, but they could really do nothing until daylight, for they were ignorant of the country, which was all cut up with dykes and ditches.

“If the force had tried to cross there in the dark they would speedily have been broken up and half of them would have been mired. They chafed very much, however, at the delay, though they recognized the necessity of it, and they set out eagerly at the first gleam of daylight.

“When they got up anchor, the gun–boats moved backwards and forwards, engaging a fort here, plumping shell into another somewhere else, and seeming to care nothing at all for the rain of shot and shell to which they were exposed. It was difficult for us to keep count of them, moving about as they did, and more than once a good many of us thought that one of them was gone.