I left him obeying the last order, and took the signal to Captain Hunter.
He and the Commander smiled grimly.
"Those torpedo-boats and destroyers will never dare to go out in this weather," I heard the Commander say. "The Hong Lu might possibly run away, though she certainly couldn't fight in this weather, and those other two old tubs could not even run away." He was right, too, for though they all did weigh anchor directly afterwards, they never attempted to leave the harbour; but, whilst the big ships began slowly steaming round it, merely keeping steerage-way on, the destroyers and torpedo-boats moved in so close to the land that it was impossible for the big Krupp to touch them.
I felt quite sad to signal, "Cruisers not attempting to leave harbour—steaming slowly to avoid shell", and knew how dreadfully disappointed they all would be.
"If only this gale would blow itself out, we might tempt them out, even now," I heard the Commander say.
For the next half-hour we tried our utmost to hit the Hong Lu, but as she was constantly on the move, and the clumsy gun could not even train steadily, but went groaning round its roughly-made turn-table in a succession of jerks, it was evidently impossible to do so.
Then we tried another scheme to lay the gun for a certain spot on the cliff opposite us, with a very small charge of powder behind the shell. A man at the edge signalled whenever the Hong Lu in her circling came towards it. Mr. Gibbins stood by with the firing lanyard and fired directly he could see the top of her fore-mast in line with that spot on the cliff—the top of her fore-mast being the only thing he could see from the sighting-platform, and then only when she happened to be right on the far side of the harbour.
Well, we never did hit her, nor any of the others either. They never gave us a chance; tumbled to our plan directly and stopped their engines. Then, when the blue-jackets had struggled with the gun and trained her in a different direction, the Hong Lu would be out of it again. They evidently had people signalling the movements of the gun from the cliff above them.
If we could only have made certain of our powder charge it would have been more easy; but even with, say, only one bag and a half of powder, the shells would never drop in the same place twice running, though, whether it was due to the powder being old and bad, or the gun too worn-out, I do not know.
It was frightfully disappointing, and even the Commander showed signs of irritation. Mr. Gibbins and his sweating gun's crew were simply furious.