The ship remained in Yokohama two weeks on this trip, steaming from here to the famous dry-dock at Kure on the Island of Hondo. Here the cruise was curtailed, owing to American interests requiring pressure
along the Chinese coast, where piracy in various forms was found flourishing brazenly red-handed. After remaining two weeks in the harbor of Amoy, the cruiser New York steamed off in the darkness for the Malay Peninsula.
VII.
War Orders in the “Land of the Rising Sun”
Sacred Ports of the “Mikado”—The “Kobe Country Club”—A Baseball Game—War Orders—Under Forced Draft to Manila—A Company of the Ninth Infantry Annihilated by “Bolomen”—A Midnight Bombardment along the Coast of Samar—Death and Solemn Burial of a Midshipman—Blowing up a “Banco”—A Fight in the Gandarra Straits—Midnight Fusillade—Terrible Deprivations—War is Hell—Return to the Land of the “Rising Sun.”
Through the courtesy of the Mikado of Japan, Admiral Rodgers, commanding the American Asiatic squadron, had been granted the unusual privilege of visiting, with his flag-ship the New York, ports in the land of the “Rising Sun” whose harbors, surrounded by a succession of mountain scenery and terraced hills of fantastic formation, had never been graced by the flag of a foreign nation. It was therefore hailed with delight by all on board when the
news was promulgated about the decks, that ere long our sea-going home would be winding her way through the thread-like channels of the most beautiful body of water extant, the “Inland Sea” of Japan, in the fashioning of which nature’s handiwork reached its highest degree of excellence, unquestionably supervised by all the “gods” of the omnipotent realm.
From the Malay Peninsula, and ports along the Celebes Sea, our ship ploughed her way to the smaller islands of the Philippine archipelago, where the crew had been occupied for several months placing beacons and bell-buoys along the rocks and shoals.
Some time had been spent in target practice in the China Sea, both shell and torpedo, and, with the exception of an occasional run to Zamboango or Cebu, isolated ports, the monotony was intensified by the lack of news from the outside world.