WILLIAM LE QUEUX: 15 Dystopian Novels & Espionage Thrillers (Illustrated Edition). William Le Queux
Selkirk and Lincoln, with the rest of the destroyers, under his own orders, would clear the Forth entrance and move cautiously southward towards Newcastle, if no enemy were encountered. Yet another pair of cruisers, the Cardigan and Montrose, were to steam for the Dutch coast and there destroy German vessels and transports. Two of the older protected cruisers were brought to link up the advanced detachments by wireless telegraphy with the Forth, when the Germans were forced away from that point.
About noon the Rear-Admiral, with his cruisers, appeared off the Forth, and learnt that for three days no German vessels had been reported off the coast, but that the entrance to the estuary was believed to have been mined afresh by the Germans and was exceedingly unsafe. The armoured cruiser Impérieuse, which had been damaged in the battle of North Berwick, had now been sufficiently repaired to take the sea again. She had coaled and received ammunition, and was at once ordered to join the Northern Squadron.
The armoured cruisers Olympia and Aurora, and the battleship Resistance, which had been badly damaged in the torpedo attack that opened the war, were also nearly ready for service, and could be counted on for work in forty-eight hours. It had been supposed at the time that they were permanently injured, but hundreds of skilled Glasgow artisans had been brought over by train and set to work upon them, and with such energy had they laboured that the damage had been almost made good. For security against any German attack, the ships lay with booms surrounding them behind a great mine-field, which had been placed by the naval authorities.
The Rear-Admiral in command of the Northern Fleet ordered a passage through the German minefield to be cleared without delay, and the repaired ships to remain for the time being to guard the port, as their speed was not such as to enable them to run if the enemy appeared in force. Taking with him the Impérieuse, he moved down the coast towards Newcastle, steaming at 15 knots. At 8 p.m. he passed the mouth of the Tyne, and sighted the Southampton, one of the two cruisers which he had despatched to menace the German coast; they had chased and sunk a large German collier, apparently proceeding to Lerwick, and quite unaware of the sudden turn which the naval war had taken.
The Southampton had returned to report the fact that she had sighted three German destroyers, which went off very fast to the south, one now having rejoined the flag. The four British armoured cruisers — Southampton, Selkirk, Lincoln, and Impérieuse — extended in open order, with the four ocean-going destroyers in advance and the six older destroyers inshore, on the lookout for Germans.
In this order the Admiral moved, with all lights out, towards the German line of communications. Steering wide of Flamborough Head, and clearing the sandbanks off the Wash, he passed down what was now an enemy’s coast, carefully refraining from using his ships’ long-distance wireless instruments, which might have given the alarm.
At about 1 a.m. of the 13th the Southampton sighted a large steamer proceeding slowly eastwards. She gave chase forthwith, and in fifteen minutes was alongside the stranger. The vessel proved to be a German transport returning from Hull empty. A small prize-crew was placed on board, the German seamen were transhipped to the British cruiser, and the vessel was sent back to Newcastle under escort of one of the older destroyers.
At 3.30 a.m. the flagship Selkirk sighted another large steamer proceeding west, towards the Wash. Chase was instantly given to her, and in ten minutes the fast cruiser, running 21 knots, was within easy range. As the steamer did not obey the order to stop, even when shotted guns were fired over her bow, the Selkirk poured a broadside into her at 3000 yards. This brought her to, and two ocean-going destroyers were sent to overhaul her, while the Lincoln and Southampton steamed in towards her, with guns laid upon her to prevent any tricks.
A few minutes later the destroyers signalled that the vessel was laden with German troops, reserve stores, ammunition, and supplies of all kinds. It would have been awkward to sink her and tranship the men, and remembering the humanity which the Germans had displayed in the battles at the opening of the war, the Admiral ordered the Impérieuse to escort her to Newcastle, with instructions to sink her if she offered any resistance. A lieutenant and ten men were put on board her, to keep an eye on her crew and see that they obeyed the injunctions of the Impérieuse, which followed 300 yards astern with her 9·2-in. guns trained menacingly upon the transport.
Scarcely had possession been taken of this vessel, which proved to be the 10,000-ton Hamburg-American cargo-vessel Bulgaria, when two more ships were sighted, and the sound of alarm guns hurriedly firing was heard from the Leman lightship. To silence the lightship, which was known to be in German hands, a fast destroyer was despatched with orders to torpedo it and destroy it.
As the enemy had undoubtedly taken the alarm, and might be expected any minute to put in an appearance, the British cruisers made ready to retire. The destroyers were sent off to the north; the three remaining armoured cruisers hovered waiting for the Germans to show, as they intended to draw them off towards the north-east, and thus take them away from the Bulgaria and her escort.
At 4.20 a.m. a big ship, evidently an armoured cruiser, accompanied by two or three destroyers, was seen approaching from the direction of Hull. Simultaneously wireless waves came in strong from the south, and from that quarter there came into sight another big armoured cruiser, accompanied by at least six destroyers and two smaller cruisers. They were the scouts of the German Fleet, and before them ran at 30 knots the British destroyer which had been charged with the destruction of the Leman lightship, and which had accomplished her task only two or three minutes before the Germans appeared from the south.
Noting that his enemy was in no great strength, and feeling minded to deal him a blow, if possible, the British Admiral now fell back north-eastward, without increasing speed sufficiently to draw away from the Germans. His ships, of the “County” class, with their weak 6-in. batteries, were no match for the German cruisers, but if he could entice the Germans within reach of the armoured vessels at Rosyth it would be another matter. Moreover, at any moment his detached armoured cruisers might rejoin the fleet.
Both forces were keeping well together, the Germans not steaming more than 20 knots, so as not to draw away from their smaller cruisers, while the British cruisers and destroyers made their pace with perfect ease, and for hours maintained an interval of eight miles from the enemy.
After two hours’ chase the British Admiral altered course slightly, and began to edge away to the north-east. The Germans followed, and at five in the afternoon of the 13th both squadrons were abreast of St. Abbs Head, far out to sea. About this time another German cruiser was noted, following to the support of the German vessels, and simultaneously the British Admiral opened up wireless communication with the powerful armoured ships at Rosyth.
CHAPTER X
SITUATION SOUTH OF THE THAMES
The enemy on land had operated rapidly and decisively upon a prearranged scheme that was perfect in every detail.
By September 24th, three weeks after the first landing, England had, alas! learnt a bitter lesson by the shells showered down upon her open towns if they made a show of resistance. She had been taught it by her burning villages, scientifically fired with petrol, for having harboured Frontiersmen or Free-shooters, whom the German Staff did not choose to acknowledge as belligerents, by the great sacrifice of lives of innocent children and women, by war contributions, crushing requisitions, and the ruin and desolation that had marked every bivouac of the invading army. And now, while the Germans stood triumphant in London north of the Thames, South London was still held by the desperate populace, aided by many infantry and artillery, who, after their last stand on the northern heights, had made a detour to the south by crossing the river at Richmond Bridge and coming up to the Surrey shore by way of Wandsworth. By their aid the barricades were properly reconstructed with paving-stones, sacks of sand and sawdust, rolls of carpet, linoleum and linen — in fact, anything and everything that would stop bullets.
The assault at Waterloo Bridge on the