Brown on Resolution (19 page)

So that a battle, were one to take place, would demand caution—it was this need for caution which was one of the factors worrying the Captain. And, all the same, a battle need not necessarily take place. Von Spee had last been heard of three thousand miles away, and to find a squadron hidden in three thousand miles of water was not an easy matter; on the contrary, it was an exceedingly difficult one. Von Spee might round the Horn and make a dash for home across the Atlantic and be half-way back before the news reached
Leopard
; he might even turn northward again and slip past
Leopard
and gain the Panama Canal—and that would mean Captain Saville-Samarez’s professional ruin. The Captain realized that he needed all his wits to be sure of encountering the enemy.

And he wanted to encounter them too. With the age limit steadily pursuing him up the captains’ list, he could see plainly enough that without something extraordinary happening he would just reach rear-admiral’s rank befort he had to retire. Unless he did something to distinguish himself he would end his life as rear-admiral on the list like fifty others he could name. He wanted to do something to make his name remembered, and the surest way would be to sink a German ship or two. Then the public would know him as ‘Saville-Samarez, the chap who caught von Spee,’ or ‘Saville-Samarez, you know, ’im ’oo sank the
Scharnhorst
’; and the Captain knew how valuable such a label tied on to him would be. It would be very handy if he went in for politics; it might bring him a KCB—and he wanted knighthood, for it had been the reward of his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. Above all, it might obtain for him a fat, comfortable colonial governorship on his retirement, and Saville-Samarez, with no means beyond his pay, urgently desired one. With the reward of success so rich, and the penalty of failure so severe, it behoved him to devote all possible energy to the solution of the problem.

Characteristically, however, he was making his final decision by himself. He had run through the meagre data with the Captain of
Penzance
, and heard his opinion, but he had left the final making up of his mind until he was alone. He did not shirk responsibility, and he had the utmost contempt for those who did—contempt which was only equalled by his contempt for councils of war in general.

He looked at the map, whereon von Spee was noted as last heard of at Valparaiso. He studied the scattered shipping lanes. He tried to get into von Spee’s skin and work out what he would do in von Spee’s position. He glanced once more through the last reports of the British secret agents. There was coal at German disposal in various South American Pacific ports, so that there was quite a sporting chance of von Spee returning northward. The wireless room of
Leopard
was continuously reporting hearing powerful messages in an unknown code, and it seemed extremely likely that they were warnings of his approach sent out to the German squadron. That made it possible that the German agents on the mainland thought it conceivable that German ships were near.

Now von Spee had fought at Coronel and had entered Valparaiso with only two armoured cruisers,
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
. That was certain. Therefore his smallest armoured cruiser,
Ziethen
, had been detached before Coronel. Whither would von Spee be likely to send her? Northward? Not likely, with the whole Japanese navy on the lookout for her, and not much plunder to be obtained in the Northern Pacific. Westward, to the Indian Ocean? That was the richest field of all; but
Emden
was there already, and the English fleet could as well hunt down two cruisers as one. Besides,
Charybdis
lay on that route and had made no report of meeting German ships, although that was no real proof that
Ziethen
had not gone that way. (Captain Saville-Samarez did not appreciate the profound truth of this last deduction.) South-westward, to New Zealand and Australian waters? Quite likely. But in that case Captain Saville-Samarez had no business with her; his duty was to get into touch with the main body. But supposing
Ziethen
had not been sent anywhere like this? Supposing she was still near the American coast? Shipping certainly had not reported her, but she might have her own reasons for lying in concealment. She might have been in collision or had engine-room trouble. Certainly it was odd that she had neither fought at Coronel nor been reported elsewhere. Now supposing she had been damaged, where would she try to effect repairs? Somewhere within wireless reach of Panama too, added Captain Saville-Samarez, making a false deduction from Herr Schmidt’s activities without making allowance for that gentleman’s supreme conscientiousness and ignorance of
Ziethen
’s whereabouts. Captain Saville-Samarez looked at the map just as Captain von Lutz had done a week before, and came to exactly the same conclusion. The Galapagos Archipelago presented the most opportunities to a ship in need of repair.

Captain Saville-Samarez went on to consider ways and means. The archipelago lay a little out of his direct course south from Panama. But
Penzance
’s most economical cruising speed was far in excess of
Leopard
’s. The ships would overlook far more water separated than in company. And
Penzance
’s speed was far larger than that of any one of von Spee’s squadron, except perhaps
Dresden
. She could look after herself and keep out of danger by herself unless she experienced the very worst of luck—and Captain Saville-Samarez was not of the type which makes mental pictures of what might happen in the very worst of circumstances. He reached his final decision with promptitude and did not think about it again. His signal flew for the
Penzance
’s Captain to come on board
Leopard
, and a few quite brief sentences explained to that officer what Captain Saville-Samarez wanted done.

So that when the Captain of
Penzance
reached his own ship again he set a fresh course which gradually took his ship away from
Leopard
, diverging slightly away to the westward as the two ships headed south across the Bay of Panama. Leading Seaman Albert Brown at this moment was only slightly thirsty; Muller’s bullet did not hit him until sunset that day, when
Penzance
and
Leopard
had diverged until they were quite out of sight of each other.

N
ELSON ONCE WROTE
that five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat. It was hardly more than five minutes which made the difference between the detection of
Ziethen
and her possible escape from observation. Had
Ziethen
only sailed half an hour earlier she would have got away undetected to begin her career of destruction, and the history of the world—of the British Cabinet at any rate—would have been different. For as
Penzance
, detached by Captain Saville-Samarez to look round the Galapagos Archipelago, came down upon Resolution from the north-east,
Ziethen
was steering north-west away from the island. Just as Resolution came in sight a pair of keen eyes on
Penzance
detected a little trace of smoke far away on the westerly horizon. Smoke in that lost corner of the world was uncommon, and therefore suspicious, and
Penzance
headed after it in all the pride of her twenty-seven knots. In half an hour
Ziethen
was definitely identified, and the ether was thrilling with the news as
Penzance
broadcast her information.

Vain it was now for
Ziethen
to try to jam
Penzance
’s messages.
Leopard
was only a hundred miles away; besides, the men who built and equipped
Penzance
had a very clear idea of the duties she was to perform, which is more than can be said of those who built
Charybdis. Penzance
was one of the most modern of cruisers, designed solely to be of the utmost service to battleships. She was a battleship’s eyes, a battleship’s message bearer, and her immense speed and her powerful wireless installation were given her solely for these ends. Her news trickled in to
Leopard
hardly mutilated, and that great ship swung her twenty thousand tons round in pursuit..

The Captain of
Penzance
knew his duty. Although his ship could match
Ziethen
’s 6-inch guns with 6-inch guns of her own, it was not his business to put her fragile hull within reach when there was a battle cruiser no distance off who would do the business for him without any risk of damage.
Ziethen
was a bigger ship and carried armour far more effective than
Penzance
’s fragile protective deck.
Penzance
could only possess the speed she boasted by reason of abandoning nearly all other protection;
Ziethen
, built in an age when the naval mind was a little muddled, had tried to combine all factors, speed (twenty knots at the time of her launching was a high speed), hitting power (German authorities did not place the same value upon large calibres as did the English) and armour, with the result that now she was helpless against a specialist.

She challenged action boldly enough; she wheeled, with her guns trained out upon
Penzance
and the range-takers eagerly chanting the ranges; she charged forward, but
Penzance
was not inclined to accept the challenge. Not a man on board who would not gladly have fought
Ziethen
to the death, but what was the use of incurring senseless losses when
Leopard
was pounding up behind with her 12-inch guns, which would settle the matter without
Ziethen
having the chance of scoring a hit?
Penzance
kept away. Her seven knots advantage in speed was overwhelming. No possible manoeuvre of
Ziethen
’s could inveigle her into range. It was not very long before
Ziethen
sullenly abandoned her attempt to make a fight of it and turned southwards at full speed in the hope of shaking off pursuit, or of closing in to a fight, when darkness came. And in reply to
Penzance
’s reports
Leopard
turned away to a converging course, working up to her full twenty-four knots, edging rapidly up to the two ships which were cleaving their way through the blue Pacific.

It was then, perhaps, during the weary hours of that long pursuit, that Captain von Lutz tasted defeat and failure and self-contempt at their bitterest. One single man had caused this disaster; one man armed with a rifle had brought about the destruction of
Ziethen
. Captain von Lutz looked back over those three days at Resolution. A single one of them would have sufficed to repair
Ziethen
and set her off again upon her career of destruction.
Emden
had done ten million pounds’ worth of destruction, and was still loose upon the Indian Ocean. What of
Ziethen
, with her more powerful guns and armour? She had fought and sunk one miserable third-class cruiser thirty years old which mattered neither one way nor another in the clash of nations. Now, because one wretched English sailor had held her up at Resolution for forty-eight hours longer than was necessary,
Ziethen
’s career was being ended. Captain von Lutz had no illusions about that. He knew that a battle cruiser and a light cruiser had passed the Canal; the light cruiser had arrived and was keeping him under observation, so that the battle cruiser could not be far away. And a battle cruiser would have no difficulty at all in setting the final seal on the work which Albert Brown had achieved at the cost of his life. The tea ships and meat ships and sugar ships, the ships carrying troops and the ships carrying bullion, would pass to and fro across the southern waters without
Ziethen
to sink and burn them.

Yet although Captain von Lutz was so convinced of the approaching destruction of his ship, he had no thought of giving up the game without at least a final struggle. Vigorous messages passed to the engine-room, and soon
Ziethen
’s boilers were filled up with every ounce of steam they could bear. Night was not far off, and if thick weather came with it
Ziethen
had a chance of escape, or, on the other hand, she, might have a chance of closing with her adversaries and doing as much damage as she herself received. The pursuit must be prolonged until dark, and it was with an anxious eye that Captain von Lutz scanned the horizon as he paced about the bridge, the while officers and men laboured furiously making every preparation for a fight for life, stripping the ship of every conceivable combustible material, handling ammunition, and testing range-finders and gunnery controls; such is the queer nature of mankind that the imminent prospect of a fight in which every single man of them might lose his life cheered them all up immensely, and the depression and indiscipline which had settled upon the ship after the ineffective attempts upon Resolution vanished like mist.

Night came while
Leopard
was still out of sight, and
Ziethen
began her attempts either to throw off
Penzance
’s pursuit or else to close with her. But the night was clear and
Penzance
’s speed was one-third as much again as
Ziethen
’s. An hour after nightfall the moon rose, and it was an easy enough matter for the lookouts on
Penzance
to pick up the loom of the big cruiser in the darkness.
Ziethen
turned sixteen points and came charging back straight up her own wake, but
Penzance
saw her and kept out of her way.
Ziethen
resumed her old course, maintained it for half an hour, and then turned two points to starboard. That time
Penzance
nearly lost her, but her great speed enabled her to zigzag down the original course and find her quarry again. Before midnight the long expected help came—
Leopard
with her 12-inch guns and twenty-four knots. Then the two English ships were able to take up positions comfortably on
Ziethen
’s port and starboard quarters so that the wretched cruiser’s chances of escape, small enough to begin with, were now much less than half what they were.