08 - Blake of the "Rattlesnake" - England's Aegospotomi

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter eight of Blake of the Rattlesnake. This is the
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This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina.

(00:21):
Blake of the Rattlesnake by Frederick T. Jayne, Chapter eight,
England's Echispotomy. Some little time passed and we sped along
over those deserted waters, meeting no British cruisers, as we
had hoped to do. But since when last heard of,
some four days before our departure, the whole of the

(00:44):
British Baltic fleet were skulking about in the Abo archipelago,
this was not entirely a matter to be wondered at.
We were steaming along one day off Danzig, spread out
over the water, the better to site our friends. When
we met a British catcher hotly pursued by Russian cruisers.
The Edgar and Fox went to her assistance, whereupon the

(01:06):
Russians retired, but more of their ships coming up shortly afterwards,
we all had to run for it, and we, getting
separated from them, never saw either our cruisers or colliers
again for ourselves. We managed to shake off our pursuers
and to edge round in the direction of the Finnish coast,
where we expected to find our own ships. Find them

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we eventually did. For the next day we came upon
a regular forest of ship's masts standing above the sea
where it was shallow, along by the islands, and this
was the British fleet. While we steamed cautiously among the
sunken vessels, trying to recognize them by their rig we
were hailed from a little promontory that jutted seawards, and

(01:51):
turning our glasses in that direction, noted some ragged looking
men in naval uniform, chased by a mixed mob of
Russian soldiers and peasantry. We lowered a boat and manned
our guns in the hope that we might learn something
from the fugitives if we succeeded in rescuing them. The men,
plunging into the water, swam to our boat under a

(02:12):
heavy fire from the soldiers on shore, until we led
into the pursuers with our QF guns, which quickly dispersed
them hitherto. We had imagined the runaways to be Russian deserters.
But when the boat returned she had in her seven
British sailors belonging to the how, and from them we
gathered the first news of the disaster of Abo and

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the gruesome details of England's egispotomy. They told us how
day after day the ships had lain concealed amongst the islands,
scarce having coal enough left to keep the cruisers going
to deceive the enemy as to the fleet's whereabouts, and
how a few days before the cruisers had brought the

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intelligence that the celebrated Rurik had sighted our battleships and
easily shown her heels to our swiftest vessels when they
sought to capture her. Ere she should convey the news
of the British admiral's position to the fleet that sought
for him. Then came more of our cruisers with the
news that the enemy were coming in overwhelming force, and

(03:17):
all our ships got up steam as well as they
could with the scrapings of the bunkers, would work boats
and cabin furniture. Guns had been taken ashore, and the
front of the position mined. And here in a landlocked bay,
the British waited for their doom when de Russians first
came up, Sir, said one of the men, a leading seaman,

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narrating his version of the fight to blake. They held
off for a while on the horizon. Perhaps they wasn't
quite certain of our strength. Maybe too they funked it
a bit, thinkin as how they'd gone and caught a tartar.
The delay was no manner of use to us, as
we was fast Burnin' what feel uwel we had would

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we'd cut down ashore or chairs and tables and cabin fixings.
I was sented to the Captain's cabin just before the
action with a party to collect fuel, and we cleared
out everything that would burn. We tore down all the
wood panels, we carried off, even books, bedding, clothes and pictures.

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Everything that would burn was sent down to the stokehole.
It burnt lore how quick it went. And all this
time the Russians was hanging about in the often laughing
at us like The Admiral made a signal it were
the last he ever made, and it read England expects
that every man will die like a true briton no surrender.

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We cheered and cheered again, and then out went our
torpedo boats to try and move the Rusians, but they
never reached them, not they Every blessed boat was sunk
before they got within four cables of them. At last
the Rusians came at us. In front of their fleet
was a lot of low freeboard turret ships, gunboats and

(05:08):
packets of that sort. A stern of these came big
ships and a regular cloud of torpedo boats. The sea
was black with them, black as the ace of spades.
The very first shell of what hit us, it must
have been a mighty big one pretty well did for
the how hitting a square and the unprotected battery. It

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bust again the after funnel, killing and wounding every one
at the six inch guns. A lot of deck above
was torn away, and half the QF guns on that
deck were silenced too. The wounded was all poisoned by
the fumes of the explosive, and no one could even
enter the battery for some while to come. Then a

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few minutes later the after Barbett's guns jammed and we
had nothing but the two big guns forward left to
fight with. Presently another out burst under the four barbette.
The turntable give way, and the big guns fallen, crashed
right down through the armored deck and through the ship's bottom,

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so that she began to sink rapidly by the head.
We were in shallow water, but the captain steamed yet
nearer inshore. And there's the old anyhow, settled down with
their upper work still showing, and making such practice as
she could with her hotch kisses. This was in the
very beginning of the fight, sir, And while the enemy

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wasn't coming up to close quarters, soon they was close
and blowing us all to pieces, bit by bit with
their bigger quick fire guns. Our masks came down with
a crash, and in a very little while not forty
of us was left on our legs. I was trying
to do something with one of the six pounders when
I seize the paymaster. Come up, men, says he. I'm

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the only orsa for left. Get out a boat and
abandoned ship. We'll see you damned. First, I called sut n,
thinkin' like what about the admiral signal, for we was
all mad with him. A civilian orsifer wantin us to
cut an run? What about it? Says he, smilin Why

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can't we do more good? An another ship come on sharp,
I begs his parting then thinkin' all, saying that as
we'd all got to be killed, I'd be lucky to
get no court martial or ten a. At least there
were a boat toWin alongside under the ship's lee, the
only one we hadn't burnt, cause she'd been fetchin' wood

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up to the time the battle begun. And into this
we all tumbles, that is all what were left of us.
By then. Some five and twenty yard quite near us
was the Magnificat, the new flagship, makin fine fightin' of it,
and we rowed over to her and was took on board.
They cheered us like blazes for comin', and we was

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soon at it again, as hard as ever. Luckily, the
Magnificat had some coals still left, and she was soon
steaming fast at the Rusians. And I now seed why
they'd put their worst ships forward. They had just gone
to be blown up by our minds, and now their
best ships come up closer. They rammed our side one

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after the other. Our fellows hadn't steam enough to get
out of the way, and then what didn't get rammed
ran ashore and was finished off that way. Some of
our ships torpedoed the Rusians, and some got torpedoed themselves,
but mostly it was ram and gun what did it?
And come some half an hour later the Magnificat were

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the only ship left afloat and fighting. You see, sir,
we'd a good nine inches of armor over most of
our guns, and that kept off a power of a
lot of shells. And what with that, and are still
having a little coal, we was able to fight like
ten ships. It warn't no matter of good though, For
all that the armor couldn't stand battered forever. The coal

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was well nigh done, and our speed got less and less,
while we fired so fast that ammunition soon began to
run short too. He may wonder us how the admiral
didn't try to run for it at the last, but
he hadn't the coal, and so he just kept on
trying to do as much harm to the enemy as
he could before we went under. Well, it warn't for long, sir,

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we'd nothing left the fire at their torpedo boats with
and a couple of the beggars sneaked up and fired
all their torpedoes into us. The Magnificat went down with
a regular rush in eight fathoms, her biler's bustin' as
she did so, and those of us what was lucky,
swam ashore. We got into a little cave and watched

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the Rusians sending boats to haul down the white ensigns
what still flew from the British masteads, and and done
this all their ironclads what was left formed up into
line of breast facing the wrecks of our ships, and
fired a salute. Then they all dipped their ensigns and
stood out to sea. More to his salutio, said Blake gravely,

(10:17):
as the man finished his tail. Well, he added, after
a lengthy pause, are you the only survivors? I can't say, sir.
Plenty of us got ashore, but the islands was full
of soldiers who'd been landed some time before to capture
our shore guns, and they took scores of men prisoners

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as they swam to land. We durstn't venture out of
the cave till nightfall, and then nigh dead from cold
and hunger, we hunted along the beach for limpets and
things to eat. There were a little stream what trickled
down by the cave, so we had plenty of water,
and we hung about there, a dozen or more of us,

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till to day when one of our AB's was fool
enough to yell to a girl who was picking up
seaweed on the beach. She ran off like a mad thing.
So I says, clear out while we can, and we
all got out over the cliff and into some long
grass on top. Then we sighted your ship, sir, and
we was waving to you, when up come the soldiers,

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and we cut and run for it till you come
to the rescue, for which we thanks you kindly, sir.
We hung about the coast looking for further survivors, but
we found none, and several Russian warships appearing on the horizon,
we made off in another direction at full speed. We
must find our colliers, said Blake after hearing the engineer's report,

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for we haven't enough coal to take us back under
easy steam, let alone the risk of capture by so doing.
My great grief is that the coal workers of England
don't live by the seashore, For by heaven, if they did,
I'd make for the place and shell it till there
wasn't a man left alive or Stone remains standing. It

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is this coal strike that has ruined England. All we
can do now is to try and cripple the enemy
in small ways. The day for another Trafalgar is past forever. Yes,
it was past passed, even more certainly than we then
dreamed of. For that very night it came about that

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England no longer possessed a fleet. A foggy afternoon, with
our ironclads blowing their sirens, a fleet of French torpedo boats,
guided and attracted by the sound were the two leading
points of that practically unpreventable catastrophe that paralyzed the Empire
and scattered panic broadcasts through the land. The story of

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this week of disaster is too well known to need
repetition in these pages. History is full of it, and
full too of our last despairing cry to Germany, on
whose alliance the nation had reckoned so vainly. End of
Chapter