The passing of Korea/Chapter 13

by Homer Bezalee Hulbert

CHAPTER XIII
THE BATTLE OF CHEMULPO

IT was a cloudless but hazy day, and from the anchorage the Japanese fleet was all but invisible, for it lay at least eight miles out in the entrance of the harbour and partly concealed by Round Island, which splits the offing into two channels. The two boats made straight for the more easterly of the channels, their course being a very little west of south. When they had proceeded about half the distance from the anchorage to the enemy's fleet, the latter threw a shot across the bows of each of the Russian boats, as a command to stop and surrender, but the Russians took no notice of it. The only chance the Russians had to inflict any damage was to reduce the firing range as much as possible, for the Variak's guns were only six inches and four-tenths in calibre, and at long range they would have been useless. This was at five minutes before noon. The Japanese fleet was not deployed in a line facing the approaching boats, and it was apparent that they did not intend to bring their whole force to bear upon the Russians simultaneously. We are informed that only two of the Japanese vessels, the Asama and the Chiyoda, did the work. It was not long after the warning shots had been fired that the Japanese let loose, and the roar that went up from those terrible machines of destruction tore the quiet of the windless bay to tatters and made the houses of the town tremble where they stood. As the Variak advanced, she swerved to the eastward and gave the Japanese her starboard broadside. All about her the sea was lashed into foam by striking shot, and almost from the beginning of the fight her steering-gear was shot away, so that she had to depend on her engines alone for steering. It became evident to her commander that the passage was impossible.

He had pushed eastward until there was imminent danger of running aground. So he turned again toward the west, and came around in a curve which brought the Variak much nearer to the Japanese. It was at this time that the deadly work was done upon her. Ten of her twelve gun-captains were shot away. A shell struck her fo'castle, passed between the arm and body of a gunner who had his hand upon his hip and, bursting, killed every other man on the fo'castle. Both bridges were destroyed by bursting shells, and the captain was seriously wounded in the left arm. The watchers on shore and on the shipping in the harbour saw flames bursting out from her quarter-deck, and one witness plainly saw shells drop just beside her and burst beneath the water-line. It was these shots that did the real damage, for when, after three-quarters of an hour of steady fighting, she turned her prow back toward the anchorage it was seen that she had a heavy list to port, which could have been caused only by serious damage below the water-line. As the two boats came slowly back to port, the Variak so crippled by the destruction of one of her engines that she could make only ten knots an hour, the Japanese boats followed, pouring in a galling fire, until the Russians had almost reached the anchorage. Then the pursuers drew back and the battle was over. The Koryctz was intact. The Japanese had reserved all their fire for the larger vessel. The Variak was useless as a fighting machine, for her heavy list to port would probably have made it impossible to train the guns on the enemy, but all knew that the end had not yet come. The Russians had neither sunk nor surrendered. The threat of the Japanese to come in at four o'clock was still active. As soon as the Variak dropped anchor the British sent off four hospital boats to her with a surgeon and a nurse. Other vessels also sent offers of aid. But it was found that the Russians had decided to lie at anchor and fight to the bitter end, and at the last moment blow up their vessels with all on board. What else was there for them to do? They would not surrender, and they could not leave their ships and go ashore only to be captured by the enemy. They would play out the tragedy to a finish, and go down fighting. Upon learning of this determination, the commanders of the various neutral vessels held another conference, at which it was decided that the Russians had done all that was necessary to vindicate the honour of their flag, and that, as it was a neutral port, the survivors should be invited to seek asylum on the neutral vessels. The invitation was accepted, and the sixty-four wounded on board the Variak were at once transferred to the British cruiser Talbot and the French cruiser Pascal. As the commanders of the neutral vessels knew that the Variak and Koryetz were to be sunk by the Russians, they paid no particular attention to the reiterated statement of the Japanese, that they would enter the harbour at four and finish the work already begun. The passengers, crew and mails on board the steamship Sungari had already been transferred to the Pascal, and an attempt had been made to scuttle her, but she was filling very slowly indeed. It was about half-past three in the afternoon that the officers and crew of the Koryetz went over the side and on board the Pascal. A train had been laid by which she would be blown up, and it is supposed that she was entirely abandoned, but some spectators assert that they saw several men on the forward deck an instant before the explosion took place.

It was generally known throughout the town that the Koryetz would be blown up before four o'clock, and everyone sought some point of vantage from which to witness the spectacle. Scores of people went out to the little island on which the lighthouse stands, for this was nearest to the doomed ship. It was thirty-seven minutes past three when the waiting multitude saw two blinding flashes of light, one following the other in quick succession. A terrific report followed, which dwarfed the roar of cannon to a whisper and shook every house in the town as if it had been struck by a solid rock. The window-fastenings of one house at least were torn off, so great was the concussion. An enormous cloud of smoke and debris shot toward the sky and at the same time enveloped the spot where the vessel had lain. A moment later there began a veritable shower of splintered wood, torn and twisted railing, books, clothes, rope, utensils and a hundred other belongings of the ship. The cloud of smoke expanded in the upper air and blotted out the sun like an eclipse. The startled gulls flew hither and thither, as if dazed by this unheard-of phenomenon, and men instinctively raised their hands to protect themselves from the falling debris, pieces of which were drifted by the upper currents of air for a distance of three miles landward, where they fell by the hundreds in people's yards.

When the smoke was dissipated, it was discovered that the Koryets had sunk, only her funnel and some torn rigging appearing above the surface, if we except her forward steel deck, which the force of the explosion had bent up from the prow so that the point of it, like the share of a huge plough, stood several feet out of water. The surface of the bay all about the spot was covered thickly with smoking debris, and several of the ship's boats were floating about intact upon the water.

The Variak was left to sink where she lay. The forty-one dead on board were placed together in a cabin and went down with her. She burned on till evening and then, inclining more and more to port, her funnels finally touched the water, and with a surging, choking groan, as of some great animal in pain, she sank. As the water reached the fires a cloud of steam went up which, illuminated by the last flash of the fire, formed her signal of farewell.

It was arranged that the British and the French boats should carry the Russians to a neutral port and guarantee their parole until the end of the war.

This wholly unexpected annihilation of the Russian boats naturally caused consternation among the Russians of Chemulpo and Seoul. The Russian Consulate was surrounded by the Japanese troops, and the Consul was held practically a prisoner. The Japanese Minister in Seoul suggested to the Russian Minister, through the French Legation, the advisability of his removing from Seoul with his nationals, and every facility was given him for doing this with expedition and with comfort. A few days later all the Russians were taken by special train to Chemulpo, and there, being joined by the Russian subjects in Chemulpo, they went on board the Pascal. This vessel must have been crowded, for it is said that when she sailed she had on board six hundred Russians, both civilians and military men.

Twenty-four of the most desperately wounded men on board the neutral ships were sent ashore and placed in the Provisional Red Cross Hospital. For this purpose the English Church Mission kindly put at the disposal of the Japanese their hospital at Chemulpo. Several of these wounded men were suffering from gangrene when they came off the Pascal, but with the most sedulous care the Japanese physicians and nurses pulled them through.

After this battle at Chemulpo there was no more question about landing Korean troops further down the coast; in fact, as soon as the ice was out of the Tadong River, Chinnampo became the point of disembarkation. But meanwhile the troops which had landed at Chemulpo were pushing north by land as rapidly as circumstances would permit, and within a few weeks of the beginning of the war Pyeng-yang was held by a strong force of Japanese. At the same time work was pushed rapidly on the Seoul-Fusan Railway and also begun on the projected railway line between Seoul and Wiju.

As for the Russians, they never seriously invaded Korean territory. Bands of Cossacks crossed the Yalu and scoured the country right and left, but their only serious purpose was to keep in touch with the enemy and report as to their movements. On the 28th of February a small band of Cossacks approached the north gate of Pyeng-yang, and, after exchanging a few shots with the Japanese guard, withdrew. This was the first point at which the two belligerents came in touch with each other.

It was on the night of the 23rd of February that Korea signed with Japan a protocol, by the terms of which Korea practically allied herself with Japan and became, as it were, a silent partner in the war. Korea granted the Japanese the right to use Korea as a road to Manchuria, and engaged to give them every possible facility for prosecuting the war. On the other hand, Japan guaranteed the independence of Korea and the safety of the imperial family. It is needless to discuss the degree of spontaneity with which Korea did this. It was a case of necessity, but if rightly used it might have proved of immense benefit to Korea, as it surely did to Japan. It formally did away with the empty husk of neutrality which had been proclaimed, and made every seaport of the peninsula belligerent territory, even as it did the land itself.

March saw the end of the Peddlers' Guild. They had been organised in Russian interests, but now they had no longer any raison d'etre. As a final flurry, one of their number entered the house of the Foreign Minister with the intent to murder him, but did not find his victim. Other similar attempts were made, but did not succeed.

The Japanese handled the situation in Seoul with great circumspection. The notion that they would attack the pro- Russian officials proved false. Everything was kept quiet, and the perturbation into which the court and the government were thrown by these startling events was soon soothed.

Marquis Ito was sent from Japan with a friendly message to the Emperor of Korea, and this did much to quiet the unsettled state of things in Korea. At about the same time the northern ports of Wiju and Yongampo were opened to foreign trade. This was a natural result of the withdrawal of Russian influence. It was not long before Yi Yong-ik, who had played such a leading role in Korea, was invited to go to Japan, and thus an element of unrest was removed from the field of action.

THE FRENCH LEGATION BUILDING

It was believed that the Japanese would immediately introduce many needed reforms, but it seemed to be their policy to go very slowly, so slowly in fact that the better element among the Koreans was disappointed, and got the impression that Japan was not particularly interested in the matter of reform. It is probable that the energies of the Japanese were too much engaged in other directions to divert any to Korea at the time.

They had been complaining bitterly about the monetary conditions, but when they suddenly stepped into power in Seoul on the 9th of February they seemed to forget all about this, for up to the end of 1904 they failed to do anything to correct the vagaries of Korean finance. But instead of this the Japanese merchants in Korea and other Japanese who were here for other reasons than their health immediately began to make requests and demands for all sorts of privileges. The Board of Trade in Fusan asked the Japanese government to secure control of the Maritime Customs service, permission for extra-territorial privileges, the establishment of Japanese agricultural stations and other impossible things.

Meanwhile the Japanese were steadily pushing north. At Anju a slight skirmish occurred, but there was nothing that could be called a fight until the Japanese reached the town of Chong-ju, where a small body of Russians took a stand on a hill northwest of the town and held it for three hours, but even here the casualties were only about fifteen on either side. The Russians evidently had no notion of making a determined stand this side the Yalu. Already, a week before, the Russian troops had withdrawn from Yongampo and had crossed to Antung.

This fight at Chong-ju occurred on the 28th of March, and a week later practically all the Russian forces had crossed the Yalu, and Korea ceased to be belligerent territory. It is not the province of this history to follow the Japanese across that historic river and relate the events which occurred at the beginning of May when the first great land battle of the war was fought.

The whole north had been thrown into the greatest con fusion by the presence of these two belligerents. Cossack bands had scurried about the country, making demands for food and fodder, a part of which they were willing to pay for with Russian currency quite unknown to the Korean. From scores of villages and towns the women had fled to the mountain recesses at a most inclement season, and untold suffering had been entailed. But these are things that always come in the track of war, and the Koreans bore them as uncomplainingly as they could. Throughout the whole country the absorption of the attention of the government in the events of the war was taken advantage of by robbers, and their raids were frequent and destructive. As soon as the government found that the Japanese did not intend to rule with a high hand, it sank back into the former state of self-complacent lethargy, and things went along in the old ruts. It was perfectly plain that Korean officialdom had no enthusiasm for the Japanese cause. It is probable that a large majority of the people preferred to see Japan win rather than the Russians, but it was the fond wish of ninety-nine out of every hundred to see Korea rid of them both. Whichever one held exclusive power here was certain to become an object of hatred to the Korean people. Had the Russians driven out the Japanese, the Koreans would have hated them as heartily. Whichever horn of the dilemma Korea became impaled upon, she was sure to think the other would have been less sharp. Few Koreans looked at the matter from any large standpoint or tried to get from the situation anything but personal advantage. This is doubtless the reason why it was so difficult to gain an opinion from Korean officials. They did not want to go on record as having any decided sympathies either way. The people of no other land were so nearly neutral as were those of Korea.

The temporary effect of the war upon the Korean currency was to enhance its value. Imports suddenly came to a standstill because of the lack of steamships and the possible dangers of navigation. This stopped the demand for yen. The Japanese army had to spend large sums in Korea, and this required the purchase of Korean money. The result was that the yen, instead of holding its ratio of something like one to two and a half of the Korean dollar, fell to the ratio of one to only one and four-tenths. When, however, the sea was cleared of the Russians and import trade was resumed and the bulk of the Japanese crossed the Yalu, the Korean dollar fell again to a ratio of about two to one, which it has preserved up to the present time.

From the time when the Russians retired beyond the Yalu, warlike operations between the two belligerents were confined to northeast Korea, though even there very little was doing. The Vladivostock squadron was still in being, and on the 25th of April it appeared at the mouth of Wonsan harbour. Only one small Japanese boat was at anchor there, the Goyo Maru, and this was destroyed by a torpedo-boat which came in for the express purpose. Of course this created intense excitement in the town, and there was a hurried exodus of women and children, but the Russians had no intention of bombarding the place, and soon took their departure. Only a few hours before the Kinshiu, a Japanese transport with upwards of one hundred and fifty troops on board, had sailed for Sung-ju to the north of Wonsan, but meeting bad weather in the night the torpedo-boats that accompanied her were obliged to run for shelter, and the Kinshiu turned back for Wonsan. By so doing she soon ran into the arms of the Russian fleet, and, refusing to surrender, was sunk, but forty-five of the troops on board effected their escape to the mainland.