The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-06
THE WYOMING'S EASTERN BAT
rrT n


TIE.
Strange as it may seem, the Wyom-
ing's Oriental battle is an almost unre-
corded chapter of our naval annals,
though it ranks even higher in point of
daring and success against overwhelm-
ing odds than the defeat of the Ala
bama by the Wyoming's sister ship the
Kearsarge. But the Wyoming never
was in very great luck as a naval
star. She had her part throughout the
civil war in all the hardest of blockad-
ing and cruising service, and fought
we'll whenever she had the chance, but
she did not have the luck of getting
into the papers. She was sent off at
the same time as the Kearsarge to
cruise for that scourge Of the seas, the
Alabama, and just missed her by the
merest chance on two occasions in the
China seas.
1t was in 1868, toward the end of the
dual reign of the Tycoon and the
Mikado, when Japan was in the throes
of civil war, and the forces of the rebel
princes were resisting to the last the
passing of the old feudal system. The
Prince Of Nagato was one of these, and
from his tiny kingdom that fronted on
the Straits of Simonoseki he declared
himself lord paramount of everything
in sight, including the neighboring seas
from which he took generous toll as did
every pirat chief Of Tariffa. He
had laid violent hands and hot shot
upon the vessels of various powers, in
Guiding Great Britain, France, the
Netherlands, and the United States.
Meantime Prince Nagato throve and
f1ourished by the Straits of Simonoseki,
and, failing in one day to wiring tribute
or b1ackmail by any other means, he
fired on the American merchantmen
Pembroke and killed a couple Of her
crew. There was another diplomatic
protest of the combined foreign repre-
sentatives to the Japanese government,
and Commander McDugall, who hap
pened to be in port with the Wyoming,
suggested that If the Mikado could not
take fall out of his rebellious subject
the Wyoming could and would without
much urging. This struck the govern
ment as a good thing and an easy way
out of the international difficulty; so
McDugall was given arte-blanche to
settle accounts with the Prince of
Nagato in behalf of all the powers con-
cerned, and ne forthwith sailed away.
1t was the middle Of July when the
Wyoming found herself in the Straits
of Simonoseki and in sight of the shore
batteries which were a part Of the
princes defences to seaward. Before
she had time to open on the batteries
two Japenese gun-boats doomed up,
one ahead and one asterr, in the mar
row straits, and presently a third
came cruising out from among the
neighboring islands. 1t was nasty
place for fight, McDugall being with
out charts or pilots, and the odds We're
more than enough for Nelson himself,
being forty-eight guns Of the three
Japanese vessels to the twenty six of
the old Wyoming, to say nothing of the
batteries on shore. There was still a
chance to run, barring, some danger of
grounding in the narrow channels
among the islands, but the idea does
not seem to have. occurred to any one
aboard the frigate.
Working to Windward of the nearest
Japanese the Wyoming opened at long
range, and worked down on her till,
when close aboard, there was nothing
of the emmy left standing above decks.
The other two vessels had come up in
the meantime and engaged the Ameri-
can on either side, but she lay to and
gave them shot for shot, port and star
board, till her gunners We're smoke
blind and the flame Of the guns no
longer served to light the battle-cloud
that rolled in white pillows over the
smooth waters of the straits 1t was
desperate work in the shallow water
but the Wyoming was the best vessel,
and she outmanoeuvred her two oppon-
ents from start to finish, though twice
aground, and once atire, with as many
men knocked out from splinters and
heat of the enemy's shot.
Fighting themselves out of one
smoke-patch into another, the three
combatants circled around like two
crows and a kingbird, till they had
drifted down in range of the shore bat
teries, which gayly took a hand in the
game. But McDugall ran across the
bows of one Of his enemies, raked her
as he went and left her a floating
wreck, and then turned his attention
to the batteries. The Wyoming's men
rugged the smiths forge on deck, and
tossed hot shot into the works ashore
till they set them af1re, and the soldiers
fed and the other Japs on the remain
ing cruiser, deciding enough was as
good as feast, followed their example.
So McDugall mended his rigging and
patched his bulwarks, and meanwhile
sent word to the recalcitrant prince to
come down and settle or he would sail
inland and shell the royal palace about
its royal owners ears.
The prince, who was no less discreet
than Col. Crockett's coon, came down
promptly, and of the resulting indemn-
ity 100000 fell to the lot of the United
States It was many years before this
money got into the treasury of the
United States, but meantime the state