Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-08-04
JAP PIRATES PUNISHED.
AN ALMOST UNREcoROEO CHAPTER
OF OUR NAVAL ANNALS.


Strange as it may seem, the Wy
oming's Oriental battle is an almost
unrecorded chapter of our naval an
nails, though it ranks even higher in
point of daring and success against
overwhelming odds than the defeat of
the Alabama by the Wyoming's sister
ship, the Kearsarge. But the Wy
oming never was in very great luck as
naval star. She had her part
throughout the Civil War in all the
hardest of blockading and cruising
service, and fought well whenever she
had the chance, but she did not have
the luck of getting into tho 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.
It was in 1868, toward the end of the
dual reign of the Tycoon and the Mi
kado, 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 sys-
tenn. The Prince of Nagato was one
of these, and from his tiny kingdom
that fronted on the Straits of Simon
oseki he declared himself lord para
mount Of everything in sight, includ-
ing the neighboring seas, from which
he took generous toll as did ever the
pirate chiefs of Tariffa. He had laid
violent hands and hot shot upon the
vessels of vdfious powers, including
Great Britain, France, the Neither
lands and the United States.
Meantime Prince Nagato throve and
fourished by the Straits of Simon
oseki, and, falling one day to wiring
tribute of blackmail by any other
means, he fired on the American mer-
chairman Pembroke and killed a
couple of her crew. There was an
other diplomatic protest from the COM
bined foreign representatives to the
Japanese Government, and Commander
McDugall, who happened to be in
port with the Wyoming, suggested
that if the Mikado could not take a
fall out of his rebellious subject the
Wyoming could and would without
much urging. This struck the gov
ernment as good thing and an easy
way out of the international difficulty;
SO McDugall was given carte blanche
to settle accounts with the Prince of
Nagato in behalf of all the powers
concerned, and he forthwith sailed
away.
1t was the middle Of July wlsn 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 Japanese gunboats loomed up, one
ahead and one asterp, in the narrow
straits, and presently third came
cruising out from among the neighbor-
ing islands. 1t was a nasty place for
fight, McDugall being without charts
or pilots, and the odds were more than
enough for Nelson himself, being forty
eight guns of the three japanese ves-
sells to the twenty-si of the old Wyom-
ing, to say nothing of the batteries on
shore. There was still chance to
run, barring some danger of ground
ing 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 enemy left standing above decks.
The other two vessels had come up in
the meantime and engaged the Amer
ican on either side, but she lay to and
gave them shot for shot, port and star
board, till her gunners were smoke
blind and the fame 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 outmaneuvred her two op-
ponents from start to finish, though
twice aground, and once afire, with as
many men knocked out from splinters
and heat as from the enemy's shot.
Fighting themselves out of one
moke-patch into another, the three
combatants circled around like two
crows and kingbird, till they had
drifted down in range of the shore
batteries, which gayly took hand in
the game. But McDugall ran across
the bows of one of his enemies, raked
her as he went and left her 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 afre, and the sol
diers fed, and the other Japs on the
remaining 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 Colonel
Crockett's coon, came down promptly,
and of the resulting indemnity $780,
900 fell to the lot of the United States.
I tt