The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-10
JAPANESE TORPEDO WARFARE.


had attacked and disabled Russian bat
tIeships with their torpedo boats For
torpedo warfare the little brown men
have shown a special aptitude. At the
YaIu, Chinese vessels We're sunk by
the mosquito fleet and at Wei hal Wei
the Chinese surrender was compelled
by the desperate adventure OF a hotilla
of torpedo boats which entered the for
tilted harbor on two successive nights
and blew up Chinese ships-ofwar at
their anchorage behind the forts. 1t
was a coup which Admiral Sampson
might well have emulated at Santiago
instead of waiting for Cervera's squad
ron to come out.
The affair at Wei hal Wei showed
consummate pluck and skill on the part
of Japan's naval seamen. China held
fortified island commanding the two
frances which We're crossed by boom
of logs protected by submarine mines,
patrolled at night by armed vessels and
under the eye of a search light placed
high on an island promontory. The
weather was stormy and very cold, the
thermometer at times going to thirty
degrees below zero. For three weeks
the Chinese stronghold had been block
AIDED by Admiral Ito's fleet, with which
strong and confident naval force the
= Chinese fleet, hiding safely behind the
island, refused to come out and fight.
On the mainland shores of the bay
Marshal Oyama's army kept watch and
ward, lest the Chinese should abandon
their ships and try to escape overland
to Chefoo. Cornered and trapped the
Chinese were desperate and fought so
well that Admiral Itos fleet, in attack
ing the Notifications, compelled to !,
retire for repairs; while Marshal Oya- |
mas army, deficient in siege artillery I
and with no boats to ferry men across .
a wide bay was unable to take the !
offensive.
A deadlock was reached which the
torpedo fotflla broke. Admiral Ito hest !,
tated to order his brave men to what
he thought would be certain death, but
the torpedo boat captains clamored for :
the service and were allowed to go. At
four o'clock one blizzard morning in
February, 1895, just as the moon had
gone down, eight torpedo boats creDt
from their station with the blockading
fleet and We're soon in shallow water
where the western boom touched the
mainland heads 1t did not take long
rf 4ba nd
through narrow passage thus created
the. japanese destroyers made their
way Like shadows they passed the
Chinese patrol boats, which We're neg
ligently served and then slipped off into S
the darkness over four-mile course [
fleet lay before them. Then an inferno o
broke loose. Sleepers in the walled city Il
near by were brought to their feet be- p
fore their eyes were fairly opened; and c
from the parapets to which they hur p
ried they saw sight never to be for c
getten-a tangle of ships breathing fire
at every portfolio and the air almost a
incandescent with the blaze of guns, c.
while over the dreadful scene the
searchlights played with fitting ray. h
The next morning battleship was il
ashore with its back broken, a great Of
cruiser foated bottom up. another was tt
sunk at a wharf, and on the rocks of it
the island lay two Japanese torpedo VI
boats with their crews frozen to death al
at their posts. pl
It's work for the night done the tor al
pedo f1otiIla, less two of it's craft and il
back the way it came. But at the same
hour the next morning, under precisely he
the same circumstances, it made an to
other attack and wrought such damage CT
to the surviving vessels that the Chi &C
nese had no spirit left. Though they st
made brave display of flags they soon W
asked for truce and surrender sfol- U
lowed. ga
The Japanese officers who made the Ell
dash into Wei hal Wei harbor did not tie
expect to return alive. When their or in
ders came they made their wills and M
their offerings to their gods, babe their tt
friends good bye forever, wrote fare &c
wells home and then, with cheerful and br
undaunted spirit crossed the enemy's lit
dead line. at
The memory of those nights of dar- is
ing and of victory has inspired the Jap tn
anese navy ever since and at Port Ar XII
thur the torpedo boats seem to have m
taken the post of danger and to have
won for Japan first blood in the war
with Russia Well for Port Arthur if ar
these swift destroyers do not make al
their way into that little port and crush be
ships and docks in one brief but of
tremendous onslaught tlf