John Schettler - Devil's Garden

“Japan and Russia? I thought we settled that affair years ago. Let me see it.” Roosevelt reached for the dispatch, reaching into this buckskin shirt pocket to fetch out his eyeglasses. “Well, well, well…Your presence here may be fortuitous, Mister Mahan, though we may just have to postpone our hunt this morning.”

“I certainly hope the Russians haven’t crossed the border into Manchuria again, Mister President.”

“Nothing so pedestrian, my man. Why this situation is right up your alley. There’s been an engagement between Russian and Japanese warships in the Sea of Japan! A Russian battleship has apparently sunk Japanese commercial shipping and what’s this bit here?” The President leaned in closer, adjusting his eyepiece. “Well, by God, the Russians have fired on a Canadian steamship as well. American passengers were aboard and three were killed!”

“That is regrettable, sir. Why would the Russians do such a thing?”

Roosevelt folded his arms, clearly unhappy, a smoldering anger in him now. “Well God damnit, I thought I made it very clear what would happen when American citizens are harmed or interfered with overseas. That business in Morocco some years back was a strong lesson that we are not to be trifled with.”

In 1904 a brigand, the Raisuli of the Rif of Morocco, had kidnapped citizens of the United States from their home in Tangiers, a man named Perdicaris and his son. With an election looming Roosevelt made a strong protest and declared “this government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!” The catchphrase galvanized the electorate and helped carry him to a second term, even though the ”gunboat diplomacy” he exercised in sending seven warships to Tangiers was more theater than anything else.

“Are there any details, sir?” Mahan leaned in, eying the dispatch with some interest.

“The details are plain enough, Mister Mahan. Some crazy Russian sea Captain has been taking pot shots at shipping in the Sea of Japan. Here….it says he has sunk a Japanese steamer, engaged the Japanese Navy, then slipped away to fire on a Canadian ship and kill three American citizens. I spent a good bit of political capital negotiating that damn treaty in Portsmouth, and the Russians got off easy. The Japanese wanted the whole of Sakhalin Island and we talked them out of that to save a little face for the Russians. Now where do they get off re-lighting that old powder keg?”

“Does it name the ship involved, sir? The Russians had very little seaworthy in Vladivostok after that war.”

“Which is why this makes so little sense. They were beaten to the canvas with two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a broken jaw! The Japanese inflicted a crushing defeat on them at Tsushima. Now they get up off the deck after the final bell has rung and take a sucker punch at the other fellow. That’s very unsportsman-like.”

“And it’s also very unwise, sir. Russia can ill afford another conflict erupting with the Japanese.”

“Yes… well they just hit the referee with this little swipe, Mister Mahan. Perhaps we need to let them know just how unwise that sucker punch was! You there!” The President turned to a staffer attending the campfire. “Take a message to Sperry on the Great White Fleet. Tell them I want them to make short work of that port call in Hawaii and get the fleet to Yokohama instead of Manila first. I want them there as soon as possible.”

Mahan raised his eyebrows at that. “You’re going to change the fleet’s itinerary? Might we be overreacting just a tad at this incident, sir?”

“Overreacting? That’s a thing for children and women, Mister Mahan. The President of the United States doesn’t overreact. He does precisely what he intends. I think a little restructuring of the fleet’s itinerary will be all that’s required here. The Russians will certainly take notice. The fleet wasn’t due to visit Japan until October, but I want it in Japanese home waters at the earliest possible opportunity. We’ll send another message to the Japanese Ambassador and tell them we are shocked to hear of this incident and will make every effort to set the matter right. If Russia and Japan decide to get into the ring again, this time our referee will be the sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet!”

ViceAdmiral Hedworth Lambton-Meux put down the day’s copy of the London Gazette, pleased to have it so soon after publication. It was now being sent by wire to most of the important stations, and China Station was important, as he was, recently installed here to replace Vice-Admiral Moore. He had taken an interest in the stories out of London earlier that month, concerning the strange midnight glow in the sky. Most unusual.

“Well,” he said, to the sea Captain before him,” we may have something more to do this week than loll about in the heat.” He read the notice from the paper aloud now: “Buckingham Palace, July 21, 1908. His Excellency Count Komura, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from his Majesty the Emperor of Japan is now to take leave of His Majesty on the termination of his Mission.”

He looked at Captain Lewis Clinton-Baker over his reading glasses. “It appears they are changing shoes again there, which will mean we’ll probably receive a formal visit here as well. It’s a pity we have to pay all this lip service to the Japanese these days, but things have certainly changed, have they not?”

“They have indeed sir, and this is precisely the occasion of my visit this morning.”

“Oh? What is it now, Captain Baker?”

“Shuffling some personnel about here too, Admiral. I’ve had an officer go down with fever and will need to fill out the bridge crew on King Alfred for the planned training exercises.” He handed a thin brown file to the Admiral now, obviously the candidate he had in mind for the new posting.

“How is the ship, Captain?”

“In good trim, sir. Fit as a fiddle.”

King Alfred was the current flagship of the British Pacific Squadron operating out of the China Station at Weihaiwei harbor. Situated on the long western peninsula of Shandong Province, it sat right at the edge of the gateway to the Yellow sea, and only Hong Kong superseded it in strategic importance from the British perspective. From Weihaiwei the Royal Navy could keep a quiet watch on all the sea traffic flowing into the Yellow Sea, mostly bound for Port Arthur and Dailan, which had been the scene of much conflict in recent years as the gateway to Manchuria.

‘The Old Man of Asia,’ China, had been ailing again after his defeat by Japan before the turn of the century, and the meddling of many European powers in Manchuko. Now it was the Japanese, still flush with their great victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. Yet through all that strife and turmoil the British had kept their watch, moving ships and men in and out of Hong Kong and Weihaiwei.

King Alfred was the largest British ship presently in Asian waters, classified as an armored cruiser, the ship was the size of most older battleships in the Japanese fleet. The IJN flagship Mikasa , weighed in at 15,380 tons fully loaded, and was only 432 feet long, while King Alfred was nearly as heavy at 14,150 tons, and actually a hundred feet longer. As a cruiser she did not match the 12 inch guns on the Japanese battleships. Her main armament was sixteen 6 inch guns, with two larger 9.2 inch guns mounted in bigger turrets fore and aft. She was one of four Drake class armored cruisers, and at 23 knots she was faster than any other ship of her size in the region. She also had new fire control fitted and electric hoists for all her 6 inch guns to speed loading and rate of fire.

Admiral Meux looked over the file, again reading aloud as was his habit: “Passed navigation and pilotage. Passed gunnery 8 September ‘05; passed torpedo 13 October ‘05. Well the gentleman certainly seems properly trained.”