Sailing under sealed orders; a story of the navigator of the "Greenville"

Front matter

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Foreword

A N old admiral with a weather-beaten face ^ ^ and a quizzical look about the mouth and eyes was resting before the fire in his den. He was sitting in a chair the Chinese Government had given him; under foot was a tiger skin bought in the Persian Gulf; overhead was a painting of Barney’s victoiy with the Hyder Alii over the British ‘‘ General Monk ” ; to the right, the odd, bony weapon of a sawfish; to the left, crossed bolos and krisses from the Philippines. About the walls were many photographs — officers in full dress, with cocked hats and epaulettes; a group of Spanish girls; the faded, old-fashioned picture of forty smiling youths on the grass under the trees of the old Naval Academy, in doublebreasted jackets with black ties and rakish caps — and among these a happy-go-lucky youngster vaguely resembling the Admiral.

FOEEWOED

His grandson — whom we shall know as Wizard Graves — came in and threw himself on the sofa.

“ Granddad!” he exclaimed, “ I’ve passed! I’m through with school ! ”

The Admiral studied him. He was fond of his grandson.

“ Well! ” he replied, with a smile in his eyes, “ what are you going to do next? ”

“ Haven’t decided, sir. Think it’ll be Navy.”

The boy’s eager eyes were fixed on the painting.

Through the Admiral’s mind fiashed a whole series of pictures. He saw a boy taking leave of two sad-faced old people and walking in the moonlight to catch the 12:15 for the East and Annapolis; a “plebe” standing on his head, surrounded by grinning upper classmen; a fight, with referee and seconds, interrupted by the arrival of an officer; a first classman marching his company to the Parade

FOEEWOED ground in June week; a promenade concert under trees strung with Japanese lanterns; a girl in a white dress, a kiss, and a promise; an ensign, ordered to San Francisco, trying to find the price of a railway ticket; the old Constitution under all plain sail taken aback in a squall; a smiling lieutenant on the deck of a torpedo boat — and a Spanish shell exploding twenty feet away; a bride and bridegroom passing from the altar under crossed swords; a telegram and a sudden parting; a night on deck in the tropics, moonbeams on the water, officers in white singing, a light flashing on a dark hilltop astern; a machine gun spitting at Chinese “ Boxers,” with wounded men all around ; a fleet of battleships steaming silently at night past the rock of Gibraltar; a game of tennis with a king; a young captain taking his first command — an old admiral hauling down his flag.

“ All right, my boy! ” he answered; “ make it Navy! ”

Rewards .

Chapter I The Radio Message

LONG column of armored cruisers was

^ heading westward across the Pacific for Honolulu. The long, narrow ships cut rapidly through the waves, which slapped against the bows and splashed aft with great undulations. Thick, oily smoke, driven southward by a fresh breeze, was pouring from the funnels; from the yard-arm of the leading ship a four-flag signal was flying.

On the bridge of the second ship, near the helmsman and the quartermaster, stood two young American officers. One was bending over a chart and held in his hand a pair of parallel rulers. The other held a stadimetre — an arrangement of mirrors on a metal framework used for measuring distances between ships. He was constantly putting it to his eye and reading off the distances.

“ Now see here, Jack,” asked the first, a quizzical-looking chap with a pleasant face, “ are you sure you got that message straight? Was it 'Increase speed to seventeen knots at one o'clock^ or 'Be ready to increase at one ”

Kellam put the stadimetre to his eye and again measured the distance from the flagship. He had a bullet head and an intense, unsmiling face — an intelligent fellow, one would say, and forceful — but a good hater.

‘‘ Five hundred yards,” he murmured; “ our distance is just right.” He lowered the instrument and turned his eyes on Graves, the navigator. Kellam’s small gray-blue eyes suggested the ocean on a cloudy day — you could see the surface but nothing below.

Sure, Graves, it was just what I said. The radio message said 'Increase speed' not 'Be ready to increase' "

Graves nodded in his lazily good-humored way.

When ships are steaming in squadron it is absolutely necessary to make any changes of speed together. Your ship seems to be always trying to crawl up on the ship ahead or to drop back on the ship astern. An error of one revolution a minute will make trouble; and once a ship starts closing in it is like curbing a runaway horse to keep it from crowding the next in line.

“ All right,” assented Graves, laughing. “ You are right as usual. Jack. ITl take charge here while you make sailors of those rookies in your division.”

Kellam had to train his division as well as stand watch on the bridge. When these duties interfered. Graves relieved him as officer of the deck, though the navigator’s regular duty was to find out the ship’s position and check the courses laid on the flagship.

The order by radio about a change of speed had nothing to do with the flag signal flying at that moment. The signal directed the ships in column to close to three hundred yards distance — which was close enough even for a young admiral who liked to practise manoeuvres under way.

The signal was hauled down — which means Carry out the order ! " — and Graves instantly rang for more speed.

When the ship steadied at the new distance, the Greenville was so close-to that she seemed to be trying to ram the flagship. And five minutes later the squadron ran into a wandering fog bank.

It was now a ticklish business keeping distance from a ship Graves knews to be near but could not see. Any error in judgment might mean a collision; and he strained his eyes for the small buoy that ships in column trail in a fog.

Graves looked at his watch. It was three minutes to one. Strange that the order to change speed from twelve knots to seventeen knots had been given so far ahead and without a “ signal of execution ” at the moment. But the message had come to Kellam, and Kellam had turned it over to him: ''Increase speed to seventeen knots at one o'clock/^

Two bells struck, and Graves rang for full speed. As the Greenville jumped ahead, the bridge shook from the vibrations of her engines. The wind whistled aft, blowing mist and spray into the navigator’s face.

“ Let us hope the flagship’s doing the same thing,” muttered Graves; “if not we are banging ahead five knots faster than she is! ” The words were hardly spoken when he saw dead ahead, not fifty yards away, the stern of the other ship ! His heart gave a big jump. Leaping to the annunciator, he rang

“ stop ” and “ back ” — but it takes time to make changes in the engine-room, and the order came too late. Though Graves ordered the helm hard over, the Greenville had just begun to turn aside, when, with a buckling and crunching of metal plates, her brow grazed the stern of the flagship.

As the Greenville answered her helm and the cruisers fell apart, the sirens shrieked a warning on both ships. Water-tight doors w;ere closed, and men rushed with collision mats to stop the inflow of water at the damaged plates. Commander Latch, the executive officer, came running on deck and directed the work of hauling the mat in place. The Captain, with his luncheon napkin still in his hand, reached the top of the bridge ladder, flushed and panting. The semaphore on the flagship, dimly visible through the fog, was waving its arms and demanding the reason of the ramming and the name of the officer of the deck.

THE RADIO MESSAGE

By this time the Greenville had fallen out of the formation and was almost dead in the water. She did not seem to be settling by the head.

“Are we making much water, Latch?” shouted Captain Barstow in a cracked and husky voice.

“ Very little, Captain,” replied Latch coolly. “ Two or three plates are dented but we can easily control the water. We didn’t get the flagship either,” he added, glancing at Graves. The flagship was still steaming ahead, and was signaling to the Greenville to retake her place in column — for the fog that had caused the trouble was blowing rapidly away.

Any collision at sea is a serious matter; no one knows what will happen when two ten thousand ton masses pushed by the power of ten thousand horses come together even for an instant. Graves had been calm throughout, but he realized the danger — and he knew that he would be blamed, perhaps court-martialed. Now that the danger seemed over, Captain Barstow was shaking with nervousness. He did not lack courage, but had grown old before his time. The thought of what the Admiral would say terrified him more than the thought of drowning. He would be sent for, he would be censured; for the Captain is held responsible for everything on his ship. If the doctor gives the wrong medicine or the chaplain preaches a poor sermon it is the Captain’s fault, too. This is the law of the sea.

Graves told all he knew, and waited for Captain Barstow’s outburst of indignation. But, to his surprise, the Captain merely lighted a cigarette and said in a voice that was not unkind:

“We all make mistakes of judgment, especially in a fog. Say no more about it just now. Send me in your written statement — and we’ll see what the Admiral has to say.” His face jerked spasmodically.

Kellam came back to take the watch again without a word of comment on what had happened.

“ J ack,” said Graves, “ the flagship herself didn’t change speed at two bells. Are you sure about the wording of that radio message? ”

Kellam’s face was rigid as ever; his eyes seemed opaque.

“ The message I turned over is the message I got,” he replied somewhat testily. “ Send down to the radio office for a copy and you can see for yourself.” The lines about his nose and mouth were hard; his lips were firmly pressed together.

In a few minutes the messenger returned with a copy of the message on a radio blank and handed it to the navigator.

“ Increase speed at one o’clock to seventeen knots on signal of execution from F! ” read Graves, raising his voice as he read. “ Why, Kellam, see that! Speed wasn’t to be changed

20 SAILING UNDEK SEALED OEDEES

till they made another signal! The message ends, ‘ on signal of execution from F ! ’ ”

“ Of course! ” replied Kellam. “ That’s just what I said.”

Graves looked at him in amazement. Kellam seldom made mistakes.

“All you said was, ‘ Increase to seventeen knots at one o’clock.’ Don’t you remember, Kellam?”

“ ‘ On signal of execution from flagship/ The wind must have kept you from hearing. Graves. Of course I’m sorry, but there’s no doubt I said it. You should have known it wasn’t right as you got it. If it seemed funny you could have sent to the office and read it just as it came.”

This was true. It was queer he hadn’t thought of doing that. “ What a lobster I was not to,” Graves said to himself. “ Still,” he added aloud, “ I asked you if it didn’t say, ^ Be ready to increase/ ’’

“ But it didn’t ! ” insisted Kellam.

This was true also.

‘‘ Of course it was a misunderstanding, Jack,” finished Graves good-naturedly. “ I won’t drag you into it. It’s lucky the thing ended no worse.” He picked up a chart and descended the ladder.

A few minutes later the doctor entered the chart house, where Graves was laying off courses.

“ Where are we? ” he asked. He really wanted to talk about the collision. Graves showed him a circle on the chart.

The doctor was tall and fair-haired, with regular features. His expression was frank and sincere but worried; for during his year of naval life he had had many difficult questions to solve — not of medicine, in which he was well prepared, but in naval etiquette, which he knew nothing of to start with, and which he took much to heart. Though Graves was five years and two cruises his senior, he had never tried to impress the young doctor with his importance; and the other was grateful. A strong friendship had sprung up between them — and the doctor took friendship as seriously as naval etiquette. His momentary concern was on Graves’s account.

“ These fogs are tricky things,” he said, bending over the chart as if interested only in that. “ I’m glad nothing serious xjame of the collision.”

“ Something serious may come to me,” remarked Graves, without his usual laugh. “ I’ll feel like jumping ship when we get into port.”

The doctor felt sympathetic but did not know what to say.

“Hello!” he said, “aren’t we going to Honolulu?”

“Why, yes.”

“ But we are heading way to the north of it!”

“Oh!” explained Graves, “we are on a great circle course. As the earth is a sphere, the nearest distance on the surface between two points is a part of the circle you would make if you cut the earth in two with a huge knife passing through the two points on the surface and also through the centre of the earth.”

“ Where does the circle come in? ” said the doctor. “ The two halves would fall apart.”

“ Imagine them sewn together,” answered Graves. “ The seam along the surface would be a circle, and we are sailing along the part of such a circle between San Francisco and Honolulu. It shows on an ordinary chart not as a straight line, but as a curve. Just where we are now the curve points above Honolulu, but we’ll slide down the hill again. We save a hundred miles that way.”

“ I’ll loiow some navigation before this cruise is over,” laughed the doctor.

CHAPTER II A CIECLE BOUND THE MOON HE ships passed Diamond Head and

Waikiki Beach and, slipping through the narrow entrance, moored in the circular basin that is Honolulu harbor. They had hardly tied up when the Admiral signaled for Captain Barstow and Lieutenant Graves to report on board.

After talking a while with the Captain, the Admiral sent for Graves to enter the cabin. Captain Barstow returned to the Greenville.

Admiral Stockton was seated at his desk when Graves entered. The Admiral was a severe-looking man, with a military bearing and a bristling black moustache — but his features were clean-cut, and his eye, though hard, was straight.

“ Well, Mr. Graves,” said the Admiral, ac-

A CIECLE BOUND THE MOON 25

knowledging the young officer’s salutation with a nod, “ we all know that something went wrong the other day. Now tell me how it happened.” He fixed his eyes on Graves, who looked back at him frankly. As their looks crossed the Admiral’s expression became less hard.

Graves told the Admiral how the part of the message he had heard left him no option but to change speed at the time fixed.

“ So that you speeded up, and we didn’t, and you bumped us in the fog? ”

“ Yes, sir.”

“Was the message turned over to you as it came? ” asked the Admiral, with a piercing look at the young navigator.

“ I suppose it was, sir,” replied Graves, who had made up his mind to shoulder the thing himself. “ There was a fresh breeze and I must have missed the last few words.”

The Admiral said nothing, but kept his gray eyes fixed on Graves.

26 SAILING UNDEE SEALED OEDBES

“ You must have thought the signal a queer one. Why didn’t you send for the message and read it? ”

“ I ought to have done that, sir.”

The more Graves took the blame without offering doubtful excuses, the more the Admiral’s hard expression relaxed; but his moustache still bristled, and his voice remained stern and metallic.

“A collision at sea is no small thing, Mr. Graves. The officer responsible has a heavy weight to carry. Many millions are tied up in two armored cruisers — and two thousand lives are concerned.”

For once Graves looked thoroughly serious.

“ Fortunately in this case,” continued the Admiral in a less severe tone, “ no great harm was done and there were mitigating circumstances. Of course, you should have asked Mr. Kellam — ^he was the officer you relieved? — to repeat such a doubtful message; and you should have been more alert to see the ship

A CIECLE BOUND THE MOON 27

ahead. Captain Barstow tells me you are cool and quick — but he admits that you are careless as a navigator.”

Graves knew this well. He was too easygoing for his job.

“ Of course,” concluded the Admiral, “ I’ll have to order a board of investigation. But perhaps I’ll recommend that no further action be taken.” He rose to his feet, stretched back his arms, and took in a breath. “ Only — mind your weather helm in future! ”

The next week was one of joys — ^horseback rides about the city; trips up the mountain; golf and tennis; swimming parties at the beach.

One afternoon a party consisting of Graves, Kellam, two California girls, and a Honolulu lawyer, were paddling in the soft waters off Waikiki.

“ Let’s get a dugout and ride in on a wave! ” proposed one of the girls.

This is the finest of sports. As a comber comes rolling in, everybody in the savagelooking dugout paddles like mad. The wave, overtaking the canoe, picks it up and carries it towards the beach with the speed of an express train.

“There’s the canoe!” exclaimed Graves; “ but we need another man to paddle. Yonder’s a chap floating — we’ll ask him.” The party climbed into the narrow dugout.

The swimmer accepted; and, with the civilian’s help. Graves pulled him into the place between himself and Kellam, who was talking to one of the girls.

“Here comes a fine roller!” shouted the Honolulu man, “ Now paddle for all you’re worth! ”

As the dugout was seized by the wave and dashed in on its crest, the last arrival looked back over his shoulder.

“ Isn’t this great? ” he shouted to Kellam.

Kellam looked at him and started to answer

A CIECLE BOUND THE MOON 29

— ^but the next moment he had fallen out of the boat. Being a good swimmer he was in no danger; but he had no other chance to tell the stranger that it was great.

As the young officers returned aboard the Greenville a squadron of six foreign warships was sighted standing in towards Honolulu.

“ Looks interesting,” murmured Captain Barstow, who was studying the column with his glasses from the quarter-deck. ‘‘ They must be the battle cruisers just built for the Oriental Empire.”

Since the formation of this new Asiatic empire there had been great activity in its shipyards. The United States Government, always anxious for peace, was watching closely this great new power with its two hundred million inhabitants, warlike spirit, and unlimited money.

The six fast cruisers steamed in close and anchored simultaneously in the finest style.

Every man on the Greenville was watching them and wondering what their business was.

Next day hundreds of the brown and yellow men, in their natty white and buff uniforms, were ashore. Towards dusk Graves and the doctor were strolling about, inspecting Honolulu, when they passed a beautiful house and garden of Oriental design. Well back from the street was a tea house in which some Asiatic sailors were drinking tea or said and talking earnestly. As the two officers passed the gateway they nearly ran into a man who was hurrying out.

He looked up angrily; then hesitated and stopped.

“Why, hello!” cried the doctor. “That you, Kellam? What in the world ”

Kellam interrupted him gruffly.

“ I went in to look at this garden — they say it’s the finest in town; but those Orientals came crowding in — I had to leave.”

“ Going our way? ” asked Graves.

A CIECLE BOUND THE MOON 31

“No,” said Kellam; “ IVe got a date at Young’s. See you on the ship.” He turned off at the corner and hurried away.

Next day at lunch Commander Latch made an announcement that was followed by a buzz of conversation.

“Well, gentlemen! — sailing orders at midnight to-night. We go on detached duty to San Francisco via San Diego. There's something brewing! ”

“ I saw a circle round the moon last night! ” remarked Graves.

Chapter III

VE got me guessing! Don’t see what a light is doing there! ”

Graves was studying the chart and talking over his shoulder to Kellam, the officer of the deck. It was a few minutes after four in the morning, and still dark; the ship, after two days at San Diego, was standing up the coast of California, somewhere north of Point Conception.

Graves gave his easy laugh, and took another look at the distant white light gleaming out of the darkness. He could not see the face of Kellam, who stood just behind the dimly-lighted compass.

“ Perhaps it’s a star. Graves — or some steamer’s masthead light.”

“ It doesn’t look like a star; it’s not a steamer, for you can’t see it from the deck.”

“ What’s that got to do with it? ” Kellam’s voice sounded hoarse and sleepy.

“ Don’t you know? If you can see a light from here and can’t see it from a deck ten feet below, you know it’s a long way off — and a steamer's light only shows about five miles.”

“ Why do you know it’s a long way off? ”

“ Because if it wasn’t, a matter of ten feet or so wouldn’t make any difference; but if it is, the curvature of the earth hides it unless you get high enough to look over the curve.”

Kellam knew some navigation too; but he had come in as a reserve officer and had missed many of the fine points.

“ Didn’t you expect to sight a lighthouse? ” he asked ; “ there was something about one in the night orders.”

As watch officer it was his duty to keep a lookout for lights; but Graves, as navigator, had to say when they would be expected.

“ Not yet,” replied Graves. “ We’d hardly sight anything before six o’clock. Here’s where we are — see? ”

He showed Kellam the chart, with a line indicating the ship’s course, and a circle at the point where the ship ought to be, by his reckoning, at 4 A. M.

“We are forty miles away, and we couldn’t see that light more than twenty-five at most. I guess it is a star — but, confound it, I wish it would twinkle!” With another good-humored laugh he walked over towards Kellam, who made no reply.

“ We had a hot game of bridge last night,” continued Graves. “ I never held such hands — never less than five trumps or thirty aces. I didn’t get to bed till midnight. Where were you? ”

“ In my hunk,” answered Kellam shortly. “ I didn’t train at your Naval Academy,” his voice had a most sarcastic note, “ and I need a clear head when I’m on duty. I always try to turn in very early when I have the morning watch.’’

“ That’s what I ought’ve done; but I can’t leave a bridge game and a crowd of good fellows. When the messenger called me this morning, I ”

“ What time? ”

“ Well, I left a call for 3 a. m. — but I was dead at that time. I heard the messenger rap, but as he didn’t say what time it was, I turned over and slept an hour on the other side.”

“ I thought you were down for 3 a. m.” The darkness still hid Kellam’s face, but his voice sounded harsh. Graves did not reply; and the hiss of smooth water under the bow was the only sound.

The helmsman turned his wheel a spoke or two, and the quartermaster, dimly outlined behind him, uttered a low word of instruction. Graves yawned and looked at the stars oscillating to and fro above the mast.

“ Guess I’ll go down and get ready for a star sight. There’s old Mars up there — red as ever — I’ll catch him at dawn. Glad it’s not hazy to the westward.”

There is a time, just at dawn, when the stars and planets are still visible, and the horizon line, hidden at night when the stars are brightest, begins to show itself. The navigator seizes this chance to measure the angles between stars and horizon with his sextant; and can thus work out a position before sunrise. When no landmarks are visible he has to fix his latitude and longitude with the aid of two useful sciences. Astronomy and Trigonometry.

Graves was back in a few minutes, sextant in hand.

“ I don’t know where this will put us! ” he laughed. “ Star sights are tricky things, and mine don’t always work out. The last put the ship ten miles inland — on a mountain ! ”

“ Like Noah’s ark,” remarked Kellam drily.

On this occasion, either Mars was out of place or Graves’s figures were wrong; for though he spent half an hour making calculations in the chart house, they produced no result. This time the ship seemed to be near Honolulu some two thousand miles away. Graves felt sleepy, and his head ached. Astronomy, Trigonometry, and logarithms that dance in their tables, are not amusing before 5 A. M. He decided to wait for morning coffee and sunrise.

“ I almost think I see land over there, sir,” said the quartermaster, when Graves reappeared. The white light, now on the quarter, was still visible. Day was almost dawning; but it was thick and hazy to the eastward, where shore would lie.

“Not on your life!” replied Graves. “ We’re too far out. It’s a cloud you see.”

“ Perhaps so,” said the quartermaster, straining through the night glasses. Kellam said nothing, but pursed his lips.

“What’s that?” cried Graves suddenly. “ I could have sworn I heard a railway whistle.”

“ I didn’t hear it,” said Kellam. “ How did your star sight work out? ” he questioned, smiling slightly. “ Was it ”

“ Good-morning, Mr. Navigator! ” broke in a chipper and rather caustic voice. “ Know where we are? ” The young men, turning, recognized the tall, angular figure of Commander Latch, the executive officer.

“ Right here, sir,” answered Graves quickly, indicating a point on the chart.

“ Right on that dot, eh? Glad you have it exactly. How did your star sight check? ” The Commander’s expression was cynical and keen.

“It put us near Honolulu!” answered Graves frankly. Latch made a jerking motion with his arm and turned away.

“A minute ago,” added Graves, “ I could have sworn I heard a whistle; but that’s impossible unless it was a steamer.” His ruddy face looked puzzled.

“ Perhaps it was a whistling buoy, if we are near Honolulu,” suggested Latch, smiling sardonically. “ If we are on your dot we certainly can’t hear a locomotive or a factory whistle. But speaking of trains, you might do like some reserves on a sub-chaser during the war.” Latch had a great fund of reminiscences.

“ What was that, sir? ” asked Graves, smiling.

“ They had to navigate down the coast, and they didn’t understand navigation. Whenever they wanted to know where they were they steamed in close and read the sign on a railway station. They had a perfect run, and the Admiral complimented them highly ! ”

“ I wish we could do that! ” laughed Graves — “ but we’d hit bottom before we saw the signs.”

“ Yes,” assented Latch. “ That’s a good plan, but it wouldn’t work here. We can’t go in closer than a mile or two.”

“ Well, we are fifteen miles out,” remarked Graves, reassuringly.

“ Glad of it. Hello! what’s that? ” Latch jumped to the bridge rail.

A beam of light, as if from a monstrous fiery eye, was suddenly shining in their faces.

“That’s another lighthouse. Saints alive! Where are we? ” exclaimed Latch, making a dash for the chart.

“ There’s land on three sides of us. Commander! ” said Kellam quietly. “ I can see it quite distinctly. That second light has just opened up from behind a point. We are in a sort of cove.”

“Stop both engines!” shouted Graves. “ Back hard ! ” There was a great churning of water astern.

“ Get bearings of those two lights right away, Mr. Graves!” roared Latch. “Get a cast of the lead, Mr. Kellam ! ”

Graves was already taking bearings of the distant light that had been visible all morning and of the other, evidently very close, that had just appeared. With two such bearings it is easy to plot the exact position of the ship on a chart.