Part of the
Acorn Archive
Hearts of Oak
Charles Lewis
Royal Navy [1891-1905]
China Station Service 1894-7
Written in 1944
HMS
Undaunted
“After leaving the HIND, I
returned to Devonport and Commissioned HMS UNDAUNTED on April 17th 1894
for the China Station. On our way out, whilst in the Indian Ocean, we ran into
a hurricane, or it ran into us, anyrate we had to batten down for three days
and nights; we nearly foundered, most of us thought we were gone, but
providence was on our side, so we came through with nothing worse than a good
battering. Whilst on that Station, Japan was at war with China. Ours was one of
the ships that had to follow the Japanese Fleet. Consequently our ship lay off
Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei when the Japanese bombarded those ports and
captured them from the Chinese. It was bitterly cold during the winter months,
the crew of one of the Japanese Torpedo Boats were frozen to death in
Wei-hai-wei. Whilst in Chefoo the Japanese drove the Chinese down on that port,
the poor Chinese were a motley crowd, half starved, in rags, with hardly any
arms and ammunition between them, one felt sorry for the poor devils; whilst at
Chefoo the harbour was frozen over, one of our boats with its crew had to stay
ashore for a week until the ice became thin enough to break and enable the boat
to get away.
After the war we went to
Shanghai and gave 72 hours leave to each watch, but the cold was so intense we
were nearly frozen, as there was very little accommodation for our chaps; I honestly
believe if the Missionaries had not come to our rescue by opening up their
Church, then rounding up our ship’s company, marching them off to Church,
providing us with hot food and coffee and allowing us to sleep in the Church,
wrapped up in quilts of down, then sending us away in the morning with a
liberal supply of hot food, not a cent would they take from any of us, had they
not done what they did, I believe a lot of us would have been left behind at
Shanghai. Ever since then I have had a warm shot in my heart for the
Missionaries.
Our Station was a large one at
that time, ranging from Petropdylovsk in Siberia in the North to the East
Indies, taking in Japan and its Islands. I can assure you it was far from being
nice cruising from the northernmost part of the Station to the southern,
especially when we had the same uniform out there as we had in England, and our
food was the same wherever we went.
Whilst out there our ship
received order to proceed at full speed to Foochow, where the Chinese had risen
and attacked the Mission there, but unfortunately we didn’t get there in time
to prevent the Chinese from murdering the whole of the inhabitants of the
Mission.
Whilst on our way to Hakodate
Japan, we ran into a tidal wave; arriving we found the wave had washed
thousands of houses away, we nearly went as well.
Once when we were in Hong Kong
we were struck by a typhoon; it raged for 72 hours, the scene beggars
description. Junks, sampans, wooden houses and dead bodies literally blocked
the harbours and inlets, both on the Island and the Mainland, and our men on
shore had to remain there until the typhoon abated; no boat could live in such
seas. The death toll was terrific, the Chinese would not touch the dead bodies,
they could stay there and rot for all they troubled; needless to say the
recovering of bodies was left to our men.
A novel experience was to
spend Christmas at Singapore. Close to the Equator in sweltering heat. But the
ritual of Christmas is carried out in HM ships in the Tropics just the same as
if they were in England. We dressed the masts with evergreens, the ship’s
company’s messes being decorated with evergreens, paper chains and lanterns, it
looked very nice indeed. Christmas morning the Captain and Officers headed by a
band playing “Roast Beef of England” marched around the mess deck, and are
invited to taste the good things the men provide for the occasion.
From Singapore, we went on to
Trincomalee, Ceylon, to turn over to
HMS EDGAR.
Raymond Forward