CHAPTER XXXI

THE SOUDAN WAR (_Continued_)

IX. THE RESCUE

"And while lying near Metemmeh

He went--many a time you know--

Up the river in his steamer,

Dealing havoc on the foe;

And each gallant tar and Jollie

That was with him, fighting there,

Now would follow without question,

Let him lead them, anywhere."

_Songs of the Camel Corps_ (Sergeant H. EAGLE, R.M.C.C.)

[The men used to sing 'Our Navy on the Nile,' of which the above is an

excerpt; but the rest is so complimentary to the author, that he is

obliged to omit it.]

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st February the _Safieh_ left

Gubat to proceed to the rescue of Sir Charles Wilson's force. From the

time the news arrived until we started, we were occupied in getting

wood and stores. With me were Lieutenant E. B. van Koughnet,

Sub-Lieutenant Colin R. Keppel, Surgeon Arthur William May, Chief

Engineer Henry Benbow, Acting-Lieutenant Walter Ingram, Mr. Webber,

boatswain, all of the Royal Navy, Lieutenant R. L. Bower, King's Royal

Rifle Corps, and Lieutenant Stuart-Wortley, who had brought the news of

the disaster. The vessel was manned by picked men from both divisions

of the Naval Brigade, and carried twenty non-commissioned officers and

men, picked shots, of the Mounted Infantry, under the command of

Lieutenant {296} R. L. Bower. The engine-room staff consisted of Chief

Engineer Benbow; two engine-room artificers, Royal Navy, J. T. Garland

and G. Woodman; and one chief stoker, Royal Navy; an Arab or Egyptian

engineer, and six Soudanese stokers. We mounted the two Gardner guns

in echelon on the platform made of railway sleepers and boiler-plate

amidships, and one of the two brass 4-pr. mountain guns was placed in

the turret forward, the other in the turret aft, both turrets being

built of railway sleepers and boiler-plate, with which defences the

ship had been cased above water. The Reis (native pilot) was stationed

inside the barricade protecting the wheel, to guide the helmsman, who

was a bluejacket. The native boats always carry two Reises, one to

look out, the other to steer. Our Reis was mounted upon a box so that

he could see over the barricade. In order to guard against the kind of

accident which had befallen Sir Charles Wilson's steamers, I informed

him that if he took us safely up and down he would be rewarded, but

that upon any indication of treachery he would be shot at once. He was

then handcuffed to a stanchion, and Quartermaster Olden, with a loaded

revolver, was placed at his side. Surgeon-General A. W. May, who very

kindly sent me his recollections of the trip, writes: "A quartermaster

with the nickname of 'Punch' was told off to look after him, and he

stood as grim as death at his side, revolver in hand, quite ready at

the slightest sign of treachery to carry out his orders ... I always

attribute our getting up and down when the river was low and dangerous

to your wise warning of the pilot."

The _Safieh_ was simply a penny steamer in a packing-case. Where the

packing-case was deficient, bullets went through her as through paper,

and a shell would pierce her wooden jacket. The pinch would come when

we sighted the fort at Wad Habeshi, which lay on our right hand,

between us and Mernat Island, where was Sir Charles Wilson's party, and

which was some 36 miles up stream from Gubat.

On 1st February we shoved along at the rate of 2.5 {297} miles an hour,

the most the _Safieh_ could do against the current, stopped to get

wood, and anchored in the stream during the night. It was impossible

to navigate in the dark. The next day was almost entirely occupied in

collecting wood, which was laboriously obtained by dismantling and

cutting up the _sakiehs_, native water-wheels. That evening we arrived

within three or four miles of Wad Habeshi, and again anchored for the

night. After weighing next morning, I assembled the ship's company and

briefly addressed them. I told them that we were in a tight place, but

that we would get out of it; that if we failed to rescue Sir Charles

Wilson, the Mahdi's men would get them and would then come down upon

Gubat; but that we would save Wilson's party. The men were as cheery

and steady as possible.

At 7 a.m. we sighted Wad Habeshi on the starboard hand; and we saw, far

up the river, the trees of Mernat Island, and the tilted hull and

funnel of the stranded _Bordein_.

By 7.30 a.m. we were within 1200 yards of the fort, and I opened fire

with the bow gun. Wad Habeshi was a strong earthwork, with four

embrasures, mounting four guns, and manned, according to

Stuart-Wortley's report, by 5000 riflemen. The only practicable

channel ran within 80 yards of the fort. We could only crawl past the

battery, and as we were defenceless against gun-fire, our only chance

was to maintain so overwhelming a fire upon the embrasures as to

demoralise the guns' crews. It was an extreme instance of the

principle that the best defence resides in gun-fire rather than in

armour; for we had no effective armour.

Accordingly, the starboard Gardner and the two brass guns, the 20

soldiers and 14 bluejackets, poured a steady and an accurate fire into

the fort, disregarding the parties of riflemen who were shooting at us

from the bank. There were some 600 or 800 of these, and one gun opened

fire from the side embrasure of the fort. Poor von Koughnet was shot

in the leg, and second-class petty officer Edwin Curnow, number two of

the crew of the starboard Gardner, fell mortally wounded, and died that

evening. But so {298} deadly was the fire we poured into the

embrasures of the fort, that the enemy could not fire the two guns

bearing upon the _Safieh_ while she was bore abeam of them. We passed

the fort, and by the time we had left it about 200 yards astern, our

fire necessarily slackened, as our guns no longer bore upon the battery.

Suddenly a great cloud of steam or smoke rose from the after hatchway.

Instantly the fire of the enemy increased. Chief Engineer Benbow, who

was standing with-me on the quarter-deck, ran to the engine-room. A

Maltese carpenter rushed up to me crying, "All is lost, sare, myself

and my brother, sare! The ship he sink, sare!" and was promptly kicked

out of the way.

I saw the black stokers rushing up from the stoke-hold hatchway. At

the moment it was uncertain whether the ship was on fire or the boiler

injured; but as she still had way upon her I ordered her to be headed

towards the bank, away from the fort, and so gained another few yards.

The carpenter's mate reported that there were three feet of water in

the well, and that the vessel was sinking.

Then she stopped. In the meantime our fire upon the side embrasure of

the fort was continued by the riflemen; and it went on without pause,

lest the enemy should get another shot in. I dropped anchor, and

addressed the men. I told them that the vessel was all right, as she

had only a foot of water under her bottom; that the stores and

ammunition must be got up on deck in case she settled down; that no

relief was possible; but that not a single dervish would come on board

while one of us was alive.

The men were quite cool and jovial.

"It's all right, sir," said one cheerfully. "We'll make it 'ot for the

beggars!"

Mr. Benbow, chief engineer, came to me and reported that the water must

have come from the boiler, because it was hot; and that, as the shot

which had pierced the boiler had entered above the water-line, the

vessel was safe. I then {299} countermanded the order to bring up the

ammunition and stores.

In the meantime the two engine-room artificers, Garland and Woodman,

had been carried up from the engine-room, so terribly scalded that the

flesh of their hands, forearms and faces was hanging in strips, like

the flesh of a boiled chicken. They had been stationed by Mr. Benbow

between the boiler and the ship's side, with orders to insert

shot-plugs if the side was pierced; and in that position were farther

from the exit than the Soudanese stokers, and therefore were more

severely injured. The stokers were badly scalded, two days afterwards,

an odour as of the grave pervading the upper deck, a search discovered

a black stoker under the fortified superstructure. He was hauled out

with a boat-hook, and was then still alive, although his flesh was

peeling from his bones. He had resigned himself to die, as Asiatics

will; and he died.

Considering the situation, I thought that upon the _Safieh_ probably

depended not only the fate of Sir Charles Wilson's party, who were

isolated in a hostile country between the strong force at Wad Habeshi

and the Mahdi's host marching down from Khartoum, and who could not

even rely upon the native soldiers with them, but the fate of the whole

Desert Column; because if we failed to bring away Wilson, and his party

were captured or slain, the enemy would be encouraged to descend upon

the Desert Column at Gubat. I was, of course, at that moment ignorant

of the movements of the Mahdi's army; and could only conjecture that

they were even then marching upon us. As a matter of fact, they were;

but the exact sequence of events did not become known for a long time

afterwards.

I asked Mr. Benbow if he could repair the boiler.

He replied, "I think I can do it."

He added that it was still too hot to examine. The time was then

between nine and ten a.m. Mr. Benbow, assisted by the leading stoker

R.N., who had been stationed on deck as stretcher-bearer, drew the

fires and pumped out the boiler, {300} when he found a hole some three

inches in diameter, round which the plate had bulged inwards, its edges

being torn and jagged.

By the time the examination was completed, it was about eleven o'clock.

Mr. Benbow then set to work to make a new plate with his own hands. He

had brought with him from the depot at Wady Halfa some engineer's

stores: a piece of sheet-iron, and some bolts and nuts; part of the

equipment I had brought from Korti, when General Buller asked me if I

was going to mend camels with them. I remembered his chaff in that

hour.

Mr. Benbow, with no other assistance than that of the leading stoker,

had to cut a plate, 16 inches by 14, drill the holes in it to receive

the bolts, drill holes in the injured boiler plate corresponding to the

first to a fraction, and cut the threads of the screws upon bolts and

nuts. The new plate being too thin to take the pressure, he also had

to bolt an iron bar across it, drilling the holes through the bar,

through the new plate, and through the injured boiler plate.

During the whole time he was below in the stifling hot engine-room at

work upon a task demanding at once great exertion and the utmost

nicety, the fire from the fort never ceased. Bullets pattered

continually upon the hull, some of them piercing it, and striking the

wounded men who lay below. At any moment another shell might burst

into the engine-room. But Mr. Benbow went on with his work.

On deck, we continued to maintain a steady fire, hour after hour, upon

the fort. It was our only chance. The slightest cessation, and they

would bring their gun to bear on us. The range was between 200 and 300

yards. As we hung at anchor, the fort bore almost directly astern. It

was therefore necessary to alter the position of our guns. A rough

platform was built aft, upon which one of the Gardners was mounted, and

where it was admirably served all day by Acting-Lieutenant Walter

Ingram. Lieutenant Colin Keppel, in order to have room inside the

narrow wood-protected casemate astern to train his brass howitzer,

sawed off its {301} trail. The result was that after each discharge

the gun leaped into the air and fell upon its back. After laying the

gun, and before firing, Keppel removed the sight to prevent its being

injured, and put it in his pocket. Keppel and Mr. James Webber served

the gun all day, firing 150 rounds. The casemate itself was

strengthened to take the shock of the gun by buttressing it with a

stout strut of timber. At every discharge the whole crazy vessel shook

and trembled; her plates started; and her bows opened. The fire from

the Gardner and the rifle-fire, directed upon the side embrasure of the

fort, were so accurate and incessant that the gunners of the enemy

never had a chance, either to get their gun to bear or to remove it to

another position. The few shots they fired travelled about 100 yards

to the right of the steamer.

Meantime, Mr. Benbow, down below, went on with his work.

The noise of the engagement was so deafening and continuous that we did

not hear the three shots fired upon Mernat Island, the signal arranged

by Sir Charles Wilson with Stuart-Wortley to show that the party was

safe; and we were so busy that we did not see the flags hoisted upon

the wreck of the _Bordein_ with the same object. At that time Sir

Charles Wilson's party were themselves engaged with the enemy, who were

firing upon them from the bank. Sir Charles Wilson was able to make

out that the _Safieh_ was at anchor and was heavily engaged. He then

thought that we had the two steamers, the _Tewfikiyeh_ as well as the

_Safieh_, that one had been injured, and that the _Safieh_ was covering

her from the fire of the fort. He immediately broke up his zeriba,

embarked the wounded, some of the natives, the guns, ammunition and

stores, and a small guard of the Royal Sussex, in the _nuggar_, and

sent it down stream under the command of Captain Gascoigne. The

embarkation was carried into execution under fire. Sir Charles then

landed the rest of his force on the right bank (Wad Habeshi and the

enemy were on the left bank) in his remaining small {302} boat, a

felucca. The whole party then marched down the right bank to a point

opposite to the _Safieh_, Captain Gascoigne taking down the _nuggar_

and the felucca. "As we got nearer," writes Sir Charles, "we could

make out the white ensign flying bravely in the breeze, a pleasant

sight for hard-pressed Britishers."

Upon the arrival of his force, it immediately opened fire upon the

fort. I signalled to Sir Charles, informing him of the condition of

affairs, and suggesting that he should move to a place lower down,

where I would pick him up on the morrow. The _Safieh_ lying some 500

yards from the bank, and Sir Charles having a difficulty in replying to

my signals, Captain Gascoigne volunteered to go aboard. He took a

native crew in the felucca and pulled across under a hot fire from the

fort, which did not discompose him in the least. There was never a

cooler man under fire than Gascoigne. He brought with him the two

engine-room artificers of the Naval Brigade who had accompanied Sir

Charles Wilson, and who at once went below to help Mr. Benbow to repair

the boiler.

Captain Gascoigne returned with a message from myself to Sir Charles

Wilson suggesting that, in order to divert the attention of the enemy

from the _Safieh_, he should continue to maintain a fire upon the fort

with a part of his force, while the rest proceeded farther down to form

a zeriba at a spot suitable for embarkation; and that the women, sick

and wounded should proceed in the _nuggar_ during the night to the same

place, to which I would bring the steamer on the following morning.

Captain Gascoigne rejoined Sir Charles Wilson without casualty.

Sir Charles then sent Captain Trafford forward with the Royal Sussex,

Khashm-el-Mus and most of the Soudanese, while Sir Charles himself

remained with 30 men and one gun. They maintained a steady and a

useful fire until sunset, when they marched after the rest of the party.

Meantime, Mr. Benbow, down below, went on with his work.

{303}

It was about two o'clock when the artificers joined him, so that he had

already been toiling single-handed, except for the leading stoker, for

three hours. After another three hours, at five o'clock, the plate and

bar were made, the holes drilled in them and in the boiler, and the

threads cut upon the bolts and nuts. But the boiler was still so hot,

that it was impossible for a man to be in it, and the plate could not

be fixed, because it was necessary to pass the bolts through the plates

from inside the boiler. Mr. Benbow pumped cold water into the boiler

and out again once or twice; but by 6 o'clock the heat was still too

great for a white man to endure. We smeared a negro boy with tallow,

and I promised him a reward if he would go into the boiler. He was

delighted. He was lowered down, to climb out again faster than he went

in. After a short pause, he had another try. This time, in a frying

heat that only a black skin could bear, he stayed inside, passing the

bolts through, while Mr. Benbow caulked plates and bolts and screwed

them home. The boy was none the worse in body and richer in

possessions than ever in his life. By seven o'clock the job was done.

You can see what it was for yourself; for the plate is now in the

Museum of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Rear-Admiral Sir Colin

Keppel (sub-lieutenant in 1885), writing to me on the subject, says,

"When in command of the gunboats under Lord Kitchener in 1898, on our

way to Fashoda, about 300 miles above Khartoum on the White Nile, I

again came upon our old _Safieh_, then again in the hands of the

dervishes, with whom we had a short action. The first thing I did

afterwards was to go down below (I knew where to look!) and found the

patch which old Benbow had put on more than 13 years before."

Lord Kitchener afterwards had the plate cut out, and he very kindly

sent it to me.

By ten o'clock that night, the boiler was repaired and the fires were

laid. In the meantime, as soon as the twilight fell that evening, the

fire from the fort slackened. {304} It was my object to delude the

enemy into the belief that we had abandoned the steamer; for, if they

thought she was empty, they would not fire upon her, lest they should

damage an invaluable prize. Moreover, did the enemy suppose that we

were staying by the ship, they would during the night shift a gun from

the fort, dragging it along the bank to a point abreast of the steamer;

whence they could see the vessel looming on the water, whereas we in

the steamer could not see them; whence the range was no more than about

80 yards; and whence a single hit would disable us.

But all depended upon our running the gauntlet in the morning.

Therefore, in the hope of deceiving the enemy, as the darkness

gathered, the four boats brought down to embark Wilson's party were

ostentatiously hauled alongside, as if to take off the ship's company.

Then all firing stopped; and after that thirteen hours' furious

fusillade, the immense and crystal silence of the desert submerged us

like the sea. Talking above a whisper was forbidden; every aperture

was closed below, where the lamps were burning to light Mr. Benbow at

his work, and no spark of light was allowed on deck. The men lit their

pipes at a slow match burning in a bucket, and smoked under cover.

After leaving the _Safieh_ in the afternoon, Captain Gascoigne had more

adventures with his _nuggar_, of which by this time he must have been

weary. It went ashore opposite to the fort, which of course shot at

it, and Gascoigne must embark all except the badly wounded, under fire

as usual. Luckily, the enemy failed to get the range. By sunset, the

united exertions of Sir Charles Wilson's firing party had refloated the

_nuggar_.

Late that night, we saw her drift past us in the darkness.

The fort fired upon her, but apparently without result, for she drifted

on and disappeared. Then the enemy opened fire again upon the steamer.

They had run the guns outside the fort in the interval, and fired a few

rounds at us, accompanied by a heavy rifle fire. But the _Safieh_

remained dumb and motionless. The firing ceased, the {305} enemy

evidently believing that we had abandoned the vessel.

I slept in snatches on deck, waking every now and then to look round.

The officers were sound asleep, lying in a neat row on the deck. It

occurred to me that, taking into consideration the position in which

they lay relative to the gun on the bank, a single shot might kill them

all. So I roused them up very quietly, and bade them dispose

themselves in various places. I remember how they waked with a sleepy

grin, each looking for a separate corner, dropping into it and falling

asleep again.

So far, our ruse had succeeded. At five o'clock the next morning (4th

February) Mr. Benbow lit the fires, using the utmost caution, keeping

the ash-pit draught plates almost shut, in order to prevent sparks,

which would instantly betray us, from flying up the funnel. On deck,

we were in suspense, all staring at the shot-riddled funnel. It kept

its secret for fifty minutes; then suddenly it belched a fountain of

hot ashes. It was then within ten minutes of daylight. Almost at the

same moment a great shouting broke out in the fort, and a convulsive

beating of tom-toms. Then the guns and rifles began to speak again.

What had happened was that when the pressure-gauge indicated 10 lb. of

steam, the Arab captain of the stokers suddenly appeared at the

engine-room hatch, and spoke swiftly in Arabic to his men, who, before

Mr. Benbow could interfere, flung open the draught plates.

It was a close-run business. In the next ten minutes the steam had run

up to 20 lb. pressure. Instantly we weighed anchor. The moment the

steamer began to move, such a yell of rage went up from the Dervishes

in the fort, as I never heard before or since. Leaping and screaming

on the bank, they took up handfuls of sand and flung them towards us.

They had thought us fled, and the steamer theirs. And there we were,

and there was the steamer moving away up river towards Khartoum; and

the men of Wad Habeshi were naturally disappointed.

{306}

I took the _Safieh_ about a quarter of a mile up stream, both to

confuse the enemy and to enable me to turn outside the narrow channel,

and at a comparatively safe distance. Then we went about, and ran down

at full speed, again concentrating our fire upon the embrasures of the

fort. Once more, as we came abreast of Wad Habeshi, we turned both

Gardners and both howitzers upon the embrasures, in one of which we

burst a shell; while the 20 soldiers and the 14 bluejackets maintained

their steady rifle fire.

We were running now with the stream instead of against it, and our

speed was the greater, and we stormed past the fort without a single

casualty; and then, just as we thought we were clear, lo! there was

Gascoigne's hapless _nuggar_, stuck and helpless some 400 yards below

Wad Habeshi, and in full bearing of its side embrasure. As all

depended upon the safe passage of the _Safieh_, I ran on until we were

a mile from the fort and out of its range, and then dropped anchor.

[Illustration: "RUNNING THE GAUNTLET." THE ACTION OF THE "SAFIEH" AT

WAD HABESHI, 14TH FEBRUARY, 1885]

I dispatched Keppel with six bluejackets in a small boat to the

assistance of the _nuggar_. Rear-Admiral Sir Colin Keppel very kindly

sent to me his account of the affair, based upon the notes made in his

diary at the time. "The riflemen, having got rid of the steamer,

concentrated their fire on the _nuggar_. However, the range was long

and their fire was not very accurate. After we had anchored you

dispatched me in a small boat with six bluejackets to the assistance of

the _nuggar_. After attempting to pull up to her, we found that the

stream was too strong, and so I decided, having obtained your approval

by semaphore, to land on the right bank, track the boat up until well

upstream of the _nuggar_, and thus reach her. I found the only thing

to do was to lighten her; and while Gascoigne and I were throwing

overboard sacks of _dhura_ and other things, I was struck in the groin

by a bullet which went through my breeches but did not penetrate the

skin. It only raised a bruise which made me limp for a few days.

There was a considerable number of wounded in the _nuggar_. When {307}

she was afloat again we drifted down. You got under way in the steamer

and picked us up."

Such is Keppel's modest account of what was a very gallant piece of

service on his part and on the part of Captain Gascoigne, who with

their men were working in the _nuggar_ under fire for three hours. Had

they failed where they so brilliantly succeeded, the whole Column, as

we learned afterwards, would have been jeopardised; for the steamer,

returning to their assistance, would again have come within range of

the fort.

The _nuggar_ was taken in tow, and Captain Gascoigne's heroic struggles

with that unlucky craft were thus ended for the time. A mile below us,

Sir Charles Wilson was waiting for us with his whole detachment. They

were all embarked, and by 5.45 p.m. we had safely arrived at Gubat.

That night I slept so profoundly that I do not know when I should have

awakened, had not first one rat, and then another, walked over my face.

Mr. Benbow's skilled and intrepid service had saved the Column with a

piece of boiler plate and a handful of bolts. He received the special

compliments of Lord Wolseley, who presented him with his own silver

cigarette case; and was promoted to the rank of chief inspector of

machinery. He ought to have received the Victoria Cross; but owing to

the fact that I did not then know that the decoration could be granted

for a service of that nature, I did not, to my great regret, recommend

him for the honour. Mr. James Webber was promoted to be chief

boatswain; and in 1887, his services being once more exceptionally

recommended, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

Surgeon Arthur May's services were inestimable. Always cheery,

indefatigable and zealous, when he was not attending to the wounded

under fire, he was on deck, rifle in hand, among the marksmen. It was

a great pleasure to me to report in the highest terms of the conduct of

the officers and men under my command, and specially to recommend

Lieutenant E. B. van Koughnet, Sub-Lieutenant {308} C. R. Keppel,

Acting-Lieutenant Walter Ingram, Chief Engineer Benbow, Surgeon Arthur

William May and Mr. James Webber, boatswain, and Lieutenant Bower,

commanding the Mounted Infantry.

During the engagement with the fort at Wad Habeshi 5400 rounds were

fired from the Gardner guns, and 2150 from the rifles. The figure for

the brass howitzers is uncertain, the official report giving 126, but

Sub-Lieutenant Keppel, who served one of the guns, mentioned 150 as the

number fired from one gun in one day.

{309}