The Japan expedition. Japan and around the world by J. W. (J. Willett) Spalding

Author:J. W. (J. Willett) Spalding [Spalding, J. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9784861660412
Google: W-ttPwAACAAJ
Publisher: Edition Synapse
Published: 2007-01-15T00:47:42+00:00

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CHAPTER XI.

Six months precisely from the day of the first landing of the Americans in Japan, the mail having arrived from Suez, and the other vessels of the squadron having left in advance, we prepared to follow. On the morning of the 14th of January, the black smoke rolling away from their funnels, announced steam being gotten up on three as large war-steamers as were to be seen in any waters—the Powhatan, the Susquehanna, and the old Mississippi steam-frigates. Considering their size, it was a sight that the harbor of Hong Kong had never before witnessed, and will no doubt be many a day before it shall see again. At half-past ten in the morning, everything being ready, agreeably to signal the ships got under way, the Susquehanna leading out, and the Powhatan and Mississippi following, with the Lexington and Southampton in tow. As the flag-ship passed the Winchester, the English admiral manned his rigging, cheered, and fired a parting salute, which was returned promptly.

The first part of the run we had fine steamingweather. We stood up to Breaker Point on the China coast, and then headed across the channel for the south end of the island of Formosa. In three days this land was in sight, and we ran past it on a lovely evening, with the cultivation and fine growth of trees in full view. The setting sun soon lit up gorgeously the whole picture, and nature in its beauty having no barbaric phase, one could scarcely realize that a spot so lovely to the sight, was the home of a lot of throat-cutting, piratical Chinese refugees. Before daylight disappeared, we saw the lonely spike-headed Velo Rete rocks, standing in mid-ocean, a dreaded thing to mariners, and right ahead was visible the conical little island of Botel Tobago.

At night we passed the island of Sammassama, inhabited by a peculiar people. In two days more we had rough, stormy weather, and the ships in tow were cast off to proceed under sail. The navigation among the islands on the northeastern side of Formosa, owing to the currents, becomes very intricate.

On the night of the 19th we could hear the breakers, on the reef surrounding the island of Typinsan, on which the Providence, English twenty-gun ship, was wrecked in 1790. We passed the Amakarimas on the 21st, and in the evening the three steamers anchored in the roads of Napa, Loo-Choo, where we found the razee Macedonian, the sloop-of-war Vandalia, and the storeship Supply. In a few days the two other storeships arrived, and the weather became very rough. The sea broke and tumbled furiously in over the reefs, while the ships rolled at their moorings, and communication by boat between them was almost discontinued.

About this time a young assistant engineer of the Susquehanna died, and the boats that accompanied the body for burial ashore, had to row through the heavy sea. Pity but that he had been left at Macao, from which place he had written to his friends not to write him again as he would soon be home.

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