1899

As the first year of the war became, what would be later, the first full year of the war, the Governments of the world began to wonder exactly what kind of situation they were in. Everything that they had been led to believe about the current state of military affairs proved to be disastrously wrong. In London, Lord Salisbury was preparing his proposal for a conscription system that was similar to the other major powers of the time. His ally on the continent, Kaiser Wilhelm had already ordered a full mobilization. It went well beyond what any pre-war planners had envisioned. As a result, Germany would start to feel the effects of what a war time economy really was and long before any of the other belligerents. Boulanger, from his headquarters at the Sedan, does not seem to have changed very much about the overall French war plan but, the tones of his speeches turned from ones of triumphant glory to the virtues of self sacrifice.

In North America, the first day of the new year passed by without much fanfare. The three leading participants of the conflict, on this continent at least, were unique by the virtue that they were all nominally democracies. Unlike the course of the war across the Atlantic, the opinions of the populations of Canada, the US, and the CS were of importance to those who where leading the conflict. Longer wars were not unheard of in North America. The American 61 had stretched on for almost four long years. What the people in North America were horrified by was the never ending list of casualties that were flowing back from the front like a giant tidal wave. All of these men had seemed to be spent in useless attacks that gained little to nothing.

When it became obvious to men like Root, Wheeler, and Salisbury that no significant gains were likely to come on land, at least for the foreseeable future, they quickly looked to their navies for some quick victories. Unfortunately, the navies of the world found themselves in their own peculiar sort of quagmire. In Europe, the Royal Navy, reinforced by the Kriegsmarine, eagerly sought a confrontation with the French fleet. The French were reluctant to engage. They chose to keep their ships safely in harbor. They realized all too soon that just the existence of their fleet, with it’s wide and far flung bases, were enough to keep the Royal Navy pinned down. They did not need a battle to fulfill their objectives.

This strategy would not have been possible had it not been for a quiet revolution in naval warfare that little was known of beyond the professionals of the day. Submerged mines had been tested out by both the US and Confederacy during the American 61. By the end of that war they had made extensive use of them and had laid the frame work for what would become the modern naval mine and the strategies to use them. By 1898, every navy in the world had devoted great resources to the naval mine. At the start of hostilities, every major port in the world would be sitting safely behind belt after belt, denying enemies the ability to get in close. It allowed the French fleet to sit safely in port while their cruisers slipped out and raided British merchant ships across the globe.

This would be a serious problem for the Royal Navy throughout most of the war. The British had been in the habit of using their Indian Ocean fleet as a reserve for the Asiatic and European fleets. After all, the Indian Ocean was considered a British Lake at the time. Most of the ships that were stationed there were of the oldest and least modern. Soon those ships would be pitted against modern French and American cruisers who could safely refuel and supply from a multitude of French safe havens and bases in Indo China and East Africa.

Of course these raids would not really begin in earnest until much later in 1899. The British still had one serious trump card to play and that was her East Asian Fleet that was based in Hong Kong and under the command of Admiral Seymour. For the Americans and French, before any real damage could be done to the vital British supply lines coming out of India, the first thing that would need be done is to cripple Seymour’s fleet. There was no one on the entire planet who was more willing to do this than the commander of the American Great White Fleet, Admiral Mahan.

In many stories that have appeared since the war, Mahan and Seymour were quite often portrayed as the great antagonists. Both have been often described as serious, belligerent, and hardened warriors who were determined to destroy the other. In truth, Mahan and Seymour had enjoyed a rather amicable relationship before the war. Mahan was well known throughout his profession, nationalities not withstanding. At the start of the war, Mahan was at the very end of his career while Seymour was just reaching the peak of his. Both men were rather soft spoken, well read, and were considered humanitarians of the first degree. Apparently they enjoyed each others company as well. They had met several times before the war and, if eye witness accounts are to be believed, they had rather lively conversations about Mahan’s book. When Seymour was first notified that Mahan had reached Port Arthur, Seymour’s first act was to send Mahan an invitation to dinner in Hong Kong, to be scheduled for the first opportune moment.

These two men were the least likely of belligerents but, their nations were not. Mahan, like most American officers of his day, was desirous of a show down with the British fleet. Events would play right into Mahan’s hands and it would start with Custer’s capture of Peking. As Mahan had promised, the rescued Europeans from the legations were handed over to officials of their respective nations. One of these men was the Minister to China, from Great Britain, the man we have already met, Claude McDonald. McDonald reported that he was treated quite well by the Americans and even received as a hero by Mahan in Tientsin. After enjoying the Admirals table, McDonald boarded an Italian Cruiser, with his family, and set sail for Japan. Once in Tokyo, McDonald made a full report of events in China, to his counterpart there, Minister Satow.

Satow had been in Japan for several years now, and was in the middle of negotiating a treaty with the Japanese that would completely normalize relations between the two countries. The treaty was almost finished but, when war broke out, the Japanese stepped back. Satow, who had become quite an expert on the Japanese, understood the situation all too well. The Japanese were not about to turn the treaty down. Great Britain could offer them too much in the way of things they needed. The war could very well change all that and they were obviously waiting to see if Britain would be able to deliver on their end. McDonald was of the opinion that the Japanese were just using the war as leverage.

Neither man knew the truth of the situation. Japan had been planning on war with Russia. The new conflict created a rift in Japanese thinking. One faction did not believe that Japan was yet ready to go to war. They believed the best course of action was to let the Europeans slug it out and then pick up the pieces. The other faction was of the opinion that the conflict was the opportunity that they had been waiting on. Until the arrival of McDonald, the two sides had been dead locked on the issue. McDonald’s conversations with many key members of the Meiji Government would cause a significant shift in factions. The Hawks would win their internal power struggle and Japan would soon commit to the British cause.

This shift in the Japanese position was not lost on the other nations. It had become clear by January that Japan was preparing for war. Russia and their American allies became concerned. The Japanese fleet was most obviously not ready for war just yet. They were unable to take on the American Great White Fleet but, the position of Japan itself  would threaten Mahan’s lines of supply and communication. If the British were to move their fleet to bases in Japan, then Russia’s hold on Manchuria, which was now in the final phases of consolidation, and America’s contact with Alaska and Seattle, would be in jeopardy. Mahan decided to be proactive and chose a target that the British could not refuse to defend.

The Japanese army in Korea had been building up for battle for many years at this point. Their preparedness and zeal would soon shock their Russian adversaries but, they did have one Achilles heal and that was their only real port in Korea, the city of Pusan. It was not yet adequately defended and Mahan realized that if he could get in a strike on the city, possibly even capture it, then the Japanese war effort would be neutralized before it even started. He began making preparations at once and was not all too quiet about it. As Mahan hoped, Seymour became aware of both the preparations and the objectives of the Great White Fleet.

On January the 25th, the day that Japan declared War on the United States and it’s Allies, both fleets were almost on top of each other, positioned in the narrow straits that sat between Japan and the Korean Peninsular. It would be the first major naval engagement of the war, and the very last of the pre-dreadnaught/Texas Class battleship era. Every class of ship on the seas was used that day. It would be the first time that there was a liberal use of smoke screens by ships. Torpedo boats would make several runs, cruisers and battleships would slug it out with each other. Ships from several fleets would participate. It was seen by the world as the first major event of the war even if it was really not.

Mahan had sixteen battleships, all American, and twenty eight cruisers of which six were Russian. He had four squadrons of Torpedo Destroyers and a like number of Torpedo boats. He had his fleet axillaries which included most of his supply ships, troop transports, and even ice breakers. Arrayed against him, Seymour had a slight advantage in numbers with twenty two battleships, three of which were Japanese and, in reality, those ships were older British vessels that had been retired by the Royal Navy. Seymour had a definite advantage in Cruisers since his fleet had a mix of German, Confederate, and Japanese vessels that were added too his own. In all, Seymour was commanding thirty-three cruisers but their quality was uneven. The best proved to be the German and Confederate Cruisers who were both new and of the most advanced designs. They would make a good accounting of themselves on this day. In all, well over a hundred naval vessels would participate in the battle, quite possibly the largest since Trafalgar.

When the smoke finally cleared, both sides would claim victory. Tactically, the battle was easily a draw as both sides suffered similar casualties. The British had slightly more ships either sunk or seriously damaged but, this could easily be explained by the fact that they had more ships to be sunk. Away from the headlines, in the planning rooms of the worlds fleets, the battle was seen more as a serious wake up call. Nothing happened in the battle that had been theorized. The first major weakness, that became obvious, was what gunners had been saying all along. The multitude of gun calibers, on a ship, were lending themselves to problems in finding range. That much had been suspected at least. There were some other problems that came from clear out of the blue.

Both British and American capital ships found themselves far more vulnerable to enemy cruisers than they would have liked to admit. This was never better illustrated than the slugging match that developed between the CSS Sharpsburg and the USS Maine. The former was a Confederate heavy cruiser that had been built on French technology and German designs. She was not quite two years old at the time of the battle. The USS Maine was, quite probably, one of the oldest battleships in the Great White Fleet. 

Despite the age difference the Maine had the Sharpsburg in both tonnage and firepower. Maine should have quickly dispatched the cruiser but this did not happen. The Maine did land hit after hit on the Confederate Cruiser but she did not stop shooting back. Maine did finally manage to run the Sharpsburg off but, the Maine found herself dead in the water when that happened. She was useless from that point on. In fact, Maine had to be towed back to Port Arthur and would never leave that harbor again. Her damage was too extensive. She would become, in effect, a shore battery sitting in shallow water.

This one fight puzzled many experts and they quickly sought out the reason for the unexplainable battle. It was noticed that German and Confederate vessels had a key difference in their designs, at least, when compared to similar ships around the world. Their hulls were compartmentalized. The German and Confederate Navies also drilled their men extensively on damage control. It was something the US and Royal Navies did not. The Sharpsburg survived hits that would have sunk a US Cruiser, and stayed in the fight longer, allowing her to land many critical hits on her opponent, because when one section of her hull was damaged it was quickly closed off and the flooding was controlled.

This revelation horrified naval officers in London, Washington, and Paris. Suddenly, their very expensive, and proud fleets were hopelessly obsolete. It was also too late to do anything about it. They would have to fight this war with what they had on hand. This would mean making due and that meant avoiding another expensive lesson like the one they had learned in the battle of the Yellow Sea. This would change the character of naval operations for the rest of the war. Now the fighting would be carried by the cruisers, in far flung, small, hit and run attacks where the enemy was weakest. Here the British were the most vulnerable. That is why the battle, in the long run, was a sound American victory.