Richard Castle and the USS Santa Barbara
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Except for the true parts, this is fiction. Rating: K, mostly. Time: The turn of the 20th Century.
"There are well over a hundred men on the dock and they're screaming at us, Mr. Doyle." Castle said.
"Oh, that they are, Your Lordship, but they'll be no bother. Mr. Ming, the local head of the merchant's association will see to that. Ah, here he comes with his fellows now."
Mr. Ming was dressed in gaudy silks, much like a mandarin. With him were forty or so coolies and half that many men carrying rifles.
"Your Lordship, you'll be seeing that Mr. Ming has men from the local Big Swords Society with him. There'll be no problems here."
"Big Sword Society?" Kate asked, having come to the bridge.
"Yes, Your Ladyship. They're a traditional rural militia raised to fight bandits. Some of them you might call vigilantes, and some are just gangsters, but they are a rough lot."
Castle had been examining them through his binoculars.
"They do all seem to have large swords strapped to their backs."
"So they do, Your Lordship. So they do."
The angry Chinese edged towards the Big Sword men. The militia arranged themselves in a ragged skirmish line around Mr. Ming. One man came nearer and began yelling at the Chinese merchant. Ming smiled, nodded and one of his men fired one round. The protestor fell to the ground, dead.
"You see, Your Lordship, no problems."
"One man had a problem." Castle muttered.
Doyle had already stepped out onto the bridge wing, yelling at Mr. Ming.
"Ding hao, Your Lordship. Ding hao!" Bowing as he yelled.
Mr. Ming bowed back, then went about his business.
By the time the cargo was unloaded, it was getting dark. The smaller merchant ships didn't like to travel at night, so moored in a ragged line in the middle of the river. Castle didn't trust the merchant men to keep a good watch, so he had the Santa Barbara circle the moored vessels.
"Captain, there's a fire upriver." Lieutenant Franklin advised Castle.
Castle who had been snoozing in a chair on the bridge came awake.
"Where?"
"Up river someplace. I can see the sky glow from the fires and occasional flames, but it's hard to calculate the distance. It's big, though. Maybe a whole village burning."
"We'll check it out tomorrow."
Before he could go back to sleep, Kate came on the bridge with a plate of food.
"The other officers have been able to go to the wardroom to eat, but you apparently don't think you need food, dear." She said with mock severity. "I had Petty Officer Montgomery make you some nice sandwiches and he's filled a Dewar flask with hot coffee. The flask will keep the coffee hot."
Castle accepted the plate and put the coffee beside him.
"I assume the flask was left behind by the former Spanish Captain."
"I really have no idea, dear."
The next morning, they came upon the site of the burned-out village. Although it wasn't one of their stops, Castle stopped the convoy and went ashore with a party of Marines and Mr. Doyle.
"The village is burned out." Said Lieutenant Smith. "The bodies are all male, or small children. Whoever did this, took the women and older children away as slaves."
"Any idea who did this, Doyle? Boxers, perhaps?" Castle asked.
"I think not, Your Lordship. This isn't a Christian village and they didn't work for any foreign company. There are many freebooters in China who have no political agenda."
"Won't the government come to investigate?"
"In China, Your Lordship? I fear not. The Imperial government doesn't bother itself much with the peasantry except to tax them and conscript their sons for the army."
Castle took a long, hard look at the ruined village.
"Back to the ship then."
They made their next stop just before noon. Approaching the small city, they saw a column of cavalry riding along the river. The horsemen ignored them.
"Trouble?" Castle asked, pointing to the cavalry.
"Not for us, Your Lordship. The city and its environs are under the Mandarin Wei. Mean devil he is, as mean as any bloody English landlord. He has no use for us long nosed ocean barbarians, as the Chinese like to call us. He thinks the Chinese should copy the Japanese and welcome us and learn from us until they have a strong army and navy and can tell us to bugger off."
"Any chance the Chinese will do that?"
"The Imperial Court has two factions, Your Lordship. One wants to use the Boxers to kick us all out of China. The other says that once the Boxers kick us westerners out, they'll turn on the Manchus."
"Manchus?" Castle said.
"The Qing Dynasty is descended from invaders from Manchuria who took over China in 1644, much like Genghis Khan did several centuries before. The Chinese regard them as much a bunch of foreigners as we are."
Doyle and Castle turned to face Kate.
"Your Ladyship is as wise as you are beautiful. How do you know so much about China?"
"I'm a teacher by trade. It's my job to know things."
There were no problems at that stop. There were several hundred Chinese infantry in the vicinity of the docks and they looked ready for trouble. Castle wondered if they would eventually be trouble for him and his ship.
Things did not go well at all at their next and last stop.
"The warehouses by the docks have been burned down, Captain." Franklin said.
"And there be no people on the dock to unload, Your Lordship. Not a good sign, I fear. Not good at all."
Castle and his officers examined the town through binoculars. Castle picked up the speaking tube to the lookout mounted in the ship's fighting top.
"This is the captain. Can you see anything in the town?"
"No, sir. I can't see any sign of any people, although I can see smoke from cooking fires. There are people there, but they're staying out of sight."
Castle thought for a moment.
"Signal the steamers to stay where they are and send the crew to battle stations. We'll go in a bit closer to take a look."
The crews ran to man their weapons, shut the watertight doors, drop steel shutters over the windows of the bridge and portholes, and otherwise make the ship ready to combat.
"All ahead full." Castle said. "We'll go by as fast as we can so if anything bad happens, we'll be able to get out quickly." He turned to Kate. "Kate would you…"
He saw her shake her head.
"Why would I even ask that?"
The Santa Barbara closed to within five hundred yards of the docks. A volley of rifle fire slammed into the ship, the bullets clanging off the ship's steel hull and superstructure. One bullet smashed a window on the bridge and went through the vision slit in the steel shutters. Castle heard the bullet ricocheting around the bridge and instinctively grabbed Kate and pushed her up against the steel bulkhead.
When the bullet stopped, Kate grinned up at him.
"Really, dear. You'll just have to wait until after we wed."
Castle heard suppressed laughter behind him, but when he wheeled around, everyone was looking away from him and he was sure their expressions were quite serious.
"Mr. Franklin, return their fire using just the 57mm guns, pom poms, and the machine guns. Using our main battery would doubtlessly hit the buildings in the town and cause civilian casualties."
The Santa Barbara fired into the dock area, but it soon became obvious that there was no return fire. The Boxers, or whoever they were, had seen they couldn't damage the ship and had pulled out.
"No point in trying to land our cargo, Your Lordship. The warehouses are gone and I'm sure the merchants who were waiting for us are either dead or in hiding. We may as well turn back to Shanghai."
Castle would have liked to have landed a party to investigate, but recognized the wisdom of Doyle's decision.
US Naval Headquarters
Shanghai, China
August 28, 1899.
"I can read your formal report later, Captain Castle." Captain Mallory said. "I've been receiving reports of your actions by telegraph and by travelers coming in by railroad. You've had a busy time of it. If you could just hit the high spots verbally for me?"
Castle explained what had happened as best as he could, not sure how much detail Mallory wanted.
"The last town you were at, Chengdu, I believe is the name of the place? You were fired upon and replied with 57mm, pom pom, and machine gun fire. Is that correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"According to some Chinese newspapers, you opened fire on a peaceful town with your main battery and fired into the town for hours, killing hundreds of innocent Chinese men, women and children."
"That's a lie, sir." Castle said indignantly.
"Yes, it is. We have many other reports testifying to your real actions, but you'll have to get used to this sort of propaganda. And to being called the Butcher of Chengdu by some people. Not just the Chinese, either. Some of the more sensationalist press in the US and elsewhere, and some anti-imperialists are quite prepared to think the worst of us."
"I'm not sure I like that, sir."
"Don't worry about it. No one in the Navy and few others in Congress or the Administration, pay any attention to any newspapers outside the US. Those that do read the South China Morning Post, from Hong Kong. In fact, you made their most recent edition." Mallory handed him a newspaper. "They were quite complimentary. I've sent a copy to the Navy Department to show what the respectable papers think of you."
"Thank you, sir."
"You'll probably be called worse. There are more Boxer problems in the north of China and it's spreading to the Yangtze Valley. I fear that that the Chengdu skirmish is just the start."
Captain Mallory was correct.
USS Santa Barbara
Shanghai, China
August 28, 1899.
"What did Captain Mallory have to say, sir?" Franklin asked as soon as Castle stepped onto the bridge.
Castle explained that he was now the Butcher of Chengdu and that worse was probably to come.
"We were attacked, sir. We were just defending ourselves." Franklin said angrily. The rest of the officers on the bridge muttered angrily among themselves.
"So we were, but we will not let some bad press keep us from doing our duty."
"Speaking of duty, sir. Have you seen what's coming into Shanghai right now?"
"What?" Castle was curious.
"Look to the south, sir. The Royal Navy has sent reinforcements. There's the protected cruiser HMS Prometheus, and four torpedo boat destroyers. They also have a civilian transport carrying a battalion of the South Essex Regiment. We'll have some more help now."
"If Captain Mallory is correct, we'll need it." Castle took one last look at the approaching ships, then turned away. "You have the con, Mr. Franklin. I'll be in my cabin."
When Castle opened the door to his cabin, once again he saw Kate sitting at his desk reading newspapers. This time she looked furious.
"Reading the newspapers?" He asked.
"Hardly. There is absolutely no news in this!"
"Ah, you've read about my new title?"
"Don't be facetious, Rick. The Butcher of Chengdu? That's awful! It's libelous! We should sue them!"
"I doubt if we could find the people who published this, lover. The Imperial Chinese government hates freedom of the press as well as many other foreign ideas. If they're ever caught, they'll be beheaded long before we could sue them."
"I don't wish that on anyone, but they should pay." Kate said angrily.
"Many things happen that should not happen, and many things that shouldn't happen do happen. I'm sorry."
"Oh, forget it. I know what kind of man you are and so do anyone who's opinion I care about. Let them write whatever they please. Publish and be damned, I say."
TBC