Looking Seaward Again

Looking Seaward Again

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Runciman
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Title: Looking Seaward Again
Author: Walter Runciman
Release Date: March 1, 2005 [eBook #15222]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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SEAWARD AGAIN***
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LOOKING SEAWARD AGAIN
by
Sir WALTER RUNCIMAN, Bart.,
Author of _The Shellback's Progress_, _Windjammers and Sea
Tramps_, etc.
London: Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd.
1907.

TO MY WIFE THESE FRAGMENTS ARE AFFECTIONATELY
INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.
The following tales have been told to some few men and women by the

fireside. The stories themselves only claim to be unvarnished matters of
fact; and I may repeat here what I said in a previous volume, that my
object has not been to strain after literary effect or style. My too early
desertion of home-life to graduate in the harsh and whimsical discipline
of sailing-vessels in the days when they had still some years to live and
"carry on" ere steam took the wind out of their sails, precluded such
studies as are natural to the embryo man of letters. But the
circumstances that told against mere study did not prevent my
preserving many memories of my sojourns ashore and voyages in
distant seas. I mention this fact, not as an apology, but as an
explanation which I hope may commend itself to the amiable reader.
WALTER RUNCIMAN.
_3rd December_ 1907.

CONTENTS.
THROUGH TORPEDOES AND ICE FAIR TRADE AND FOUL
PLAY SMUGGLERS OF THE ROCK A PASHA BEFORE PLEVNA
A RUSSIAN PORT IN THE 'SIXTIES "DUTCHY" AND HIS CHIEF

Through Torpedoes and Ice
"Osman the Victorious," as Skobeleff called the matchless Turkish
pasha, had kept the Russian hordes at bay for one hundred and
forty-two days. Never in the annals of warfare had the world beheld
such unexpected military genius, combined with stubborn endurance,
as was shown during the siege of Plevna. On December 10th, 1877,
Osman came out and made a desperate struggle to break through the
Russian lines; but after four hours' hard fighting the Turks sent up the
white flag, and boisterous cheering swelled over the snow-clad land
when it became known that the greatest Turkish general of modern
times had surrendered. His little army of Bashi-Bazouks had
annihilated more than one Siberian battalion. The Russian loss was
forty thousand, and the Turkish thirty thousand. Had Suleiman and the
other Turkish generals shown the same stubborn spirit as Osman, the
Russian army would never have been permitted to cross the Balkans,
much less reach Constantinople.[1] But after the fall of Plevna the
resistance of the Turkish army was feeble, and the Muscovites were not

long in pitching their camp at San Stefano. Indeed, a rumour got abroad
one night that the Russians were in the suburbs of Constantinople. This
roused the indignation of the English jingoes to such a pitch that the
great Jewish Premier, with the dash that characterized his career, gave
peremptory orders for the British fleet to proceed, with or without leave,
through the Dardanelles, and if any resistance was shown to silence the
forts. Russia protested and threatened, and Turkey winked a stern
objection, but Lord Beaconsfield was firm, and suitable arrangements
were arrived at between the Powers.
Bismarck offered his services as mediator, and suggested that a
European Congress should be held at Berlin to discuss the contents of
the Treaty of San Stefano. This was agreed to, and Lord Beaconsfield,
accompanied by Lord Salisbury, were the British representatives at the
Congress. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary drove a hard
and favourable bargain for Turkey and for Britain. Turkey, it is
needless to say, got the worst of it; but, considering her crushing defeat,
came well out of the settlement. Cyprus was ceded to the British, to be
used as a naval station, and subsequent experience has proved the
wisdom of this acquisition. Lord Beaconsfield proclaimed to a
tumultuous crowd on the occasion of his return to London that he had
brought back "peace with honour." This was the acme of the great Jew's
fame. It looked as though he could have done anything he liked with
the British people, so that it is no wonder that the old man lost his
balance when such homage was paid him by that section of the public
which was smitten with his picturesque and audacious personality.
Naturally, his policy impregnated Russia with a strong anti-British
feeling, and it was said that her