The Great War Syndicate

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But as these projectiles seemed to have no effect upon the solid back of Crab H, two great anvils were hoisted at the end of the spanker-boom, and dropped, one after the other, upon it. The shocks were tremendous, but the internal construction of the crabs provided, by means of upright beams, against injury from attacks of this kind, and the great masses of iron slid off into the sea without doing any damage.

Finding it impossible to make any impression upon the mailed monster at his stern, the commander of the Lenox hailed the director of the repeller, and swore to him through his trumpet that if he did not immediately order the Lenox to be set free, her heaviest guns should be brought to bear upon his floating counting-house, and that it should be sunk, if it took all day to do it.

It would have been a grim satisfaction to the commander of the Lenox to sink Repeller No. 6, for he knew the vessel when she had belonged to the United States navy. Before she had been bought by the Syndicate, and fitted out with spring armour, he had made two long cruises in her, and he bitterly hated her, from her keel up.

The director of the repeller agreed to release the Lenox the instant her commander would consent to return to port. No answer was made to this proposition, but a dynamite gun on the Lenox was brought to bear upon the Syndicate's vessel. Desiring to avoid any complications which might ensue from actions of this sort, the repeller steamed ahead, while the director signalled Crab H to move the stern of the Lenox to the windward, which, being quickly done, the gun of the latter bore upon the distant coast.

It was now very plain to the Syndicate director that his words could have no effect upon the commander of the Lenox, and he therefore signalled Crab H to tow the United States vessel into port. When the commander of the Lenox saw that his vessel was beginning to move backward, he gave instant orders to put on all steam. But this was found to be useless, for when the dynamite gun was about to be fired, the engines had been ordered stopped, and the moment that the propeller-blades ceased moving the nippers of the crab had been released from their hold upon the stern-post, and the propeller-blades of the Lenox were gently but firmly seized in a grasp which included the rudder. It was therefore impossible for the engines of the vessel to revolve the propeller, and, unresistingly, the Lenox was towed, stern foremost, to the Breakwater.

The news of this incident created the wildest indignation in the United States navy, and throughout the country the condemnation of what was considered the insulting action of the Syndicate was general. In foreign countries the affair was the subject of a good deal of comment, but it was also the occasion of much serious consideration, for it proved that one of the Syndicate's submerged vessels could, without firing a gun, and without fear of injury to itself, capture a man-of-war and tow it whither it pleased.