Chapter 450: The Storm

Lin Chuanqing decided to abandon ship. Everyone would go ashore to seek shelter from the storm. As an old fisherman, he knew the power of a typhoon. Fishing boats in a harbor could still be destroyed and their crews killed during a strong typhoon, so it was a rule that no one stayed on board during a storm.

“Abandon ship? Isn’t it too dangerous to have no one on board?” Zhou Weisen became anxious upon hearing this.

“My dear Zhou, if a typhoon really sweeps over us, we’ll be lucky to survive. You still want the ship?” Lin Chuanqing lit a cigarette and took a few hard puffs.

“But we’ve already entered a sheltered anchorage…”

“You know too little about typhoons.” Lin Chuanqing shook his head repeatedly. Zhou Weisen didn’t argue further. After all, the other man was the formation commander and an old sea dog. Listening to him was always the right thing to do.

Lin Chuanqing immediately ordered a portion of the crew to go ashore with tools and materials to set up a temporary camp on Samar Island. At the same time, the ship’s small boats, light weapons, radio, various controlled materials, and many supplies and equipment were moved ashore in full preparation. Under Lin Chuanqing’s command, another portion of the crew made preparations on board, extinguishing the boilers, closing all watertight hatches, and stowing all loose items from the sails and deck below. Items that couldn’t be stowed were securely tied down. Finally, Lin Chuanqing ordered the hold to be flooded with water to increase the draft and stabilize the center of gravity.

Lin Chuanqing was very worried about the Feiyun. The Feiyun’s full-load displacement was only over a hundred tons, and it was unlikely to survive a typhoon. He suggested simply pulling the Feiyun ashore. So the crew worked together again, unloading some materials from the Nongchao to build a temporary slipway. The Feiyun’s masts and sails were also all removed, and the hull was pulled onto the beach and moved to a sheltered spot on the shore, secured with ropes and anchor chains.

As darkness fell, a fire was lit at the camp on shore. Zhou Weisen and Lin Chuanqing stood side by side on the beach by the camp, watching the restless sea with worried hearts.

“I think we should all stay awake tonight. Everyone has to take turns on watch.”

“You go and rest first. You can take the second half of the night,” Zhou Weisen said. “I can’t sleep in the first half of the night.”

At this moment, 400 kilometers to the south-southwest, east of Mindanao, a disaster was approaching the transmigrators. No one knew which typhoon of the year this was, later often called the “Philippine Sea Butterfly Storm.” At this time, it was moving rapidly north along the eastern side of the Philippine archipelago at a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. The radius of its force 10 winds was 100 kilometers, and the radius of its force 7 winds was 300 kilometers. For the Spanish in Manila, they only brushed the edge of the force 7 wind circle, which was not a major event in the frequently typhoon-stricken Philippines, so there were no special records. And for this reason, there was not a single word about this typhoon in the Great Library’s materials. But for Samar Island, it had devastating power.

Qian Shuiting was suddenly awakened. The wind was howling in his ears, and raindrops as big as beans were hitting his body painfully. The temporarily built grass shelter had been blown away. He groggily got up and found that the wind was so strong he could barely stand. The fire had long been extinguished. In the pitch-black night, only during occasional flashes of lightning could he see the shadowy, swaying trees and a few half-crouching figures. Even if he shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice was drowned out by the wind. He could roughly feel that the wind was almost directly from the north, blowing from the sea towards the shore. Fortunately, the camp was relatively high and had not yet been hit by the waves.

Rain washed over his face, and he could barely open his eyes. He could only hear himself subconsciously saying, “It’s over, it’s all over.” The power of nature was too great.

Suddenly, a particularly bright flash of lightning struck the sea from the sky, so bright that it momentarily blinded him. But it quickly returned to darkness, and the rumbling thunder lasted for more than ten seconds.

The wind and rain continued until the next morning. Although his watch showed it was past six in the morning, the sky was still very dark, the wind and rain were still heavy, and visibility was very poor. The wind blew directly towards the coast. Rows of grayish-white waves surged from the distance, growing higher and higher, finally forming near-ten-meter-high breaking waves that crashed on the coastal coral reefs and surged onto the shore.

The ship was no longer visible at the Nongchao’s anchorage. On the beach, there were scattered pieces of broken wood and tattered canvas. Zhou Weisen’s heart felt like it was being cut by a knife. From the looks of it, the Nongchao was likely lost!

Although the Senate had lost ships before, this was the first time a nearly new steam-powered warship like the Nongchao had been lost! This alone cast a shadow over their operation. He couldn’t help but secretly regret not returning directly, which would have been a perfect ending, instead of being greedy for merit and ending up in this situation.

Over a hundred sailors and marines gathered in the camp, which had been ravaged by the storm, tired and hungry, almost unable to move in the force 10 winds. Although Zhou Weisen and Lin Chuanqing were burning with anxiety, there was nothing they could do in this situation. Amidst the chaos, they only found some military rations, which barely filled their stomachs.

It wasn’t until after noon that the wind and waves gradually subsided. Lin Chuanqing estimated that they had entered the eye of the typhoon. He immediately ordered a roll call and found that 11 people had gone missing during last night’s storm. Lin Chuanqing ordered them to hurry up and cook, tidy up the camp, and at the same time organized people to go to the water’s edge to check the situation, determine the state of the Nongchao, and see if they could find the missing people.

At this time, the rain had lessened, and visibility was better. Zhou Weisen led an exploration team along the coast and saw the Nongchao less than two hundred meters away. The Type 901 gunboat had capsized and was aground on a coral reef about 100 meters from the coast. Its masts and funnel were all broken.

One 130mm main gun had fallen from the deck and was deeply embedded in the reef, with only its muzzle exposed. The wreckage of a machine gun was stuck in the sand, its barrel twisted into a grotesque mess of steel tentacles.

The exploration team searched along the coastline. Besides broken wood and various ship debris, they also found a few shattered human remains. The uniforms of sailors could still be identified on some of them. These men must have been swept into the sea by the storm during the night. Being thrown directly onto the rugged and hard coral reefs by the huge waves, they had almost no hope of survival.

Zhou Weisen went to check on the Feiyun. The Feiyun was undamaged on land, although its hull had shifted in the strong winds. Mendoza had been terrified all night, hiding in her tent and praying. When she saw Zhou Weisen return, she flew into his arms like a bird returning to its nest, a torrent of Spanish pouring out of her mouth. Then she held his face and kissed him frantically.

Zhou Weisen had to do his best to comfort his wife, thinking to himself that these Latin women were so neurotic…

At the second roll call in the afternoon, the number of missing had dropped to six. The others had lost their way in the night and had all returned to the group after daybreak.

It wasn’t until the next morning that the wind and waves finally calmed down. Taking advantage of the low tide, they rowed a small boat to the Nongchao to check the damage to the hull.

The Nongchao was capsized on the reef, its hull flooded in many places. Everything on the deck had been swept away. Repairing it would be a huge undertaking. Just righting it and getting it afloat would be a major project, not to mention the unknown damage to the hull and keel. For a capsized ship, they were completely helpless.

“Well, now we’re Robinson Crusoe,” Zhou Weisen said dejectedly.

“It’s not so bad. We have a lot of people, we’re well-armed, and we have a radio. We can be the lords of this island for a while. It won’t be long before the navy comes to rescue us,” Lin Chuanqing said nonchalantly. “Besides, the Feiyun is intact. As long as we have a ship, we have nothing to fear.”

“We’ll send a telegram back immediately and ask them to send ships to rescue us quickly.”

Afterwards, they gathered all the officers and non-commissioned officers to discuss how to hold out. They then assigned tasks: some to rebuild the camp, some to go to the wreckage of the Nongchao to see if they could salvage any materials, and some to go into the island to cut some wood for building materials and fuel. The rest searched the coast for the missing, buried the dead at sea, and gathered the broken wood to be dried on the shore for firewood.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the Executive Committee in Lingao was as seemingly calm but extremely oppressive as the eye of a typhoon. The members of the Executive Committee and Chen Haiyang of the navy were anxiously waiting for news. Since receiving the telegram from the Feiyun on the afternoon of July 16th about returning early to seek shelter, the people from the Executive Committee and the Naval Command had been waiting at the Lingao main station for a telegram. But they had not received any telegram from either the Feiyun or the 854-mod. Only the two returning ships were still reporting their progress; they had already passed through the Balintang Channel.

They waited until the morning of July 17th, but they couldn’t wait any longer.

“It seems there really is a problem, and a big one. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be no news from either ship. Did they really encounter a typhoon?”

No one answered the possibility that everyone had been reluctant to mention until Ma Qianzhu broke the silence. “Old Chen, can you send a rescue team? Otherwise, have the Daishuang turn back or just send the 8154.”

“The 901’s self-sustainability is insufficient. We can’t have them turn back to check the situation. Besides, without the Daishuang’s escort, the Haifeng towing a galleon would be very dangerous. The 8154 fishing boat doesn’t have enough fuel to travel that far.”

“The Haitian is waiting for maintenance in Hong Kong. We could suspend the maintenance and have it make a trip to the Philippines first,” Chen Haiyang said. “The Haitian hasn’t been used much, so its maintenance needs are not particularly urgent.”

He Ming said, “Bei Wei is leading a detachment for training and activities in Xiangshan’ao. We can have them board the ship in case of any unexpected situations.”

“But they are not familiar with the sea route and the situation.”

“Then let’s do it. Send the telegram.”