For some it
(Continued from Pago 0)
be
CX- the
them before. There would Ko difficulty about that, the general informed him; la change for the Potemkin, entire crew, If they wished, could acquire Rumanian nation- ality, and an nasurance that they could live fue de long us they wished in complete freedom.
Soon after. daybreak, the men began to come ashore in relays in the ship's boats and her launch, many of them Jubilant now in spite of their desperate hunger, and others Fonded with linen, clothes, far- Raul belonginga and ever some of the furnishings of the officers' cablus,
They were received on dockside enthusiastically, and us conquering heroes by the com- mittue und members of the total Surial-Democratie party.
Only 15 petly ufficers and Lieutenant Alexeev-the young officer who had stayed with the mutineers
refused the Ruananians' heppitality, elain- ing this they had been forted al pistal-point to remain in the Potemkin. These new were alven permission to leave for Sevi stupol in the Potemkin's torpedo bant, the N287.
Scuttled
Shortly before their depar ture, the battleship. 10 which
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1960.
was the firing squad; for some, prison... and
KING CAROL of' Rumania in promised the
rofuge.
1905 mutinaers
for some
-revels in London
THROUGHOUT the Potemkin's fantastic cruise of the Black Sea, her Tha torpedo boat, the N267 (above), was her faithful companion. N267's final mission was to bring a few reluctant mutineers back
Russia.
to
THE FUGITIVES FIND
FRIENDS IN BRITAIN
the torpedo boat had been t must have known that few of aud faithful satellite ever since the them were likely to survive. mutiny, began to settle int the "But there was no turning back. shullow waler of Constanza Had they tot swom to destreg the mulhous bottleship and avenge the deaths of their tel low-officers?
harbour.
The Poterik's sen cocks had been secretly openid O The orders of Matushenko by a de- voled group of committee mem- bers who hoped their last. deed. would prevent their ship ever again becoming a unit of the Russian Imperial Navy. The great ballicship's hull was tying on the bottom before the torpecio boat was out of sight.
By the time of the Putemkin's surrender, the Imperial Hussan Navy had assembled another squadron with orders to bring the insurgent ship to Justice Lt all costs. It arrived at Con- planza Just 24 hours too late.
The mutineers were ashore.
Sighted
already
the
The little Stremitelty hourd the news of the Potemkini's stir- render even Juter nuval headquarters at Sevasto- pol. All through the night of July 7 she steamert south at her maximum speed, and then north again towards the Crimea on zig-zag course in search of her Jashore. prey. She was close
early near Yalta,
the next sighted morning when she
:1 vessel to the south.
So far ny the Stremitelny's commander was aware, lis was the only worship besides the Potemkin at sea, and he theres fore had pood reason for believing that his tireless sistence had ones rewarded #1 Last. This vessel
was un-
doubledly a warship and has three funnels; of the same height and spacing as the battle- ship's.
S at full speed, he altered course towards the hip and ordered the torpedo tubes to be swung put ready for altack.
It was daylight, and besides her heavy guns, he knew the Potemkin was Well equipped with quick-dirers especially de- signed to deal with torpedo-boat atibck, and was accompanied by her own torpedo-boat.
In the imperfect visibility, the Steemitelny was not aware for some time that her target was only the old traking ship Pamlat Mercuria.
When the commander at last recognised her, he continued to approach the vessel in the hope that she might have news of the battleship, only to observe the Pamiat turn away as if in re- treat and put on speed.
Gap closes
The training ship's haste and
disembark prepared to
further delar. But otthout
left when he
the captabe's drck again cabin and came on he saw to his dismay that his ship had suddenly disappeared
Her bellad a cloud of steant. bellers had finally succumber to. 12 days of exireme pressure and the tubes had exploded. The purmit was over.
Honoured
The Rumanian Government honoured its pledge to The and des- Potemkin mutineers pite incensed protests from St refused to baudi Petersburg, them over.
Jobs were lound
for them. Many married and yetiled down, But things did not work put
us the mutheers had quhe
nervousness -wule understand hoped. able, for she, in her um, had nol
bew Inforned of the The first hint of trouble with Stremitelny's secret mission and the Rumanian authorities came a year later, with the Rumanian
prising peasants' organised by the Social-Demo- crâtle parly.
believed that she was about to be blown up by the Potemisias torpedo-boat, the only one she knew, was at sea. Nor could the Pamint be expected to know that the Stremitelny had Imgot- ten her coxle book
and
1000..
The Potemkin survivors, with was their revolutionary record, al Serefore unable identity once became suspect, and some herself.
85 of them were without trial.
when
food consisted almost solely of maize porridge, a dish as BO- palstable to the Russia 'muujik, It would be to the British Jabourer. Theft, agricultural insubordination, violence, and, to ono case at least, the murder of an overseer followed."
courageously
The more stole endured their hardships
until, years later, the whole episode hid been forgotten. Others sought their foglines elsewhere,
Matuskenko himself. 10- gether with four of his friends, accepted the terms of
offered an amnesty
by the Russian Government In 1987.
Perhaps it was family ties, or the opportunity for continuing the revolutionary Ectivity to which he had dedicated himself, which drew him back to his homeland. But at the frontier
he was taken into custody, and His later hanged as a traitor." companions were sent to Siberis,
To London
Malushenko's
right hand man, Josef Dymitchenko, then 30
But with the assistance of the German Social Demceratic Parly, they at last reached London vin Flushing and Queensborough.
Now an organisation called the British Friends of Russian Freedom took over, and an appeal was issued for funds to allow the ex-mutineers and their families to emigrate. The fund was headed by prominent committee members. of the society, including George Macaulay Trevelyan, the hip- torian, and his brother Charles. It was stated that in South America there was "every prospect of the Russians being able to obtain a decent livell hood, seeing that they were ali vigorous and healthy, and used to work on the land,"
The British Friends found the necessary funds for the party's passage, and did even beller than that,
They invited them all to a public meeting al "Wonder land" in Whitechapel, where distinguished Socialists mude speeches,
Nor was
that all. On the 16, a years old, fled from Rumania' in eveling of September 10
more imprisoned the summer of 1008, disillusioned meeting of a
convivial and embittered by his treat character wus held in White- ment, stilt in search of the chapel": and tongs in both After the revul! had been freedom and independence for Russian and English were sung. crushed, they all became marked which he had committed mutiny The next day they all sailed men, and at times
of domestic and murder three years before. for the Argentine." crisis, and particularly Vessela
prominent Russians or membery With him were 31 extmpanions, of the Imperial Royal Family who travelled with their wives paid a visit to the country, they had children. With their were subject to police super meagre savings commanander
they bought vision and all manner of restrie- tickets that would take them. to tions, which included a prohibi- London, tion to change jobs or their place of residence.
The Pariat Mercuris attempl- ed for some tine to out-pace in spite the torpedn-bont, but of her efforts the gip between the mutually suspielouis rapidly elased, unt at last the Stremiteiny was able to C- municate by semaphore and ask permission for her to come aboard.
Explained
When this was granted and identity
Hust established, Lieutenant Yanovich was rowed aeross in a whaler manned, to the astonishment of the safors of the Pariat, by a crew of officers armed with revolvers.
Deported
Several of the ex-sailors who flouted these regulations were deported to Russia, where they were tried and sent tu labour time battalions in Siberia. As
Within a few minutes the two passed the tiny minority group commanders were able to ex- still remaining in Rumanla plain their respective roles: the found Hie more and more Pamial's as a temporary hos dificult, pital ship in the event that, the feet forced the Potemkin to action; the Stremitelny's more desperate suicide mission.
The odds were heavily agingt
Lieutenant Yanovich was success, and the crew of offers andïqus to confizur the chase
Nor was their position made easier by the behaviour of cer- lain of their old shipmates who, according to one report "soon discovered that the wages were lower than in Russia, that the
These refugees were for a time held at the German frontier at Ratisbon tis dis- possessed persons, and Al
• Hamburg the shipping company refused to carry them for fear of contravening the Aliens Act.
Among those who never reached Rumania and faced the Czar's justice-principally from the George the Conqueror and the Fruth-a total of seven were put to death and about 100 seni to Siberia.
One of those who suffered the extreme penalty was Seaman Kashuba, who had been dragged
wounded from the water Theodosia Harbour with Feld-
A British Crossword Puzzle
[4
له
MUTINY
OTENKIN'S CREW
SHEK ASYLUM IN ALLROUMANIA,
TIRED OF PIRACY.
FLAGSHIP RESTORED
NTO THE CZAR.
VESSEL PURIFIED WITH HOLY WATER,
The headlines that told the end of a mutiny.
Feldmann himself was more fortunate.
After a period in solitary con- Anement in the Pruth, which be- camo a floating prisen for all the mutineers, he was identiflexi and transferred to a civil jail,) from which he succeeded in escaping, safely reaching the Austrian border.
Golenko, the Potemkin's doctor, who had stayed cboard for most of the mutky but was principally responsible for or- ganising the defection of the George
the Conqueror, ***S treated as
hero by the Russian Government; so was Lieutenant Alexcev, the young officer who had nominally been the Potemkin's captain, but left her at Constanza.
And the Potemirin herselt? Forlorn and neglected, she from Constanza by Russian ships was refloated and towed away
a few days after being aban- doped by the mutineers.
Her final years lacked distinc Vion or redemption.
On October 9, 1905. Czar Nictralas decreed that the battle- ship's
name be changed to Pantelymon (or "Low Peasant") as a mark of her disgrace,
This however tailed to raise the morale of her new crew, and later, when war threatened, the was renamed more felicitously Boretz za Svobodu, a namo meaning "Fighter for Freedom,” which Matushenko and his lieutenants would have ap- proved.
After her two six-inch wild overshoots at Odessa, she never again fired a shot in anger; and after uneventful war ser- vice, she was runk by her officers in Sevastopol Harbour on April 25, 1919, when the Bolsheviks took over the port. The Red Flag flew Quer Alve Russian Navy. But the Potemkin was dead.
斷
This series has been adapted from the book The Poternkin Mutiny, to be published
Hamish Hamilton.
THE END
-London Express Service,)
by
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