Wartime articles
WIRELESS WORKERS BACK FROM THE SCENE OF WAR
New York Operators Tell of Their Oriental Experiences. ADVENTURES OF THE HAIMUN Describe Capture by Bayan and the Sinking of the Petropavlovsk After Port Arthur Bombardment.
H. J. Brown and H. E. Ahearn of the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company, the operators employed at the seat of the Japanese war in The London Times-NEW YORK TIMES service, are back in New York. Mr. Brown was the operator aboard the Haimun, the stanch vessel which was employed in gathering the news at first hand. Mr. Ahearn was in charge of the shore station at Wei-hai-Wei.
The story which they tell of their experiences in the Far East is one of more than ordinary interest. The part that they played in the installation of the service was most important. Every word sent through Wei-hai-Wei passed through their hands, Mr. Brown flashing the news from the front and Mr. Ahearn receiving it in his little shack on the top of the hill above the cliffs of the island, which was made the base of operations.
They are both young men, typical Americans. Mr. Brown is just in his thirties and Mr. Ahearn only twenty-one years old. That they were fully equipped for the responsibilities which they were called upon to assume is evidenced by the following letter from Capt. Lionel James, who, as correspondent in charge, directed the movements of the Haimun, and gathered the story of the war, which from day to day circled the world.
It is a great source of regret to me that I will not see you again, but I hope that when I pass through New York on my way home we shall meet. Before you go I wish to express in the highest terms my appreciation of the loyal and admirable work which both of you have done. I cannot say more than that I have never at any time had the slightest cause to be dissatisfied either with your work or with the service of the system you have so admirably exercised.
Mr. Brown pounded out the message which told of the capture of the Haimun by the Russian cruiser Bayan. He did not know that it would not be the last message he would ever send. He was aboard when the vessel, which boasts a normal speed of twelve knots, developed sixteen knots an hour in escaping from the Russian fleet, sighted off Port Arthur. He witnessed the second bombardment of Port Arthur by the Japanese fleet and saw the sinking of the Petropavlovsk, with Admiral Makaroff aboard.
Mr. Ahearn received the news of the stand taken by Russia, when that country announced that if the Haimun was captured, those aboard would be treated as spies, and flashed the tidings across the waves to Capt. James, aboard the inquisitive vessel, then far away and headed for Port Arthur.
Both remained until, by the edict of Russia and the refusal of the Japanese Government to permit the Haimun to perform the functions of a news gatherer except in a limited zone, the dismantling of the vessel and the abandonment of the service was made necessary.
WHAT THE TROUBLE WAS
"The real trouble was," they say, "that The London Times-NEW YORK TIMES service was getting too much news, and was untroubled by any censorship to all intents and purposes. There was a Japanese officer aboard, who was supposed to censor the messages which Capt. James sent from the Haimun, but he was most lenient, letting them go as written, and once they reached Wei-hai-Wei they were beyond recall."
On Jan. 16 at noon the two young men were employed in their usual duties at the De Forest offices in New York, when they were told to get ready to leave for Japan within twenty-four hours. Simultaneously with the receipt of their instructions the officers of the company began the assembling of the apparatus necessary for the service, and when they boarded a train for Vancouver the following evening the necessary instruments and machinery were in the express car ahead of them.
When they reached Vancouver, and boarded the steamship Empress of China, they found a number of London war correspondents who were to make the journey with them. There were Pryor of The Graphic, Maxwell of The Standard, and Brownell and McHugh of The Telegraph. These correspondents were not destined to get into the game with the Americans, however, for when Yokohama was reached they landed, to be held for months, while the wireless men kept on, after a conference with Capt. James, who outlined their duties to them, to Shanghai, where the Haimun, which had been already chartered, was waiting for them.