alternatehistory.com

006
June 18th, 1904

Subic Bay, The Philippines

0330 Hours

The USS San Francisco was on station outside of Subic Bay. She was a veteran of the Spanish-American war with a somewhat unremarkable service. She was also the only navy ship in the area, as the rest of the Asiatic Squadron was in Manila. The watchman on duty yawned as he scanned the horizon. He thought he spotted something, but he wrote it off as his imagination. He went back to scanning the horizon. A few minutes later, he spotted a wake in the water.

"TORPEDO!"

It was too late, the torpedo struck amidships, putting a large hole in her hull. Her engines were already hot, so she was able to be beached before she sunk. Twenty-nine men were dead, and the rear gun turret was flooded. The firing arc of the forward turret was not sufficient enough to track the interlopers, so it was decided to destroy the forward guns and abandon ship. This was done, and the crew fled into the night.

The SMS Kaiserin Augusta sailed into port at the head of the German East Asia Squadron. Her torpedo tube was in the process of being reloaded. Her crew was alert as they still believed that there were American ships in the area. Admiral Alfred Breusing smiled from the bridge of the Kaiserin as the fleet silently sailed into the bay.

*note* I know Alfred Breusing was not appointed as commander of the East Asia squadron until 1905 IOTL, but as I could not find anyone who was the commander at this time, I'm including his early appointment to the position as part of the POD. Please don't hurt me.

*edit* Changed Olympia to San Francisco to fix error.

*edit* Changed date for realism

Top