 Chapter 14 of Famous Seafights by John R. Hale This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Barry Eads. Famous Seafights by John R. Hale. Chapter 14, Part 1, Tsushima, 1905 When the war of 1894-95 between China and Japan was brought to a close by the Treaty of Shimano Sika, 17 April 1895, the Japanese were in possession of Korea and southern Manchuria, Port Arthur and the Laotang Peninsula, Weihawi and the Pescadoras Islands, and a joint naval and military expedition was ready to seize Formosa. By the second article, China ceded to Japan the fortress and dockyard of Port Arthur and the Laotang Peninsula. As soon as the terms of the treaty were published, Russia, which was the northern neighbor of China along the borders of Manchuria and Mongolia, and the neighbor of Japan by the possession of Vladivostok and Saghalian, protested against the session of Port Arthur and its territory to the victors, arguing that the permanent occupation of Port Arthur by a foreign power would be a standing menace to the government at Peking and would put an end to the independence of China. Germany and France joined in the Russian protest, and the three powers began to move their ships eastward. Their combined squadrons would have been more than a match for Admiral Ito's cruisers. England had a powerful squadron in the eastern seas, but observed a strict neutrality in the diplomatic strife. If England had joined her, Japan would undoubtedly have fought rather than yield up the fruit of her hard-won victories. But the Mikado's ministers realized that single-handed they could not face a triple alliance of aggressive European powers. The treaty was revised, the session of Port Arthur and its territories being struck out of it. They were to be restored to China. But the statesmen of Japan, while they yielded the point, recognized in Russia their future rival for the Empire of the East and resolved to begin at once preparing for a struggle in years to come which would give them back more than they were now forced to abandon. They set to work to create a powerful navy, and at the same time added steadily to the fighting strength of their army which for a while found useful war training in the subjugation of the hill tribes of Formosa. The millions of the war indemnity and loans negotiated abroad were expended on a great scheme of armaments. A fleet of battleships, cruisers and torpedo craft was built in foreign shipyards and the personnel of the navy was increased to provide officers and crew. The Japanese government went on for years patiently preparing, regardless of conduct on the part of Russia that might have tempted a less self-possessed power to premature action. The Russian government had hardly forced Japan to abandon so large a part of her conquest when it took advantage of the weakness of China to obtain from the Peking government the right to make a railway through Manchuria to the treaty port of Nayuchwang and to place garrisons along the new line for its protection and further the right to garrison port Arthur use it as a naval station and occupy the adjacent territory. When the first rumors of the Russia-Chinese treaty reached Europe they were treated with incredulity. It was said that it was impossible that Russia could cynically claim a position which she had just declared was incompatible with the independence of China and which she had argued the nations of Europe could not permit to Japan or any other power but presently the treaty was published and acted upon Russia making port Arthur her chief naval station in the east announcing a project for a great commercial port at Talunwan Bay and further occupying the treaty port of Nayuchwang. There was a brief period of tension during which there was a talk of various powers resisting this bear-faced aggression but European statesmen thought that an easier course was open to them. Instead of resisting the aggressor they embarked on a policy of aggression themselves on the plea of securing compensations and guarantees. The weakness of China made her the ready victim for this policy. Foreign aggression from so many quarters called forth a patriotic movement in China which in 1900 culminated in the Boxer Revolt. For a while Japan and the European powers including Russia became allies to save their embassies and repress the rising about Peking. In the campaign the Japanese forces proved themselves the most efficient of all and their chiefs returned home with an absolute confidence that they could successfully meet European soldiers in the field. Japan had made the most unsparing use of its rights in Korea acquired by the Treaty of Shimano Sika all but absolutely annexing the country. After the Boxer Revolt Admiral Alexeyev who was governor of the Russian possessions in the Far East embarked on a dangerous policy of provocation towards Japan. He had an ill-informed contempt for the Hardy Islanders. He underrated their power of resistance and felt sure that the mere fact that the Russian fleet outnumbered theirs would secure the command of the sea for Russia and have a decisive effect in the event of a conflict. He believed that the sooner it came the better. The Russian fleet in the East was steadily reinforced unit by unit. The Japanese people began to see in these proceedings and in the work done at Port Arthur a threat of early hostilities and there was a general call on the government to anticipate the blow when relations became strained between the two countries in 1903. The Tokyo government was anxious not to precipitate the war for the organization of the army required some months for completion but the feeling in the Navy, Army and civil population forced its hand. After a brief delay of negotiations during which both parties worked with feverish energy to secure additional armaments diplomatic relations were broken off at the beginning of February 1904 and then without waiting for any formal declaration of war the Japanese torpedo till a swoop down on the Russian fleet lying in the roads outside the narrow entrance of Port Arthur found them utterly unprepared to meet this sun attack and crippled several of the ships. A second blow was the destruction of the first class armored cruiser Varieg the Russian guard ship at Chomolpo by a Japanese squadron. Most of the best ships in the Russian Navy were in the East at the outbreak of the war. Alexeiov had however made the initial mistake of dividing the force at his disposal. Away north at Vladivostok was a squadron of three large armored cruisers the Grama Boy, Roshcha and Rurik and the protected cruiser Bogotar. The Varieg was isolated at Chomolpo the port of Sol doing duty that might have been left to a gunboat. At Port Arthur under Edmostark there was a strong fleet including seven battleships the Petropavlovsk, Poltava, Paris-Viet, Pobajda, Retsyven, Sebastopol and Pserovich the cruisers Askoid, Boyarin, Bayon, Palada, Diana and Novik and a flotilla of torpedo craft and the mine lane steamer Yannese. In the torpedo attack on the evening of 8 February the Retsyven, Serovich and Palada were badly damaged. The Varieg was destroyed next day and a few days later the Yannese accidentally blew herself up while laying mines. This series of disasters seemed for a while to have almost destroyed the morale of the fleet. Stark set to work to repair his damaged ships may no attempt to meet the Japanese at sea or interfere with the transport of their armies to the mainland of Asia and subordinating his fleet to the defense of Port Arthur even landed guns and men to strengthen the landward works. The Japanese blockaded the port, insulted it with long range bombardments and tried to block the narrow entrance by making old steamers across it. In March the arrival of the best officer in the Russian Navy Admiral Makarov for a while inspired new energy into the Port Arthur fleet. The repairs of the injured ships were completed and on 13 April the Admiral steamed out to challenge Togo and the main Japanese fleet in battle. Notwithstanding precautions taken against the known danger of floating mines the fleet entered a track of water where several were afloat and the flagship Petropavlovsk was destroyed with fearful suddenness by the explosion of one of them. There was great loss of life but the most serious blow to Russia was the death of the Admiral. After the fleet returned to the harbor there came another period of a resolute inactivity. It was not till August when several ships had been injured at their anchors by the bombardment from the land batteries of the Japanese attack and it was evident that the port would soon be a dangerous place for the ships that Admiral Witgeft proceeded to see and announcing that he was going to Vladivostok the cruiser squadron from that port having been warned to come out and reinforce him on his way. The sea fight known as the Battle of the 10th of August took place a few miles to seaward of the port. Witgeft led the fleet in his flagship the Serovich followed by the battleships Retsyvin, Sebastopol, Pobyta, Poltava and Peresvet carrying the flag of the second in command rear Admiral Prince Tromsky and the cruiser division made up of the Askoid carrying the flag of rear Admiral Retsenstein, Pilata, Diana and Novak besides eight destroyers. The cruiser Banyan had been so damaged that she was left in port. Witgeft had a marked superiority in battleships. Togo had had six new first-rate ships of the class under his command at the outset of the war but on 15 May he had lost two of them one third of his battleship fleet in a disaster like that of the Petropavlask. On that May morning while cruising off Port Arthur he ran into a field of drift mines and in a few minutes the battleships Hetsus and Yashima and cruiser Yoshino were destroyed. The Japanese managed to the end of the war to conceal the fact that the Yashima had been lost and the Russians up to the battle of Tsushima believed Togo had five of his big battleships intact. In the battle of 10th of August he put on the main fighting line the two powerful armored cruisers Nishin and Kasuga purchased from the Argentine government on the eve of the war. The battle began with long-range firing at 1pm and continued till after 7 in the evening. It was decided by the superior gunnery of the Japanese and the damage done by their high explosive shells. The Sarovitch badly cut up and set on fire was driven out of the line. Witgeft was killed by a shell. His last word was to operate his order to push for Vladivostok. As darkness came on Uptomsky lost heart and led the fleet back to Port Arthur. If he had held on he might have got through the Japanese fleet for their ammunition was almost exhausted when the firing ceased. Wretzenstein with the cruisers tried to execute Witgeft's last order. The Pilata however left him and followed the battleships. The rest of the cruiser squadron and the destroyers that accompanied it were forced to part company and only the Soviet got through to the northwards. The Diana fled southwards to the French port of Saigon. The Asgold with the destroyer reached Shanghai. The battered Sarovitch with three destroyers took refuge at Khao Chao. All these ships were disarmed by the French, German and Chinese authorities and detained till the end of the war when they were restored to the Russian government. The Novik failed to get into Vladivostok but reached a Russian port in Saghalian where a few days later she was tracked down and destroyed by Japanese cruisers. The Vladivostok squadron had come out to meet the unfortunate Witgeft. The Boyaran was left behind, damaged by accidental grounding so the squadron was made up of the three big armored cruisers Grimoboy, Roshcha and Rurik. They were approaching the Straits of Shushima and were as far south as Fusan when they were discovered and attacked by Admiral Kamamura's cruiser squadron on 14 August. Once more good gunnery against poor shooting decided to fight. The Rurik was sunk and the Gromoboy and Roshcha returned to Vladivostok bearing marks of very hard hitting. Riddled funnels and sides hastily passed with plates of iron told of the straight shooting of the Japanese cruisers. In both the action with the Port Arthur battleship fleet and the Vladivostok cruiser squadron the losses of the Japanese had been very slight. On paper the Japanese had had a distinct superiority over the Japanese in sea power at the outset. So far as it can be measured by balancing off battleships, cruisers and minor craft in parallel columns. In the months before the war there was ample material for the enterprising journalist to work up a navy scare at Tokyo. But once more it was shown that not the number of ships but the temper and training of the men are the true measure of power on the sea. From the first Togo had asserted his superiority and by asserting security. After the naval engagements of 10 and 14 August the Russian Navy and the Far East accepted a position of helpless inaction. Uktomsky kept what was left of the fine fleet that had been originally assembled at Port Arthur anchored in the land locked harbor till the ships were sunk by fire of the besieging batteries. While the Far Eastern fleet was still in being and Port Arthur was holding out the Russian government had announced its intention of sending a second fleet from Europe to the seat of war. It had two fleets in European waters those of the Black Sea and the Baltic. The Black Sea fleet was not available. International treaties barred its exit from the Dardanos only the Baltic dockyards could supply the new Armada. As soon as the news of the first torpedo attack on Port Arthur arrived in February 1904 there was talk of the new fleet for the East and unofficially the end of June was spoken of as the time when it would be ready to sail. From the first it was obvious that this was an over-sanguine estimate unless the fleet was to be made up entirely of old and weak ships. The best units that could be made available and without some at least of which the fleet could hardly be sent out were five powerful battleships that were being completed in the Neva yards and at Kronstadt. Two had been launched in 1901, two in 1902 and the fifth in 1903 but even on the 1901 ships there was a large amount of work to be done. Naval experts declared that the fleet would not be ready for a year and that even then the difficulty of coaling would make its voyage to the other side of the world in wartime a hopeless task for the Admiral in command. By hard work the fleet was made ready for sea by the middle of September. The coaling difficulty was overcome by taking colliers with the fleet contracting with a German firm to send large coal-laden steamers to various points on the route selected and straining to the utmost the benevolent neutrality of France and using her colonial ports as halting places on the way. There was some difficulty in recruiting a sufficient number of engineer officers and of stokers who could manage the Novel tubular boilers of the new battleships and the fleet was undoubtedly handicapped by the inexperience of its engine room and stoke-hold staff. Admiral Raj Dysfinski the officer chosen for the Supreme Command had an excellent record. He was 56 years of age and had served in the Navy since 1865. In the Russia-Turkish war he had distinguished himself by brilliant attacks on Turkish ships of the war with a small torpedo gunboat, the Vesta. He had been naval attaché in London and had filled important technical and official positions in St. Petersburg being for a while chief of the general naval staff. Finally he had personal knowledge of the eastern seas and of the Japanese Navy for he had commanded the Russian squadron in the Far East during the war between China and Japan. On 14 August just after the news of the disastrous sortie of the Port Arthur fleet had reached Europe and on the very day the Kemmerer defeated the Vladivostok squadron and sank the rurik, Admiral Raj Dysfinski hoisted his flag on board his flagship, the Koneas Suvorov at Kronstadt. But there was still much work to be done and recent mishaps to some of the ship's machinery to be made good so the fleet did not arrive until 25 August. Even then it was only for a few days training crews in the Baltic. On the 30th the fleet was back again at Kronstadt. Engineers and mechanics worked night and day setting right defects in the ships and on 11 September there was another start, this time for the port of Labao. The fleet consisted of seven battleships, two armored cruisers and some protected cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers. It was to be joined at Labao by a nice collection of craft, some small cruisers and a number of merchant men to be used as auxiliary cruisers, store, hospital, and repair ships. Of the five new battleships in the Navy Yards, four had been got ready for sea. These were the Borodino, Aurel, Imperator Alexander III, and Koneas Suvorov. They were powerful ships of 13,000 to 13,500 tons displacement with engines of nominal 16,000 horsepower and their official speed which they never realized was 18 knots. Their heaviest armor was 9 inches and they carried two pair of 12 inch guns, four and a half in armored turrets, with an auxiliary armament of 12, 6 inch quick fires besides lighter guns. The three other battleships, the Asliabia, Navarine, and Sasoy Veliki were older ships. The newest of them the Asliabia, launched in 1898, was on her way to the east when the war broke out and had turned back. She was of 12,600 tons displacement and claimed a speed of 18 knots. She carried four 10 inch and 11 6 inch guns. The other two ships were rated as having 16 knots speed but probably could not much exceed 12. Their displacement and principle armament were, Navarine 10,000 tons, four 12 inch guns, 8 6 inch quick fires, Sasoy Veliki 8,880 tons, four 12 inch guns, 6 6 inch quick fires. The two armored cruisers were old ships Admiral Nakamoff 8,500 tons, 8 8 inch 10 6 inch guns, Dimitri Donscoy 7,796 tons, 6 6 inch, 10 4.7 inch guns. Two of the protected cruisers, the Aurora and Oleg were ships of about 7,000 tons carrying for their main armament the former 8 and the latter 12 6 inch guns. The other cruisers were four smaller ships but some of them were comparatively new vessels with good speed, useful as scouts. Well manned with competent engineers and trained gunners the fleet would have been formidable enough notwithstanding its weaker units but here again it was the men that counted. In the first week of October the fleet was taken to Ravel. The Tsar arrived there on the 9th and inspected it next day. On the 11th it sailed. But it stopped again at Labao until October 15 when at last it started for the east. There had been wild rumors that the Japanese had sent emissaries to Europe. Obtained some light craft and fitted them as improvised torpedo boats for the purpose of attacking the fleet on its void through the narrow waters that formed the exit from the Baltic or during the crossing of the North Sea. The Russian police attached such importance to these canards that Rajdysfinski was warned to take precaution against attack until he was out in the open ocean. He passed the Danish straits with his ships partly cleared for action, fired on a Swedish merchant man in a German fishing boat and avoiding the usual course from the scott to the channel ran by the Dogger Bank and in a panic of false alarm opened fire on the steam trawling fleet sinking a boat and killing and wounding several men. The result was an outburst of indignation in the fleet, a partial mobilization of the British fleet and some days of extreme tension when it seemed likely that England would be drawn into the war with the probability that France would then under the terms of her alliance with Russia have also to enter into the conflict. An agreement was arranged under which there was to be an international inquiry into the Dogger Bank incident and Russia promised to make full reparation. Meanwhile the Baltic fleet had run down channel and across the Bay of Biscay and southwards to Tangier, where it was concentrated on 3 November, watched by Lord Charles Bursford and the channel fleet for the period of sharp tension was not over. At Tangier, Rodzhevsky divided his force. He went southward along the African coast with the 1st Division and sent the 2nd Division under Admiral Folkerschamm into the Mediterranean to go eastwards by the Suez Canal route. A 3rd Division had been formed at Lebes to reinforce the fleet. It was composed of the armored cruisers Isomroud and Oleg. Three auxiliary cruisers armed liners of the volunteer fleet, the Terek, Rion, and Denipur, a flotilla of destroyers and a number of store ships. It sailed from Lebow on 7 November. Rodzhevsky put into various African ports, mostly in the French colonies, and culled his ships from his colliers. He was at Dakar in West Africa on 13 November at Gabon on the 26th in Great Fish Bay on 6 December and at Angra Pequana on the 11th. He passed Cape Town on 19 December. Rounding the Cape he steered from Madagascar and on 1 January 1905 he anchored in the bay of St. Marie near Tamatav. On that same New Year's Day, General Stoisel sent a flag of trues out to General Nogai to inform him that he was anxious to arrange the immediate surrender of Port Arthur. The capitulation was signed next day, thus at the very moment that Rodzhevsky and the main fighting force of the Baltic fleet established itself in the Indian Ocean, its nearest possible base in the Eastern Seas passed into Japanese hands, and the problem the Russian Admiral had to solve became more difficult. Falkersham, with the 2nd Division, rejoined Rodzhevsky's division in the waters of Madagascar. From St. Marie the fleet moved to the roadstead on Nasibah at the north end of Madagascar, where it was joined in February by the reinforcements for Lobau. Rodzhevsky had now under his command an armada of some 40 ships of all kinds, including store ships and colliers. Now that Port Arthur had fallen he seemed in no hurry to proceed eastwards. There had been an agitation in Russia for a further reinforcement of the fleet and though the addition of a few more old and weak ships could add no real strength through Rodzhevsky's armada the government yielded to the clamor in February 15 dispatched from Lobau a 4th Division under the command of Admiral Nabogatov. The flagship was an armored turret ship, the Imperator Nikolai-1 of 9,700 tons, dating from 1889 and classed in the Navy list as a battleship. With her went 3 small armored coast defense battleships, the General Admiral of Praxin, the Admiral Ushakov, and the Admiral Sunyavin, all of 4,000 tons, and the cruiser Vladimir Monomak of a little over 5,500 tons. Rodzhevsky seemed inclined to wait at Nasibae for Nabogatov's arrival but the Japanese addressed strong protest to Paris against Madagascar being made a base of operations for a huge expedition against them. The French government sent pressing remonstrances to their friends at St. Petersburg and the Admiral was ordered by Cable to go on. Sailing from Nasibae on 25 March Rodzhevsky steered first for the Chagos Archipelago and then for the Straits of Malacca. In the afternoon of 8 April the fleet passed Singapore, keeping well out to sea. The ships were burning soft coal and an enormous cloud of black smoke trailed from the forest of funnels. Steamers ran out from the port to see the splendid sight of the great crowd of ships moving forebred into the China sea. The fleet sailed many critics of naval manners had prophesized that as Russia had no coaling stations the coaling difficulty would make it impossible for Rodzhevsky ever to carry his fleet so far. The successful entry into the eastern seas was therefore regarded as something of an exploit. It was a revelation of the far reaching power that would belong to better equipped fleets in future wars. With the Baltic fleet on its way the Japanese government, patriotically supported the press and the people, kept a strict silence on all naval matters. There were wild conjectures that under this veil of secrecy Togo had moved southwards that he would fall on his enemy during the voyage across the Indian ocean or wait for him in the China sea. But the Japanese Admiral had no reason for embarking on such adventures. He knew that if he kept his fleet near the shores of Japan his enemy must come sooner or later with an effective striking distance. Rodzhevsky might attempt a raid on the coasts of Japan or make a dash for Nayuchwang to seize that port, now the nearest base of supply of the Japanese field army. Far seeing precautions were taken against this eventuality by accumulating enormous stores of supplies in the immediate rear of the army. But it was far more likely that the Russian Admiral would try to reach Vladivostok, either with or without a battle. To do so he would have ultimately to pass through one of the three channels into the sea of Japan. He must choose between the Korean or Tsushima Straits between Japan and Korea, or the Segaro channel between Nippon and Nozo, or the Lapero Straits known to the Japanese as the Soya Channel still further north. Whatever course he chose the best position for the Japanese fleet was near the Tsushima Straits with the arsenal and dockyard of Shimano Siga close by on the Japanese shore. This the Russians themselves for saw would be the most likely position for Togo to select. He made Masumpo Bay on the Korean side of the Straits and inside them the Douglas Bay of our Admiralty charts, the station for his fleet. Freed from all harassing blockading and cruising work, he devoted the period between the retirement and destruction of the Port Arthur fleet in the late summer of 1904 and the approach of the Russians in May 1905 to repairing his ships very thoroughly, substituting new guns for those they had mounted at the beginning of the war which had had their rifling worn down. Continual target practice and maneuver exercises kept every ship and every man up to the mark. Charts of the sea around Japan were ruled off into small numbered squares so as to facilitate the reporting of the enemy's position and movements from the moment he would be first sighted. An elaborate system of scouting by light cruisers was organized. Signal stations were established on islands and headlands and wireless installations erected at central and outlying points. If Rajdysfinsky made for the Tsushima channels, Togo was there to meet him. If he went for either of the northern Straits, the Japanese Admiral countered on having news of his movements in sufficient time to enable him to steam at full speed by a shorter route and still interpose between the Baltic Armada and Vladivostok. After passing Singapore on 25 March, there was another delay in the final advance of the Russian fleet. Rajdysfinsky was anxious to give time to Nabogatov to join him. This last reinforcement was coming by the Mediterranean route. The Russian Commander-in-Chief again strained French neutrality to the utmost. In April and May he passed week after week in the ports of French coach in China, first at Kamran and then at Van Fong or Han Kohi. Here early in May he was at last joined by Nabogatov's squadron. Again Japan protested the use of French harbors by her enemy. The diplomatic tension became acute and at one moment it seemed as if the Russian Admiral were anxious to produce complications that would force France into the war. But at last to the general relief, on 14 May he sailed from Han Kohi Bay. He passed through the Bashi Strait between Formosa and the Philippines and then steered for Shanghai. Here on 25 May the fighting portion of the fleet lay out at sea while a crowd of auxiliary steamers, colliers, storeships and armed merchant men were sent into the Wusong River, the mouth of the Yancee, and anchored there. End of Chapter 14 Part 1 Chapter 14 Part 2 of Famous Seafights by John R. Hale This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Barry Eads Famous Seafights by John R. Hale Chapter 14 Part 2 Their appearance without the fleet to which they belonged led to many conjectures. The Japanese at once grasped its real meaning. To quote the message cabled by the Tokyo correspondent of the Times they read it as a plain intimation that Raj Desvinsky intended to put the ship into the sea. Since, had it been his purpose to make for Tsugaru or Soya, he must have retained the services of these auxiliary ships during several days longer. It is apparent indeed that the Russian admiral here made his first cardinal mistake. He should have kept his non-combatant vessels out of sight as long as possible. Their absence from the arena would have been a mysterious element whereas their apparition, especially as a segregated squadron furnished an unerring clue to expert observers. With the fleet the admiral retained only the hospital and repairing ships and those laden with naval stores for the Vladivostok dockyard. On the evening of the 25th the fleet stood out to sea heading for Tsushima. The weather was bad with a probability that it would be worse. There was a rising wind and sea with cold rain that made a blinding haze. But the Russian staff officers were rather pleased than depressed at such unpleasant conditions. Thick weather would baffle the Japanese scouts and lookout stations and rough seas would keep their torpedo flotillas at anchor. Out ahead were the fast cruisers of the scouting division, the Svetlana, Almaz and the Ural. After these came the main body of the fleet in line ahead in two columns, the heavy armor clads on the starboard right side, the rest of the armored ships and four cruisers in the port line. A breast of the leading ships each flank was guarded by a cruiser and two torpedo destroyers. After the fighting lines and between their foaming wakes steamed four store ships and two repairing ships. Last of all were the two steamers fitted as hospital ships. The arrangement is best shown by a rough diagram. Leading were the cruisers Svetlana in the middle Almaz on the port and Ural on the starboard. Port line, the Imperator Nikolai, the Admiral Senyavin, the Admiral Apraxin, the Admiral Youshikov, cruisers Oleg Arora, Dmitriy Donskoy and Alexander Manomak, and five torpedo destroyers. They were flanked on their port side by the cruiser Gemshug and two torpedo destroyers. The starboard line, the Koneas Suvorov, the Peter Alexander, the Borodino, the Oral, the Asliabia, the Sasoy Valiki, the Navarin and the Admiral Nakamov. They were flanked on their starboard side by the cruiser Izhamrud and two torpedo destroyers. Behind and to the center were the store ships Anadur, Ertish, Korea, Kamchatka, repairing ships and tugs, Sphere and Russ, and hospital ships Oral and Kostromo. In this order the great fleet steamed slowly through the rain and darkness. On board the great battleships there was much grumbling at Nabogatav's old tubs, though they themselves could not do much better. For poor coal, inefficient stoking, and weed-grown bottom plates handicapped even the newest of them. The next day, 26 May, was the eve of the greatest naval battle in all history. The clouds began to break and the sun shone fitfully, says Captain Semenov. But although a fairly fresh south-westerly wind had sprung up, a thick mist still lay upon the water. Rajdysvinsky meant to pass the perilous traits in daylight, and he calculated that by noon next day the fleet would be in the narrows of Tsushima. Behind that portal of the Sea of Japan, Togo was waiting confidently for his enemy, who, he knew, must now be near at hand. Never before had two such powerful fleets met in battle, and the fate of the east hung upon the result of their encounter. That result must depend mainly upon the heavy armored ships. In these and in a number of guns of the largest caliber, the Russians had an advantage so far as mere figures went, as the following tables show. Armored ships, battleship class Japan 4, Russia 8, coast defense armored clad class, Japan none, Russia 3 armored cruiser class, Japan 8, Russia 3 total armored ships, Japan 12, Russia 14 heavy guns, 12 inch Japan 16, Russia 26, 10 inch Japan 1, Russia 15, 9 inch Japan 0, Russia 4, 8 inch Japan 20, Russia 8 quick firers, 6 inch Japan 160, Russia 102 4.7 inch, Japan none, Russia 30 With regard to the armor it must be kept in mind for purposes of comparison that the armored belts of the newest ships, 9 inches at the thickest part were of Harveyized or Krupp steel, and could resist penetration It will be noticed that the Japanese carried fewer of the heavier types of guns but had more 6 inch quick firers than the Russians This is a point to bear in mind in following the story of the battle It was the steady reign of 100 pounder shells from the quick firers that paralyzed the fighting power of the Russian ships Far more important than the mere number of guns was the fact that the Japanese shot straighter and had a more effective projectile There was such a marked difference between the effect of the Japanese shells at Tsushima and in the naval battle of 10 August 1904 that Captain Semenov, who was present at both battles thought that in the interval the Japanese must have adopted a more powerful kind of high explosive for their bursting charges. This was not the case Throughout the war the Japanese had used for their bursting charges the famous Chaimou's powder, but perhaps between 10 August 1904 and the following May they had improved their fuses so as to detonate the charge more certainly and thoroughly The first 5 battleships on the Russian list were up to date modern vessels The Navarron was fairly fit to lie in line with them The rest were, to use a familiar expression, a scratch lot Coast defense ships of small speed and old craft quite out of date The decks of the larger ships were encumbered with an extra supply of coal and this must have seriously diminished their margin of stability with, as we shall see, disastrous results Admiral Togo could oppose to them only 4 modern battleships but his 2 heavy cruisers, the Nishin and Kasuga the ships bought from Argentina on the eve of the war might almost have been classed as smaller battleships and certainly would have been given that rank a few years earlier at least a match for the Russian Coast defense ships and the older battleships Besides his armored ships, Admiral Rajdysvinsky had a squadron of 6 protected cruisers under rear Admiral Enquist whose flag flew in the Oleg, a vessel of 6,750 tons launched in 1903 and completed next year She had for her principal armament 12 6-inch quick fires The other cruisers were the Aurora of a little over 1,000 tons, the Svetlana of nearly 4,000 the Gemshug and the Izimrud of 3,000 tons these two armed with 47 quick firing guns and the Almas of 3,285, a scout of good speed carrying nothing heavier than 12 pounders There was one auxiliary cruiser, the Ural, a flotilla of 9 destroyers 4 transports, 2 repairing ships and 2 hospital steamers Awaiting the battle inside of his own shores Togo had concentrated as auxiliary squadrons to his armored fleet a considerable number of protected cruisers and a whole swarm of torpedo craft At this stage of her naval development and on the eve of a life and death struggle, Japan had no idea of scrapping even the older ships. Anything that could carry a few good guns and brave men to fight them might be useful The old Chinese ironclad which had carried Ting's flag at the Yalu battle a ship dating from 1882 was under steam in one of the auxiliary squadrons with 4 new 12-inch guns in her barbettes. There were 3 of these auxiliary squadrons commanded by Rear Admiral Dewa, Rear Admiral Yuryu and Rear Admiral Keteoka. The last having as a subordinate commander Rear Admiral Togo, a relative of the commander in chief. Dewa's flag flew in the Kasagi a fine cruiser of nearly 5,000 tons built in America and he had with him her sister ships, the Chaitose and the Takasago Yuryu's flag flew in the Naniwa, Togo's ship when he was a captain in the Chinese war. Several of the fine cruisers which Ito had then led to victory were present, many of them remodeled and all provided with new guns. Then there were a number of small protected cruisers built in Japanese dockyards since the Chinese war. The heralds of the later time when the Japanese navy would all be home built. Battleships, armored cruisers and protected cruisers were all swifter than the Russian ships. The fleet as a whole could maneuver at fully 50% greater speed than the enemy and this meant that it could choose its own position in battle. The 5 torpedo squadrons included 2 infantry torpedo gun boats, 21 fine destroyers and some 80 torpedo boats. Togo's plans had the simplicity which is a necessity in the rough game of war where elaborate schemes are likely to go wrong. Some of the swift protected cruisers were scouting south of the straits. The fleet was anchored in a body in Masumpo Bay and in wireless communication with its scouts. The armored fleet was to make the main attack on the head of the Russian ships. The protected cruiser squadrons were to sweep around the enemy's flanks fall upon his rear and destroy his transports and auxiliaries. The torpedo flotilla was to be ready to dash in and complete the defeat of the enemy when his fleet was crippled by the fight with the heavy ships. Most of the officers and men of the Russian fleet had the dogged courage that could carry them through even a hopeless fight. But they look forward to the immediate future with forebodings of disaster. Even among the officers on board the great Suvorov, there was a feeling that the most that could be hoped for was that a few ships would struggle through to Vladivostok if there was a battle. And that the best thing that could happen would be for the thick weather and rough seas to enable them to avoid anything like a close fight with the Japanese. During the last day before the fight, Rozdysvinsky who did not want to hurry forward but was timing his advance so as to pass the straits in the middle of the next day spent some time in maneuvers. Captain Semenov's notes on the proceedings convey a useful lesson. Once again he says, and for the last time we were forcibly reminded of the old truism that a fleet is created by long practice at sea in time of peace cruising not remaining in port and that a collection of ships of various types hastily collected which have only learned to sail together on the way to the theater of operations is no fleet but a chance concourse of vessels. Wireless telegraphy had come into use since the last naval war and a fleet could now try to overhear the aerial messages of an enemy. In the Russian fleet the order had been given that no wireless messages were to be sent. In other words the operators were to keep silence and listen by watching their apparatus. In the morning of the 26th they thought they detected messages passing. In the evening these were more frequent. Short messages of a word or two was the interpretation that the experts in the signal cabins put upon the unintelligible flickerings of the indicator. And they suggested that they were mere negative code singles from the Japanese scouts to their main fleet repeating an indication that they were on the alert and had seen nothing. This was mere guesswork however and Polatovsky's diary on the voyage shows that near the Cape at Madagascar and out in the midst of the Indian Ocean Rajdysfinsky's wireless operators had thought that they detected Japanese aerial signaling simply because the receivers gave indications they could not understand. Possibly these were merely the effect of electric storms on the apparatus. Once or twice on 26 May they thought they could read fragments of sentences such as last night nothing, 11 lights, not in line. The short messages in the evening came at fixed times. This showed that prearranged signaling was really going on. It gave the impression that perhaps the fleet was being watched by unseen enemies. As the sun went down the ships closed up and half the officers were detailed for duty at the guns during the hours of darkness. The rest lay down fully dressed ready to turn out at a moment's notice. Many slept on the decks. No lights were shown. Semenov's description of that night of anxious expectation is worth quoting. He was on board the flagship, the Suvorov. The night came on dark. The mist seemed to grow denser and threw it but few stars could be seen. On the dark deck there prevailed a strained stillness broken at times only by the size of the sleepers, the steps of an officer or by an order given in an undertone. Near the guns the motionless figures of their crews seemed like dead but all were wide awake gazing keenly into the darkness. Was not that the dark shadow of a torpedo boat? They listened attentively. Surely the throb of her engines and the noise of steam would betray an invisible foe. Stepping carefully so as not to disturb the sleepers, I went round the bridges and decks and then proceeded to the engine room. For a moment the bright light blinded me. Here life and movement were visible on all sides. Men were nimbly running up and down the ladders. There was a tinkling of bells and a buzzing of voices. Orders were being transmitted loudly but on looking more intently the tension and anxiety that same peculiar frame of mind so noticeable on deck could also be observed. At daybreak the Japanese scouts were in touch. As the day came in gray light over the misty broken sea, one of their scouts, the auxiliary cruiser, Sianomaru, an armed passenger liner sweeping round through the haze almost collided with the hospital ships and then dashed off and disappeared in a twilight. In former wars she would have had to run back to the fleet with her news. Now from her wireless apparatus the information was sent through the air to the receivers of the Makasa and Masampo Bay. And in a few moments Togo knew that the enemy's fleet was in square number 203 of the chart, apparently steering for the eastern passage. I.e. the strait between Tsushima Island and Japan. In the straits and outside Masampo Bay a heavy sea was running and though the wind blew strongly from the southwest the weather was still hazy at sunrise with patches of fog here and there. The main body of the Japanese fleet began to get up anchor and slip from its moorings. At dawn Rajdysfinski had called in the Almaz leaving the Jemshug and the Isemrud steaming in advance of his two divisions. The six auxiliary ships had closed out so that the leading ship, the transport Anadir, was abreast in the center of the two lines. The Almaz, Svetlana and Ural steamed at the rear of the central line of transports to protect them in that direction. The two hospital ships flying the Red Cross flag and trusting to it for safety were well astern. About 6 a.m. the huge Ural came running up between the lines and sent me forward to the flagship that four ships in line ahead were passing across the rear of the fleet but could not be clearly made out in the mist. They could only be some of Togo's cruisers shepherding the fleet. Just before 7 a fine cruiser was seen some 5 miles away on the starboard beam of the Suvorov. She closed up to 3 miles and was soon identified as the Izzumu. The big gun turrets were swung round to bear on her but the Japanese cruiser having seen what she wanted increased her distance but could be seen keeping the fleet in sight. Togo's report notes that at 7 a.m. the Izzumu sent by wireless the second definite report of the enemy stating that he was 25 miles northwest Lukushima steering northeast. This would make the Russian position about 30 miles south of the Tsushima islands heading for the channel to the east of them. An hour later about 8 a.m. some Japanese ships showed themselves the other side of the fleet. One off notes how the Chinyan, Matsushima, Izzukushima and Hashidat appeared out of the mist steaming on an almost parallel course. Ahead of them was a small light cruiser apparently the Aki Sushu which hurriedly drew off to the north as soon as we were able to see her well and equally she us and the whole squadron began slowly to increase their distance and gradually to disappear from sight. This was Vice Admiral Takiyomi's division composed of three of the cruisers that had fought at the Elu battle 11 years before and the Chinyan which had fought against them as the Tingyun. The ship that ran out ahead was the only quick or modern ship in the squadron the small Clydebilt armored cruiser Chiota. If Raj Disfensky had had any speedy cruisers available he might have severely punished this slow squadron of old ships. Takiyomi showed he knew his enemy by thus boldly approaching in the mist. The Russians now realized that they had watchful enemies all around them and rightly conjectured that they would find the enemy's heavy ships in the straits ready for battle. At 10 a.m. another cruiser squadron appeared on the port beam. This was Dawa's division made up of the American built sister ships Kasagi and Chaitos of nearly 5,000 tons and two smaller protected cruisers, the Nii Itaka and Atawa, lately turned out by Japanese yards. They seemed to invite attack. At a signal from the Admiral the eight armor clads of the starboard line steamed ahead of the port line turned together to port and then turning again formed line ahead leading the whole fleet. At the same time the transports moved out to starboard guarded by the Vladimir Monomak detached from the port division the Svetlana Almaz and Ural. Dawa's cruisers held a parallel course with the Russian battleships for more than an hour still apparently unsupported. The range was about 5 miles. At 11.20 the Russians opened fire on them. Semenov says that it was the result of a mistake. The Oral fired an accidental shot which she immediately reported by semaphore. Unable with smokeless powder to tell by which of the leading ships it had been fired the fleet took it as a signal from the Suvorov and open fire. Of the whole fleet the fire of the third squadron was the heaviest. This squadron was made up of Nabogatov's old tubs. Their heavy fire was probably the result of undisciplined excitement. The Japanese fired a few shots in reply but no harm was done on either side. Rajdysfinski who had kept the guns of his flagship silent signaled ammunition not to be wasted and the firing ceased in five minutes just as the Japanese turned slowly and increased their distance. Orders were now signaled for the men of the Russian fleet to have their dinners and the officers lunched in turn. The harmless skirmish encouraged some of the Russian crews with the idea that they had been in action and were none the worse and had driven the Japanese away. At noon the fleet was due south of Tsushima which towered like a mountain out of the sea a few miles ahead. The signal was hoisted. Change course north 23 degrees east for Vladivostok. It was the anniversary of the Tsar's coronation. Round the ward room tables in his doomed fleet the officers stood up and drank with enthusiasm to the emperor, the Empress and victory for Russia. The cheering had hardly died down when the bugle sounded the alarm. Everyone hurried to his post. The enemy's cruisers had again shown themselves this time by a flotilla of destroyers that came rolling through the rough sea with the waves foaming over their bows. On a signal from the admiral the four leading battleships turned to starboard and stood towards the enemy then reformed line ahead on a course parallel to the rest of the fleet and slightly in advance of it. The Japanese on the threat of attack had turned also and went off at high speed to the northwards. At 1.20 pm the admiral signaled to the next four ships of the fleet to join the line of battleships forming a stern of them. The Russian armada was now well into the wide eastern straight of Tsushima and far ahead through the mist a crowd of ships could be dimly seen. The crisis was near at hand. On receiving the first wireless message from the Shanano-Maru at daybreak Togo had weighed anchor and come out of Musumpo Bay with his main fleet steering east so as to pass just to the north of Tsushima. He had with him his 12 armored ships and rear Admiral Yuri's division of protected cruisers Naniwa, Takichiko, Tsushima, and Akashi and a strong flotilla of destroyers. The smaller torpedo boats more than 60 in number had been already sent to shelter in Myruwa Bay in the island of Tsushima on account of the heavy seas. During the morning Togo received a succession of wireless messages from his cruisers and every mile of the enemy's progress, every change in his formation was quickly signaled to him. Shortly after noon he was able to note that the Russians were entering the straits, steaming at about 12 knots on a northeasterly course, that they were formed in two columns in line ahead, the starboard column being the stronger and that they had their transports a stern between the columns. He decided to attack them on the weaker side at 2pm when he calculated that they would be near Okinoshima, a small island in the middle of the eastern strait, about halfway between Tsushima and the southwestern headlands of Nippon. At half past 1 he was joined by Daewa's division of cruisers, and a few minutes later the divisions of Katyoka and the younger Togo rejoined. They had till now hung on the flanks of the Russian advance. At a quarter to two the enemy's fleet came in sight, away to the southwest of Okinoshima. Flags fluttered up to the signal yards of the Mikasa, and the fleet read with enthusiasm Togo's inspiring message. The rise or fall of the empire depends upon today's battle, let every man do his utmost. He had been about 10 miles north of Okinoshima at noon, by which time he had steamed some 90 miles from Douglas Bay since 5am. Thence he turned back slowly, going west and a little south till he did the Russians. He crossed their line of advance diagonally at about 9500 yards distance. His light cruiser divisions had received orders to steam southwards and attack the Russian rear, and were already well on their way. The heavy Japanese ships circling on the left front of the enemy's advance, put on speed, and were evidently intending to recross the boughs of the battleship division, bringing a converging fire to bear on the leading ships, the maneuver known as crossing D. As the Mikasa led the Japanese line on its turning movement, Rajdysfinski swung around to starboard and opened fire at 8500 yards. Togo waited till the distance had shortened to 6500, and then the guns of the Mikasa flashed out. At that moment only three other of his ships had made the turn. They also opened fire, and ship after ship as she came round into line joined in the cannonade. The Russians turned more slowly, and it was some time before the whole of their line was in action. Meanwhile, a storm of fire had burst upon the leading ships of Rajdysfinski's lines, the Suvorov and the Ossliabia at the head of the starboard and port divisions being each made a target by several of the enemy. The Japanese gunners were firing with a rapidity that surprised even those who had been in the action of 10 August, and with much more terrible effect. In Captain Semenov's narrative of the fate of the Suvorov, we have a remarkably detailed description of the execution done by the Japanese shells in this first stage of the battle. The opening shots went high. They flew over the Suvorov, some of the big 12 inch projectiles turning over and over longitudinally in their flight. But at once Semenov remarked that the enemy were using a more sensitive fuse than on 10 August. Every shell as it touched the water exploded in a geyser of smoke and spray. As the Japanese corrected the range, shells began to explode on board or immediately over the deck, and again there was proof of the improved fusing. The slightest obstacle, the guy of a funnel, the lift of a boat derrick, was enough to burst the shell. The first fair hit was on the side, a breast of the forward funnel. It sent up a gigantic column with smoke, water, and flame. Then several men were killed or wounded near the forebridge, and then there was a crash beside one of the quick firers. And the shell bursting as it penetrated the deck set the ship on fire. In the battle of 10 August the flagship Sarovich, which had borne the brunt of the Japanese fire, had been hit just 19 times. But now that the Mikasa and her consorts had got the range, hit followed hit on the leading Russian ships. It seemed impossible, says Semenov, even to count the number of projectile striking us. I had not only never witnessed such a fire before, but I had never imagined anything like it. Shells seemed to be pouring upon us incessantly one after another. The steel plates and superstructure of the upper deck were torn to pieces, and the splinters caused many casualties. Iron ladders were crumbled up into rings, and guns were literally hurled from their mountains. Such havoc would never be caused by the simple impact of a shell, still less by that of its splinters. It could only be caused by the force of the explosion. In addition to this, there was the unusually high temperature and liquid flame of the explosion which seemed to spread over everything. I actually watched the steel plate catch fire from a burst. Of course the steel did not burn, but the paint on it did. Such almost incabustible materials as hammocks and rows of boxes drenched with water flared up in a moment. At times it was almost impossible to see anything with glasses, only to everything being so distorted with the quivering heated air. No, it was different to the 10th of August. In this storm of fire there was heavy loss of life. A shell burst killed and wounded most of the signalers as they stood together at their station. An explosion against the opening of the conning tower killed two officers beside Raj Dysvinsky and slightly wounded the Admiral. The fight had not lasted more than twenty minutes, and the Suvorov, the Alexander Borodino, the three leading Russian ships were all wrapped in black smoke from the fires lighted on board them by the Chimo shells. How was the Japanese linefaring? I talked over his battle experiences with a Japanese officer not long after the day of Tsushima. He told me his impression was that at first the Russian shot fairly well, causing some loss of life at the more exposed stations on board the leading Japanese ships. But he added after the first twenty minutes they seemed suddenly to go all to pieces and their shooting became wild and almost harmless. No wonder that under such a tornado of explosions, death and destruction, and with their ships ablaze and range finding and firing control stations wrecked the gunnery of the Russians broke down. One of the pithy sayings of the American Admiral Farragut was, the best protection against the enemies fire is the steady fire of your own guns. Tsushima was a starling proof of it. Semenov hoped that the Japanese were also suffering from the stress of battle. From the forebridge of the Suvorov he scanned their line with his glasses. In the sea fights of other wars both fleets were wrapped in a dense fog of powder smoke but now with the new powder there was no smoke except that of bursting shells and burning material so he could distinguish everything plainly. The enemy had finished turning. His twelve ships were in perfect order at close intervals steaming parallel to us but gradually forging ahead. Notice order was noticeable. It seemed to me with my Zeiss glasses the distance was a little more than two miles I could distinguish the mantlets of hammocks on the bridges and groups of men. But with us I looked round. What havoc? Burning bridges, smoldering debris on the decks, piles of dead bodies, signaling and judging distance stations, gun directing positions, all were destroyed and a stern of us, the Alexander and the Borodino were also wrapped in smoke. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XIV. wooden boats piled up on the spar-deck, were a mass of roaring flame. Gun after gun was disabled. And all the while a glance at the Japanese fleet showed them steaming and firing as if at peace maneuvers, without even one of their numerous flag-staffes and signal-yards shot away. The battle had not lasted an hour, and it was already evident that it could have only one ending. In the smoke and confusion Seminov could only see what was happening in the front of the line, but the other ships were exposed to a heavy fire, and had less resisting power. The Osliabya, the fifth of the battleships, and Fulkasham's flagship during the voyage, was the first to succumb. The firing had hardly begun when a twelve-inch projectile penetrated her forward above the waterline. In fine weather the effect would not have been very serious, but the heavy sea flooded her two bow compartments. Then another shell started an armor plate on the waterline at midships, flooded the bunkers on the port side, and gave her a heavy list in that direction. Unsuccessful attempts were made to right her by opening valves and emitting water on the other side. Then a shell burst in the four turret, and put all the crews of the two guns out of action. She was now settling down by the head, and healing over more and more to port. Suddenly the sea reached her lower gun ports and poured into her. Then, like the unfortunate Victoria, she turned turtle and sank. It was at 225 that she disappeared, thus suddenly, the first battleship ever sunk by gunfire. Three of the destroyers picked up some of the crew who had jumped overboard. As she sank, the three other ships of her division, Sissui, Navaran, and Nakimov, under the stress of the Japanese fire, sheared for a while out of the line with their upper works of blaze in several places. The four stately battleships at the head of the line had then defaced the concentrated attack of the enemy. The Aurel was suffering like her consorts. Though her armor was nowhere penetrated, the shells burst their way into her unarmored superstructure and reduced everything on her upper decks to a tangled wreckage. Five minutes after the Osliabia sank, a shell wrecked the after turret of the Suvorov, tearing the after bridge to pieces with the flying fragments. Her steering gear was temporarily disabled, and she drifted from her station at the head of the line. One by one, in quick succession, the heavy steel masts and the two huge funnels crashed down. The upper deck was impassable from end to end. In the midst of the confused wreckage, handfuls of brave men fought the fires with buckets as they broke out now here, now there. Most of the guns were silent. She no longer looked like a ship, says a Japanese account. When the Suvorov swerved out of the line at a few minutes before three o'clock, her steering gear had been disabled, and probably for a few minutes before the crisis she had not been answering her helm. The course of the fleet, while she led it during the fight with the Japanese armored fleet, had been due east, but, as she lost her direction, it turned slightly to the south. When she drifted away from the line, the impuretor, Alexander III, became the leading ship. Captain Bukfostov, who commanded her, led the fleet in a circle round the disabled Suvorov, first running southwards, increasing the distance from the enemy, and then sweeping round as if trying to break through to the northward. Togo followed on a parallel course, until the Russian fleet seemed to be going due south, then he signaled an order, and, as accurately as if they were performing a practice evolution at maneuvers, his twelve ships turned simultaneously through half a circle, thus reversing the direction and changing the order of the fleet so that the last ship in the line became the leader. As the Russians swept round to the north, Togo was thus ready to cross their bows, and the Alexander received the concentrated fire of several ships. She turned eastwards, followed by her consorts in a straggling line, and then drifted out of her place at the head of it, leaking badly, and with her upper works of blaze. On a smoother sea, the Tsarevich had been hit once below the armor belt on 10 August. The Borodino now had the dangerous post at the head of the line. It steamed eastwards for nearly an hour, followed by Togo on a parallel course. The Japanese fire only slackening when fog and smoke obscured its targets, and the fire of the Russians dwindling minute by minute, as gun position after position became untenable, or guns were disabled and dismounted. Long before this, the divisions of protected cruisers under Admiral Dewa and his colleagues had worked round to the southward of the Russians. Dewa and Uryu, with their swift ships, were in action by a quarter to three. The slower ships of Takiyomi and the younger Togo's squadrons, united under the command of rear Admiral Katioka, came into the fight a little later. In the heavy sea that was running, the light cruisers afforded a less steady platform for the guns than the big armored ships, and their fire was not so terribly destructive. But it was effective enough, and that of the Russian rear ships was hopelessly bad. The Japanese cruisers drove the transports and their escort in a huddled crowd northeastwards towards the main Russian fleet. The great wall sides of the German liner, now the auxiliary cruiser Ural, were riddled, and the giant began to settle down in the water. The cruiser Svietlana, hit badly in the four part, was dangerously down by the head. The transports Kamchatka and Ertysh were both set on fire, and the latter was also pierced along the waterline. She sank at four o'clock. The Olio and Aurora were both badly damaged, but the Japanese unarmored cruisers did not escape scatheless. Dewa's fine cruiser, the Kasagi, was badly hit below the waterline, and was in such danger of sinking that he handed the command of his squadron over to Uryu, and, escorted by the Chitose, steamed out of the fight, steering for the Japanese coast. Togo's old ship, the famous Naniwakan, was also hit below the waterline, and had to cease firing and devote all the energy of the crew to saving the ship. At five o'clock the Russian fleet, battleships, cruisers, and transports were huddled together in a confused crowd, attacked from the eastward by Togo and Kamimura with the heavy squadrons, while from the south the line of light cruisers under Uryu and Katiyoka poured a crossfire into them. Away to the westward lay the disabled and burning Suvorov, with a Russian naval flag, the blue cross of St. Andrew on a white ground, still flying from a flagstaff in the smoke. The admiral had been twice wounded, the second blow slightly fracturing his skull and making it difficult for him to speak. Her captain, Ignatius, had been simply blown to pieces by a Japanese shell while, after being already twice wounded, he was directing a desperate effort to master the conflagration on board. The decks were strewn with dead, the mess deck full of helpless wounded men. Most of the guns were out of action, but a six-inch quick-fire and a few lighter guns were kept in action, and drove off the first attempt of the Japanese destroyers to dash in and sink her. Still there was no thought of surrender. The few survivors of her crew fought with dogged Russian courage to the last. A torpedo destroyer, the Buini, taking terrible risks, came up to her, hung on for a few moments to her shattered side, and succeeded in getting off the wounded admiral and a few officers and men. Rog Dysvensky sent a last message to Nabogatov, telling him to take over the command and try to get through with some part of the fleet to Vladivostok. About half-past five some of the Russian ships struggled out of the press led by the burning Borodino with the Orel next to her. In the straggling line battleships and cruisers, armored and unarmored were mingled together. The Alexander had succeeded in stopping some of her leaks and had rejoined the line. She was near the end of it. The Urel, deserted by her crew, was drifting till one of Togo's battleships sank her with a few shots. The Russians were now steaming northwards, and for the moment there was no large ship in front of them. The Japanese could have easily headed them off, but Togo now regarded them as a huntsman, regards a herd of deer that he is driving before him. The Japanese squadrons steamed after them at reduced speed, just keeping it at convenient range, the heavy ships on their right, the light squadrons behind them. At first the armored ships concentrated their fire on the Alexander. Shells were bursting all over her and throwing up geysers of water about her boughs. Then the merciless fire was turned on the Borodino. A few minutes after seven, the Alexander was seemed to capsize and disappear. A quarter of an hour later there was an explosion on board of the Borodino. Next moment a patch of foam on the waves showed where she had been. About the same time a division of torpedo boats came upon the unfortunate Suvorov, torpedoed her, and saved some of the crew who were found floating on the water after she sank. As the sun went down and the twilight darkened into night, the firing died away. What was left of the Russian fleet was steaming slowly into the Sea of Japan. Some of the ships isolated, others holding together in improvised divisions, all bearing terrible marks of the fight. Some of them still on fire, others leaking badly. Togo had been hit during the fight, but it was only a slight bruise. The losses of his fleet had been trifling. Of the armored ships the only one that had been badly hit was the Asama. She was struck by three shells aft near the waterline. Her rudder was disabled, and she was leaking badly. She left the fighting line for a while, but was able temporarily to repair damages and rejoined later in the day. At sunset Togo ordered his squadrons to steam northeastward during the night, and unite at sunrise at a point south of Matsushima, or Ullando Island. They were to keep away from the Russian ships in the darkness. The victorious admiral was about to let loose his torpedo flotillas to complete the destruction of the flying enemy, and meant that his torpedo officers should have no anxiety about hitting friends in the dark. He had with the main fleet twenty-one destroyers organized in five squadrons. In the bays of Tsushima nearly eighty torpedo boats had been sheltering all day. The destroyers had been directed to pursue and attack the beaten enemy during the night. No orders had been given to the torpedo boats. The sea was going down, but it was still rough, and Togo had doubts about risking the smaller craft. But without orders sixteen groups of four boats each, sixty-four in all, got up steam and sallied out into the darkness. It was an awful night for the Russians. After dark they had extinguished the fires lighted by the enemy's shells, and in some cases got collision mats over the leaks. The dead were committed to the sea, the wounded collected and cared for. For more than an hour they were allowed to hold their course uninterrupted, and the lights of the Japanese fleet were disappearing far astern. After all, valid blast-stock might be reached. But just after eight o'clock the throb of engines, the hurtling beat of propellers, came sounding through the night from all sides. On the sea black, low objects were rushing along with foaming phosphorescent wakes trailing behind them. Bugles ran out the alarm, crews rushed to quarters, searchlights blazed out, and the small quick-fires that were still serviceable mingled their sharp ringing reports with a crackle of machine-gun fire. The seas seemed to be swarming with torpedo-craft. They appeared and disappeared in the beams of the searchlights, and the surface of the water was marked with the long white ripples raised by the rush of discharged torpedoes. Loud explosions, now here, now there, told that some of them had found their target. Though in the confusion and the rough sea there were more misses than hits. The Sosoi Veliki, which had been on fire in the action, and pierced below the water-line, had a new and more serious leak torn open in her stern. The rudder was damaged and two propeller blades torn off. But she floated till next day. Several ships received minor injuries, but kept afloat with one or more compartments flooded. But the effect of the attack was to disperse the fugitive Russians in all directions. When it began Nabugatov was at the head of a line of ships in the old battleship in Puritor Nikolai I. In the confusion only three of the line kept up with him, the much-battered Aurel and the Admiral Apraxon and Admiral Sinyavin. The Aurel had no searchlight left intact. The Nikolai and the two others did not switch on their searchlights and kept all other lights shaded. The remarkable result was that as they moved northwards through the darkness they were never attacked. Though more than once between 8 p.m. and midnight they saw the enemy's torpedo craft rushing past them. The ships with searchlights drew all the attacks. Admiral Enquist, with his flag in the Oleg, and followed by the Aurora and Gymsug, had run in amongst the remains of the transport flotilla at the first alarm, narrowly escaping collision with them. Then he turned south in the hope of shaking the enemy off, but came upon another flotilla arriving from that direction. He had some narrow escapes. The lookouts of the Oleg counted seventeen torpedoes that just missed the ship. Having got away he tried more than once to turn back to the northward, but each time he ran in among hostile torpedo boats and saw that beyond them were ships with searchlights working and guns in action so he steered again south. At last he gave up the attempt and headed for the Tsushima Straits. He got safely through them because the main Japanese fleet was miles away, steaming steadily north with tired men sleeping by the guns. Next day he was in the open sea with no enemy in sight, and set his course for Shanghai. At midnight the defeated Russians thought they had at last shaken off the pursuit of the seawalls, but at 2 a.m. the attacks began again. The Navarin and the Admiral Nakimov, among the rearmost ships, were attacked by Commander Suzuki's squadron of destroyers. The Navarin was sunk after being hit by two torpedoes. The Nakimov was severely damaged. About the same time the Vladimir Monomak and the Dmitry Dunskoy were torpedoed, but managed to keep afloat. The attacking force had a good many casualties. Torpedo boats numbers 35 and 65 were sunk by the Russian fire. Their crews were rescued by their consorts. Four destroyers, the Hirosami, Akatsuki, Izazuchi, and Yugiri, and two torpedo boats numbers 31 and 68, were so seriously damaged by hostile fire, or by collision in the darkness, that they were put out of action. As the dawn began to whiten the eastern sky, the torpedo flotillas drew off. At sunrise the Russian fleet was scattered far over the Sea of Japan. Some of the ships for a while steamed alone with neither consort nor enemy in sight within the circle of the horizon. But new dangers came with the day. Togo's fleet was at hand, flinging out a wide net of which the meshes were squadrons, and detached cruisers to sweep the sea northwards, and gather up the remnants of the defeated enemy. The weather was clearing up, and it was a fine bright day, just the day for the work the Japanese had to do. Steaming steadily through the night, Togo, with the main body of the Japanese fleet, had passed to eastward of the scattered Russians, and was about twenty miles south of Ulando. The distances covered in the Battle of Tsushima were beyond any that had ever been known in naval war. The running fight during the night had passed over more than one hundred and fifty miles of sea. At five twenty a.m. the admiral on board the Mikasa received a wireless message from Kateoka's cruisers, reporting that they were sixty miles away to the southward of him, and that they could see several columns of black smoke on the horizon to the eastward. Shortly after, Kateoka sent another wireless message. Four of the enemy's battleships and two cruisers are in sight, steering northwest. Togo at once signalled to his own ships to head off this detachment of the enemy, and sent wireless orders to Kateoka and Uryo to close in on their rear. It was probably the main fighting division left to the Russians, and would soon be surrounded by an overwhelming Japanese force. The ships sighted by the cruisers were those that admiral Nobogatov had led through the night, and was trying to take to Valid Vostok. He had with him the battleships Nikolai-1 and Aurel, the coast defense armor clads Admiral Apraxon and Admiral Sinyavin, and the cruisers Izimrud and Svetlana. This last ship was leaking badly and down by the boughs. She could not keep up with the others, and a daylight fell far astern and lost sight of them. At 7 a.m. Uryo's division in Chesa of Nobogatov came up with her, and the cruisers Niitaka and Otawa were detached to capture her. The Russian captain, Shain, had held a council with his officers. He had only a hundred shells left in the magazines, and the Svetlana was being kept afloat by her steam pumps. Under the regulations he could have honourably surrendered to a superior force, but it was unanimously resolved to fight to the last shot, and then sink with colours flying. The fight lasted an hour. There were heavy losses. The Japanese fire riddled the ship, and first the starboard, and the port engine was disabled. As the hundredth shot rang out from the Svetlana's guns, Captain Shain stopped the pumps and opened the seacocks, and the ship settled down rapidly in the water. The Japanese cruisers went off to join the fleet as the Svetlana disappeared, but an armored Japanese liner, the America Maru, stood by and picked up about a hundred men. At 10.30 a.m. Nabogatov was completely surrounded, eighteen miles south of the island of Takashima. The Ism-Rud had used her superior speed to get away to the southwest. The four battered ships that remained with him saw more than twenty enemies appear from all points of the compass, including Togu's battleships and heavy armored cruisers. All is fit for work as when the first fighting began. They opened fire at long range with their heavy guns. The situation was desperate. Nabogatov consulted his officers, and all those on board the Nikolai agreed that he must surrender. In a memorandum he subsequently wrote, he pointed out that, though some ammunition was left, the Japanese were using their superior speed to keep a distance at which he could not reply effectively to their overwhelming fire. Neither the shore nor other ships were within reach. Most of the boats had been shattered. The rest could not be lowered. Even the lifebelts had been burned or used to improvise defences in the ships. Continued resistance or the act of sinking the ships would only mean the useless sacrifice of some two thousand men. After the ships had been only a short time in action, during which time they received further severe damage, he hauled down his colors. Togu allowed the Russian officers to retain their swords as a proof of his opinion that they had acted as befitted brave and honorable men. While the brief action with Nabogatov's squadron was in progress, the third of the Russian coast defense battleships, the Admiral Yushikov, hovered in sight. She turned off to the westward pursued by the armored cruisers Iwate and Yakumo. They soon overhauled her and signaled the summons to surrender, adding that Nabogatov had already done so. The Yushikov replied with her nine-inch guns. The cruisers sank her in an hour, and then rescued some three-fourths of her crew of four hundred men. The Sosuevaliki, badly injured in the action of the day before, and torpedoed during the night, was in a sinking condition when the sun rose on twenty-eight May. No ships were in sight. All the boats had been destroyed, and while the pumps were still kept going, the crew was set to work to construct rafts. While this was being done with very scanty materials, the Vladimir Monomach, who hovered in sight, accompanied by this destroyer Iromki, in reply to a signal for help, the Monomach answered that she could do nothing, as she was herself expecting to sink soon. The Iromki offered to take a few men, but the captain of the Sosue generously refused to deprive the Monomach of her help. The two ships then steamed away. An hour later this Sosue was just settling down in the water when three Japanese armed merchant-steamers appeared and took off her crew. At half-past ten the Sosue healed over to Starboard and sank. Soon after she lost sight of the Sosue, the Monomach came upon the armored cruiser Admiral Nakimov, which also signaled that she was in a sinking condition. Presently there was smoke on the horizon, and then the armed steamer Sadoomaru and the Japanese destroyer Shiranui appeared. In such conditions the enemies proved a friend. The crews of the two unfortunate ships were transferred to the Sadoo, which stood by till about ten o'clock. Both the Nakimov and the Monomach went to the bottom. The Navaran was comparatively little injured in the battle what was torpedoed during the night. Leaking badly she struggled northward at a slow rate till two in the afternoon of the twenty-eighth when she was found and attacked by a Japanese destroyer Flotilla. She still made a fight with her lighter guns and was hit by two torpedoes. The crew were all at their battle stations when she began suddenly to sink. The order, all hands on deck, came too late, and very few lives were saved. The armored cruiser Dmitry Donskoye, last survivor of Raj Desvensky's fourteen battleships and armored cruisers, escaped the torpedo attacks in the night and eluded pursuit all through the morning of the twenty-eighth. At four p.m. when she was near the island of Ulondo, she sighted some Japanese ships in the distance, Uryu's cruiser division, and some destroyers. They closed slowly on her, and it was not till six o'clock that she was attacked by the cruisers Niitaka and Otawa and three destroyers. Donskoye met a gallant fight for two hours, beating off the torpedo boats, losing sixty killed and twice as many wounded, and finally disengaging herself in the darkness about eight o'clock. The water-line armor was intact, but one boiler was penetrated and ammunition was nearly exhausted. In the night, the captain, who was himself slightly wounded, decided to lend his men on Ulondo Island and sink the ship. All the boats had been shattered, and the cutter that was left had to be hastily repaired before it could be lowered. With the one boat the disembarkation went on slowly during the night. At dawn the enemy's torpedo boats were sighted. The rest of the crew jumped overboard and swam ashore, leaving a few men with the second in command on the ship. They ran the Donskoye out into a hundred fathoms of water, opened the seacocks, embarked in their one boat, and saw their ship go down as they pulled ashore. The Japanese sent a couple of steamers to take the crew off the island. The torpedo destroyer that conveyed the wounded Admiral Rodzh Desvensky, Captain Semenov, and a few other officers and men away from the fight, was found and captured by a Japanese flotilla during the afternoon of the twenty-eighth. The cruiser Izemrud, with one of the few fast ships the Russians had with him, escaped the torpedo attacks in the night. In the morning she was chased by several of the enemy's cruisers. She kept up a good speed, and one by one they abandoned the chase, thatchitose being the last to give it up. By two p.m. all pursuit was left behind, and she reduced speed. In the battle and the chase she had burned so much coal that she had not enough left to make for valid boss-stock, so she steered for Vladimir Bay in the Russian coast province of Siberia, north of Korea. She was off the entrance of the bay at midnight with only ten tons of coal left in her bunkers. Unfortunately, in trying to go in in the dark on the flood tide, she drove hard on a reef. Next day unsuccessful efforts were made to get his ship off, and in the afternoon, as her captain expected the enemy's ships might arrive to secure the Izemrud and refloat her, he landed his crew on Russian ground, destroyed his guns one by one with blasting charges, and then blew up the ship. The destroyer Groki was chased and captured by the Japanese destroyer Shiranui and a torpedo boat, and after a sharp fight close to Tsushima Island surrendered at 11.30 a.m. She was so injured that she sank within an hour of her capture. Admiral Enquist, with the three protected cruisers Oleg, Aurora, and Jemsug, had, after turning south for the last time during the night of torpedo attacks, got through the Tsushima Straits in the darkness. Next day no enemy was in sight, and she steered for Shanghai under easy steam, repairing damages on the way. She intended to lie off the port, bring a couple of colliers out of the Wusung River, fill his bunkers at sea, and try to reach Vladivostok by the Pacific and the Laparuz Straits. On the morning of the 29th he was overtaken by the repairing ship and tugged severe, and from her learned the full extent of the disaster. Fearing that if he approached Shanghai he would be driven into the port and blockaded by the enemy, he changed his course for Manila, where he arrived on 3 June. The severe, after communicating with him, had gone on to the Wusung River. She was joined on her way there by the transport Anadir, which had got successfully south through the Tsushima Straits. The transport Korea, which had escaped in the same way and had a cargo of coal, did not go to Wusung but crossed the Indian Ocean and appeared unexpectedly in the French port of Diego Suarez in Madagascar. Of the nine torpedo destroyers with the Russian fleet, seven were hunted down and sunk or taken by the Japanese. The only ships of all the Russian armada that finally reached Vladivostok were the two destroyers Brawi and Gresni, and the small swift cruiser Almaz. She had been with Enquist's cruiser division in the first hours of the night after the battle. During the torpedo attacks she had become separated from her consorts. Escaping from the destroyers she headed at full speed first towards the coast of Japan, then northward. At sunrise on the 28th she was well on her way and many miles northeast of Togo's fleet. Next day she reached Vladivostok with 160 tons of coal still on board. A hundred years after Trafalgar Togo had won a victory as complete and as decisive. The Russian power had been swept from the eastern seas and the gray-haired admiral who had secured this triumph for his native land, Father Togo, as the Japanese affectionately call him, had lived through the whole evolution of the Imperial Navy, had shared in its first successes, and for years had been training it for the great struggle that was to decide who was to be master in the seas of the Far East. The war was followed by an immediate expansion of the Japanese navy. Numbers of captured Russian ships were repaired, re-armed, and placed in the navy list under Japanese names. No longer depended on foreign builders, the Japanese yards were kept busy turning out yet a new navy of every class, from the battleship to the torpedo boat. The laying down of the gigantic Aki and Satsuma, battleships of over 20,000 tons, opened a new period in naval construction, and nations began to count their sea power by the number of dread-naughts afloat or on the slips. The great maritime powers are now engaged in a race of construction, and the next naval war will see forces in action far surpassing even the armadas that met at Tsushima. And maritime war, hitherto confined to the surface of the sea, will have strange auxiliaries in the submarine stealing beneath it, and the airship and aeroplane scouting in the upper air. But still, whatever new appliances, whatever means of mutual destruction science supplies, the lesson taught by the story of all naval war will remain true. Victory will depend not on elaborate mechanical structures and appliances, but on the men, and will be the reward of long training, iron discipline, calm and enduring courage, and the leadership that can inspire confidence, command self-sacrificing obedience, divine and enemy's plans, and decide swiftly and resolutely on the way in which they are to be frustrated.