Famous Sea Fights Part 25

In this storm of fire there was heavy loss of life. A sh.e.l.l-burst killed and wounded most of the signallers as they stood together at their station.

An explosion against the opening of the conning-tower killed two officers beside Rojdestvensky, and slightly wounded the admiral. The fight had not lasted more than twenty minutes, and the "Suvaroff," the "Alexander," and "Borodino," the three leading Russian s.h.i.+ps, were all wrapped in black smoke from the fires lighted on board of them by the Chimose sh.e.l.ls.

How was the j.a.panese line faring? I talked over his battle experiences with a j.a.panese officer not long after the day of Tsu-s.h.i.+ma. He told me his impression was that at first the Russians shot fairly well, causing some loss of life at the more exposed stations on board the leading j.a.panese s.h.i.+ps. "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 s.h.i.+ps ablaze, and range-finding and fire-controlling 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 enemy's fire is the steady fire of your own guns."

Tsu-s.h.i.+ma gave startling proof of it.

s.e.m.e.noff hoped that the j.a.panese were also suffering from the stress of battle. From the fore-bridge of the "Suvaroff" he scanned their line with his gla.s.ses. 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 sh.e.l.ls and burning material. So he could distinguish everything plainly.

"The enemy had finished turning. His twelve s.h.i.+ps were in perfect order at close intervals, steaming parallel to us, but gradually forging ahead. No disorder was noticeable. It seemed to me that with my Zeiss gla.s.ses (the distance was a little more than two miles) I could distinguish the mantlets of hammocks on the bridges and the groups of men. But with us? I looked round.

What havoc! Burning bridges, smouldering debris on the decks, piles of dead bodies. Signalling and judging distance stations, gun-directing positions, all were destroyed. And astern of us the 'Alexander' and the 'Borodino' were also wrapped in smoke."

Men were killed in the turrets by sh.e.l.l splinters flying through the narrow gun openings. The fire hose was repeatedly cut to ribbons, and the men fighting the fire killed. The injuries caused by near explosions were terrible. Men were literally blown to atoms, or limbs were torn off. Eleven wooden boats piled up on the spar-deck were a ma.s.s of roaring flame. Gun after gun was disabled. And all the while a glance at the j.a.panese fleet showed them steaming and firing as if at peace manoeuvres, without even one of their numerous flagstaffs 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 s.e.m.e.noff could only see what was happening in the front of the line, but the other s.h.i.+ps were exposed to a heavy fire, and had less resisting power. The "Ossliabya," the fifth of the battles.h.i.+ps, and Folkersham's flags.h.i.+p during the voyage,[31] was the first to succ.u.mb. The firing had hardly begun when a 12-inch projectile penetrated her forward above the water-line. In fine weather the effect would not have been very serious, but the heavy sea flooded her two bow compartments. Then another sh.e.l.l started an armour plate on the water-line amids.h.i.+ps, 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 admitting water on the other side. Then a sh.e.l.l burst in the fore-turret and put all the crews of the two guns out of action. She was now settling down by the head and heeling 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 2.25 that she disappeared thus suddenly, the first battles.h.i.+p ever sunk by gun-fire. Three of the destroyers picked up some of the crew who had jumped overboard.

[31] Admiral Folkersham had a paralytic stroke while at Honkohe Bay, and died at sea two days before the battle.

As she sank, the three other s.h.i.+ps of her division ("Sissoi," "Navarin,"

and "Nakhimoff"), under the stress of the j.a.panese fire, sheered for a while out of the line with their upper works ablaze in several places. The four stately battles.h.i.+ps at the head of the line had then to face the concentrated attack of the enemy. The "Orel" was suffering like her consorts. Though her armour was nowhere penetrated, the sh.e.l.ls burst their way into her unarmoured superstructure, and reduced everything on her upper decks to tangled wreckage. Five minutes after the "Ossliabya" sank a sh.e.l.l wrecked the after-turret of the "Suvaroff," 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 two huge funnels crashed down. The upper deck was impa.s.sable 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 s.h.i.+p," says a j.a.panese account.

When the "Suvaroff" 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 j.a.panese armoured 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 "Imperator Alexander III" became the leading s.h.i.+p. Captain Buchvostoff, who commanded her, led the fleet in a circle round the disabled "Suvaroff," 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 signalled an order, and, as accurately as if they were performing a practice evolution at manoeuvres, his twelve s.h.i.+ps turned simultaneously through half a circle, thus reversing the direction and changing the order of the fleet so that the last s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps.

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 ablaze. On a smoother sea the "Tsarevitch" had been hit once below the armour belt on 10 August.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RUSSIAN BATTLEs.h.i.+P 'OREL'

_Taken after the battle of Tsu-s.h.i.+ma, showing effects of j.a.panese sh.e.l.l fire_]

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 j.a.panese 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 Uriu, with their swift s.h.i.+ps, were in action by a quarter to three. The slower s.h.i.+ps of Takeomi and the younger Togo's squadrons, united under the command of Rear-Admiral Kataoka, 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 armoured s.h.i.+ps, and their fire was not so terribly destructive. But it was effective enough, and that of the Russian rear s.h.i.+ps was hopelessly bad. The j.a.panese cruisers drove the transports and their escort, in a huddled crowd, north-eastwards 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 forepart, was dangerously down by the head. The transports "Kamschatka" and "Irtish" were both set on fire, and the latter was also pierced along the water-line. She sank at four o'clock. The "Oleg" and "Aurora" were both badly damaged. But the j.a.panese unarmoured cruisers did not escape scathless. 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 Uriu and, escorted by the "Chitose," steamed out of the fight, steering for the j.a.panese coast. Togo's old s.h.i.+p, the famous "Naniwa Kan," was also hit below the water-line, and had to cease firing and devote all the energy of the crew to saving the s.h.i.+p.

At five o'clock the Russian fleet, battles.h.i.+ps, 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 Uriu and Kataoka poured a cross-fire into them.

Away to the westward lay the disabled and burning "Suvaroff" with the 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, Ign.a.z.ius, had been simply blown to pieces by a j.a.panese sh.e.l.l 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 6-inch quick-firer and a few lighter guns were kept in action, and drove off the first attempt of the j.a.panese 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 "Buiny," 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.

Rojdestvensky sent a last message to Nebogatoff, telling him to take over the command and try to get through with some part of the fleet to Vladivostock.

About half-past five some of the Russian s.h.i.+ps struggled out of the press, led by the burning "Borodino," with the "Orel" next to her. In the straggling line battles.h.i.+ps and cruisers, armoured and unarmoured, 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 "Ural,"

deserted by her crew, was drifting, till one of Togo's battles.h.i.+ps sank her with a few shots.

The Russians were now steering northwards, and for the moment there was no large s.h.i.+p in front of them. The j.a.panese 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 j.a.panese squadron steamed after them at reduced speed, just keeping at convenient range, the heavy s.h.i.+ps on their right, the light squadrons behind them. At first the armoured s.h.i.+ps concentrated their fire on the "Alexander." Sh.e.l.ls were bursting all over her, and throwing up geysers of water about her bows. Then the merciless fire was turned on the "Borodino." A few minutes after seven the "Alexander" was seen 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 "Suvaroff," 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 j.a.pan, some of the s.h.i.+ps 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 armoured s.h.i.+ps the only one that had been badly hit was the "Asama." She was struck by three sh.e.l.ls aft near the water-line, 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 north-eastward during the night, and unite at sunrise at a point south of Matsu-s.h.i.+ma or Ullondo Island. They were to keep away from the Russian s.h.i.+ps 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 Tsu-s.h.i.+ma 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 sh.e.l.ls, 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 j.a.panese fleet were disappearing far astern. After all, Vladivostock 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 rus.h.i.+ng along with foaming phosph.o.r.escent wakes trailing behind them. Bugles ran out the alarm; crews rushed to quarters; searchlights blazed out, and the small quick-firers that were still serviceable mingled their sharp ringing reports with the crackle of machine-gun fire. The sea 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 "Sissoi Veliki," which had been on fire in the action, and pierced below the waterline, 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 Nebogatoff was at the head of a line of s.h.i.+ps in the old battles.h.i.+p "Imperator Nikolai I." In the confusion only three of the line kept up with him, the much-battered "Orel" and the "Admiral Apraxin" and "Admiral Senyavin." The "Orel" 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 rus.h.i.+ng past them. The s.h.i.+ps with searchlights drew all the attacks.

Admiral Enquist, with his flag in the "Oleg," and followed by the "Aurora"

and "Jemschug," 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 look-outs of the "Oleg" counted seventeen torpedoes that just missed the s.h.i.+p. 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 s.h.i.+ps with searchlights working and guns in action, so he steered again south. At last he gave up the attempt and headed for the Tsu-s.h.i.+ma Straits.

He got safely through them, because the main j.a.panese 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 sea-wolves. But at 2 a.m. the attacks began again. The "Navarin" and the "Admiral Nakhimoff," among the rearmost s.h.i.+ps, were attacked by Commander Suzuki's squadron of destroyers. The "Navarin" was sunk after being hit by two torpedoes. The "Nakhimoff" was severely damaged. About the same time the "Vladimir Monomach" and the "Dimitri Donskoi" were torpedoed, but managed to keep afloat. The attacking force had a good many casualties. Torpedo-boats Nos. 35 and 65 were sunk by the Russian fire. Their crews were rescued by their consorts. Four destroyers (the "Harusami," "Akatsuki," "Izazuchi," and "Yugiri") and two torpedo-boats (Nos. 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 j.a.pan. Some of the s.h.i.+ps 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 j.a.panese had to do.

Steaming steadily through the night, Togo, with the main body of the j.a.panese fleet, had pa.s.sed to eastward of the scattered Russians, and was about twenty miles south of Ullondo. The distances covered in this battle of Tsu-s.h.i.+ma were beyond any that had ever been known in naval war. The running fight during the night had pa.s.sed over more than 150 miles of sea.

At 5.20 a.m. the admiral on board the "Mikasa" received a wireless message from Kataoka'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 Kataoka sent another wireless message--"Four of the enemy's battles.h.i.+ps and two cruisers are in sight, steering north-west." Togo at once signalled to his own s.h.i.+ps to head off this detachment of the enemy, and sent wireless orders to Kataoka and Uriu 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 j.a.panese force.

The s.h.i.+ps sighted by the cruisers were those that Admiral Nebogatoff had led through the night, and was trying to take to Vladivostock. He had with him the battles.h.i.+ps "Nikolai I" and "Orel," the coast-defence armour-clads "Admiral Apraxin" and "Admiral Senyavin," and the cruisers "Izumrud" and "Svietlana." This last s.h.i.+p was leaking badly and down by the bows. She could not keep up with the others, and at daylight fell far astern and lost sight of them. At 7 a.m. Uriu's division in chase of Nebogatoff came up with her, and the cruisers "Niitaka" and "Otowa" were detached to capture her. The Russian captain, Schein, had held a council with his officers. He had only a hundred sh.e.l.ls left in the magazines, and the "Svietlana" 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 j.a.panese fire riddled the s.h.i.+p, and first the starboard, then the port engine was disabled. As the hundredth shot rang out from the "Svietlana's" guns, Captain Schein stopped the pumps and opened the sea-c.o.c.ks, and the s.h.i.+p settled down rapidly in the water. The j.a.panese cruisers went off to join the fleet as the "Svietlana" disappeared, but an armed j.a.panese liner, the "America Maru,"

stood by and picked up about a hundred men.

At 10.30 a.m. Nebogatoff was completely surrounded eighteen miles south of the island of Takes.h.i.+ma. The "Izumrud" had used her superior speed to get away to the south-west. The four battered s.h.i.+ps that remained with him saw more than twenty enemies appear from all points of the compa.s.s, including Togo's battles.h.i.+ps and heavy armoured cruisers, all as fit for work as when the first fighting began. They opened fire at long range with their heavy guns.

The situation was desperate. Nebogatoff 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 j.a.panese were using their superior speed to keep a distance at which he could not reply effectively to their overwhelming fire; neither the sh.o.r.e nor other s.h.i.+ps were within reach; most of the boats had been shattered, the rest could not be lowered; even the life-belts had been burned or used to improvise defences in the s.h.i.+ps; continued resistance or the act of sinking the s.h.i.+ps would only mean the useless sacrifice of some 2000 men.

After the s.h.i.+ps had been only a short time in action, during which time they received further severe damage, he hauled down his colours. Togo allowed the Russian officers to retain their swords, as a proof of his opinion that they had acted as befitted brave and honourable men.

While the brief action with Nebogatoff's squadron was in progress, the third of the Russian coast-defence battles.h.i.+ps, the "Admiral Ushakoff,"

hove in sight. She turned off to the westward pursued by the armoured cruisers "Iwate" and "Yak.u.mo." They soon overhauled her, and signalled a summons to surrender, adding that Nebogatoff had already done so. The "Ushakoff" replied with her 9-inch guns. The cruisers sank her in an hour, and then rescued some three-fourths of her crew of 400 men.

The "Sissoi Veliki," badly injured in the action of the day before, and torpedoed during the night, was in a sinking condition when the sun rose on 28 May. No s.h.i.+ps 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" hove in sight, accompanied by the 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 "Sissoi" generously refused to deprive the "Monomach" of her help. The two s.h.i.+ps then steamed away. An hour later the "Sissoi" was just settling down in the water, when three j.a.panese armed merchant steamers appeared and took off her crew. At half-past ten the "Sissoi" heeled over to starboard and sank.

Soon after she lost sight of the "Sissoi," the "Monomach" came upon the armoured cruiser "Admiral Nakhimoff," which also signalled that she was in a sinking condition. Presently there was smoke on the horizon, and then the armed steamer "Sadu Maru" and the j.a.panese destroyer "s.h.i.+ranui" appeared.

In such conditions the enemy proved a friend. The crews of the two unfortunate s.h.i.+ps were transferred to the "Sadu," which stood by till, about ten o'clock, both the "Nakhimoff" and the "Monomach" went to the bottom.

The "Navarin" was comparatively little injured in the battle, but was torpedoed during the night. Leaking badly, she struggled northward at a slow rate till two in the afternoon of the 28th, when she was found and attacked by a j.a.panese destroyer flotilla. She still made a fight with her lighter guns, and was. .h.i.t 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 armoured cruiser "Dimitri Donskoi," last survivor of Rojdestvensky's fourteen battles.h.i.+ps and armoured cruisers, escaped the torpedo attacks in the night, and eluded pursuit all through the morning of the 28th. At 4 p.m., when she was near the island of Ullondo, she sighted some j.a.panese s.h.i.+ps in the distance, Uriu'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 "Otowa," and three destroyers. The "Donskoi"

made 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 armour was intact, but one boiler was penetrated and ammunition was nearly exhausted. In the night, the captain, who was himself slightly wounded, decided to land his men on Ullondo Island and sink the s.h.i.+p. 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 ash.o.r.e, leaving a few men with the second-in-command on the s.h.i.+p. They ran the "Donskoi" out into a hundred fathoms of water, opened the sea-c.o.c.ks, embarked in their one boat, and saw their s.h.i.+p go down as they pulled ash.o.r.e. The j.a.panese sent a couple of steamers to take the crew off the island.

The torpedo destroyer that conveyed the wounded Admiral Rojdestvensky, Captain s.e.m.e.noff, and a few other officers and men away from the fight was found and captured by a j.a.panese flotilla during the afternoon of the 28th.

The cruiser "Izumrud," one of the few fast s.h.i.+ps the Russians had with them, 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, the "Chitose" being the last to give it up. By 2 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 Vladivostock, 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 s.h.i.+p off and in the afternoon, as her captain expected the enemy's s.h.i.+ps might arrive to secure the "Izumrud" and refloat her, he landed his crew on Russian ground, destroyed his guns one by one with blasting charges, and then blew up the s.h.i.+p.

The destroyer "Groki" was chased and captured by the j.a.panese destroyer "s.h.i.+ranui" and a torpedo-boat, and after a sharp fight close to Tsu-s.h.i.+ma 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 "Jemschug," had, after turning south for the last time during the night of torpedo attacks, got through the Tsu-s.h.i.+ma Straits in the darkness. Next day no enemy was in sight, and he steered for Shanghai under easy steam, repairing damages on the way. He intended to lie off the port, bring a couple of colliers out of the Woosung River, fill his bunkers at sea, and try to reach Vladivostock by the Pacific and the La Perouse Straits. On the morning of the 29th he was overtaken by the repairing s.h.i.+p and tug "Svir," 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 "Svir," after communicating with him, had gone on to the Woosung River. She was joined on her way there by the transport "Anadir," which had got successfully south through the Tsu-s.h.i.+ma Straits. The transport "Korea," which had escaped in the same way, and had a cargo of coal, did not go to Woosung, 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 j.a.panese.

The only s.h.i.+ps of all the Russian armada that finally reached Vladivostock were the two destroyers "Brawy" and "Gresny," 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 j.a.pan, then northward. At sunrise on the 28th she was well on her way and many miles north-east of Togo's fleet.

Next day she reached Vladivostock 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 grey-haired admiral who had secured this triumph for his native land--"Father Togo," as the j.a.panese 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.