At half-past one he was joined by Dewa's division of cruisers, and a few minutes later the divisions of Kataoka 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 south-westward 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 to-day's battle. Let every man do his utmost."

He had been about ten miles north of Okinoshima at noon (by which time he had steamed some 90 miles from Douglas Bay since 5 a.m.), thence he turned back slowly, going west and a little south, till he sighted 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 bows of the battleship division, bringing a converging fire to bear on the leading ships—the manoeuvre known as "crossing the T." As the "Mikasa" led the Japanese line on its turning movement Rojdestvensky swung round 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 Rojdestvensky's lines, the "Suvaroff" and the "Ossliabya" 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 Semenoff's narrative of the fate of the "Suvaroff" 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 "Suvaroff," some of the big 12-inch projectiles turning over and over longitudinally in their flight. But at once Semenoff 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, abreast of the forward funnel. It sent up a "gigantic column of smoke, water, and flame." Then several men were killed and wounded near the fore-bridge, 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 "Tsarevitch," which had borne the brunt of the Japanese fire, had been hit just nineteen 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 Semenoff, "even to count the number of projectiles 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 on the upper deck were torn to pieces, and the splinters caused many casualties. Iron ladders were crumpled up into rings, and guns were literally hurled from their mountings. 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 a steel plate catch fire from a burst. Of course, the steel did not burn, but the paint on it did. Such almost incombustible 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, owing 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 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 ships, were all wrapped in black smoke from the fires lighted on board of them by the Chimose shells.

How was the Japanese line faring? I talked over his battle experiences with a Japanese officer not long after the day of Tsu-shima. 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 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 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-shima gave startling proof of it.

Semenoff hoped that the Japanese were also suffering from the stress of battle. From the fore-bridge of the "Suvaroff" 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. No disorder was noticeable. It seemed to me that with my Zeiss glasses (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 shell 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 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 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 Semenoff 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 "Ossliabya," the fifth of the battleships, and Foelkersham's flagship during the voyage,[31] was the first to succumb. 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 shell started an armour plate on the water-line amidships, 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 shell 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 battleship ever sunk by gun-fire. Three of the destroyers picked up some of the crew who had jumped overboard.

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

As she sank, the three other ships of her division ("Sissoi," "Navarin," and "Nakhimoff"), under the stress of the Japanese fire, sheered for a while out of the line with their upper works ablaze in several places. The four stately battleships 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 shells burst their way into her unarmoured superstructure, and reduced everything on her upper decks to tangled wreckage. Five minutes after the "Ossliabya" sank a shell 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 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 "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 Japanese 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 ship. 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 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 ablaze. On a smoother sea the "Tsarevitch" had been hit once below the armour 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 Uriu, with their swift ships, were in action by a quarter to three. The slower ships 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 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, 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 Japanese 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 Japanese coast. Togo's old ship, 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 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 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, Ignazius, 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 6-inch quick-firer 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 "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 ships struggled out of the press, led by the burning "Borodino," with the "Orel" next to her. In the straggling line battleships 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 battleships sank her with a few shots.

The Russians were now steering 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 squadron steamed after them at reduced speed, just keeping at convenient range, the heavy ships on their right, the light squadrons behind them. At first the armoured ships concentrated their fire on the "Alexander." Shells 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 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 armoured ships the only one that had been badly hit was the "Asama." She was struck by three shells 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-shima or Ullondo 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 Tsu-shima 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, 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 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-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 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 Nebogatoff was at the head of a line of ships in the old battleship "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 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 "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 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 Tsu-shima 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 sea-wolves. But at 2 a.m. the attacks began again. The "Navarin" and the "Admiral Nakhimoff," among the rearmost ships, 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 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 Ullondo. The distances covered in this battle of Tsu-shima were beyond any that had ever been known in naval war. The running fight during the night had passed 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 battleships and two cruisers are in sight, steering north-west." Togo at once signalled to his own ships 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 Japanese force.

The ships 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 battleships "Nikolai I" and "Orel," the coast-defence armour-clads "Admiral Apraxin" and "Admiral Senyavin," and the cruisers "Izumrud" and "Svietlana." This last ship 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 shells 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 Japanese fire riddled the ship, 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-cocks, and the ship settled down rapidly in the water. The Japanese cruisers went off to join the fleet as the "Svietlana" disappeared, but an armed Japanese 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 Takeshima. The "Izumrud" had used her superior speed to get away to the south-west. The four battered ships that remained with him saw more than twenty enemies appear from all points of the compass, including Togo's battleships 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 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 life-belts 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 2000 men. After the ships 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 battleships, the "Admiral Ushakoff," hove in sight. She turned off to the westward pursued by the armoured cruisers "Iwate" and "Yakumo." 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 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" 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 ships then steamed away. An hour later the "Sissoi" was just settling down in the water, when three Japanese 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 Japanese destroyer "Shiranui" appeared. In such conditions the enemy proved a friend. The crews of the two unfortunate ships 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 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 armoured cruiser "Dimitri Donskoi," last survivor of Rojdestvensky's fourteen battleships 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 Japanese ships 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 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 "Donskoi" out into a hundred fathoms of water, opened the sea-cocks, 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 Rojdestvensky, Captain Semenoff, and a few other officers and men away from the fight was found and captured by a Japanese flotilla during the afternoon of the 28th.

The cruiser "Izumrud," one of the few fast ships 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 ship off and in the afternoon, as her captain expected the enemy's ships 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 ship.

The destroyer "Groki" was chased and captured by the Japanese destroyer "Shiranui" and a torpedo-boat, and after a sharp fight close to Tsu-shima 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-shima 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 ship 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-shima 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 Japanese.

The only ships 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 Japan, 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 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 dependent 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 "Dreadnoughts" 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 Tsu-shima. 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, enduring courage, and the leadership that can inspire confidence, command self-sacrificing obedience, divine an enemy's plans, and decide swiftly and resolutely on the way in which they are to be frustrated.



INDEX

A

Actium, 25, etc.; topography of, 30; the battle of, 32, etc.

AEschylus, 2, 21

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, 27

Alava, Spanish rear-admiral at Trafalgar, 192; surrenders to Collingwood, 199

Albemarle. See Monk, Duke of

Albini, Italian admiral, second in command at Lissa, 242, etc.

Ali Pasha, Turkish admiral, 85, 86, 88, 93, 103

Alexandria, bombardment of, 253, 254

Allen, Sir Thomas, English admiral in Second Dutch War, 152, etc.

Antony, Mark, 25; flight from Actium, 35; death, 38

Antwerp, the great fire-ship of, 130

Aristides, 15; at Salamis, 21

Armada of 1588, 105, etc.; organisation and statistics, 111

Armour-clads, early: Erik Jarl's "Iron Beard," 49; the "Finis Belli" (1585), 209; floating batteries, 211

Armour-clads, first modern sea-going: the "Gloire" (French), 211; the "Warrior" (British), 213

Artemisia of Halicarnassus, 11, 15; at Salamis, 21; at the council after the battle, 22

Athens, beginnings of its sea-power, 4; occupied by the Persians, 7

Augustus, 25; founder of the Roman Empire, 38; naval policy, 39

B

Bahuchet, French admiral, 61

Baltic Fleet organised by Russia for the Far East, 304; voyage of, 306; Dogger Bank incident, 307; passes Malacca, 309

Barbarigo, Agostino, Venetian admiral, 80, 92; killed at Lepanto, 103

Barbavera, Genoese admiral at Sluys, 61; his escape after the battle, 65

Bertendona, admiral of the Levant squadron of the Armada, 112

Bingham, Queen Elizabeth's Governor of Connaught, 138, etc.

Blackwood, captain of Nelson's look-out frigate "Euryalus," 181, 186, 188, 191

Blake, 143, 144

Bragadino, Venetian commandant of Famagusta, 73; tortured and put to death by the Turks, 74

Bragadino, Ambrogio and Antonio, Venetian captains at Lepanto, 92

British Navy: in Middle Ages, see chap. IV., Sluys, 55; in Tudor period, see chap. VI., the Armada, 105; in Stuart period, see chap. VII., the battle off the Gunfleet, 142; in the eighteenth century, see chap. VIII., the Battle of the Saints' Passage, 158; in Nelson's time, see chap. IX., Trafalgar, 173

Brunel, 208

Buchanan, commodore, C.S.N., captain of the "Merrimac," 219, etc.

Byron, captain, under Rodney, 163

C

Caesar, Julius, 25

Calais, importance to England, 55

Calder, Sir Robert, action off Finisterre, 177

Cardona, Juan de, Spanish admiral, 80

Cervantes, Miguel de (author of "Don Quixote"), at Lepanto, 82; wounded, 99

Cervera, Spanish admiral, 280; voyage to Cuba, 282, etc.; goes out of Santiago to battle, 287; taken prisoner, 293

Charlemagne and the Norsemen, 41

Chatham, Dutch raid on, 156, 157

Churucca, Commodore, at Trafalgar, 200, 201

Cinque Ports, 57, 58

Cisneros, Spanish rear-admiral at Trafalgar, 197, 198

Cleopatra, 25; flight from Actium, 35; death, 38

Clerk of Eldin, his naval theories, 168

Collingwood, 179, 180, 183; breaks through French line at Trafalgar, 192; takes command of fleet after Nelson's death, 204

Colonna, Marco Antonio, Papal admiral, 71, 76; at Lepanto, 99

Cromwell, 143

Cyprus, Turkish invasion of, under Selim II, 70; fall of Nicosia, 71; siege of Famagusta, 71, 73

D

Damme, naval victory at, 56

Darius, 4

Decres, Admiral, Minister of Marine under Napoleon I, 178, 180

Dewa, Admiral, 323, 331

Dewey, Admiral, 280

Doria, Giovanni Andrea, Genoese admiral, 80; at Lepanto, 99, etc.

Douglas, Sir Charles, share in Rodney's victory, 167-9

Dover with Calais made England mistress of the Channel, 56; De Burgh's naval victory off, 57

Drake, Francis, 107, 109, 116, 119, 124, 132

Drake, Samuel, rear-admiral under Rodney, 164

Dumanoir, admiral of French van squadron at Trafalgar, his blunders, 194; subsequent loss of his ships, 203

E

Edward I, use of navy in Scottish wars, 56

Edward III, 55; the French War, 59; at Sluys, 64

Egypt, early navigators of, 2

Enquist, Russian admiral, 335, etc.

Ericsson, John, designer of the "Monitor," 213; See "Monitor"

Erik Jarl, 46; his ship the "Iron Beard," a primitive armour-clad, 49; in the fight at Svold, 51, etc.

Euboea, battles of Greeks and Persians off, 11, etc.

Eulate, captain of the "Vizcaya" at Santiago, 294, 295

Eurybiades, 11, 22

Evans, Captain Robley, U.S.N., 294, 295

Evertszoon, Dutch admiral, 148, etc.

F

Famagusta. See Cyprus

Farragut, Admiral, sayings of, 231, 238

Fenner, 116

Fitzwilliam, Elizabeth's Lord Deputy in Ireland, 138, etc.

Fremantle, captain of the "Neptune" at Trafalgar, 197, 198

Frobisher, 117, 128, 132

Fulton and early steamships, 206

G

Galley-slaves, 87

Ganteaume, French admiral, 174

Giustiniani, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, 81, 103

Grasse, Comte de, Rodney's battle with, 158, etc.

Gravelines, the Armada battle off, 131, etc.

Gravina, Spanish admiral, 176, 181, 187

Guichen, de, 160

H

Hanneken, Major von, German officer in Chinese service, 261

Hardy, captain of the "Victory," 195, 196

Harold Haarfager, 42

Hawkins, 107, 116, 119, 127, 128, 132

Hobart Pasha, 253

Holland, rise of naval power, 142; first war with England, 143; second war, 144

Hood, 164, etc.

Howard of Effingham, 116, 124, etc.

Howard, Lord Thomas, 127

Howe, 173

I

Infernet, captain of the "Intrepide" at Trafalgar, 202, 203

Ireland and the Armada, 137

Ito, Count, Japanese admiral at the Yalu, 259, etc.

J

Japan, rise of naval power, 254; policy after Chinese War, 297; war with Russia, 300

Josephine, the Empress, 161

Juan of Austria, Don, admiral of the Christian League, 76, 78; at Lepanto, 91, etc.

K

Kamimura, Admiral, defeats the Vladivostock squadron, 303; at Tsu-shima, 332

Kara Khodja, his scouting expeditions, 85

Kempenfeldt, Admiral, 161

Kiriet, French admiral, 61

L

Leotychides, 23

Lepanto, 67, etc.

Lepidus, 25

Leyva, general of the troops embarked in the Armada, 114, 120, 123, 127, 135; shipwrecked and drowned, 140

Lissa, battle of (1866), 231, etc.

Longsword, William, his victory at Damme, 56

Lucas, captain of the "Redoutable," 193, 195

M

Macaulay and the Armada, 105, 120

McGiffen, Commander, American officer in Chinese service, 261, 265, 272, 273

Magon, French admiral at Trafalgar, 199

Mahomet II takes Constantinople, 67

Makharoff, Admiral, death of, 301

Manila, battle of, 180

Marathon, 4

Mark Antony. See Antony

Maurice of Nassau, 134

Maximilian, Archduke and Austrian admiral (afterwards Emperor of Mexico), 235

Medina, Lopez de, wrecked on Fair Isle, 137, 138

Medina-Sidonia, Guzman, Duke of, commander-in-chief of the Armada, 109, 115, etc.; return to Spain, 140

"Merrimac," improvised Confederate armour-clad, 214, etc.; attack on the wooden ships at Hampton Roads, 215; sinks the "Cumberland," 218; fight with the "Monitor," 224, etc.; "Merrimac" destroyed later, 230

Missiessy, French admiral, 174

Mohacs, battle of, 68

Moncada, admiral of the galleasses in the Armada, 131

"Monitor," design and construction, 221, etc.; voyage to Hampton Roads, 223; fight with "Merrimac," 224, etc.; lost at sea later on, 230

Monk, Duke of Albemarle, 146, etc.

Mycale, destruction of Persian fleet at, 24

Mylae, naval battle of, 27

N

Napier, Sir Charles, first to take steamships into action, 207

Napoleon I, naval projects, 174, etc., 178, 179; refuses Fulton's inventions, 206

Napoleon III and the introduction of armoured ships, 210, 211; Ericsson's offer to, 213

Nebogatoff sent with squadron of old ships to reinforce Baltic Fleet, 308; at Tsu-shima, 323; surrenders, 337, 338

Nelson, alleged Danish descent, 41; the Trafalgar campaign, 173, etc.; plans for the battle, 182, 189, 190; opening of the battle, 192; wounded, 195, 196; his death, 203

Nicholls, English gunner in Chinese service, killed at Yalu, 271

Nicopolis, 29, 38

Norsemen, 41, etc.

North Sea battles in Dutch War, 143, etc.

O

Octavian. See Augustus

Olaf, Saint, 54

Olaf Tryggveson, his career, 42; becomes King of Norway, 44; his famous ships, 45; in the fight at Svold, 47, etc.; death in battle, 53

Opdam, Dutch admiral, 145

Orde, Sir John, and blockade of Cadiz, 176

Ottomans. See Turks

P

Parma, Alexander Farnese, Duke of, 114, 128, 129, 130

Pepys, Samuel, 146, 153

Persano, Italian admiral in command at Lissa, 237, etc.

Pertev Pasha, Turkish seraskier at Lepanto, 86, 88, 95

Petz, Commodore, Austrian second in command at Lissa, 241, etc.

Philip II of Spain, 105

Philip of Valois, King of France, 59, 66

Piracy in early days, 3; of Turks and Algerines in the Mediterranean, 68

Pius V, efforts to form a league against the Turks, 70, 72, 75

Plataea, battle of, 23

Port Arthur, naval operations around, 300, etc.; surrender of, 308

Purvis, English engineer killed at the Yalu, 270

R

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 122

Recalde, Martinez de, admiral of the Biscay squadron of the Armada, 114, 123, 127, 135, 140

Reitzenstein, admiral of the Vladivostock squadron, 302, 303

Rodney, 159, etc.

Rojdestvensky, admiral in command of the Baltic Fleet, 304, etc.; taken prisoner, 340

Rupert, Prince, as an admiral, 146, etc.

Ruyter, de, 146, etc.

S

Saints' Passage, battle of, 158, etc.

Salamis, refuge of the Athenians, 6; Greek fleets concentrate at, 13; the battle, 16, etc.

Sampson, U.S. admiral, 278, etc.

Santa Cruz, Alvaro de Bazan, Marquis of, 80, 108

Santiago, blockade of, 285; battle outside, 287, etc.

Schley, U.S. admiral, 278, etc.

Sebastopol, attack on sea-front, 209, 211

Selim II, 70

Semenoff, Captain, personal narrative of Tsu-shima, 313, 319, 320, 322, 327, 328; taken prisoner, 340

Seymour, Lord Henry, 118, 126, 129, 132

Shafter, General, operations against Santiago, 286, etc.

Sigvald Jarl, 47

Sluys, 55, etc.

Steam applied to warships, 206, etc.

Steevens, John and Robert, inventors, 210

Strachan, Sir Richard, takes Dumanoir's squadron, 203

Suleiman the Magnificent, 70

Svold Island, battle of, 40, etc.

T

Takeomi, Admiral, 322, 331

Tegethoff, Austrian commander at Lissa, 235, etc.

Terschelling, sack of, 156

Themistocles, 4, 13, 14, 22

Ting, Chinese admiral at the Yalu, 259, etc.

Togo, captain of the "Naniwa" in the Chinese War, 260; admiral commanding in chief in war with Russia, 301, etc.; preparations for Baltic Fleet, 310, etc.; his battle signal, 325; slightly wounded, 333

Torpedoes, 252, 253

Trafalgar, 173, etc.

Troy, 4

Tsu-shima, battle of, 321, etc.

Turks, growth of their power, 67

U

Ulugh Ali, renegade Turkish admiral, 77, 84, 85; counter-attack at Lepanto, 101; his escape, 102

United States: the navy and the Civil War, 213, etc.; the navy after the war, 277; the new navy, 278; situation at outbreak of war with Spain, 278, 279

Uriu, Admiral, 331

Urs de Margina, defender of fortress of Lissa, 237

V

Valdes, Diego Flores de, admiral of the Castilian squadron of the Armada, 114

Valdes, Pedro de, admiral of the Andalusian squadron, 114, 123

Van Tromp, 148, etc.

Veniero, Sebastian, Venetian admiral, 76; at Lepanto, 97

Vikings. See Norsemen

Viking ships, 43

Villeneuve, French admiral commanding at Trafalgar, 174, etc.; wounded and taken prisoner, 197

W

Winter, Sir W., 118, 129, 132

Wireless telegraphy, 319

Witjeft, Russian admiral, killed in battle on the 10th of August, 302

Worden (afterwards Admiral), commander of the "Monitor," 223, etc.; wounded in fight with "Merrimac," 227

X

Xantippus, 23

Xerxes, 4; his great expedition, 5, etc.; watches the battle of Salamis, 16; return to Asia, 21, 22

Y

Yalu, naval battle of the, 255, etc.

York, Duke of (afterwards James II), 145, 158

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