Famous Sea Fights, from Salamis to Tsu-ShimaAtteridge, A. Hilliard (Andrew Hilliard)
History
Famous Sea Fights, from Salamis to Tsu-Shima
Atteridge, A. Hilliard (Andrew Hilliard)
Naval battles
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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