"The great naval force of the Tsar, with which we were now face to face," continued Lieutenant Ingleton in his narrative, "consisted of the new battleship _Petropavlovsk_ of 10,960 tons, with a speed of 17 knots; the great turret-ship _Dvenadsat Apostoloff_ of 8076 tons; the two new barbette-ships _Kama_ and _Vologda_ of the _Cizoi Veliky_ type; the _Tchesmé_ of 10,181 tons, the _Gheorghy Pobyednosets_ of 10,280 tons, and the powerful _Tria Sviatitelia_ of 12,480 tons; the two enormous new cruisers _Tiumen_ and _Minsk_, both of 17,000 tons, and running at 20 knots; the _Vladimir Monomach_ of 5754 tons; the armoured gunboat _Otvazny_, and the new rams _Admiral Seniavine_ and _Admiral Uschakoff_, with thirty torpedo boats, including the _Kodor_, _Reni_, _Anakria_, and _Adler_, the latter being able to run at 27·4 knots. "Against such a gigantic force as this our small force of vessels and torpedo boats presented but a sorry appearance. Nevertheless we had fired the first shot, and were now determined to die rather than haul down our colours. As our guns thundered, those of the _Jupiter_, _Repulse_, _Sans Pareil_, _Undaunted_, _Orlando_, _Diana_, _Scout_, and _Gannet_ joined in noisy chorus. The 12-inch guns in the turrets of the _Petropavlovsk_ and the four big guns in the barbettes of the _Tria Sviatitelia_ crashed out together, and almost immediately afterwards we found ourselves being swept from stem to stern by the enemy's shells. The Russian battleships were all well armoured, and had a much heavier shell fire than the vessels of either France or Britain. We were both in columns of divisions in line ahead, but from the first moment of the engagement our position was critical. "A terrific and deadly storm burst upon us from the enemy's tops, while his heavy guns kept up an incessant thunder. With such an enormous force against us, it was apparent to every man on board that disaster was imminent. It had, alas! never been graven sufficiently deep upon the public mind how absurdly weak we were in the Mediterranean. Here, as in all other squadrons, every grade of officer from commander downwards was deficient in numbers, and the ships in commission had for years been so much below their complement that the work had only been carried on with great difficulty. Other ships at home had been obliged to wait until a sufficient number of merchant seamen and half-trained engine-room staff could be scraped together to provide the semblance of a crew. In fact, successive British Governments of both parties had subordinated national necessities to a desire to evade a material increase in taxation, and now at last our Mediterranean Squadron were compelled to face the inevitable.