The Dogger Bank affair caused some delay to the Russian ships, though not nearly as much as Englishmen expected. After leaving the Straits of Gibraltar the fleet divided, one division, under Admiral Rozhdestvensky, proceeding by way of the Cape of Good Hope and the other, under Admiral Vollkersham, going via the Suez Canal. Rozhdestvensky had with him most of the battleships and Voelkersam the majority of the cruisers. Both squadrons proceeded very slowly, and the reports from time to time regarding their whereabouts were of the most puzzling character. On January 1, however, Rozhdestvensky reached Madagascar, and there he awaited the cruiser squadron. The long time spent there led to renewed assertions that the Admiralty at St. Petersburg would never order the fleet to the Far East. In the middle of March, however, reports were printed that the Russians had sailed. These reports were denied, and then repeated, and at length it was definitely established that the Baltic fleet had sailed. [Sidenote: Fleet Reaches Asiatic Waters] Nothing more was heard of it till April 8, when the news came that the fleet had passed Singapore and was in the China Sea. On entering the China Sea, Admiral Rozhdestvensky sailed directly to Kamranh Bay, on the coast of Indo-China, in French territorial waters. The prolonged stay of the fleet resulted in a vigorous protest from Japan to France, back of which was the possibility that Japan would invoke the Anglo-Japanese alliance, calling upon Great Britain to compel respect of neutrality by France. France, in addition to instructing her representatives in Indo-China to demand that the Russians leave territorial waters, forwarded the protest to Russia. [Sidenote: On the Eve of the Struggle] Admiral Rozhdestvensky, on the eve of the great struggle, had dismissed every unnecessary ship. More than a half hundred colliers and supply ships, which had accompanied the fleet or had met it in the China Sea, were dismissed after the last ton of coal had been stored on the big fighting ships. THE RUSSIAN FLEET. Displace- I. H. P. Nominal Gun Weight of Name ment speed protection broadside --Tons. --Knots. --In. fire--Lbs. Kniaz Suvaroff 13,516 16,800 18.0 11.6 4,426 Alexander III 13,516 16,800 18.0 11.6 4,426 Borodino 13,516 16,800 18.0 11.6 4,426 Orel 13,516 16,800 18.0 11.6 4,426 Oslabya 12,674 14,500 19.0 10.5 2,672 Sissoi Veliky 8,880 8,500 16.0 12.5 3,186 Navarin 9,476 9,000 16.0 12.5 3,404 ARMORED CRUISERS. Dmitri D'skoi 5,893 7,000 15.0 12.2 444 Admiral Nakhimoff 8,500 9,000 19.0 6.0 944