"After the combined fleet left Sasebo, on the 6th, everything went off as planned. At midnight on the 8th the advance squadron attacked the enemy's advance squadron, the latter being mostly outside the bay. The _Poltava_, _Askold_ and others were apparently struck by torpedoes. "At noon on the 9th the fleet advanced to the offing of Port Arthur Bay and attacked the enemy for forty minutes, I believe doing considerable damage. I believe the enemy were greatly demoralized. They stopped fighting at one o'clock, and appeared to retreat to the harbor. [Illustration: GENERAL KUROKI. GENERAL OKU. MARSHAL OYAMA. GENERAL NODZU. GENERAL NOGI. JAPANESE GENERALS.] "The Japanese fleet suffered but very slight damage, and its fighting strength is not decreased. Our casualties were 4 killed and 54 wounded. The Imperial Princes on board suffered no harm. "The conduct of the officers was cool, and not unlike their conduct at manoeuvres. "This morning, owing to heavy south wind, detailed reports from the vessels have not been received, so I merely report the above fact." [Sidenote: Damage Understated] This dispatch, as we know both from the Russian official accounts and from independent witnesses, really understated the extent of the blow which the Japanese Admiral had dealt to the Russian fleet; the vessels torpedoed were not cruisers only, but the two crack battleships upon which Admiral Alexeieff necessarily placed peculiar dependence, and the "considerable damage" which Admiral Togo believed had been done by the subsequent bombardment had put out of action, for the time being, the battleship _Poltava_ and the cruisers _Diana_, _Askold_ and _Novik_. Of these the _Poltava_ and the _Novik_ were badly hit on the water line--damage the seriousness of which needs no comment. [Sidenote: Only One Repairing Dock]