The official telegrams, however, gave no particulars as to the extent of the resistance offered, and it must be allowed that if the _Nakonoura Maru_ absolutely refused to surrender, the Russian men-of-war would have no option but to fire upon her and let her take the inevitable consequences. The _Zensko Maru_, more fortunate than her consort, showed the Russians a clear pair of heels and escaped safely to the shelter of the port of Fukuyama, in Yezo. [Sidenote: Snowstorms and Bitter Frost] This insignificant feat of arms was the sole success in the way of the destruction of commerce which could be put to the credit of Captain Reitzenstein's squadron in the early days of the war, and the fates soon proved unkind to him. The stormy weather which inconvenienced the Mikado's fleet off Port Arthur raged in the Japan Sea with peculiar severity, and for three days after the destruction of the _Nakonoura Maru_ the Russian squadron flew before a heavy gale, aggravated by snowstorms and bitter frost. An official message from Admiral Alexeieff reporting these facts was the last authentic news of the Vladivostock squadron that reached the outside world for many weeks. Rumor upon the subject was, of course, busy in Russia. Now it was reported that the activity of Captain Reitzenstein had reduced the over-sea trade of Japan to a standstill; now it was stated (on the best authority, of course) that the squadron had escaped, and evading the Mikado's ships in some marvelous fashion, had joined the Russian fleet at Port Arthur; still a third and wilder story made out that it was on its way to Europe to effect a junction with the Baltic fleet, which, it was declared, was to be dispatched to the Far East in July. The truth appears to have been that after infinite trouble and hardship Captain Reitzenstein managed once more to make Vladivostock, and that his storm-tossed ships took refuge again in the harbor, into which a free passage was maintained by the efforts of the ice-breakers. [Sidenote: Reconnoitring at Vladivostock]