their fire upon the boats with deadly effect. The chief victim himself was Commander Hirose. A shell struck him on the head, carrying away the greater part of his body, and leaving in the boat only a shapeless fragment of torn and blackened flesh. [Sidenote: Undaunted by Death] In the meanwhile, the other steamers were taking up their stations in the order provided beforehand. The _Yihiko Maru_, regardless of the terrible fire from the forts, steamed in on the port side of the _Fukui Maru_ and cast anchor in her turn. The fuse was duly set and lighted; officers and crew set off in the boats; and the ship blew up like her fellows and sank in the channel. Now came the opportunity of the fourth and last of this devoted fleet, the _Yoneyama Maru_. The difficulties of the channel and the violence of the enemy's fire led her to take a devious course, but the skill with which she was steered excited universal admiration. Her commander drove her through on the starboard side of the sunken _Chiyo Maru_ and then she was compelled to turn back and slip between that ship and the _Fukui Maru_. On her way she ran right upon a Russian destroyer and engaged it at close quarters for a few moments, but her duty was not to fight but to sink at a spot selected. Escaping therefore, from the clutches of the enemy, she rounded the _Fukui Maru_ and the _Yahiko Maru_ and finally brought up in the very centre of the fairway. There her crew prepared to send her to the bottom, and if the operation could have been carried out successfully there can be little doubt that the whole enterprise would have gained its object, and that the channel would, at least temporarily, have been completely blocked. But the Russian torpedo-boats were active. One of their deadly engines of destruction struck the _Yoneyama Maru_ just as the crew were about to cast anchor, and she drifted somewhat to the westward before she sank, her bow pointing towards the Tiger's Tail. Her crew escaped safely, but this accident left too wide a space between the _Yoneyama Maru_ and the _Yahiko Maru_ to effect a total obstruction of the channel. [Sidenote: Covering Themselves With Glory]