Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-19

four vessels of the Iwate type and was put
ting on full speed.
II took course to the northward with
a view of attaining the open sea, but the
enemy, who was of superior speed. turned
Immediately and took the same course.
Russians Obliged to Engage.
Il was, therefore, obliged to engage in
battle, which commenced at o'clock In
the morning, with a distance of sixty cables
between the two squadrons "a cable length
is 200 yards)
I'm the straits to the south we saw
second-class cruiser of the Naniwa type
coming to join the enemy.
AT a convenient opportunity rapidly
turned to the right, intending to approach
the Korean coast, and, by increasing our
speed to seventeen knots, we seemed to
have an opportunity of succee ding; hut the
enemy now observed our intention and di
rected his course toward us for the purpose
of hindering our design.
Hardly five minutes passed before the
Rurik left the ranks and signaled that her
steering gear disa bled l replied,
Steer with the engines and continued On
my former course.
Seeing that all of the Japanese cruisers
were concentrating their fire the Rurik,
all my subsequent maneuvering was exclu-
sively with the object of enabling the Ru-
rik to repair her damaged, rudder. 1 at
tracted to myself the enemy's fire in order
to cover the Rurik. admiral Jeszen was
on the nagshlp RoSSla)
japanese Reinforcements.
AT this time l saw two warships-one a
second and the other a third-class cruiser
coming to join the enemy.
THE Rurik hoisted the signal Cannot
steer Some maneuvering in the front
line gave the Rurik chance of going in the
direction of the Korean gulf, and at 8
o'clock the signal was hoisted Go east
The Rurik answered the signal and took
the requisite course at full speed, as could
be seen from the waves from her bows.
Eventually the Rossia and the Gromo-
boi took northerly course at q distance
of forty-two cables. The Rurik kept
course approximately southeast at a dis
lance of three miles. The battle continued
for two hours in this manner.
I'VE suffered considerable damage The
Rossia had three tunnels pierced, which
prevented her from keeping up good
steam, and three of her boilers were rem
dered useless.
AT $3.50 the Rurik began to lag behind
considerably and again turned her bows to-
ward the shore at the same time fighting
against the two second-class cruisers which
had Joined the enemy's squadron. The
Rurik soon afterward began to get out of
sight
mored cruisers. kept steadily engaging us
in such manner as to keep US from assist
ing the Rurik.
While the Rurik continued fighting we
continued our efforts to attract the enemy
further north, in the hope that the Rurik
would manage to dispose of her two COM
paratively weaker opponents, and that af-
ter repairing the damage to her rudder She
would be able to reach Vladivostok indie
pendently.
japanese Unexpectedly Left.
Shortly before 10 o'clock the enemy's
fire was the most terrific of the battle, but
to our general establishment the whole Jap
anese squadron left us after the most dead
ly fight, which had lasted five hours
The Rossia had sustained eleven holes
at her waterline and the Gromoboi had six
Both cruisers lost more than half their
officers. and the losses among the men to-
tailed IS per cent.
1T appeared impossible to renew the bat
tie to return to the Rurik, which was
now thirty miles to the south.
Taking advantage of the calm, we stop
ped our engines and quickly began to re-
pair the breaches in our vessel so as to en-
able us to proceed to Vladivostok
Captain Berlinsky of the Rossia was
killed and several of his officers were
wounded. Both cruisers had 1876 men killed
buried at sea-"
personal examination made Of the dam
age done to the cruisers by the Japanese
| fire, Admiral Alexeff says in transmitting
| the report. convinces him of the high cour-
| age and self-sacrificing efforts of those who
| took part in an unequal battle against the
superior forces of the japanese"