The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-03-20
GLORY AND HONOROF CHEMULPO
FIGHT BELONGS TO THE RUSSIANS


who during the night landed their troops
and accoutrements from the three trans
ports and by daylight the entire fleet had
disappeared outside the harbor.
Order to Surrender.
At o'clock on the morning of the 9th
Captain Roudnof, commanding the Va
RAG, received official notification from
Rear Admiral Uriu, through the Japanese
consul at Chemulpo, that the Variag and
Korietz must surrender or leave the har-
Dor by noon. If this demand were not
compiled with Rear Admiral Uriu would
begin the attack where they lay, at the
anchorage, at in the afternoon. At the
same time similar notifications were sent
to the foreign consulate body at Chemul-
pc, and the commanders of all other
war vessels lying in the harbor were also
fully notified about o'clock in the fore
noon, and were requested to leave the
harbor or move out of range.
The commanders of the neutral war
vessels, excepting the United States ship
Vicksburg, promptly protested to Rear
Admiral Uriu against this action, but the
protest was of no avail.
The situation of the two Russian YES
sells could scarcely be worse. The Variag
was a protected cruiser of $500 tons,
mounting twelve 6-nch guns, and the Ko-
rietz a gunboat of 1918 tons of displace-
mont, mounting two S-inch and one 6-inch
guns. They were lying in a harbor with
a rise and fall of tide averaging twenty
seven to thirty feet, and surrounded by
mud flats with only a narrow and tortu-
Gus channel to the entrance. The dis
lance from shore to the anchorage was
about mile and half and to the outer
harbor entrance some fifteen miles OPP
posed to them was fleet of twenty YES
sells, among them batteships and cruisers
of the latest and heaviest type.
Escape impossible.
Escape was impossible. The crews could
only hope to die bravely. So at half past
Il both vessels weighed anchor and made
for the harbor entrance, selecting the
channel passing to the eastward by
Round Island.
The bravery of the Russian officers and
crews cannot he overestimated. Cut off
from every hope of escape, and with a
larger and more powerful Japanese fleet
lying at sea off the harbor to prevent sue
cor reaching them from Port Arthur, they
steamed out OF do their best In the face Of
the heaviest odds that history records
The Variag led the way with her band
playing the Russian national anthem and
receiving vociferous cheers from all the
neutral ships in port.
At Round Island, some eight miles from
the anchorage, lneN met lut -JdDdHeSt
fleet, which Immediately opened fire, and
the Russians promptly replied. The Jap
anese lay under a projecting headland,
which, in way. was a protection. The
Variag steamed back and forth in front
of the island, being held back by the
slower speed of the Korietz although her
superior speed might possibly have given
her chance to make a run for it.
The Variag Raked.
The Korietz kept well under the lee of
the island, and thus escaped the raldng
fire that quickly put every gun aboard
the Variag out of action and caused such
terrible loss among her crew.
The first shot in the action, fired from
one of the largest guns aboard the Japan
ese flagship Mikasa, struck the Yariag
amidships on the port side at the water
line and disabled two of her boilers.
The second big shot struck her just for
ward of the first, also at the water line,
knocking port and starboard coal bunkers
into one and listing the ship heavily to
port which depressed the port battery so
much that 1t was rendered useless The
forward bridge was struck and twisted
out of all recognition, killing or disabling
several officers. Midshipman Count Nieto