The San Francisco call., 1904-03-24

The following account OF the Jdpah-
ese attack on the Russian fleet at Port
Arthur on the night Of February 3D.
which opened the war in the Far East
as given by an eyewitness, an officer
of a merchant ship lying i9 the outer
harbor OF Port Arthur at the time is
taken from the North China Daily
News. published at Shanghai 1t IS
succinct and circumstantal TO de-
gree not attained by any account by
cable or letter yet published and for
that reason is here given in full;
.On the Sth instant, at 1880 p. m, we
were lying in quarantine outside OF the
entrance. The Russian fleet was lying
in three lines outside as. ard on the
eastern side Of the entrance there were
also a few ships, gunboats, training
ships and torpedo boats cruising in the
same line with ourselves, making
fourth line. Suddenly we felt heavy
submarine explosion, with two more in
quick succession. The Russian fleet
then began firing from the outer line
with light guns, their drums beating to
quarters. while the searchlights Of
every ship were turned on. Steam
launches and torpedo-bOats began
rushing about, but in a few minutes
lhe firing died down and we thought it
was only some night maneuyer We
were about TO turn in again when the
firing broke out afresh.
Between half-past u and / o'clock
the two Russian battleships passed in
and took up a position right across the
narrow entrance, while one of the
larger cruisers took up a position close
To the entrance under the lighthouse.
Il seemed TO US a strange maneuver
for such large ships at night time, so
we stayed on deck TO watch further de-
Velopments. AS it was cold, however.
and things became a trifie slow, we
turned in about a. m. At 2:35 a. m.
we were called out again as two very
excited naval officers boarded US and
in a mixture Of French and English
asked our names, etc. We got no news
from them. as they left in about a min
ute. At $3.50 a. m. another naval officer
boarded US and we learned that the
NicerOy had ordered that no ship was
10 leave or enter the harbor until fur
ther notice. After that 1 remained on
deck with one passenger, and at day
light We made out that one of the bat
tleships was all down by the head and
another by the stern, while the big
cruiser had a heavy list 10 port, all of
them having, we learned later, been
torpedOed and now lying aground.
WARSHIPS AT SEA.
Turning round and looking sea
ward we saw outside the fleet "A ring
Of torpedo-boats and farther out we
saw some Of the Russian cruisers that
we knew to the westward, while sew
eral masts showed on the horizon be-
yond them. These we judged to be
cruisers looking for what had dis
turbed them the night before Be
tween and 7-o'clOck the inner cruis-
ers came back and took up their old
positions with the feet, and those hull
down came slowly into sight (they
were three twO-funneled cruisers) and
lay in line. stern on, about six or seven
miles of. Then we noticed numbers
OF men on the forts overhead, looking
out to sea. while the decks of the
stranded cruiser were crowded with
men all looking in the same direction
About 7.z5 a. m. the three cruisers
turned and slowly steamed across the
front Of the Russian feet to the east
ward, and probably about six miles
of
At 1855 1 saw distinctly with the
telescope that the Rising Sun Of
Japan was flying from their mastheads
and gaffs. 1t was like an electric
shock to us and we understood at
once the meaning Of the night ma
neUvers, though we had been looking
on for nearly two hours, thinking that.
as the Chinese on board said, there
had been a bad collision among the
feet the night before. The whole Rus
sian feet was now weighing slowly and
clumsily and by $40 were under way
and steaming after the japanese
cruisers, but farther inshOre. toward
Dalny. In a few minutes the Jap
anese were out of sight to the south
eastward and at 9:15 a. m. the Rus
sian feet returned to anchor, actually
dropping the same great mooring
anchors although ii had taken them
so long TO get them up before They
were perfectly certain, and said so
openly. that the Japs would never
dare 10 attack Port Arthur. After
ward they sent couple Of cruisers out
scouting in the direction in which the
enemys cruisers had disappeared.
AT 1880 a. m. we were cleared from
quarantine, and at the same time one
Of the cruisers returned at great speed,
firing heavily astern, the others having
returned previously. We were then or
dered TO shift our berth for the training
ship. but were not assigned to any spe-
cial position We started to weigh an
chor and moved to the westward, close
10 the steamer NingOota, which had
only just got in, having slipped in close
in shore round the promontory from
the westward. At 1885, or just as we
took UP our berth. we saw the japanese
feet, sixteen ships in number, coming
up full speed from the eastward. The
battleships were leading, then came the
armored cruisers. with the remaining
cruisers in the rear, all in single file
The Russian feet was Weighing anchor
slowly, washing their chains and try
ing to get their great woOden-stocked
mOoring anchors hshed, instead Of Slip
ping them and getting their ships un-
der command. It was greatly amazing