The San Francisco call., 1904-12-08
VarShipSH Helpless
Against Japa-
neSe Guns.

TOXIC, Dec. s. IL d. m.-Imperial
headquarters has made the following
announcement:
The result Of the bombardment of
Port Arthur by our large caliber guns
on the 9TH inst. was very good Many
effective hits were made against the
battleships Peresviet and PCbieda and
the protected cruiser Pallada. In con-
sequence the Peresviet caught fire and
at 3:15 o'clock the Pobieda listed to
starboard.''
TOXIC, Dec. THE headquarters Of
the Japanese army in front of Port
Arthur has reported. confirming the
disabling of the Russian battleships
Retvizan and Poltava and stating that
the cruiser Bayan- is aground. The re-
port goes on to say:
Owing to the plunging fire from
2o3-Meter Hill the enemy has with
drawn to Akasaka Hill. On December
6 our forces occupied an entire fort at
p. m. subsequently our forces, after
dislodging the enemy. occupied an
eminence north of Suerhkou and two
eminences north of Sanlichian at 3
p. IN. On December at p. m, in
response to the request of the bearer
of the enemy's flag of truce, an arInis-
tice of five hours was granted for the
removal of the dead"
The commander of the Japanese ma
val guns in front of Port Arthur, tele-
graphing on December 6, says:
An observation taken from 203-
Meter Hill shows that the turret- ship
Poltava is sunk and that the battle
ship Retvizan is listing heavily to
port. Observations taken on December
8 covered the results of the lombard
ment on December ). We are now TAX
ing observations from a hill near Shu-
shiying.
Since December we have daily
bombarded the enemy's fleet lying
south of Paiyu Mountain. From that
point only the masts and funnel-tops
of the battleships Pobieda, Retvizan
or the cruiser Pallada could be seen,
and it was impossible to count the
number of our shells taking effect. On
other ships explosions resulting from
our shells could be seen, but owing
to their positions behind the hills it
was difficult exactly to identify them.
The total of our shells taking ef
feet on the enemy's ships were as fol-
lows: On a vessel of the Pobieda
type, "a; on the battleship Retvizan or
ship Poltava, IL. Besides these, 50
other shells struck, from which ex-
plosions followed.
"On December 5 seven shells struck
the battleship Pobieda, and at about
80 p. m big explosion was observed
south Of Paiyu Mountain, resulting
from the effect of our Shells. evidently.
on a powder magazine.
THE successful result of the bonn
bardmcnt on December is inspiring
our men TO still greater effort.
The PcltaVa was an armored turret-
ship of 10,960 tons displacement and
1926 indicated horsepower. She was
built in st. Petersburg in 1894 and went
into commission in 1898. Her cost of
construction was nearly $4,000, 900. Her
armament consisted of four 12-inch,
twelve 5.9-inch and thirty-four smaller
caliber breech-loading rife guns of
the Russian-Krupp patterns. She had
a crew Of 700 men. She had a speed of
1e2 knots.
Tho Retzivan is battleship of Il. 700
tons displacement and $4,000 indicated
horsepower. She was built in Phila-
delphia in 1902. Her armament con-
sists of four 12-inch, twelve 6-inch,
twenty 3-inch, twenty 3-pounder and
six 1-pounder guns Of Russian Krupp
pattern. Her speed is is knots per
hour.