The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-06-04
THE WORK OF
DESTRUCTION
STORY OF RCSSIA'S NAVAL DIS
ASTER is COMPLETE.
BATTLE FORMATION
WAS AT FAULT
Dramatic .Accrun; IT Iog"'S Splendid
Running I'ight-Dnmagc by Mines
and acknowledgement K"th-
inof;, Graphic Account.

LOnIHn, May Sly ,0ptNl"l >"'''> y
the Times Democrat 1.-The tale OF Rus
sia's great sea disaster is now complete
Out of the great feet that went into
battle Saturday, May p, all but four
have been captured or sunk by the Jap
anese.
Admiral Noelkershem is dead, shot OF
drowned.
Admiral Nebogatoff is surrendered
prisoner.
Two vessels out of all the gallant ar
mazda that was headed for Vlaidvostok
have reached that port.
Such a catalogue of overwhelming ills
seems past precedent, but is all terribly
true.
The Japanese report of the capture OF
Rojestvensky is direct and exact, but
St. Petersburg insists that the admiral
has escaped.
The admiralty authorities there insist
that he has reached Vladivostok, and the
Standard this morning prints dispatch
form its correspondent in the Russian
capital in which he asserts that Nine.
Rojestvensky has received telegram
from Vlaidvostok signed by her hus-
band saying that he had arrived there
on board the cruiser An1az, and that he
was severely wounded in the neck, back
and abdomen.
Against this is placed the circumstan-
tial report received by the Japanese en-
bassy that the commander was captured
Saturday evening off the Corean island
of Urleung, with another admiral and
eighty other Russians, including staff Of
flcers.
1t seems undoubted that the A111,az
has reached Vladivostok, and in addi-
ton to bearing some one who at any
rate claims to be Rojestvensky, she car
ries the story that refugees on board
were eye-witnesses of the destruction of
two Japanese battleships. 1t is day Of
strange stories.
Admiral Togo is still securing the Sea
of Japan in quest of some remnant of
the enemy that may have escaped him.
Now that the glory of the victory and
the misery of defeat are written large
the stories of death and wounded men
in agony are coming to the front.
Wreckage and the disfgured bodies of
dead sailors are being washed ashore
along the shores of the Corean straits
The twisted and shattered hulls of the
Russian vessels lie on the shoals Or are
hung on the rocks, and Japanese fisher
men are collecting the fearful fotsam Of
the fight
The captured ships with prisoners are
arriving at Sasebo; other prisoners have
been landed at Tsu Island; 800 have
been brought to Iwami and the captured
vessels are being brought to Japanese
ports by prize crews, to be reftted and
to fly the flag of the Rising Sun.
From score of various sources, from
captured Russian officers, from crippled
Russian war vessels staggering into va
rious ports, and from the niggardly re-
ports of the Japanese naval bureau, ad-
ditional facts are learned Of the great
encounter, none of which change the
main facts, but all of which add vivid
ness, action and color to the story of
the engagement.
One intensely interesting point-and it
is made by Russian informant-is that
Admiral Togos disposition of his forces
was tactically perfect
Not only were his squadrons so foatej
as to guard both channels, that to the
east and that to the west of Tsu Island.
but he had also prepared for a deploy
of his forces should Rojestvensky split
his feet and send one division around
Japan on the outside way, while on the
other he made a dash for the sea of
Japan and Vladivostok by way of the
Corean strait
Togo, with his main squadron, lay off
the Corean coast in the roadstead of
Masampho while his torpedo boat ho-
tillas were disposed back of Tsu Island
Adnirals Kamimura and Uriu held
their squadrons further north, ready to
head off such of the Russian ships as
might get through Togo's lines or to
scamper up to the Strait of Tsugaru and
bar the way there, at the instant it was
reported many of the enemy were try
ing to gain the outside route.
Togo held the strait, indeed, and his
disposition was ideal.
Togo, on his flagship Mikasa, made
his personal squadron that of the battle
ships. Vice Admiral Kamimura COM
manied the heavy cruisers. Acting i'll
dependently as an advance or scouting
squadron were number of light cruis-