The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-05-29

usual precautions to prevent any IN
toward incident. During the division
brief stop at Suez it was picketed by
British guardships No vessel was per-
mitted to enter the Suez canal for hours
preceding the entrance OF the RUSSIAN
ships. A guardship Went ahead TO ,Gad
the Eay EgER,an S naesd the BANKS
Of the canal. A British guardshlp
brought up the rear.
Voelkersam navigated the Red sea IN
safety and reached Diego Suarez, on the
northern coast Of Madagascar, IN the last
week of December. His arrival was
we'll timed for Rojestvensky DIVISION
arrived only day or two later, ano
the divisions were united on Jan. q.
Sailed Around Good Hope.
Roiestvensky made two stops in his
long voyage down the west coast OF
Africa and around Cape of Good Hope
! to Madagascar. His first stop after
leaving Tangier was at Dakar, pow
on the coast Of West French Africa.
Here he coaled and repaired his ships
and resumed his voyage on Nov: 10:
Swakopmund, German Southwest Al
RIGA, where he coaled again. Then from
Swakopmund he proceeded around the
cape to Diego Suarez. distance OF
$500 miles.
Roiestvensky remained at the island
of Nossi-Be, a little island off the north
coast of Madagascar, from Jan: to
March 16. No one knows why. Doubt.
less the explanation is found in the fact
that he was waiting for his golfers to
reach the positions assigned them along
the route he proposed to take to the fal
east.
Months Spent in Drill.
The time spent at Nossi.Be, however
was not wasted. An English CORE
spondent who visited the fleet in Feb
ruary declared that Rojestvensky haC
transformed his crews of lubberlJ
landsmen into well-trained, wei -disclp
lined bodies Of men. The entire day
was filed with target practice and gur
boats and these were. used every day
in practice. The ships were orderly
and we'll kept and, aside from the huge
piles of coal that covered every decE
and filled every available nook, thu
ships were clean.
After the battle Of Mukden it wa
freely predicted that Rojestyennsk!
would return home. He did sail from
, Nossi-Be on March 16, at time whe1
the full extent of the disaster at Muk
den was beginning to be realized a
St. Petersburg. It was taken 70
granted that Rojestvensky had saile'
,, for home.
/ Crossing the Indian Ocean.
! The days passed and the Russia
fleet had not reached the Red sea O
its way back to the Baltic. Then, O
70 March 80, the British steamer, Oar
4 from Ceylon, arrived at the South Afr
y can port of Durham with the news tina
= on March 10 it had passed the Russia
= fleet $50 miles northeast OF Madaga:
q car.
d Still many refused to believe tina
q RojestvensEy actually was on his wa
- to the far east, espe cially when it wa
= explained at St. Petersburg that tn
s fleet was only out for a practice cruis
e Late in March the Russian fleet, or
part of 1T, was sighted in the India
ocean 500 miles south of Ceylon. Eve
at that aate When it seemed a efrta5
k trying to reach Vladivostok, it was in
r possible to predict what route he woul
20 take.
i, Coaled at Chagos Island.
q 1t is believed that Roiestvensk
l. coaled his fleet at the Chagos island
e 1880 miles northeast Of Madagascar
t. Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chag'
islands, offers a splendid harbor, fftee
N miles in length, five miles broad, ar
IS affording a splendid anchorage. The
a. is no cable station there.
a. From Diego Garcia Rojestvensky hs
k, the choice of three routes to Vladiv
re stok. The first thru the strait Of Mala
as ca to Singapore distance Of 2,2'
"a miles-and thence into the China Sc
lei The second route would take him tn
eerr Sunda strait, between the Dutch islam
II of Sumatra and Java, 1880 miles fro
Diego Garcia. Or he could go via Nj
bourne, 1880 miles, thence to the Fren'
islands of New Caledonia, and fro
ly there to Vladivostok, 4,5OO miles,
ID Fooled All Naval Experts.
ps Few naval experts believed that F!
MT iestvensky would sail thru the stral
el of Malacca, past SO great port
x Singapore; and yet that is what
e. did, with fifty Of his ships, at lea
it. There was no effort at concealme1
ly and on April Japan and all the wo1
knew that the Russian feet had e
* tered the China sea. His movemen
he since that date are we'll known a
il added greatly to. his reputation as
in naval strategist.