The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-06-01
THE WORK OF
DESTRUCTION
STORY OF RUSSIA'S NAVAL DIS
ASTER is COMPLETE.
BATTLE FORMATION
WAS AT FAULT
Dramatic Account of Togo's Splendid
Running ight-Damage by Mines
and Submarines-Captain Roch-
noff's Graphic Account.

London, May 31-(Special cable tc
the Times-Democrat)-The tale of Rus
sia's great sea disaster is now complete
Out of the great fleet that went into
battle Saturday, May 27, all but four
have been captured or sunk by the Jap
anese
Admiral Voelkershem is dead shot or
drowned.
Admiral Nebogatoff is a surrendered
prisoner.
Two vessels out of all the gallant ar
mada that was headed for Vlaidvostok
have reached that port
Such 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 a dispatch
form its correspondent in the Russian
capital in which he asserts that Nine.
Rojestvensky has received a telegram
from Vlaidvostok signed by her hus-
band saying that he had arrived there
on board the cruiser Almaz, 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
hCers
1t seems undoubted that the Aln1az
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 cye-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 ART
arriving at Sasebo; other prisoners have
been landed at Tsu Island; 900 have
been brought to Iwami and the captured
vessels are being brought to Japanese
ports by prize crews, to be rehtted and
to fly the flag of the Rising Sun.
From a 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 il
is made by a Russian informant-is thai
Admiral Togo's disposition of his force:
was tactically perfect.
Not only were his squadrons so floate,
as to guard both channels. that to tllt
east and that to the west of Tsu Island
but he had also prepared for deplo,
of his forces should Rojestvensky spill
his fleet and send one division aroune
Japan on the outside way, while On tn.
other he made dash for the sea o
Japan and Vladivostok by way OF th'
Corean strait.
Togo, with hisxmain squadron, lay of
the Corean coast, in the roadstead %
| Masampho, while his torpedo boat flo
tillas were disposed back of Tsu Island
Admirals Kamimura and Uriu heIt
their squadrons further north, ready t.
head off such of the Russian ships a
might get through Togo's lines or t,
lscamper up to the Strait Of 4 Tsugaru an,