The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1905-03-08
SINKING or SEvAsTOPOL
Russian Battleship's Last Fierce
Struggle at Port Arthur.
SPIES BETRAYED HER TO THE FOE

with Only One Hundred Men, He
Russians Amazed by Enemy's Fear
Iessness-Incidents of the siege.
Captain N. O. Won Essen OF the Rus
sian navy, who has been paroled by
the Japanese government, commanded
the battleship Sevastopol during the
engagements at Port Arthur lie re-
Gently arrived In New York and thus
related some of the details of the siege
of Port Arthur to a reporter of the
New York American:
Before tell you of the conditions at
Port Arthur let me recount my own eX-
perience on the Sevastopo, which VIII
give you an idea of what we went
through Before the capture OF Two
Hundred and Three Meter hill, which
was the turning point In the siege the
japanese had brought up huge guns
and for weeks were shelling the har-
Dor at random. You see, they could
not tell the position of our ships, SO
that perhaps only / shell out or 900
would do any damage. As Ii was, we
were hit five times, but not greatly
crippled.
On Dec. II was notified by General
Stoessel that Two Hundred and Three
Meter hill had been lost and that this
gave the Japanese q vantage point
from which they could spy out our
movements and direct the fire of their
big guns. | determined TO leave the
harbor, but fortunately, owing to the
fact that / was lying behind Lao
Tishan hill, the enemy could get no
clear view of my ship, and so for the
time being at least was comparative
ly safe. They could see only the tops
of my masts, but the other ships were
In plain view to them. They opened
tremendous cannonade with ten inch
guns, and one after the other the big
battleships and cruisers listed over
and went down i'm the shallow waters
of the harbor The officers and crews
escaped.
On Dec. II they concentrated their
fire on me, and l saw that l would
have to abandon my position. 1t would
have been useless for me to attempt
to leave the harbor In the day, so
waited until darkness. The entrance
to Port Arthur Is very narrow and shah
low, so that had to walt till high tide,
which was at midnight In the black
ness of the night we felt our way out
and anchored behind the hills which
rise abruptly from the sea and which
sheltered us completely from the fire
of Nogl's guns.
At that time had only 100 men on
board. OF my total complement OF 62O,
800 had been killed or wounded or
We're lying sick at the hospital, and 200
had been sent ashore to re-enforce the
army In working the batteries.
1t was so dark that the Japanese did
not see US as we left the harbor 1t
was two days before they discovered
that we had gone During that time
they raIned heavy shells, 300 or 400
day, on the place where we had been.
AT the end of the second day they
were Informed of our location by spies.
Again they turned their big guns upon
us, but owing to our location this did
little damage. We were struck by
number OF six inch shells, two of which
exploded In my cabin, but we We're not
crippled to any extent. Finding IL dit
ficult to reach us from the shore, they
sent a swarm of torpedo boats In to
attack us.
had lowered my nets and sent out
booms, which gave us excellent protec-
ton. The first night twenty torpedo
boats came at us from all sides. With
the greatest daring they steamed In
full speed ON, and each launch threw
from two to three torpedoes.
was on the bridge ct the time and
not only our searchlights, but those OF
the shore batteries, lighted up the sea
for miles. Our quick firing guns had
been sent ashore, so that we only had
our six and ten inch guns to work with,
but the men fought them through all
that long night until the whole ship
shook from their tremendous dis
charges. / myself saw four Japanese
torpedo boats go down from the effects
of our shells. Twelve others, learned
afterward from reliable sources, We're
seriously damaged. The Japanese fio-
tilla commander, whose name do not
know, was killed.
Most of the torpedoes discharged at
us were caught In our nets, and, while
they all exploded, they did very little
harm. What small damage was In
flicted was repaired at once by our div
ers. Two days afterward they came at
us again. Line ahead they passed with
In 100 yards or less, steaming In per-
feet order and launching their torpe-
does as they went.
Once more we opened fire and beat
them off, but again and again they re-
turned to the attack with fearlessness
that had never before witnessed In all
my life. One Japanese torpedo boat
was SO badly crippled that she became
manageable, and I signaled to one
of our boats to go after her. Unfortu-
II. 4I,x. nm