The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1905-02-13
NAVAL SURVIVORS
REACH HONOLULU
Continued from page -


utes from the time she struck the mine
until she had disappeared from view.
The principal difficulty with the
Russian vessels of the Port Arthur
! fleet" continued Captain Van Essen,
| was the fact that they were short of
ammunition. In the last engagement
when the fleet divided and the battle
ship Czarovitch and the other got away
we were forced to return to the harbor
as we had sustained a great deal of
damage from the japanese fire. The
vessel were considerably damaged and
/ i'm addition many of our men were
wounded. We did not sustain many
! losses in killed however. The repair
! ing of the fleet was effected quite rapid
| ly but there was no use in venturing
out to fight. We had the ships and
the men but we had no ammunition for
! our guns, at least for the large guns.
1t was absolutely useless to venture out
and try to fight with no ammunition
for our guns.
The reports of numerous steamers
having run the blockade with stores
and ammunition are false. During
the entire time that the blockade was
begun only one steamer the King Ar
thur, got into Port Arthur. She came
from Bombay and had $4,000 sacks of
flour, A few small Chinese boats also
may have come through but did not
bring many supplies.
After it became apparent that there
was no use for the vessels to go out of
the harbor and face the Japanese, we
dismounted the guns and added them
to the land defences and sent the men
from the fleet to assist in the defence.
| am satisfied" and in this statement
Captain SAKE fully agreed, that if it
had not been for the assistance thus
given by the naval forces, Port Arthur
would have fallen last August or Sep
TENDER Where did we get the ammu-
milton to operate the guns on land?
Well we did not mount the heavier
guns but only the smaller ones, and
some of the inch guns. We were out
of ammunition for and so unable to use
the larger guns.
The japanese sank all of our ships
i'm the harbor soon after they captured
the 203 meter hill. But our vessels were
further destroyed by us on January 1
when it became evident that the garri-
son could not hold out any longer.
believe that council of war was call
ed by General Stoessel and this mat
ter Of surrender was discussed. / was
not present as | was on my vessel, the
Sevastopol outside of the inner harbor.
While the vessel was lying out there
i'm that position we We're attacked i'm
December a number of times by the
japanese torpedo boats We sank three
of the boats but we were struck by one
torpedo on December IA. We We're
badly damaged and our steering APP
paratus was put out of order.
Early I'm the morning of January /.
was ordered to take the Sevastopol out
into deep water and sink her 1 could
not use the steering apparatus but used
the screws to handle her. We went
about or miles out from land and
, then sank the vessel in 30 fathoms of
water. l do not think that the Japa-
nese will never be able to raise or use
any of of the Russian vessels at Port
Arthur. At the same time that l was
ordered to sink my vessel the other
naval officers were ordered to destroy
their vessels. The vessels at Port Ar
thur at the time Of the surrender were
the battleships Peresvet, Poltava, Ret
vizan, and Pobeda, cruisers Bayan and
Palada, mine transport Amur four des-
troyers and about four or five other
vessels, Six of the destroyers ran the
blockade from Port Arthur on the night
of January l.
Il think that Port Arthur held out
as long as 1t was possible. General
Stossel is very clever man, No, /
do not think that he was at fault. He
did everything that he could. The
garrison had been living on nothing
but bread and horse flesh for five
months before the surrender. Admiral
Wren was the naval commander at
Port Arthur .
1.-THE Baltic fleet? Oh the Baltic
fleet will come out. There is no doubt
but it Will come out TO the Far East,
I'VE have never been to Honolulu be-
fore and are anxious to see the city
during our short stay here"
Captain Schensnovitch was in PHI
ladelphla at the time that the Cramps