The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-06-02
TERRIFIC BATTLE
| RACED FOR TWO
DAYS AND AN|GHT
Russian and Japanese
Officers Tell Story Of
| Awful Struggle.
TOCO'S MESSAGE
"DO YOUR UTMOST.
Reckless Daring Of Japanese,
Who Attacked at Every
Point.
BELIEVED 5000 MEN
OF. BIG FLzET PERlsHED
Officer Of Borodino Relates Ex-
periences, Showing Havoc
Wrought By Japanese Shells.
Overwhelming Superiority 5'5
Of Enemy Easily
Apparent.
Especial Cable to The Tin1es-D Dispatch and
New York World ts sai {

LONDON. June 1.-From an officer Of
the Russian battleship Borodino, the Ex-
press correspondent att Sasebo has res
lceived stirring account Of his expert
yences In the great battle. sl,5} 5
"Our ship he said. came into ac--
tion as soon as tho Japanese We're with
in range. was in$t the forward barbttte
in charge of one OF the twelvo-inch
guns when the signal to begin firing was
given from our flagship, the Kniaz Sou
varoff The ship Of the enenly nearest
us was the Shiltishima, whose projectiles
began to reach us \ wi thin H a few rlo-y
rlents after the beginning OF the fight
r fired my, first gun a atshalf past one and
was overjoyed to see that t, had reached
the mark, for the Japanese vessel was
struck in her upper works and did not
return our fire for at least ten min
'utes. At this early stage OF the battle.
Admiral Rojestvensky came on board the
sBorodIno and directed the fighting from
her flying bridge. AT 8 o clock the Shi-
tltishima, in company with S the Full
opened fire upon us with every gun. bear;
Ing directly at us, and almost immedia ate-
.ly afterwards a projectile struck my
barbette. The impact rendered every
one OF us inside insensi BILE. The bar.
bette was filled with smoke. and
CROPPED my way out. only to find the
decks fairly raining projectles and doz-
ems Of men lying dead and wound ed at
every turn.
Borodino a Shambles.
..When the barbette was clear, I re-
entered with my crew, but had only time
to fire two more rounds when two pro-&
.jectIles struck us simultaneously and
disabled both our twelve-tnch ans
breaking the barbette and killing eighAen
Officers and lleil. | crawled on all foups
to the deck and found my way to 10
Of our six-inch guns. which was SUR
rounded with dead and wounded men:
Here remained an hour, during which
time the Borodlno became a perfect
shnmbles. Both wardroom and steeSage
were crowded with the wounded. Nearly
every ammunition hoist on board had
been wrecked SO that shells had to be
passed by hand. s&
ut Wns now 4 o'clock, and the BOro-
dino was going down by the head. for
slle had been huIled several tines and
there was no hope of saving her. The
Japanese ships, having succeeded In
breaking our battle formation, camo
closer, and brought every available gun
to bear In upon us. I volunteered to go
up OH our fighting tops with a few men.
The sight there was SO terrible mat 1t
has haunted me and robbed me OF sleep
over since. Men In the tops had been
literally hacked to pieces by the accu-
rate fire of the Japanese
Ship Caught. Afire.
'Firo now broke out at several places
on board. and. added to the horrors ot
our already sorely tried vessel. Thsre
being no chance to subdue the fire. wa
resolved to withdraw from the line, fight
ing to tho very last. We turned to thel
westward but at least eight Japanese
ships closed in around us and bombarded
us on every side.
.'As the Borodino sank lower and lower,
it became fine target for tho over
W whelming superiority OF the enemy, bur
we fought on desperately, although hope
lessly. After IL long afternoon OF the
most terrible exhaustion, during which
there had been neither time to eat nor
drink, and after we had lost fully 400
men In killed and wounded. whole
flotilla of torpedo boats same down upon
us, and In five minutes the end had
come The awful explosion that followed
caused our ship to turn turtle. and felt
myself being drawn down deep towards
the bottom OF the sea. When came UP
was struck In the back by piece OF
wreckage, but boats crew from one OF
the destroyers picked me up, tosether
with forty others OF the Borodlno's men,
and took us to the armored cruiser IA.
sugn, from which wo wore Uansferfe"
ashore"