The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-05-30
MEET CLOSE TO
ISLAND OF OKI.
Engagement Seems to Have Been 4
Running One.
FIRST ADVICES ARE
FAVORABLE TO TOGO.
Roiestvensky Appears In the Korean
Straits During the Morning In
Fog, but Latter Lifted
and Battle Begins.

Washington. May 3O-According tC
the latest information, up to 2 O'Clock
Monday morning, the battle between
the Russian and Japanese naval for Ces
on which hangs the outcome of the fa'
eastern strud gle. has begun. If it has
not terminated decisively. All the dis
patches received by the Associated
Press pointed to a Japanese victory,
though it is not yet known whether
the full force of Rojestvensky's fight
ing ships took part in the contest
which. according to the dispatches. took
place In the comparatively narrow wa
tiers of the Straits Of Korea. The first
information came In a dispatch from
the American consul at Nagasaki to
the state department at Washington
telling that the japanese had sunk one
Russian battleship, four other warshlps
and repair ship In the Korean
strait, and this was followed by a dis
patch, received by the state depart
ment, the date Of which was not given
that the Japanese government had
made the announcement that its fleet
had engaged the Russians in Straits
Of Korea Saturday and held them"
The state department also received
information that two Of the vessels
reported to have been sunk were the
Orel and the Borodino, and that three
n hn al
Tsingtau, the German port on the
Shangtung peninsula, came a report
that running naval engagement took
place near the Island Of Oki in the Sea
Of Japan, 200 miles northeast of the
Straits Of Korea. and that the whole
Russian fleet did not participate. the
slow vessels having been sent around
Japan. Russian sources give no news
Of the battle. while the Japanese gov
eminent. following its custom, is ST.
lent as to either the battle or its out
come.
The Orel and Borodino are Of 1856
tons displacement each, heavily armed
well protected. and were designated
to make eighteen knots. They measure
397 feet by rs feet. with twenty SIX
feet draught. and both have lofty s, ar
deck fully thirty feet above the water
line, extending from the bow to the
quarterback. Forward is mounted q
pair Of 12.4-inch guns in turret pro-
tected by eleven inches Of Krupp ar
NOR. Another pair Of guns Of the same
size Is mounted aft. There are thirty
other guns of the intermediate bat
terry, and the vessels carry two sub
merged, toperdo tubes and two above
water. A special feature of the YES
sells is their vertical longitudinal bulk
heads of inch armor. running through
the whole length of the ship at dis
lance of nine or ten feet in board from
the ships sides designed to loca,jze
the effect of blow from a torpedo.
The belief in naval circles in Wash
fngton is that the Japanese resorted
to a free use Of their torpedo hoats
IN their attacks on the vessels of Vice
Admiral Rojestvensky's fleet. The
Japanese have large number of torpe-
do boats in their fleet. and they DEM
onstrated their effectiveness In the cp-
erations around Port Arthur. Naval
officials here express the opinion that
1t was unlikely that such serious loss
es as those reported could have been
inflicted by ordinary fire.