mass of roaring, spouting flame, for she was
old, and blazed like a volcano. Her men--such of them as could reach
the decks--jumped overboard, and were hauled by ropes up the sides of
whichever ships happened to be nearest; for the Japanese, like their
opponents, had discarded all their boats and pontoons before going into
action.

The _Chen Yuen_ and _Ting Yuen_ were busily engaged in hammering away at
the biggest of the enemy, the _Yoshino_, the _Shikishima, Fuji_, and
_Niitaka_, and it was to relieve the two battleships, which were being
somewhat severely handled, that Frobisher determined to charge the
_Yoshino_ with his ship.

Signalling once more for full steam, and firing as he went, according to
his former tactics, he drove the _Chih' Yuen_ at her utmost speed toward
the Japanese flagship, which by this time had lost one of her military
masts and her forward funnel, from whose torn base smoke and flame were
pouring voluminously, wrapping the conning-tower round as though with a
black mantle, and utterly preventing her skipper from seeing what was
going on. He, poor man, was obliged to rely entirely upon the
discretion of the gunnery-lieutenant in her forward turret; and that
this individual was doing his duty well was proved by the frequency with
which his guns boomed out, sending shell and solid shot spattering
against the heavily-armoured sides of the Chinese battleships, where
they splintered and burst, cracking and starring the thick steel, but
very seldom penetrating to their vitals, close though the range was.

As the _Chih' Yuen_ clove her way through the water, one of the Japanese
destroyers discharged a torpedo at her, which missed her by inches only.
It was not wasted, however, for it struck the disabled _Yen-fu_, which
heeled over as though pressed by some gigantic hand, and a few minutes
later went down, taking her crew with her.

The _Hiroshima_ also tried to ram in her turn, leaving the stricken
_Kau-ling_ for that purpose; but she also was too late. The _Naniwa_
and the _Shikishima_ saw the _Chih' Yuen_ approaching, like the
messenger of death she was, and backed away from their opponents; the
_Fuji_ turned her guns on the approaching vessel; but the _Yoshino's_
captain, blinded by smoke from the wrecked funnel, did not see what was
coming until it was too late, and a moment later the Chinese ship
crashed into his stern, unfortunately striking a glancing blow instead
of a direct one, as Fro