pened, however, we had by this time drawn up abreast and were between
him and his friends, so he evidently came to the conclusion that there
was nothing for it but to fight his way out; accordingly he made a dash
to cut out across our bows, at the same time turning his whole battery
of guns upon us. I instantly ordered my men to leave their guns and get
away aft, out of the way of the shot, dismissing the quartermaster also,
and taking the wheel in his stead.

At such short range, his shots could not possibly miss, and in less than
a minute our bows and fore deck showed a very pretty "general average,"
a 6-pound shell blowing a hole through our plating and wrecking the
topgallant forecastle, while several 4-pound projectiles pierced our
funnel, blew away our fore topmast, and knocked one corner of the
wheelhouse to smithereens. But I did not care; the purpose which I had
in mind was fully worth all the damage and more, and I knew now that
unless I personally was hit and disabled, I should be able to accomplish
it. For I meant to give that impudent destroyer the stem, to run her
down and sink her, knowing that our stout bows would shear through her
thin plating as though it were paper. And the _Koryu_ had the speed to
do it, the destroyer having lost much of her speed by the barnacles and
weed on her bottom, which she exposed at every roll.

Evidently the Russian did not realise my purpose until it was too late;
he seemed to think I was a fool who was giving him a chance to inflict a
deadly raking upon me as he crossed my bows; and it was not until I
suddenly shifted my helm, rendering a collision inevitable, that what
was going to happen dawned upon him. Then there arose a sudden outcry
as the crew forsook their guns and made a mad dash at the two small
boats slung to the davits, there was a frantic jangling of bells down in
the destroyer's engine-room, an officer on her bridge snatched a
revolver from his belt and snapped off five shots at me in as many
seconds--none of which took effect--and then we were upon her. With
scarcely any perceptible shock we struck her fair and square amidships,
right in the wake of where I judged her boiler-room would be; there was
a horrible crackling and rending of wood and iron as our stem sheared
into and through her deck, a clamour of yells from the crew as they
fought with each other in their mad haste to lower the boats, and the
destroyer heeled over until she was almost on he