r beam-ends, a volleying
succession of deep, heavy _booms_, accompanied by a tremendous outburst
of steam, proclaimed that her boilers had burst, and at the same instant
she seemed to crumple up and break completely in two, her bow-half
sweeping along our port side, while her stern-half drove past to
starboard, the crew, unable to get the boats afloat, leaping desperately
overboard. A moment before striking the craft, I had rung down an order
to the engine-room to stop the engines, and shouted for my crew to stand
by with ropes' ends; and now several of these were hove, by means of
which we managed to drag three Russians up on to our deck; and then we
backed astern and fished up eight more, all of whom we marched below and
locked up securely. The other poor fellows, including the captain of
the boat, must have gone down with her, for we saw nothing more of them.
But we had taught the destroyers a lesson, for thenceforth they kept
their distance.

Examining into our own condition, we discovered that our injuries
arising out of the collision amounted to about as much paint scraped off
as might be replaced by the contents of a 10-pound tin, while all other
damage was so high above the waterline as to make it of no practical
account. And we had not a man injured; so I considered that we had
emerged from the encounter very cheaply.

It was just half-past nine o'clock, by my watch, when, bursting through
the curtains of haze, our battle fleet hove in sight in the south-west
quarter, with flags flying, the water leaping and foaming about their
cutwaters, and a fine "white feather" of steam playing on the top of
their waste-pipes, indicating that the stokers were maintaining a full
head of steam in the boilers. But--Japanese luck again--they were just
too late; for at that moment the Russian fleet entered the protective
zone of their shore batteries and, with a very poor attempt at bravado,
slowed down to a speed of about six knots, while the _Sevastopol,
Pobieda_, and _Peresviet_ came steaming out to meet them. They had
managed to escape by the skin of their teeth; and now, in accordance
with the instructions given to the Admiral not to risk his ships by
pitting them against the shore batteries, we also were obliged to slow
up, and finally to stop our engines. As a matter of fact, the time had
come for us to retire; but evidently everybody was curious to see what
would be the result of my mine-laying operations of the p