ight athwart the
channel, from shore to shore. But she was of nearly two thousand tons
measurement, and, with the way that she had on her, she went through
that boom as though it had been a thread! On she went, until not only
the searchlight but also Golden Hill fort was on her starboard quarter,
and she had penetrated farther than any other Japanese ship had done
since war was declared, when, having reached the point where the channel
is narrowest, Sosa, her skipper, swung her athwart the fairway and, amid
the cheers of his crew and the deafening explosions of guns and shells,
coolly blew her bottom out and sank her, he and his crew just having
time to scramble into their two boats as the steamer foundered. Wasn't
that fine?"

"Splendid!" I agreed, heartily. "And what became of that fine chap,
Sosa, and his crew? Did they manage to escape?"

"Sosa and three men of his boat's crew contrived, although they were all
wounded, to pull out to our torpedo-boats, and were picked up," replied
Ito. "But the Russians fired upon the other boat and destroyed her and
her crew, despite Sosa's desperate efforts to save them.

"The next ship to arrive was the _Sakura Maru_. She was about a mile
and a half ahead of us in the _Totomi_, and we were able to see
everything that happened to her.

"I believe it was her opportune arrival that gave the gallant Sosa and
his companions the chance to escape; because of course as soon as the
_Sakura_ was seen, the Russian gunners gave all their attention to her.

"It was a grand sight to see her--she was more than a thousand tons
bigger than the _Mikawa_--rushing straight for the harbour's mouth at
her utmost speed, with the water foaming about her bows, a thin stream
of smoke and sparks issuing from her funnels, her whole hull, spars,
rigging, and funnels standing up, a black silhouette, between us and the
white beam of the searchlight, with shells exploding all about her,
deluging her with foam, but apparently doing her no harm. She stood on,
evidently under a full head of steam, for we could see `the white
feather' at the top of her waste-pipes, until she reached the Pinnacle
Rock; and there they anchored and sank her. She was manned almost
entirely by cadets; and as an illustration of the consummate coolness
with which they behaved, let me tell you that when the ship went down,
they actually had the presence of mind to take flares aloft with them,
which they burnt from the crosst