ry battery that could bring a gun to bear was blazing
away at her, while troops made their appearance on the cliffs above and
rained bullets upon her deck; indeed a sort of panic seemed to have
seized the Russians, for not only were they hurling hundreds of shells
at the devoted _Otaru_, but were exploding observation mines everywhere,
in the most reckless manner. But their most deadly weapon of all was
their searchlight beam, which they directed right into the eyes of the
helmsman and the officers on the bridge. Dazzled by its blinding
brilliance, our people could not see where they were going; and instead
of reaching her appointed station in the harbour, the _Otaru_ dashed at
full speed upon the rocks. The crew, of course, took to the boats, but
they were unfortunately in the full glare of the searchlight, and the
Russian troops shot every one of them.

"We were by this time about a mile out at sea, when we suddenly caught
sight of a torpedo-boat hove-to, without lights, and rolling and
pitching furiously not far away. Feeling sure that she must be
Japanese, I hailed her, got a reply, and five minutes later was
following my crew up the side of Number 65, being warmly welcomed by my
friend, Lieutenant Taira, who was in command.

"And now came a misfortune; for as I made a spring from our boat to the
deck of the plunging Number 65, the sweeping ray of the Russian
searchlight passed over us, returned, and rested inexorably upon us.
Taira instantly gave the order to the engineers to go full speed ahead;
but even before the engines could be started, a number of shells came
hurtling about us, and one unfortunately passed through the boat's thin
side and, without exploding, cut the steam pipe of Number 3 boiler. Of
course the stoke-hold was instantly filled with high-pressure steam, and
before the stokers could escape, three of them were scalded to death.
It was horrible to hear their screams and at the same time to realise
the impossibility of doing anything to save them. Luckily for us,
Number 75, lying at no great distance, saw that we were in difficulties,
and pluckily came to our rescue, taking us in tow and, despite the
tremendous fire directed upon us both, dragging us out of range.

"I was too busily engaged in helping to save Number 65 to see much of
what further happened in connection with the attempt to `bottle up' the
Russian fleet; but I have since learned that the _Sagami Maru_, which
followed the _Otar