ers, for
almost immediately she slackened speed and began to drop astern. This
mishap, however, did not seem to in the least discourage her consort,
which, putting on full speed, now dashed at us in the most determined
and gallant manner, firing as she came, and receiving our fire in
return. And then, for some ten minutes, we found ourselves engaged in a
regular ding-dong fight, we and our antagonist closing to a distance of
less than two hundred yards, and hammering away at each other as fast as
the guns could be served.

But it very soon became apparent that our fellows were much the better
and cooler gunners of the two; for whereas the Russians seemed to ram in
their charges and let fly on the instant that their guns were loaded,
our men waited, watching the roll both of their own ship and that of the
enemy, and firing at her waterline as she rolled away from us, with the
result that within the first five minutes of the fight a lucky shot from
our 12-pounder sent a shell through her upturned bilge a foot or so
below her normal waterline, blowing a hole through her thin plating that
admitted a tremendous inrush of water every time that she rolled toward
us. Her crew at once got out a collision mat and made the most
desperate efforts to get it over and stop the leak; but our 6-pound
quick-firers peppered them so severely that, after struggling manfully
for two or three minutes, they were obliged to let the mat go, and lost
it. Then they launched a torpedo at us, which missed us by inches only,
whereupon I ordered our men to cease fire, and hailed the Russian to ask
if she would surrender. But, not a bit of it; their reply, as
translated to me by Hiraoka, who was an excellent Russian linguist, was,
that they knew how to die, but not how to surrender; and the reply was
accompanied by another salvo from every one of their guns that would
bear. And this, too, at a moment when it became only too apparent that
the boat was rapidly sinking. Since, therefore, it was evident that
they were resolved to fight to the last, there was nothing for it but to
open fire upon them afresh, much as I regretted it, as they obstinately
persisted in keeping up a fire upon us.

The end, however, was nearer than even I thought, for we had fired but a
few more shots at our opponent when there occurred a terrific explosion
aboard her, instantly followed by several others, her deck opened up
like the lid of a box, a great sheet of flame le