d apparently satisfied
himself that he had strung us up to the necessary pitch of alertness,
finally formed line ahead and changed course to East-North-East, at the
same time hoisting the signal, "Engage!" The signal was greeted with a
terrific outburst of cheering from every ship, and faces that had begun
to look gloomy as the distance between the two fleets increased, once
more became wreathed in smiles. Speed was increased, and we began to
rapidly overhaul the enemy, the spray flying high over our bows as we
pushed our way irresistibly through the rising sea. And now the horizon
all round from north, west, and south showed dark with smoke as the
Japanese cruisers began to close in from those points upon the Russians.

It was the _Tsarevich_ which at length opened the ball, by bringing the
12-inch guns in her fore-turret to bear upon the _Mikasa_. There was a
brilliant double flash, a big outburst of white smoke that for a moment
partially veiled the great ship ere it drove away to leeward, a huge
double splash as the ponderous shells hit the water about a mile away,
and then came a crashing _boom_ as the sound of the explosion reached us
against the wind. The shots had fallen short. These two shots appeared
to be regarded by the rest of the Russian battleships as a signal to
open fire, for they immediately did so, the flashes bursting out here
and there all along the enemy's battle-line, first from one ship and
then from another, as though each ship were striving which could first
get off her shots, while projectiles seemed to be falling everywhere
excepting aboard the Japanese ships; true, two or three shells flew,
muttering loudly, high over our heads, but the rest fell either wide or
very far short. Our anticipations, it seemed, were proving correct, the
roll and pitching of their ships was playing the mischief with the aim
of the Russian gunners. Then the big guns of the flagship and the
_Asahi_ spoke, just four shots each, coolly and deliberately fired, one
shot at a time, to test the range. This was found to be too great for
effective practice, and the fire thereupon ceased.

But although not one of those eight ranging shots had actually touched a
Russian ship, they all fell much closer to their mark than had the
Russian projectiles, and close enough, at all events, to make Vitgeft
nervous, for their immediate effect was to cause him to haul up to the
northward, so that it looked as though he were seri