oin forthwith, and
giving us our course, east-south-east.

I believe our engines were the first to move, but the _Asama_ was now
nearly a mile to the eastward of us, we standing higher out of the water
than she, and therefore drifting to leeward faster, consequently she
really had the best of the start. But I wasn't going to let her get
into action before me, if I could help it, and I called down the
voice-tube to Carmichael, our Engineer Commander, explaining the state
of affairs, and begging him to do his best. Unfortunately for us,
however, the _Asama's_ "chief" was Scotch, too; it therefore at once
became a race between the two ships, all the keener because of the
friendly rivalry between the two Scotchmen. It was generally conceded
that _Asama_ had the advantage of _Yakumo_ by about half a knot; but
when at length, shortly before four bells in the first dog watch, we
rejoined the line, the two craft were running neck and neck.

The battle recommenced about a quarter of an hour before we were able to
resume our former position in the fighting line, the _Poltava_ opening
fire with her 12-inch guns upon the _Mikasa_, against which ship, it
appeared, the Russians had concentrated their efforts during the earlier
phase of the fight. The _Poltava_ was the sternmost ship in the Russian
battle-line; and as though her shots had been a signal, the fire
instantly ran right along the Russian line from rear to van. The din
was frightful, for our ships at once returned the Russian fire, and in a
moment, as it seemed, the sea all round about the _Mikasa_ on our side,
and the _Tsarevich, Peresviet_, and _Retvisan_ on the side of the
Russians, was lashed into innumerable great fountains of leaping spray
which shone magnificently, like great showers of vari-coloured jewels,
in the orange light of the declining sun. And presently, as the gunners
got the range, there were added to the deafening explosions of the guns
the sounds of the projectiles smiting like Titan hammers upon the
armoured sides and other protected parts of the ships, and the crash of
bursting shells. Great clouds of powder smoke whirled about the ships,
hiding them for a second or two and then driving away to leeward upon
the wings of the increasing gale. Splinters of wood and iron, and
fragments of burst shells swept over the ships like hail, and prostrate
forms here and there about the decks, weltering in their blood,
proclaimed the growing deadly accurac