the _Mikasa_, flying
Togo's flag, proudly leading, followed by the battleships _Shikishima,
Fuji_, and _Asahi_, with the new and powerful cruisers _Kasuga_ and
_Nisshin_ bringing up the rear. Then, at a short interval, followed the
_Idzumo_, flying Admiral Kamimura's flag, and the _Iwate, Yakumo,
Adzuma, Asama_, and _Tokiwa_, in the order named, every ship flaunting
two big battle-flags in the morning breeze. Once clear of the harbour,
we parted company from the protected cruiser division, which headed away
South-South-East, to get in the rear of the enemy, while we of the
battle-line steered a trifle to the south of east for the battleground
which Togo had selected. On the port side of the line steamed a
flotilla of Japan's fastest destroyers, told off by Togo to act as
dispatch boats, in the event of the flagship's wireless apparatus being
put out of action, or her masts shot away.

Once clear of the land, we soon ran into an atmosphere of haze and a
rising sea which set the long line of ships rolling ponderously; and as
the vessels rolled and plunged, flinging heavy showers of spray over
their weather bows, each captain stood in his chart-room, with a chart
of the strait spread open on the table before him, anxiously awaiting
the next news of the enemy. These charts had been, for convenience'
sake, carefully divided up into a series of numbered squares; and about
nine o'clock the expected message arrived. It ran--"The enemy is in two
hundred and three," that being the number of the square on the chart
occupied by the Russian fleet at that moment. No sooner was the message
decoded and its purport made known than mutual congratulations were
exchanged; for even as the fall of 203 Metre Hill into the hands of our
soldiers had been the prelude to the surrender of Port Arthur, so now
the fact of the Russian fleet being in square 203 on the chart was
accepted as an omen of another victory.

The fine weather of the early morning had by this time completely
deserted us; the sky had become overcast, Tsushima's conical summit was
hidden by a great bank of heavy, louring cloud, the grey, dreary-looking
sea was running in confused, turbulent, foam-flecked surges through
which the big ships wallowed heavily, flinging great combers of yeasty
froth from either bow, while the little torpedo craft, smothered in
spray, were tossed about like corks. Yet, despite the gloomy aspect of
the weather, the Japanese fleet presented a m