se ships, and numbers of
men on their forward-decks were drenched to the skin.

But as the range shortened the rain of shells began to find its target, and
fell crashing and exploding on the hulls and upper-works of the Chinese
line. It had now lost something of its first formation. The centre had
surged forward, the wings had hung back, and it had become slightly convex.
Ito in his report stated that Admiral Ting had adopted a crescent
formation, but this was only the result of his ships not keeping station
correctly. His order had been to fight in "line abreast." Presently the
line became so irregular that some of the Chinese ships were masking each
other's fire. The slow fire of the Chinese guns, ill directed as it was,
did little damage to the Japanese cruisers. But the Chinese ships were
already suffering from the shower of shells. The Japanese found themselves
faced with an unexpected difficulty of detail. In the older type of guns
the silk cartridge-case was burned when the shot was fired. But with the
quick-firers the solid drawn brass case of the cartridge, a thing like a
big metal can, is jerked out by an extractor as the breech-block is swung
back after firing, and these brass cases began to accumulate in heaps at
the gun positions. Extra men were sent to the batteries to throw them
overboard.

The "Yoshino" was now on the extreme flank of Ting's right, about a mile
away from the "Yang-wei." Count Ito signalled from the "Matsushima" for the
van squadron to circle round the enemy's fleet by changing its course to
starboard. This would bring the weaker ships of the hostile squadron under
a cross-fire from the van squadron, sweeping round astern of them, and the
main squadron crossing their bows obliquely. At the same time the ships on
the Chinese left had most of their guns masked by their consorts, and could
only fire at relatively long range with their bow guns at the rearward
ships of the Japanese main squadron. Ting was out-generalled, and was
paying the penalty of a bad formation. His weak right wing was in imminent
danger of being crushed by superior numbers and weight of fire.

The two ironclads in the Chinese centre had been made the target of the
heaviest guns in Ito's fleet. Theoretically these guns should have been
able to pierce even the heavily armoured plating of the barbettes, but no
projectile penetrated the armour of the two ships, though shot after shot
came thundering against them. Their una