rmoured parts were pierced again and
again, the shells bursting as they entered, and lighting several fires that
were extinguished with difficulty.

But the unarmoured ships on the Chinese right were suffering terribly under
the cross-fire of the enemy's van and main squadrons. The two outer ships
on this flank were the "Chao Yung" and the "Yang-wei." Each of these ships
had a barbette armed with a 10-inch gun fore and aft. Amidships was a
raised structure carrying machine guns on its roof, and having on each side
of it a passage, off which opened a range of wooden cabins, oil-painted and
varnished. Under the rain of bursting shells these masses of dry,
inflammable woodwork were soon ablaze; the fire spreading rapidly made it
impossible to bring up ammunition for the guns, and the two cruisers
drifted helplessly out of the line, each wrapped in clouds of black smoke,
through which long tongues of red flame shot up into the air.

On the other flank practically no damage had been done by the few shots
fired by the Japanese in this direction. But here there was a miserable
display of cowardice on the part of the Chinese. The ship on the extreme
left was the "Tsi-yuen," which still bore the marks of her encounter with
the "Naniwa Kan," in the first days of the war. The experiences of that
adventure had evidently got on the nerves of Captain Fong, who commanded
her. As the Japanese line swung round the other flank, he suddenly left his
station and steamed at full speed away from his admiral, crossing astern of
the Japanese, at what he thought a safe distance, and heading for Port
Arthur. The rearmost Japanese cruiser, the "Chiyoda," sent a shell after
him, that dismounted one of his guns, and added wings to his flight. The
"Kwang-chia," the next ship in the Chinese line, followed his bad example,
and leaving the battle raging behind them, the two cruisers soon
disappeared over the south-western horizon. Fong, with the "Tsi-yuen,"
reached Port Arthur. He said he had been in the thick of the fight, and
only left it when the day was lost. But the evidence of his own crew was
against him. He was promptly tried by court-martial and beheaded. The other
ship, the "Kwang-chia," never reached Port Arthur. She was wrecked during
the night after the battle, with much loss of life, on a reef outside
Talienwan Bay.

There were some other instances of half-heartedness or worse among the
Chinese as the fight developed, but on the whole th