e narrow entrance by sinking old
steamers across it.

In March the arrival of the best officer in the Russian Navy, Admiral
Makharoff, for a while inspired new energy into the Port Arthur fleet. The
repairs of the injured ships were completed, and on 13 April the admiral
steamed out to challenge Togo and the main Japanese fleet to battle.
Notwithstanding precautions taken against the known danger of floating
mines, the fleet entered a tract of water where several were afloat, and
the flagship "Petropavlosk" was destroyed with fearful suddenness by the
explosion of one of them. There was great loss of life, but the most
serious blow to Russia was the death of the admiral.

After the fleet returned to the harbour there came another period of
irresolute inactivity. It was not till August, when several ships had been
injured at their anchors by the bombardment from the land batteries of the
Japanese attack, and it was evident that the port would soon be a dangerous
place for the ships, that Admiral Witjeft proceeded to sea, announcing that
he was going to Vladivostock, the cruiser squadron from that port having
been warned to come out and reinforce him on his way.

The sea-fight, known as the battle of the Tenth of August, took place a few
miles to seaward of the port. Witjeft led the fleet in his flagship the
"Tsarevitch," followed by the battleships "Retsivan," "Sebastopol,"
"Pobieda," "Poltava," and "Peresviet" (carrying the flag of the second in
command, Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky), and the cruiser division made up
of the "Askold" (carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Reitzenstein),
"Pallada," "Diana," and "Novik," besides eight destroyers. The cruiser
"Bayan" had been so damaged that she was left in port. Witjeft had a marked
superiority in battleships. Togo had had six new first-rate ships of the
class under his command at the outset of the war, but on 15 May he had lost
two of them, one-third of his battleship fleet, by a disaster like that of
the "Petropavlosk." On that May morning, while cruising off Port Arthur, he
ran into a field of drift mines, and in a few minutes the battleships
"Hatsuse" and "Yashima," and the cruiser "Yoshino," were destroyed. The
Japanese managed till the end of the war to conceal the fact that the
"Yashima" had been lost, and the Russians up to the battle of Tsu-shima
believed Togo had five of his big battleships intact. In the battle of 10
August he put in his main fighting-line the two