et, so far as it can be measured by balancing off
battleships, cruisers, and minor craft in parallel columns. In the months
before the war there was ample material for the enterprising journalist to
work up a navy scare at Tokio. But once more it was shown that not the
number of ships but the temper and training of the men are the true measure
of power on the sea. From the first Togo had asserted his superiority, and
by asserting secured it. After the naval engagements of 10 and 14 August
the Russian Navy in the Far East accepted a position of helpless inaction.
Ukhtomsky kept what was left of the fine fleet, that had been originally
assembled at Port Arthur, anchored in the land-locked harbour till the
ships were sunk by fire of the besieging batteries.

While the Far Eastern fleet was still in being, and Port Arthur was holding
out, the Russian Government had announced its intention of sending a
second fleet from Europe to the seat of war. It had two fleets in European
waters, those of the Black Sea and the Baltic. The Black Sea fleet was not
available. International treaties barred its exit from the Dardanelles.
Only the Baltic dockyards could supply the new armada.

As soon as the news of the first torpedo attack on Port Arthur arrived, in
February, 1904, there was talk of the new fleet for the East, and
unofficially the end of June was spoken of as the time when it would be
ready to sail. From the first it was obvious that this was an over-sanguine
estimate, unless the fleet was to be made up entirely of old and weak
ships. The best units that could be made available, and without some at
least of which the fleet could hardly be sent out, were five powerful
battleships that were being completed in the Neva yards and at Cronstadt.
Two had been launched in 1901, two in 1902, and the fifth in 1903, but even
on the 1901 ships there was a large amount of work to be done. Naval
experts declared that the fleet would not be ready for a year, and that
even then the difficulty of coaling would make its voyage to the other side
of the world in war time a hopeless task for the admiral in command.

By hard work the fleet was made ready for sea by the middle of September.
The coaling difficulty was overcome by taking colliers with the fleet,
contracting with a German firm to send large coal-laden steamers to various
points on the route selected, and straining to the utmost the benevolent
neutrality of France, and using her coloni