dmiral
Dewa, Rear-Admiral Uriu, and Rear-Admiral Kataoka, the last having as a
subordinate commander Rear-Admiral Togo, a relative of the
commander-in-chief. Dewa's flag flew in the "Kasagi," a fine cruiser of
nearly 5000 tons, built in America, and he had with him her sister ships,
the "Chitose" and "Taka-sago." Uriu's flag flew in the "Naniwa," Togo's
ship when he was a captain in the Chinese war. Several of the fine cruisers
which Ito had then led to victory were present, many of them remodelled,
and all provided with new guns. Then there were a number of small protected
cruisers, built in Japanese dockyards since the Chinese war, the heralds of
the later time when the Japanese navy would all be home-built. Battleships,
armoured cruisers, and protected cruisers were all swifter than the Russian
ships. The fleet as a whole could manoeuvre at fully fifty per cent greater
speed than the enemy, and this meant that it could choose its own position
in battle.

The five torpedo squadrons included two or three torpedo-gunboats,
twenty-one fine destroyers, and some eighty torpedo-boats. Togo's plans had
the simplicity which is a necessity in the rough game of war, where
elaborate schemes are likely to go wrong. Some of the swift protected
cruisers were scouting south of the straits. The fleet was anchored in a
body in Masampho Bay, and in wireless communication with its scouts. The
armoured fleet was to make the main attack on the head of the Russian
advance. The protected cruiser squadrons were to sweep round the enemy's
flanks, fall upon his rear, and destroy his transports and auxiliaries. The
torpedo flotilla was to be ready to dash in and complete the defeat of the
enemy when his fleet was crippled by the fight with the heavy ships.

Most of the officers and men of the Russian fleet had the dogged courage
that could carry them through even a hopeless fight, but they looked
forward to the immediate future with forebodings of disaster. Even among
the officers on board the great "Suvaroff" there was a feeling that the
most that could be hoped for was that a few ships would struggle through
to Vladivostock, if there was a battle, and that the best thing that could
happen would be for the thick weather and rough seas to enable them to
avoid anything like a close fight with the Japanese.

During the last day before the fight Rojdestvensky, who did not want to
hurry forward, but was timing his advance so as to pass the straits