e in sight,
steering north-west." Togo at once signalled to his own ships to head off
this detachment of the enemy, and sent wireless orders to Kataoka and Uriu
to close in on their rear. It was probably the main fighting division left
to the Russians, and would soon be surrounded by an overwhelming Japanese
force.

The ships sighted by the cruisers were those that Admiral Nebogatoff had
led through the night, and was trying to take to Vladivostock. He had with
him the battleships "Nikolai I" and "Orel," the coast-defence armour-clads
"Admiral Apraxin" and "Admiral Senyavin," and the cruisers "Izumrud" and
"Svietlana." This last ship was leaking badly and down by the bows. She
could not keep up with the others, and at daylight fell far astern and lost
sight of them. At 7 a.m. Uriu's division in chase of Nebogatoff came up
with her, and the cruisers "Niitaka" and "Otowa" were detached to capture
her. The Russian captain, Schein, had held a council with his officers. He
had only a hundred shells left in the magazines, and the "Svietlana" was
being kept afloat by her steam pumps. Under the regulations he could have
honourably surrendered to a superior force, but it was unanimously resolved
to fight to the last shot, and then sink with colours flying. The fight
lasted an hour. There were heavy losses. The Japanese fire riddled the
ship, and first the starboard, then the port engine was disabled. As the
hundredth shot rang out from the "Svietlana's" guns, Captain Schein stopped
the pumps and opened the sea-cocks, and the ship settled down rapidly in
the water. The Japanese cruisers went off to join the fleet as the
"Svietlana" disappeared, but an armed Japanese liner, the "America Maru,"
stood by and picked up about a hundred men.

At 10.30 a.m. Nebogatoff was completely surrounded eighteen miles south of
the island of Takeshima. The "Izumrud" had used her superior speed to get
away to the south-west. The four battered ships that remained with him saw
more than twenty enemies appear from all points of the compass, including
Togo's battleships and heavy armoured cruisers, all as fit for work as when
the first fighting began. They opened fire at long range with their heavy
guns.

The situation was desperate. Nebogatoff consulted his officers, and all
those on board the "Nikolai" agreed that he must surrender. In a memorandum
he subsequently wrote he pointed out that, though some ammunition was left,
the Japanese were using t