Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/249

 CHAPTER XIII T was a cloudless but hazy day, and from the anchorage the Japanese fleet was all but invisible, for it lay at least eight miles out in the entrance of the harbour and partly concealed by Round Island, which splits the offing into two channels. The two boats made straight for the more easterly of the channels, their course being a very little west of south. When they had proceeded about half the distance from the anchorage to the enemy's fleet, the latter threw a shot across the bows of each of the Russian boats, as a command to stop and surrender, but the Russians took no notice of it. The only chance the Russians had to inflict any damage was to reduce the firing range as much as possible, for the Variak's guns were only six inches and four-tenths in calibre, and at long range they would have been useless. This was at five minutes before noon. The Japanese fleet was not deployed in a line facing the approaching boats, and it was apparent that they did not intend to bring their whole force to bear upon the Russians simultaneously. We are informed that only two of the Japanese vessels, the Asama and the Chiyoda, did the work. It was not long after the warning shots had been fired that the Japanese let loose, and the roar that went up from those terrible machines of destruction tore the quiet of the windless bay to tatters and made the houses of the town tremble where they stood. As the Variak advanced, she swerved to the eastward and gave the Japanese her starboard broadside. All about her the sea was lashed into foam by striking shot, and almost from the beginning of the fight her steering-gear was shot away, so that she had to depend on her engines alone for steering. It became