CHAPTER IV.

       Table of Contents

      We must now return to the naval operations; but before dealing with the proceedings of Admiral Togo's fleet off Port Arthur, it will be well perhaps briefly to follow the fortunes of the Russian cruiser squadron stationed at Vladivostock, of which so much had been expected as an agency for the destruction of Japanese commerce on the high seas. The first news received of these cruisers after the outbreak of war did indeed appear to bear out the hopes which the Russians had entertained of them in this respect; but after one solitary exploit—the sinking of a Japanese merchantman—the squadron disappeared from view altogether, and for several weeks its movements became one of the most remarkable mysteries of a mysterious situation. It will be remembered that the vessels composing the squadron were the powerful first-class cruisers, the Gromoboi, the Bogatyr, the Rossia, and the Rurik, and the whole was under the command of Captain Reitzenstein, formerly the commander of the Askold. Apparently the orders given to the Commodore were to cruise about the coast of Manchuria and Japan with the object of picking off stray merchantmen belonging to the enemy, and it was while he was acting in pursuance of these instructions that Captain Reitzenstein, on February 11th, fell in with two Japanese steamers—the Nakonoura Maru and the Zensko Maru, off the Tsugaru Straits, which lie between the islands of Hondo—the Japanese mainland—and Yezo. The larger of the two, the Nakonoura Maru, was an old ship, built in 1865, and of 1,084 tons burden; the smaller, the Zensko Maru, of only 319 tons, was quite modern, having been built in 1895. They were bound in company from Sokata, in the province of Nizan, to Otaru, in Yezo. The older and slower boat fell an easy prey to the Russian cruisers; but it would seem that she offered fight, for she was surrounded by the men-of-war, bombarded, and sunk, her crew being taken on board the Russian ships. This act called forth a great outburst of indignation in Japan and also in the United States; for though, of course, a merchantman can justifiably be captured as a prize of war, it is not usual to destroy an unarmed ship out of hand. The official telegrams, however, gave no particulars as to the extent of the resistance offered, and it must be allowed that if the Nakonoura Maru absolutely refused to surrender, the Russian men-of-war would have no option but to fire upon her and let her take the inevitable consequences. The Zensko Maru, more fortunate than her consort, showed the Russians a clear pair of heels and escaped safely to the shelter of the port of Fukuyama, in Yezo.

      This insignificant feat of arms was the sole success in the way of the destruction of commerce which could be put to the credit of Captain Reitzenstein's squadron in the early days of the war, and the fates soon proved unkind to him. The stormy weather which inconvenienced the Mikado's fleet off Port Arthur raged in the Japan Sea with peculiar severity, and for three days after the destruction of the Nakonoura Maru the Russian squadron flew before a heavy gale, aggravated by snowstorms and bitter frost. An official message from Admiral Alexeieff reporting these facts was the last authentic news of the Vladivostock squadron that reached the outside world for many weeks. Rumor upon the subject was, of course, busy in Russia. Now it was reported that the activity of Captain Reitzenstein had reduced the over-sea trade of Japan to a standstill; now it was stated (on the best authority, of course) that the squadron had escaped, and evading the Mikado's ships in some marvelous fashion, had joined the Russian fleet at Port Arthur; still a third and wilder story made out that it was on its way to Europe to effect a junction with the Baltic fleet, which, it was declared, was to be dispatched to the Far East in July. The truth appears to have been that after infinite trouble and hardship Captain Reitzenstein managed once more to make Vladivostock, and that his storm-tossed ships took refuge again in the harbor, into which a free passage was maintained by the efforts of the ice-breakers.

      The Japanese Commanders, however, were ignorant of the whereabouts of this dangerous force, and a strong squadron was therefore sent into Japan Sea to search it out, and, if possible, destroy it altogether. The fleet dispatched for this purpose consisted of one battleship and six cruisers, with a torpedo-destroyer flotilla. The cruisers, it should be observed, included the newly-acquired Nisshin and Kasaga, which had just been fitted up for war. Rear-Admiral Kamimura, Admiral Togo's second in command at Port Arthur, had direction of the operations, no word of which was allowed at the time to leak out through the ordinary channels. A careful patrol was made of the whole of the coast, both of Manchuria and Japan, several days of this close search finally bringing the Japanese squadron to the very mouth of Vladivostock Harbor itself. Considerable excitement was caused in Russia's northern stronghold when, at 8.50 on the morning of March 6th, without any previous warning of the approaching danger, the garrison perceived the hulls of seven great vessels loom upon the horizon to the south of Askold Island. The presence of the enemy so far north was wholly unexpected, and for some time the real character of the advancing squadron was in doubt. But within an hour all speculation was set at rest and the approaching vessels were seen to be flying the Japanese flag. The great size and imposing aspect of the new cruisers led the Russians to take them for battleships, whence they derived the mistaken idea that Admiral Togo was present himself with his main fleet. As a matter of fact, of course, the Japanese Commander-in-Chief, with scarcely diminished forces, was still watching Port Arthur as a cat watches a mouse, and the circumstance that he could without difficulty spare so powerful a squadron for operations in a far distant quarter of the theatre of war was at once a striking demonstration of Japan's naval strength and of the straits to which the Czar's fleet had been reduced.

      By noon Admiral Kamimura's ships were half-way between the coast and Askold Island, making straight for Ussuri Bay, which lies to the southeast of Vladivostock. At the southern end of the peninsula on which the town and fortress of Vladivostock stand, and divided from it by a broad channel called the Bosphorus Strait, there is situated the Island of Kazakavitch. The Bosphorus Strait