'(a) Hulls.
'The repairs to the Peresvet, Pobieda, Retvisan, and Pallada are finished, and to the Poltava and Bayan are being finished. The Sevastopol is being repaired with the aid of caissons, and will be ready in six to seven weeks. External damage to the sides has been covered with sheets, and her interior has, as far as possible, been repaired.
'(b) Guns.
'Since the commencement of the operations two guns have been absolutely disabled.
'After the conference on August 19, the following were put ashore for the land defences: One 6-inch, ten 75-millimetre, nineteen 47-millimetre, eight 37-millimetre, and three searchlights.
'(c) Personnel.
'Captain Boysman of the Peresvet is recovering from wounds, and is on the Mongolia. In the fight of August 10 two officers were killed; in the assaults two more were killed; eleven are wounded and sick.
'In reporting the above-mentioned state of the fleet, and in stating that all my thoughts and desires are aimed towards carrying out the Tsar's orders and your wishes, I consider it my duty to represent the following facts:
'Our fleet, and particularly my squadron, not being able to steam faster than thirteen knots (Sevastopol and Poltava), cannot possibly get through to Vladivostock without a fight, and the result of a fight is not hard to foresee, even if the ships were better than the enemy's in point of fighting—i.e., straight shooting. Even supposing that the fleet steams out of Port Arthur without accident through the mine-fields, which have become more dangerous during the last month, as the enemy have constantly been laying mines (our dredging flotilla, though it has daily trawled, is very weak, has few pinnaces, and what with the destruction of a dredger, a port barge, and two destroyers, has not been able to do much), it is impossible for it to escape notice. Our greatest speed is only thirteen knots.
'The enemy would meet us in three or four divisions:
| 1. | Division of battleships and armouredcruisers | 6 ships |
| 2. | Division of fast second-class cruisersand one first-class cruiser (Yakuma) | 5 ships |
| 3. | Coast-defence battleships and onearmoured cruiser (Tokiwa) | 7 ships |
| 4. | Several divisions of destroyers andsmall torpedo craft. |
'We cannot take the initiative in action, as the enemy, having superior speed, can steam away if they do not wish to fight, and can accompany us until it suits them to engage in battle—i. e:
'(a) When our fleet is some seventy miles from Arthur.
'(b) When they can concentrate all their force.
'(c) When they are occupying a favourable position with regard to the sun and the sea.
'As on August 10, the real fighting would again probably commence in the afternoon; and each of the enemy's ships which were seriously injured would be able to fall out for repairs or to make the land without risk, at a time when each of our ships falling out of action, though only temporarily damaged, might become a prize to two, three, or four of their vessels, or at best might run on to a neutral coast, or steam into a neutral port, and be interned for the rest of the campaign.
'Thus they can easily beat us without losing a single big ship, and all damage to ships or guns could be quickly made good in port, after replacing the disabled guns and supplementing the crew. At sunset the big ships would cease fighting, to rest, while two, three, or four destroyer divisions would attack or menace us all night, so that the crews would get no sleep, and we should be forced to waste ammunition till morning. The speed of our fleet would in all probability diminish, as the battered funnels (one of the principal destructions on August 10) increase the expenditure of coal and prevent proper pressure being maintained. If steaming thirteen knots, the voyage to Vladivostock takes four days: it will take longer at less speed—i.e., at eight knots the passage would take six days. On the morning of the second day the enemy's battleships, having repaired and rested, would again, whenever it suited them, fall on our tired fleet, and so on repeat their tactics till the island of Tsu-shima, where a fresh division of four armoured cruisers and destroyers would be waiting for us; and there, close to their shores, their fortresses and ports, the enemy would try and bring on a decisive action. We could not ram, as this operation requires superior speed. Indeed, it would be a miracle if we got to Vladivostock, and, having lost the remainder of our Pacific Ocean Fleet, we would be giving the enemy a fresh victory, and, what is more important, depriving the Baltic Fleet of the possibility of destroying them, since it is weaker than the enemy, both in numbers of ships and of guns, in its many types of vessels, in speed, and in the fact that it will have to force its way through to a base—Vladivostock—without which no fleet can operate.'