"More than likely—if the place hasn't fallen into their hands. They want to make sure of their footing in lower Manchuria, and they can never do that so long as the Russians hold a single seaport down there."
"I suppose Russia has a pretty good-sized navy as well as an army?"
"Yes, Larry, one of the largest navies in the world. But their fighting ships are no better than the ships of Japan. You see, the Japanese navy is not near as old as the navy of Russia. Almost all of the ships are of the up-to-date types. Most of them have been built since the war between Japan and China in 1894 and 1895."
"That would make them only about ten years old."
"Exactly, and I've been told that some of the ships in the Russian navy are twenty and thirty years old. More than this, all of the Japanese guns are of the latest pattern—just as they are on our new warships."
"I'd like to go aboard of a Japanese warship," cried the young second mate, enthusiastically.
"Want to see if it's as good as it was aboard of the Olympia, eh?"
"Yes, sir. Of course the Olympia was old, especially alongside of the Brooklyn, on which my brother Walter served in Cuban waters, but even so she was a bang-up fighting machine. If she hadn't been she wouldn't have done her share in sinking that Spanish fleet in Manila Bay."
"Well, you may have a chance to go aboard of a Japanese ship while we stop at Nagasaki. There must be a number of them at that port, coaling up and taking war supplies aboard."
"How long do you think it will be before we reach that port?"