The weather is gloomy, but calm, and rather cold.
The captain of the Irtish reports that she cannot go more than eight and a half knots. What can be done now with that transport? If she goes to Shanghai, she will have to disarm and be inactive till the end of the war, as she is under the naval flag. If she is taken with the fleet, she will be an extra burden.
I have to send off these pages myself. I can find no one wishing to send letters home. They say they will send them from Vladivostok. In the first place, will they be able to send them from Vladivostok; and secondly, it is uncertain if they get there any quicker. There are 1,200 miles, 2,100 versts, left to Vladivostok. Under favourable circumstances we shall make this passage in six or seven days.
NOTE BY MADAME POLITOVSKY
These were the last pages which were sent from Shanghai, and received by me (his wife) in the month of June.
During the battle Engineer E. S. Politovsky was below, as the battleship Kniaz Suvaroff had had a hole made in her, and he was probably giving instructions for its repair. The flag-captain saw him last in the sick-bay. "How are things going?" asked Politovsky. "Very badly," answered the flag-captain. Soon after this some of the staff left the battleship in the torpedo-boat Biedovy. Those who were below were not called. There was no need of them. They saved the "valuable" life of Admiral Rojdestvensky.