Heroic Hirose
The next to take her position was the Fukui Maru, which, edging to the port side of the Chiyo Maru, let go her anchor. Now occurred one of the most heroic acts which had yet characterized the course of the war—an act which for cool and devoted gallantry has never been surpassed in the annals of European seamanship. Waiting until the vessel was securely anchored, the boatswain, Sujino, went calmly down to the magazine to light the fuse. Just at that moment the Russian torpedo-boat Silni approached and discharged a Whitehead torpedo, which struck the Fukui Maru full in the bows and tore a gaping hole in her below the water-line. Sujino was killed, but his comrades on deck were unaware of his fate. All they knew was that the Russians themselves had done their work for them and that the vessel was settling down on the very spot designed for its destruction by Admiral Togo. Commander Hirose, therefore, ordered his men to take to the boats, but before he left the ship himself he determined to find the brave Sujino if possible and save him from death. The steamer was fast sinking; the water was pouring in at her bows like a mill race; and she was the target of a perfect tornado of fire from the forts; but the gallant commander searched through her three times for the missing man before he would give up the quest. At last it became clear that further search was useless. The vessel was on the point of going down, and reluctantly Hirose clambered into one of the boats. As the crew pushed off the Fukui Maru went down by the head. Success, however, was dearly purchased. The delay had enabled the Russians to concentrate their fire upon the boats with deadly effect. The chief victim himself was Commander Hirose. A shell struck him on the head, carrying away the greater part of his body, and leaving in the boat only a shapeless fragment of torn and blackened flesh.
Undaunted by Death
In the meanwhile, the other steamers were taking up their stations in the order provided beforehand. The Yihiko Maru, regardless of the terrible fire from the forts, steamed in on the port side of the Fukui Maru and cast anchor in her turn. The fuse was duly set and lighted; officers and crew set off in the boats; and the ship blew up like her fellows and sank in the channel. Now came the opportunity of the fourth and last of this devoted fleet, the Yoneyama Maru. The difficulties of the channel and the violence of the enemy's fire led her to take a devious course, but the skill with which she was steered excited universal admiration. Her commander drove her through on the starboard side of the sunken Chiyo Maru and then she was compelled to turn back and slip between that ship and the Fukui Maru. On her way she ran right upon a Russian destroyer and engaged it at close quarters for a few moments, but her duty was not to fight but to sink at a spot selected. Escaping therefore, from the clutches of the enemy, she rounded the Fukui Maru and the Yahiko Maru and finally brought up in the very centre of the fairway. There her crew prepared to send her to the bottom, and if the operation could have been carried out successfully there can be little doubt that the whole enterprise would have gained its object, and that the channel would, at least temporarily, have been completely blocked. But the Russian torpedo-boats were active. One of their deadly engines of destruction struck the Yoneyama Maru just as the crew were about to cast anchor, and she drifted somewhat to the westward before she sank, her bow pointing towards the Tiger's Tail. Her crew escaped safely, but this accident left too wide a space between the Yoneyama Maru and the Yahiko Maru to effect a total obstruction of the channel.
Covering Themselves With Glory
All this time the torpedo-boat and destroyer flotilla had been far from idle. The destroyers consisted of the Shirakumo, Kasumi, Asashio, Akatsuki, Akebono, Oboro, Inayuma, Ikadsuchi, Usugomo, Sayanami, and Shinonome, while the torpedo-boats were the following: the Karigane, Aotaka, Misasagi, Tsubame, Managuru, and Hato. Several of these, it will be remembered, had already covered themselves with glory in previous combats. On this occasion they fully maintained their high reputation. The hot cannonade which was directed from the fortress upon the fireships so far from deterring the escorting vessels acted rather as an attraction to them, for while one division of the flotilla stood by the doomed steamers in order to pick up their crews, the other approached well within range of the garrison artillery in order to divert its fire from the main operation which was proceeding in the channel. Here it was that the Silni, under Lieutenant Krinizki, came into contact with the Japanese torpedo-boats. Without a moment's hesitation that gallant commander engaged the whole six at once. The unequal combat could not be long maintained, but it was fierce while it lasted. Lieutenant Krinizki himself was wounded, Engineer Artificer Swyereff and six seamen were killed and twelve other men were wounded. But still, the remainder fought gallantry on till a shell burst one of the little vessel's steam pipes and destroyed her steering-gear. Her power to continue in action was gone, and she was beached upon the shore below Golden Hill.
The work of the Japanese expeditions was now done. The survivors of the fireships were by this time all picked up and the several vessels of the flotilla were concentrated and retired out to sea.
Casualties Few But Terrible
In this remarkable operation the Japanese lost in all four killed and nine wounded. Of these latter Lieutenant Hatsuzo sustained very severe injuries; the wounds of the others, including Lieutenant Masaki and Engineer Awada, being of a slighter character. In the circumstances it was surprising that the casualties were so few, and one more illustration was given of the comparative impunity with which torpedo attacks can be made in harbor under cover of night. The smallness, however, of the Japanese losses in this species of fighting in the present war, must, of course, be largely attributable to bad shooting on the part of the Russian gunners, and it would be unwise to draw too general a lesson from it.
