the following account of the battle of tsu-shima, fought on 27th may 1905, is a translation of the narrative of captain vladimir semenoff, a russian naval officer who was on board the flag-ship (knyaz suvoroff) during the engagement. it is of more than usual interest, as the writer had previously served in the cesarevitch at port arthur, and had taken part in the disastrous sally from that port on 10th august 1904.
at the great battle of which he now relates his experiences, he was present in an unofficial capacity, which gave himxxii unlimited opportunity for observation. moreover, the fact of his being able to make a series of notes at the time (till too seriously wounded) puts an additional stamp of reality on to his already most graphic account.
it should be remembered that the russian baltic fleet—russia’s final and supreme appeal to the god of battles—left cronstadt for the far east on 11th september 1904, and during all the long months till the following may was slowly making its way, via the cape of good hope, to japanese waters. the difficulties encountered during that prolonged voyage were enormous. the nerves of officers and men, who constantly apprehended attempts to destroy the fleet, were in a continual state of tension: news of the outside world andxxiii especially of events in the far east was practically unobtainable: and yet officers and men, despite the additional disadvantage of having to take their ships into action after these many months at sea, fearlessly entered into an engagement which they knew meant death, and fought their ships with a self-devotion and courage which has earned for them the admiration of the world.
admiral togo—flying his flag on the mikasa—awaited the enemy in japanese waters. his fleet, which, since the fall of port arthur on 2nd january 1905, had been relieved of its blockading duties, had spent the intervening months in repairing damage and bringing itself up to the highest state of preparation in expectation of the coming of the baltic fleet.
xxiv to a nation like ourselves, whose first line of defence is the navy, i venture to think that these pages will give food for thought, as, besides enabling the reader to see the paralysing and awful effect of high explosives thrown on board a modern battleship in action, they supply us with a picture of what a losing engagement means to those who lose.
when first i took up the original volume i read it merely with a view to extracting information re fire effect, gun power, weather conditions, formations, and other factors complementary to the result of the battle. but the narrative appeared so realistic that the thought occurred to me to place the following translation before the public.
the speed maintained by the opposingxxv fleets during the battle is shown in the diagram attached. dates have been expressed according to the english calendar (which is thirteen days in advance of the russian)—otherwise the writer’s own words and colloquial style have, as far as possible, been faithfully adhered to, to the detriment of literary style in translating.
it may be mentioned that this narrative comes as a supplement to the very interesting account by politovsky of the voyage of the baltic fleet to the far east—recently translated by major godfrey and published by john murray under the title “from libau to tsu-shima.”
politovsky went down in the suvoroff, and his story ends with the arrival of the fleet at shanghai on 23rd may,xxvi the date on which he posted his last letter to russia. the following narrative commences on 25th may, as the fleet swung out of shanghai to meet its destiny.
a. b. l.
7th november 1906.
