i remembered that in the event of the flag-ship leaving the line, the torpedo-boats, biedovy and buistry, were to come to her in order to transfer the admiral and his staff to another and uninjured ship. in such circumstances, in order to avoid confusion, until the flag had been transferred or until a signal had been made as to the handing over of the command, the fleet was to be led by the ship following the one which had fallen out of the line.
i do not presume to be able to say whether our other ships could see112 that no torpedo-boats had come up to the suvoroff! whether they could all see that no signal was possible from the battered, burning battleship, minus funnels and masts! whether it ought in consequence to have been taken for granted that the command naturally devolved on the next ship according to seniority! and whether she should in some way or another have shown that she had taken over command! in any case the alexander (more correctly, her captain, bukvostoff) carried out the orders and did her duty. after the flag-ship had fallen out of the line, receiving no fresh instructions, she took the lead and continued the fight.
from the time when i saw the alexander passing close to us on a113 south-easterly course, she steamed for twenty minutes, gradually inclining to the south in order to prevent the enemy from getting ahead and crossing her t. at the same time the japanese, elated by their first success, again endeavoured to realise their main idea of a concentrated attack on the leading ship, and so wrapped up were they in this objective that they went ahead too fast, leaving nothing to prevent the alexander passing astern in a north-easterly direction.
she immediately took advantage of this and turned sharp to the north, calculating with luck to fall in force upon their rear and subject them to a raking fire. the japanese in their reports fix the time of this movement differently; some at 2.40 p.m., others at 2.50 p.m.114 (the moment of the sinking of the oslyabya, which under the concentrated fire of six of admiral kamimura’s armoured cruisers had left the line even before the suvoroff). according to my own calculations, the latter time was the more likely to be correct. if the enemy’s fleet had turned “in succession,” as it had done at the commencement of the battle, this man?uvre of the alexander’s might have been successful, but, realising the gravity of the moment, togo, on this occasion, gave the order to turn 16 points to port “together.” the man?uvre was not altogether successful. the 1st squadron (mikasa, shikishima, fuji, asahi, kasuga, and nisshin) performed it correctly, but kamimura, with his cruisers—probably not having115 made out the signal and expecting the order to turn “in succession” on to the former course—quickly passed our fleet as well as his own battleships (which were on the opposite course), and masked their fire. he then had plenty of room to turn (he turned “in succession”) and, after overtaking the battleships, to form single column line ahead.
for a moment confusion prevailed, for which the japanese might have paid dearly, but owing to its condition our fleet was unable to reap the advantage. making full use of their speed, the japanese not only succeeded in righting their distances, but attained their object, i.e. came out across the alexander’s course, forcing her to the south.
116 through the starboard portholes of our batteries we were now able plainly to see the alexander, which was almost on our beam and steering straight towards us—the remainder following her. the distance rapidly diminished, and with our glasses we could clearly see her battered sides, broken bridges, burning cabins and spar-deck, but her funnels and masts were still standing. after her came the borodino, burning furiously. the enemy had already succeeded in forging ahead, and we now lay between the fleets. our ships approached from starboard, i.e. the port side of the suvoroff, and we came under a hot fire. our forward 12-inch turret (the only one that was now serviceable) took an active part in the fight, and no attention was117 paid to falling shells. i was wounded in the left leg, but only looked down with regret at my torn boot! we all waited, holding our breath, watching the japanese fire, which was apparently concentrated on the alexander. at times she seemed completely enveloped in flames and brown smoke, while round her the sea literally boiled, throwing up great pillars of water. nearer and nearer she came, till the distance was scarcely 2,000 yards. then—one after another, we saw a whole series of shells strike her fore-bridge and port 6-inch turret, and turning sharply to starboard she steamed away, having almost reversed her course, while after her went the borodino, orel, and others. the turn was hastily made, being neither “in succession” nor “all118 together,”24 and the line ahead formation was not maintained. a deafening clamour resounded in our batteries.
“they’ve given it up. they are going off. they couldn’t do it,” i heard on all sides.
these simple folk had, of course, imagined that our fleet was returning to the flag-ship in order to rescue her. their disenchantment was distressing to witness, but still more was it distressing to realise the true significance of what had happened.
how pitiless is memory!—a scene never to be forgotten came clearly and distinctly before my eyes—just such another scene—the same awful picture. after prince utomsky’s signal on the 10th119 august our battleships had steamed north-west in the same disorder and just as hurriedly.
“they couldn’t do it!”
and the awful, fatal word, which i had not even dared to think, rang in my brain, and seemed to be written in letters of fire on the smoke, on the battered sides, and even on the pale, confused faces of the crew.
bogdanoff was standing beside me. i caught his eye, and we understood one another. he commenced to talk of it, but suddenly stopping, looked round, and said in an unnaturally calm voice: “we seem to be heeling over to port.”
“yes—some 8 degrees,” i answered, and, pulling out my watch and note-book, jotted down:120 “3.25 p.m.—a heavy list to port, and a bad fire in the upper battery.”
i often afterwards thought: why is it that we hide things from one another and from ourselves? why did not bogdanoff express his thoughts aloud? and why was it that i did not dare to write even in my own note-book the cheerless word “defeat”? perhaps within us there still existed some dim hope of a miracle, of some kind of surprise which would change everything? i do not know.
after the alexander had turned, the enemy’s ships also turned 16 points “together,” and this time the man?uvre was successfully performed—so successfully, in fact, that it seemed as if they were merely at drill and not in action.
steering on an opposite course, they121 passed under our bows, and from the suvoroff it seemed as if we could almost cut into their column. we inclined to starboard after our fleet. (this was, of course, only imagination, for, not being able to steer by surrounding objects but only by compass in the lower fighting position, we were in reality not moving ahead, but were only turning to starboard and to port; remaining almost in the same place.) in passing close to us, the enemy did not miss his opportunity of concentrating his fire on the obstinate ship which refused to sink, and it was, apparently, now that our last turret, the forward 12-inch, was destroyed. according to japanese reports their torpedo-boats came up at the same time as their fleet and attacked us unsuccessfully, but i did not see them.
122 a shell entered the gun port of the fourth (from the bows) 12-pounder gun of the lower battery on the port side, and it was a lucky shot, for in addition to carrying away the gun it penetrated the armoured deck. the water poured into the damaged port, and being unable to run back on account of the list to port, fell through this hole into the mess deck, which was most dangerous.
bogdanoff was the first to call attention to it, and we at once started to make some kind of an obstacle out of coal sacks, and anything else that was handy, so as to cover the hole and stop the water getting in. i say “we,” because the few hands left in the battery could not be brought to obey orders. they huddled123 in corners in a sort of stupor, and we had almost to drag them out by force, and were obliged to work ourselves to set them an example. we were joined by flag torpedo officer lieutenant leontieff and demchinsky, but the latter could only encourage us with words, as both his wrists were bandaged.
at 3.40 p.m. a cheer broke out in the battery, which was taken up all over the vessel, but we were unable to ascertain what had caused it or whence it had originated. rumour had it that one of the enemy’s ships had been seen to sink; some even said two—not one. whatever may have been the truth, this cheering had the effect of quickly changing the feeling on board, and the depression from which we had been124 suffering, both on account of the fire which we had seen poured into the alexander, and because of the departure of the fleet, vanished. men who had been skulking in corners, deaf to the commands and even requests of their officers, now came running to us asking: “where could they be of use, and what at?” they even joked and laughed: “hullo! that’s only a 6-inch! no more ‘portmanteaus’ now!”
sure enough, since the enemy’s main body had steamed off, we had only been subjected to the fire of admiral dewa’s light cruisers, which, in comparison to what we had been under before, was almost imperceptible.
commander v. v. ignatzius had remained below after the second wound in his head had been dressed, and,125 unable to restrain himself at such a moment, paying no heed to the doctors, he ran up the ladder into the battery, shouting: “follow me, lads! to the fire—to the fire! we have only got to get it under!”
various non-combatants in the mess deck (belonging to the hospital), and men who were slightly wounded and had gone down to get their wounds dressed, doubled after him. a chance shot struck the hatchway, and when the smoke cleared away neither ladder, nor commander, nor men with him, were in existence!
but even this bloody episode did not damp the men’s ardour. it was only one in a hundred others.
in the lower battery where, owing to insufficiency of hands, fires momentarily126 became more numerous, men came, and work went merrily. of the ship’s officers, besides bogdanoff, there came lieutenant vuiruboff, junior torpedo officer, a robust-looking youth, who, in an unbuttoned coat, rushed about everywhere giving the lead, while his shout of “tackle it! stick to it!” resounding amongst smoke and flames, gave strength to the workers. zotoff came for a short time; he was wounded in the left side and arm. prince tsereteli looked out from the mess deck, asking how things were going. kozakevitch was carried past, wounded a second time, and now dangerously. my servant, matrosoff, appeared and almost dragged me by force to the dressing station. i got rid of him with difficulty, telling him to go at127 once to my cabin and get me some cigarettes.
“very good, sir!” he said, going off as he was bid, and we did not meet again.
“to the guns! torpedo-boats astern! to the guns!” was shouted on deck.
it was easy to say, “to the guns!” but of the twelve 12-pounder guns in the lower battery only one, on the starboard side, was now serviceable, and there was no chance of using it. the torpedo-boats carefully came up from astern (according to the japanese, this was about 4.20 p.m.), but in the light gun battery aft (behind the ward-room) there was still one uninjured 12-pounder. maximoff, a volunteer, on whom the command of the battery128 had devolved after the officers had fallen, opened a hot fire, and the torpedo-boats, seeing that this strange-looking, battered vessel could still show her teeth, steamed off to wait for a more favourable opportunity.
this event suggested to me the idea of noting the means we had with which to protect ourselves against torpedo attack, or, more properly, to what degree of helplessness we had arrived. there were in the lower battery about fifty men of the crew—all of various ratings. among them, however, were two gun captains. of the guns, only one was really serviceable, though the gun captains proposed to “repair” another by substituting for its injured parts pieces from the other ten which were quite unserviceable.129 there was also maximoff’s gun in the stern light gun battery.
having finished my inspection of the lower battery i went through the upper to the forward light gun battery (not one of the turrets was fit for action), and i was struck with the picture it presented, illustrating, more clearly than i had yet seen, the action of the enemy’s projectiles.
there were no fires; everything that could ignite had already been burned. the four 12-pounder guns had been torn off their mountings, and in vain i looked on them for marks of direct hits. none could be seen. the havoc had clearly been caused by the force of the explosion, and not by the impact of the shell. how was this? neither mines nor pyroxylene were stored130 in the battery, so the enemy’s shells must have exploded with the force of mines.
to my readers, walking about the crippled wreck of a ship like this and inspecting the damage done may appear strange, but it must be remembered that a peculiar, even extraordinary condition of affairs prevailed on board. “so fearful as not to be in the least terrible.” to every one it was perfectly clear that all was over. neither past or future existed. we lived only in the actual moment, and were possessed with an overpowering desire to do something, no matter what.
having again gone down to the lower battery, i was proceeding to the stern light gun battery, which i wished to inspect, when i met kursel.
131 verner von kursel, a courlandian by birth, and a general favourite with every one in the suvoroff’s ward-room, had been in the merchant service almost since his cradle, and could speak every language in europe, though he was equally bad at all of them. when they chaffed him about this in the ward-room he used to say quite seriously: “i think that i’m better at german than any other!”25 he had seen and been through so much that he never lost his presence of mind, and nothing prevented him meeting his friends with a pleasant smile.
and so now, nodding his head to me in the distance, he cheerily asked:
“well! how are you passing the time?”
132 “badly,” i answered.
“oh! that’s it, is it? they don’t seem able to hit me yet, but i see that you have been wounded.”
“i was.”
“where are you off to?”
“to have a look at the light guns in the stern and get some cigarettes from my cabin; i have smoked all i had.”
“to your cabin?” and kursel grinned. “i have just come from there, i’ll go with you.”
indeed, he seemed likely to be a useful companion, as he knew the most sheltered way.
having got as far as the officers’ quarters, i stopped in amazement. where my cabin and the two adjoining ones had been was an enormous hole! kursel133 laughed heartily, thoroughly enjoying his joke, but growing angry i waved my hand and quickly retraced my steps. kursel overtook me in the battery and offered me a cigar.
the fires in the lower battery had all been got under and, encouraged by this success, we determined to try our luck in the upper battery. two firemen produced some new half-made hoses; one end of them we fastened to the water-main with wire, and the other we tied to the nozzle. then, armed with these and using damp sacks to protect us from the flames, we leaned out through the church hatch whence, having succeeded after some little time in putting the fire out which had been burning in the dressing station we were able to go into the upper134 battery. all hands worked splendidly, and we soon had extinguished the fire in the part assigned to the church. then another fire started abaft the centre 6-inch turrets—the place which had been selected, on account of its being protected, for putting the cartridge boxes of the 47-millimetre guns taken down from the bridges. their removal had been well ordered, for no sooner had we set about extinguishing the fire which was now raging near them than they began to explode. several of the men fell killed and wounded, and great confusion at once ensued.
“it’s nothing—it will cease in a moment,” said kursel.
but explosions became more and more frequent. the new hoses were destroyed, one after the other, and then,135 suddenly, quite close, there was a loud crash, accompanied with the ring of tearing iron. this was not a 6-inch shell, but the “portmanteaus” again. the men became seized with panic, and, listening to nothing and nobody, rushed below.
when we went down into the lower battery, bitterly disappointed at our want of luck just when things seemed beginning to go so well, something (it must have been a splinter of some kind) struck me in the side and i staggered.
“wounded again?” enquired kursel, taking his cigar out of his mouth and leaning tenderly over me.
i looked at him and thought: “ah! if only the whole fleet were composed of men as cool as you are!”
