A third point is, that the danger from fire in action is grossly
exaggerated. As to the Japanese, they one and all say that they had
no trouble with fire at Yalu. They have not entirely done away with
woodwork in their ships. Following the fashion set by the Germans,
they have done away with a fair amount, but their ships are by no
means without wood, like German ships and others which have not been
in action—though even Germans are now reverting to a certain amount
of wood. The Japanese say that they had buckets of water standing
round; the men ran to the buckets of water, and the fire was under.
The Chinese had exactly the same system, and they had no trouble till
about the end of the action, when they got demoralised, and then
the fire began to get headway. Hose pipes seem to have always been
untrustworthy, too liable to be holed by splinters. Wet sand proved
excellent. It may be noted that hits on the sea near the ships deluged
all the exposed parts of ships at Yalu with water. The loss of life was
returned as follows:—
Japanese—90 killed, 204 wounded.
Chinese—36 killed, 88 wounded, 700 drowned (approximate).