The next incident of note was the attack on Vladivostok, which, again,
was barren of results, as the Russians did not attempt to reply.
The official report of the attack on Vladivostok, from Admiral
Kamimura, commanding the second squadron, is as follows:—
As prearranged, the squadron reached the eastern
entrance of Vladivostok on the morning of March 6,
after passing through the frozen sea. The enemy’s ships
were not seen in the outside harbour, and the Japanese
vessels approached the batteries on the north-east
coast from a point beyond the range of the batteries of
the Balzan Promontory and the Bosphorous Strait.
After bombarding the inner harbour for forty minutes
from ten minutes to two, the Japanese squadron
retired. It is believed that the bombardment effected
considerable damage. Soldiers were seen on land, but
the Russian batteries did not reply to the Japanese
fire.
Black smoke was observed in the eastern entrance about
five in the afternoon, and was thought to be from the
enemy’s ships, but the smoke gradually disappeared. On
the morning of the 7th inst. the Japanese squadron
reconnoitred America Bay and Strelok Bay, but nothing
unusual was seen. The warships again approached the
eastern entrance of Vladivostok at noon, but the
enemy’s ships were not visible, and the batteries did
not fire.
The squadron then turned towards Possiet Bay, but
seeing nothing of the enemy, retired.
The next operations were more exciting, being officially reported as
follows:—
An attack on Port Arthur took place on March 10th, as
previously planned.
Our destroyers were formed into two separate flotillas.
Both of them reached the outside of the harbour at
midnight on the 9th and reconnoitred, but no enemy
was seen. At dawn the second flotilla laid special
mechanical mines in many places, and succeeded in the
task, notwithstanding the intermittent fires from the
enemy’s forts.
At half-past four a.m. the first flotilla encountered
six Russian destroyers at the south of Liaotishan,
and a hot action took place for twenty minutes. In
its course three of our destroyers—Asashio, Kasumi,
and Akatsuki—fought very closely against the enemy’s
destroyers, almost touching each other, and delivered a
hot fire.
The enemy’s destroyers were severely injured, either
being damaged in engines or suffering from the outbreak
of fire, and fled away in great confusion. Our ships also
sustained some damage. Casualties on our side are seven
petty officers killed and nine men wounded.
The Akatsuki’s auxiliary steampipe was destroyed,
but all the destroyers of the first flotilla have no
difficulty for further fighting or navigation.
The second flotilla, when it was leaving the outside
of the harbour at 7 a.m., found two Russian destroyers
just coming back into the harbour, and attacked them,
intercepting their return course. One of the two
escaped, but the other—namely, the Steregutchy—was
destroyed and captured by our destroyer Sazanami, which
tried to tow it back. However, the leakage was great
and the sea very rough, and the towing-rope was broken.
Therefore, after the prisoners, four in all, were taken
up, the captured ship was left, and she sank at ten
minutes past ten a.m.
The damage in the second flotilla is insignificant.
Casualties: Two men killed and one officer and three
men wounded.
Although the Novik and Bayan came out from the harbour
towards the second flotilla, they soon retired into the
harbour upon seeing that our cruisers were approaching.
As to the movements of our main squadron and the
cruiser squadron, they arrived off Port Arthur at eight
a.m. The cruiser squadron at once proceeded towards the
front of the mouth of the harbour and supported our
destroyer flotilla, as above stated.
The main squadron also approached Liaotishan, from ten
a.m. until twenty minutes to two p.m., and made an
indirect bombardment against the harbour. The enemy’s
forts intermittently returned the fire, but no damage
was inflicted upon our ships. A detached squadron of
cruisers went to Dalny, and destroyed the enemy’s
buildings on the San Shan Islands.
The Takasago and Chihaya scouted the western coast of
the entrance of Port Arthur, but no enemy was seen.
A Russian destroyer, which had been sunk in Pigeon Bay
in the last battle, is found to be the Vnushitelni, of
which now the upper parts of the masts and funnels are
seen on the surface. All our ships discontinued the
battle at two p.m., and retired.
Subsequently an attempt was made to block Port Arthur harbour with
sunken ships. It was also hoped to destroy the Retvizan by exploding
ships near her, but the attack was completely foiled by the defence.
There was a second bottling expedition of March 27th, which again
failed. It led to the death of a valuable officer, Commander Hirose.
The official report ran as follows:—
The united squadron again left for Port Arthur on
Saturday.
On Sunday morning at half-past three it commenced
blockading the harbour entrance. The four steamers to
be sunk, escorted by a flotilla of destroyers, advanced
to the entrance, facing the enemy’s searchlights.
At about two miles from the entrance they were
discovered by the enemy, and exposed to fire from the
fortress on either shore, and also from the enemy’s
ships on guard.
Braving these dangers, the four steamers ran into the
waterway at the mouth of the harbour. The Chiyo-maru
anchored at about half a chain from the shore, to the
west of Golden Hill, and blew up. The Fukui-maru,
passing to the left of Chiyo-maru, advanced a short
distance, and was about to anchor, when she was struck
by a torpedo from the enemy’s destroyers, and sank. The
Yahiko-maru went to the left of the Fukui-maru, and
blew up herself.
The Yoneyama-maru reached the harbour entrance, and
colliding against the stern of an enemy’s destroyer,
managed to reach the middle passage by passing between
the Chiyo-maru and Fukui-maru. Just at that moment
an enemy’s torpedo struck and sunk her. The momentum
brought her forward to the left shore, and with her
bows towards the left side sank sideways.
To have accomplished the work so far under such great
disadvantages and dangers must be considered a success
and command admiration. It is regrettable, however,
that, owing to some space being still left between the
Yahiko-maru and Yoneyama-maru, a complete blocking has
not been effected.
Those who were engaged in this work are those who had
been engaged in the same work before. It was by their
special request that only the petty officers and crews
were supplanted by new men.
The casualties were as follows:—Commander Hirose and
three petty officers killed; Lieut. Shimada mortally
wounded; Lieut. Masuki, Engineer Kura, and six petty
officers and men slightly wounded. All the rest of the
crews were safely picked up by our destroyers.
Commander Hirose and Boatswain Sugino, who were killed,
displayed admirable courage. Sugino was just going
down to light the magazine on the Fukui-maru, when the
ship was struck by the enemy’s torpedo, killing him.
Commander Hirose, after causing his men to take to the
boats, and not finding Sugino, searched through the
ship three times. Finding his ship gradually going
down, he was compelled to leave her and enter the boat.
As the boat was rowing away under the enemy’s fire, a
shell struck him on the head, and the greater part of
his body was blown away, the only remaining part of
this brave officer’s body being a piece of flesh in the
boat.
Commander Hirose was always a model officer, and he
leaves a meritorious example and memory which will be
everlasting.
For the protection of the steamers and the rescue of
their crews, all our flotilla of destroyers did their
utmost, in the face of the enemy’s severe cannonade.
Above all, the destroyers Kotaka and Tsubame penetrated
to within a mile of the harbour entrance, where they
encountered and engaged an enemy’s destroyer, to which
they did considerable damage. The Russian destroyer
seemed to have had her boiler hit, and sent up a volume
of steam, and retreated.
As the officers and men were leaving the harbour after
their work was done, they observed one of the enemy’s
ships below Golden Hill. She seemed completely disabled.
In spite of the enemy’s very hot fire, to which our
flotilla was exposed until dawn, no damage whatever was
sustained.
The crews on board the Chiyo-maru and Yahi-maru were
taken on board the destroyer Tsubame. The crew of the
Yoneyama-maru escaped in three boats, and were rescued
by the destroyers Misasagi and Karigane. The crew of
the Fukui-maru was taken on board the Kasumi.
The following torpedo boats and destroyers took part in
the engagement:—
Destroyers.—Shirakumo, Kasumi, Asashio, Akatsuki,
Akebono, Oboro, Inazumi, Ikadzuchi, Usugumo, Sazanami,
and Shimonome.
Torpedo boats.—Karigane, Kotaka, Misasagi, Tsubame,
Managure, and Hato.