And now Tsushima, another parallel. A Russian fleet, made up of any
old vessels the Russians could get together, and of what ships still
remained in the East--supported by Port Arthur--made one last bid
against the sea power of the enemy. Without training, without points
of support, honeycombed with revolutionary ideas, the Russian fleet
started on its trip to the Far East, where it arrived on May 27, after
suffering terrible hardships and being more than six months on the way
to meet the enemy. Meanwhile, Port Arthur, with its fleet, had fallen.
The Russian Admiral knew that he had absolutely no chance, but he did
not have enough courage to retreat. Blindly and without confidence he
started the battle against an opponent who was superior in numbers,
equipment, and training. Of the 38 Russian ships which arrived on
the morning of May 27, 1905, in the Strait of Korea, 19 were sunk
and 7 captured, including 2 hospital ships. The Russian Admiral, 273
officers, and 5,833 petty officers and men were taken prisoner; 201
officers and 4,344 men were killed. Against this the Japanese lost only
three torpedo boats and about 700 men.
Trafalgar was not a battle between equal forces, and still less so
was Tsushima; hence, as regards their military value, they cannot be
compared with Skagerrak. In this battle for the first time there were
two sides equally well trained, equally imbued with the same spirit,
equally determined. Here also the smaller force won. The superior
force had to quit the battle area, and only the power it retained
within itself saved it from annihilation. This battle gave us, in the
military sense, a victory such as naval history has never yet recorded.
Its moral effect upon our fleet, especially after the long harassing
wait, cannot be expressed in words. It did not end the war, but it gave
us more confidence and startled England, who always thought she had an
invincible fleet.
On the victory of Trafalgar England founded her colonial world power,
because she thereby obtained the mastery of the seas, which remained
unchallenged. Tsushima gave Japan the sea power in the East which she
needed to carry out her military plans on land. It no more ended the
Japanese-Russian war than Trafalgar had ended the struggle of that day,
but it gave Japan a military success which was of great value to her
in peace negotiations. We hope that Skagerrak is a blow against the
victory of Trafalgar and the first step toward the smashing of British
sea power, and that other mighty hammer blows will fall against the
barriers which shut off other peoples from the freedom of the seas.