lieutenant who called out to
him: "That's the Japanese _Satsuma_, Togo's _Satsuma_!"

The admiral reached the telephone-board in one bound and yelled down the
artillery connection: "Hostile attack!... Japanese. We've been
surprised!"

And it was indeed high time, for scarcely had the admiral reached the
conning-tower, stumbling over the dead body of a signalman on the way,
when a hail-storm of bullets swept the bridge, killing all who were on
it.

As there was no other officer near, Captain Farlow went to the signaling
instrument himself to send the admiral's orders to those below deck.

The _Connecticut_, which had been without a helmsman for a moment
because the man at the helm had been killed by a bursting shell that had
literally forced his body between the spokes of the wheel, was swaying
about like a drunken person owing to the heavy blows of the enemy's
shells. Now she recovered her course and the commander issued his orders
from the bridge in a calm and decisive voice.

We have seen what a paralyzing effect the opening of fire from the
Japanese ships had had on the commander and officers of the
_Connecticut_ on the bridge, and the reader can imagine the effect it
must have had on the crew--they were dumfounded with terror. The
crashing of the heavy steel projectiles above deck, the explosion in the
foreward gun-turret, and several shots which had passed through the
unarmored starboard side of the forepart of the ship in rapid
succession--they were explosive shells which created fearful havoc and
filled all the rooms with the poisonous gases of the Shimose-powder--all
this, added to the continual ring of the alarm-signals, had completely
robbed the crew below deck of their senses and of all deliberation.

At first it was thought to be an accident, and without waiting for
orders from above, the fire-extinguishing apparatus was got ready. But
the bells continued to ring on all sides, and the crashing blows that
shook the ship continually became worse and worse. On top of this came
the perfectly incomprehensible news that, unprepared as they were, they
were confronted by the enemy, by a Japanese fleet.

All this happened with lightning-like rapidity--so quickly, indeed, that
it was more than human nerves could grasp and at the same time remain
calm and collected. The reverberations of the bursting shells and the
dull rumbling crashes against the armored sides of the casemates and
turrets produced an inferna