And this superiority had been used to such advantage in the
first eleven minutes of the battle, before the surprised Americans could
reply, that the decks of the latter's ships, especially of the admiral's
flag-ship, were a mass of wreckage even before the first American shot
had been fired. The decks were strewn with broken bridges, planks,
stanchions and torn rigging, and into the midst of this chaos now fell
the tall funnels and pieces of the steel masts. In most instances the
water continually pouring over the decks put out the fires; but the
_Vermont_ was nevertheless burning aft and the angry flames could be
seen bursting out of the gaping holes made by the shells.

Admiral Perry, in company with the commander and staff-officers, watched
the progress of the battle from the conning-tower. The officers on duty
at the odometers calmly furnished the distance between their ship and
the enemy to the turrets and casemates, and the lieutenant in command of
the fire-control on the platform above the conning-tower coolly and
laconically reported the results of the shots, at the same time giving
the necessary corrections, which were at once transmitted to the various
turrets by telephone. The rolling of the ships in the heavy seas made
occasional pauses in the firing absolutely necessary.

The report that a series of shells belonging to the 8-inch guns in the
front turret had unreliable fuses led to considerable swearing in the
conning-tower, but while the officers were still cursing the commission
for accepting such useless stuff, a still greater cause for anxiety
became apparent.

Even before the Americans had begun their fire, the Japanese shells had
made a few enormous holes in the unprotected starboard side of the
_Connecticut_, behind the stem and just above the armored belt, and
through these the water poured in and flooded all the inner chambers. As
the armored gratings above the hatchways leading below had also been
destroyed or had not yet been closed, several compartments in the
forepart of the ship filled with water. The streams of water continually
pouring in through the huge holes rendered it impossible to enter the
rooms beneath the armored deck or to close the hatchways. The pumps
availed nothing, but fortunately the adjacent bulkheads proved to be
watertight. Nevertheless the _Connecticut_ buried her nose deep into the
sea and thereby offered ever-increasing resistance to the oncoming
waves. Captain Farlo