hat
we lost four killed and fifty-four wounded, none of the wounds being
serious enough, however, to necessitate the men being sent ashore to the
hospital. It was some time before reliable information reached us as to
the extent of the damage sustained by the Russians, but when it came it
was to the effect that several of our shells fell in the town,
scattering the piles of coal on the wharves and creating general panic;
the _Poltava_ was so badly hit that she could not move, a shell blowing
her bows open; the _Petropavlosk_ and _Pobieda_ were also hit, though
not seriously; our old friend, the _Askold_, was hit on the waterline
and set on fire, as was also the _Diana_; while the _Novik_, which had
steamed out toward our fleet, was sent flying back with her rudder
damaged, so that they had to steer her with her propellers. This affair
caused Admiral Stark to be superseded; his successor being Admiral
Makarov, said to be the finest seaman Russia then possessed. At the
same time General Kuropatkin was appointed commander of the Russian land
forces.

Two days later, the Russians lost the mine-layer _Yenesei_ in Dalny Bay.
This was a particularly hard bit of luck for them, inasmuch as that she
had practically completed her work when the disaster happened. Her
mission was to sow Dalny Bay with four hundred contact mines, in order
to prevent the Japanese from using the bay as a landing-place for
troops. She had successfully laid all but two of the four hundred
mines; but when the three hundred and ninety-ninth mine was launched
overboard, it floated, instead of sinking to its prescribed depth. The
captain of the ship is said to have opened fire upon it with his light
guns, to explode it; and in this he appears to have been only too
successful, since it not only exploded but also blew up the ship, which
sank almost immediately, most of her crew going down with her. And on
the following day the small cruiser _Boyarin_ went ashore in Dalny Bay,
and became a total wreck. Thus in less than a week the Port Arthur
fleet had become reduced in strength by no less than three battleships,
five cruisers, and one mining ship, exclusive of the cruiser _Variag_
and the gunboat _Korietz_, destroyed at Chemulpo.

Encouraged by the success of the first destroyer attack upon Port
Arthur, Admiral Togo arranged for a repetition of the experiment on the
night of 13th February, and the attempt duly came off, the 4th and 5th
Divisions of t