eached her destination, and as we
pushed off in the boat from the side of our own sinking ship, we heard,
through the din of firing and the explosions of bursting shells, the
roar of her cable as her crew let go her anchor. I was sitting with my
back turned toward her, intent upon getting our boat as close inshore as
possible, when the engineer, who was sitting beside me, touched my arm
and pointed.

I turned and looked, to see Hirose's ship brought up right in
mid-channel--the berth assigned to her; and, bearing down upon her, a
Russian destroyer, her funnels and guns spouting flame and smoke as she
tore furiously through the water. Another instant, and the destroyer
swerved, just clearing the stern of the _Fukui_; there was the flash of
a torpedo from her deck tube, a terrific explosion, and the _Fukui_
seemed to be hove up out of the water on the top of a great cone of
leaping sea intermingled with smoke and flame. The ship had been
torpedoed, quite uselessly, indeed worse than uselessly, for the
Russians had simply saved our people the trouble of sinking her.

The destroyer passed on, and we temporarily lost sight of her in the
darkness and wreathing smoke. We saw the _Fukui's_ boat lowered, and
the crew get into her; but she remained alongside so long that she only
got away barely in time to avoid being dragged down with the ship.
Meanwhile, shells were falling not only all round but also aboard the
_Fukui_, and we presently saw that she was on fire, as well as sinking.
Nearly or quite a dozen shells must have struck her before she finally
foundered; but it was not until the next day that we learned the full
extent of the tragedy. It then appeared that the explosion of the
torpedo had either disconnected or shattered the wires connected with
the explosives in the _Fukui's_ bottom, and a petty officer named Sugino
had gone below to explode the charges. It chanced that this man was a
blood-brother of Hirose, and, not returning to the deck as he was
expected to do, Hirose went in search of him, after ordering the boat to
leave the ship. A few seconds later a shell was seen to strike Hirose
on the head, of course killing him instantly. Later on, we heard that
his floating body had been picked up in the harbour by the Russians,
who, to do them justice, buried it with military honours.

A small air of wind at this time came breathing down the harbour,
momentarily dispersing the thick veil of smoke that overhung