the most astounding is that which took place in
September, 1894, the battle of iron-clads in the Yellow Sea.

About forty years before there had begun among Western nations a
remarkable revolution in naval warfare, the substitution of the
iron-clad for the wooden man-of-war. During the interval this evolution
of the iron-clad had gone briskly on, until by 1894 the nations of
Europe and America possessed fleets of such wonderful powers of
resistance that the naval artillery of the past would have had no more
effect upon them than hailstones upon an iron roof. But a revolution in
artillery had also taken place. The old smooth-bore guns had been
replaced by great rifled cannon capable of sending a heavy ball for ten
or twelve miles and of piercing through steel plates of moderate
thickness as through so much paper. With these came the quick-fire guns,
from whose gaping mouths cannon-balls could be rained like the drops of
a rapid shower, and the torpedoes, capable of tearing ruinous holes in
the sides and bottoms of the mightiest ships.

Such was the work that was doing in the West while the East slept calmly
on. But no occasion had arisen for putting to the proof these great
floating engines of war. Theories in abundance were offered of the
probable effect upon one another of two modern fleets, but the dread of
terrible results had a potent influence, and fear of the destructive
powers of modern ships and armies had proved the strongest of arguments
in keeping the nations of the world at peace.

The astounding event spoken of is the fact that the iron-clad
battle-ship of the present day was first put to proof in the waters of
the Yellow Sea, in a war between two nations which half a century before
were hardly beyond the bow-and-arrow stage of warfare, and were still
novices in the modern art of war. The naval inventions made in Europe
and America had their first trial in a conflict between China and Japan,
and the interest with which maritime nations read of the doings of these
powerful engines of war in those far-off waters was intense.

Japan had been alert in availing itself of all the world knew about war,
providing its army with the best modern weapons and organizing them in
the most effective European method, while purchased iron-clads replaced
its old fleet of junks. China, though doing little for the improvement
of its army, had bought itself a modern fleet, two of its ships, the
Ting-yuen and Chen-yuen, havin