p. 9 | WAR IN THE ORIENT

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 27, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 17.

WAR IN THE ORIENT.

ASIDE from some skirmishing between outposts on the Yalu, no land actions have been reported during the week. One report of a serious engagement, in which the Japanese suffered great loss, was soon denied, and evidently was untrue.

On the water the Russians have again suffered severely. On the night of April 12 Japanese torpedo boats went into the outer harbor of Port Arthur and laid a number of contact mines. In the morning a portion of the Japanese fleet appeared and the Russians went out to give battle. Soon the Japanese fleet was heavily re-enforced, and the Russian vessels steamed back toward the harbor to be under the protection of the guns of the forts; but in doing so the battle-ship Petropavlovsk came in contact with one of the Japanese mines and was completely destroyed, going down with about seven hundred men. Vice-Admiral Makaroff, who had recently gone to the Orient and assumed command of the fleet, and upon whom the Russians had placed their highest hopes, went down with the ship. It is reported that all of Admiral Makaroff's staff perished with him. The battle-ship Pobieda also touched a mine, and was seriously damaged, but was able to make port under her own steam. One of the Russian torpedo-boat destroyers was cut off from the rest of the fleet, surrounded by the Japanese, and was sunk in a few minutes, 45 of her crew going down with her. While maneuvering in the inner harbor, the cruiser Poltava had a large hole made in her side by coming in collision with the Sevastopol. A cloud of gloom has spread over Russia on account of these repeated disasters. It is reported that the Japanese are beginning to invest Port Arthur by land.