THE BATTLE. 567 the King-Yuen, had a worsefate. She also was set on fire,but no effort could keep the flames under. There was a tremendous explosion,and as the smoke cleared it was seen that she had gone down. Of her crew of 270 officers and men, only sevensurvived. In both these ships the fire had rapidly spread from end to end along a central passage, lined with lacquered and oiled wood. On board the Lai-Yuen, when the fire wasextinguished,hours after the fight, most of the deck wasgone,and the iron girders to which it was bolted were twisted out of shape. Her stokers and engineers had stuck to their posts below during the fire and kept the engines going. The heat had risen to 200 degrees. Many of these brave Chinamen were blinded for life, and had all the skin scorched off their faces. In the other ship the chief engineer, an Englishman named Purves, lost his life. The sevensurvivors were pickedoff floating wreckage after the fight. Her captain, Tang, very nearly escaped. He swam for sometime, but a favourite dog he had with him put its paws on his shoulders and forcedhis head under the water.

with shells bursting and bullets pattering round him,kept at it till he had put the fire out and tlae barbetteguns were able to come into action again. There was a third European on board the flagship, Mr. Nicholls, formerly a petty officer in the British navy. He was killed in theaction, while commanding at the guns with a coolness and courage worthy of the service in whichhe had been trained.

The other battleship, tlae Chen-Yuen, was on fire no less thaneight times. The most serious outbreak took place in the bow, where there was alot of ornamental woodwork. Here,again, the Chinese werepanic-stricken by the outbreak, and it wasMcGiffen who rallied a few of them and, going forward and working the hose with his own hands, got the dangerous fire under control. While thus engaged he was twice wounded, andnarrowly escaped being blown to pieces by one of his own barbette guns which the crew brought into action, notwithstanding his caution to them not to fire ahead till he had completedhis work.

The Chinese gunnery had for the most part been execrably bad, but during this artillery duel between the two battleships and the Japanese protected cruisers one shot was fired from the Chen-Yuen which showedhow different the result might have been if Ting's fleet had possessedproperammunitionsuppliesandtrained gunners. Commander McGiffen asserts that there were only three effective 12-inch shells in the magazine of his ship when the fight began.

About half-past three one of these struck the Japanese flagship, Maisushima. It crashed into her battery, dismounted one 5-inch gun, put two more out of gear,and explodeda number of shells that were lying ready beside the guns. The space between decks was swept by the explosions. Fifty men and officers were killed on the spot. One, the gunnery lieutenant, was standing by the heap of ammunition, and was simply blownto atoms;only his cap was found after the fight. Some fifty more were more or less severely wounded, and the ship was set on fire. " The crew," writes Mr. H. W. Wilson, " with unabated gallantry and courage, divided their attention between the fire and the enemy.

The bandsmen went to the guns, and, though the position of the ship wascritical and her loss appalling, there wasno panic. The fire was on the lower deck, just above the magazine. In charge of the magazine were a gunner's mate and a seaman. The shell had apparently dented the plating over the powder, and the red glow Having disposed of most of the lighter ships, the Japanese made a determined attempt to crush with their fire the two battleships, the only really powerfulvessels in the Chinese fleet. Early in the action a shell had carried away the Ting-Yuen's foremast, killing the seven men whomanned the military top. Tlae signal yards and halyards and most of the flags went with the mast, so that the flagship was unable to signal any more orders during the fight. The admiral lay senseless for nearly an hour in the first part of the battle,stunned by the concussion of his ownbig guns, for he had carelessly taken up position too close to their muzzles. Von Hanneken wasinjured in the same way,though not so badly. He took command of the heavy barbette guns, and was slightly wounded while directing them. AnotherGerman officer serving on the flagship,Herr Albrecht, saved her from iction by fire. The forepart had been ignited by burstingshells,and the Chinese sailors had abandoned the attempt to extinguish the flames as they dared not face the rain of small shells and machine-gun bullets turned on the ship by the Japanese. The fire and smoke made it impossible to work the forward guns, and for awhile only one gun in the stern was kept in action. It was then that Albrecht workedhis way forward with a branch of hose, (jot to close quarters with the fire,and, standing in the midst of eddying smoke and flame and