THE CHINO-JAPANESE WAR, 1S94— 95. 568 The only other Japanese ships that were atall badly damaged by the Chinese fire were the Hiyeiand the Akagi. The Hiyeilost severely, and a heavy shell from the Chen-Yuen exploded in her hospital, killing the chief surgeon and many of his patients, Sakamoto, the captainof the Akagi, waskilledon her bridge. Her steam pipes and ammunition hoists were cut up by bursting shells,making it difficult to keep the engines going or to work the guns, and her mainmast went over her side. She narrowly escaped destruction. The SaikioMaru was hit through the crevices showed the danger. But these -brave men did not abandon their posts. Stripping off their clothes,they crammed them into the cracks and saved the Matsushima: though nearly a third of the men above the water-line had been put out of action, the remnant got thefire under." Still burning, the Matsushima steamed out of the battle, Admiral Ito transferring his flag to the Hashidatc.

It has been said already that the defective ammunition of the Chinese fleet was a chief cause of the comparativeimmunity from injury IN THE TORPEDO ROOM OF THE " KING-YUEN."

of the Japanese. The Matsushima hadbeen hit earlier in the fight by a io-inch shell, which came through her side a little above the waterline,killed four men who were standingtogether to the torpedo room, narrowly missed a loaded Whitehead torpedo,and then smashed through some oil tanks and broke in pieces without an explosion. It was then seen that it had no fuse, and had a lump of cement where the bursting charge should have been. It was, like many of the Chinese projectiles, practically not a shell but a very defective solid shot. Had it been properly fused and loaded it might very well have burst in the torpedo room of the Matsushima and sent her to the bottom, torn open by her ownexplosives.

inher upper worksby four shells from the Ting-Yuen. One of these wrecked her saloon and destroyed her steering gear. She ran out of danger,steering with her twin screws. Had the heavy shells struck her a little lower she would have been sunk. The presence of these two ships, the gunboat Akagi and the liner Satkio, was a source of weakness to Admiral Ito. He would have done better if he had sent them away at the outset, as he had to give much of his attention to taking care of them.

As evening approached all that was left W action of the Chinese fleet was the pair ot battleships with the Lai- Yuen (on fire), the Ching-Yuen, and the Ping-Yuen. Of the othes ships, the Kwang-Ping with the torpedo boats