THE TORPEDO FLOTILLAS. 615 21). which, as has been already mentioned, had toleave two of its boats (Nos. 8 and 21) behind, as they had run on the rocks. Thus two groups of four boats each got inside the boom. They turned to run up to the anchorage of the larger Chinese vessels between I-taoand Liu-kung-tao. On their way they would have to pass and engage the lighter Chinese craft, gunboats and torpedo boats,acting as picket boats inside the southern end of the boom. Nos. 5 and 22 were first in, and appear to have discharged their torpedoesat these smallcraft.

"As No. 10 drew near tlae enemy's large ships she collided with another torpedo boatengaged in the attack, but suffered no harm. Approaching througha hailof Gatling bullets a great grey mass rose suddenly up before her. It was the Ting-Yuen, and at it she fired her bow tube. Owing to the ice the torpedo did not leave the tube, but stuck projecting from it,half in,half out. Her commanderturned gently to port and fired his broadside tube. In spite, however, of the fact that the sights were most carefully laid, and the speed correctionsaccurately applied, the torpedo,which hadbeen pointed at thecentre of the Ting-Yuen,distant about300 yards only,just caught her stern. A man looking out from the boat saw it explode. No. 10 circled under a heavyfire fromthe Chinese,andturning,touched, with the projecting torpedo in her bow tube, No. 6. The two boats ran a terriblerisk,for the trigger of the torpedo was actually smashed without exploding the detonator. They separated, and No. 10 retired, while No. 6 went forward to continue the attack. When within range her bow tube was fired,and oncemore the torpedo stuck. Circling, she brought her broadside tube to bear,but the torpedo broke in two on leaving the tube. A hail of one-pounder shells from the ironclad's Hotchkisses was falling about her, and yet strange to say no harm was doneher. One only struck her hull abreast of the engines, and stuck in her side without exploding. The screw of the fuse must have come loose inflight." Besides the unexploded shell,No. 6 had been hit by forty-six Gatling or rifle bullets,but no one on board was injured. No. 10 only reported hits from tworifle bullets, no one wounded. The officer on board the Ting-Yuen thought that this boat had beenhit severely as she turned, as he saw a lot of steam escaping. Either the escape of steam had some other origin or the Japanese under-estimated the damage they had received when they wrote their published reports.

Both of the boats fired their three torpedoes without resuk. They hadmost likely misjudged the distancein the dark. The Chinese hadnow thrown up alarm rockets and opened a heavy fire. The two boats, now that their torpedo tubes were empty, tried to retire. No. 5 got out safely,but No. 22, with her steering gear disabled, drifted on the rocks at the entrance, and was so badly damaged that her commander, Lieutenant Suzuki, ordered her abandonment.

She had sixteen men on board and only one smallboat that wouldcarry six. It madea first trip to the eastern shore successfully, but sank on the second. Suzuki and five men were left onthe wreckedboat. Before morning came the lieutenant and one man were so exhausted with exposure and cold that they fell overboard and were drowned. The other four were got off at daybreak by a boat from one of the eastern forts.

The other two boats of the Third Flotilla, Nos. 6 and 10, ran past the picket boats while they were engaged with Nos. 5 and 22. Inside I-taoI-land they found a number of junks and torpedoboats moored close to the fort,but they slipped past them,reserving their fire for bigger game. No. 10 ran out a little ahead of No. 6. The boats were now closing on the anchorage of Ting's heavy ships near -Liu-kung-tao. The Chinese were firing, mostly at random, into the darkness. No. io's report ofher proceedings fits in so well with the British officer's account of thefight as seen from the Ting- Yuen, that there can be little doubt that the" double-funnelled torpedoboat " that he saw make the successful attack wasNo. 10, not No. 9, as stated in some narratives. It will be remembered that the British officer told how the enemy's boat approached bow on, then turned to port and fired the torpedo which struck the flagship in the after-part of the port side. Here is the story of the attack as given from the Japanese sidebyMr. Wils The Second Flotilla, which had already been so unfortunate on the way in,did not effect so much as the Third Flotilla,and suffered much more serious loss. No. 9 engaged one of the despatch boats south of I-tao. She missed her with a torpedo, and then a shell fired by the Chinese ship burstin the torpedoboat's engineroom and wrecked her boilers, which exploded with the shock. Four men were scalded to death, two mortally wounded, and two others less severely injured. For some minutes she drifted helplesslyunder the fire of the Chinese,