THE SINKING OF THE " CHING-YUEN." 619 bear on the forts from the top of the hill.

During the day the land forts and some of the cruisers were firing on Ting's ships and the island forts.

killing six of the garrison and wounding nearly everyoneelse,someslightly, someseverely. But Mellows and a few brave men still kept one of the disappearing guns in action. It was the only gun still serviceable. As it rose to firing position,butbefore it could bedischarged, it was hit by another huge shell that hurled it from its carriage. After this there wasnothing to be done but to leave the fortand ferry the wounded over to the hospital onLiu-kung-tao.

On the morningof the 7th, while the torpedo boatswatchedthe western entrance, the rest of the fleet closed in upon the eastern side of the harbour, and with the help of the land forts heavilybombarded Liu-kung and I-tao and tlae Chinese fleet for some hours. The Chinese made a vigorous reply, and the Matsushima, Admiral Ito's flagship, was hit more than once. A shell burst in her funnel, another wrecked her forwardbridge, wounding three men. The Naniwa Kan was also hit, a shell penetrating her side and bursting in her coal bunkers. While the battle was at its height, the torpedo boats signalled that the Chinese torpedoflotilla (thirteen boats in all) was coming out by the western entrance, where a gatew-ay had been madein the boom near the Liu-kung end of it.

At once the Yoshino and the three other fast cruisers of the Flying Squadron gave up tlae attackon theforts, and dashed off westwards to deal with the torpedo boats. Shortly after, AdmiralIto himself followedwith the four ships ofthe main squadron to help in the chase. If the Chinese had come out in the dark, they might have had some chance of getting away.

As it was, they were in a desperate position. Their engineshad been wornout by their being continually used as mere despatch boats, and they could not work up to anything like their nominal speed. They might have perished gloriously if they had made a dash for tlae Japanese ships, but they tried only to escape to the westward,and the great cruisers, led by the swift Yoshino, were soon closing on them and sending a shower of shells andbullets from their quick-firers andmachine-guns whistling through theair after thehapless craft. Some weresunk, others wrecked,as theJapaneseprojectiles ripped open and exploded their steampipes and boiler-Others drove ashore and wereeither destroyedor captured by the Japanese torpedo boats. Two only got away. They hid in a creek on the coast,and,after the pursuit had ceased, put to sea again and reached the treaty port of Cheefoo. Even these bore the marks of the heavy fire to which they had been exposed.

During the bombardment the little fort on I-tao, commanded by another British sailor, Mr.Mellows, was silenced. Abouthalf-past eight a heavy shell from the eastern shore batteries burst in one of the magazines and it blew up, The Chinese now held only the forts on the larger island, and their fleet had been reduced to the Chen- Yuen, Tsi- Yuen,Ping- Yuen, Ching-I'tieu and Kwang Ping, and a few small gunboats. The silencing of the I-tao fort had destroyed the chief protection of the eastern boom, and on the 8th the Japanese made a determined attempt to remove it in order to open the way for their fleet to enter the harbour and engage tlae Chinese ships at close quarters. Afterdarkthat eveningboats andsteamlaunches from the Yoshino, Akitsushima, Naniwa, and Tukachico destroyed about 400 yards of the eastern boom, cutting the cables, and dragging thebaulks that floated them from their anchors. On the following morning the bombardment of the Liu-kung forts was resumed by the land batteries and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cruiser squadrons. The ships and batteries had also to engage the Chinese fleet, which, whenever a bombardment began, got under way in tlae harbour and replied to the fire of the Japanese guns.

That morning AdmiralTing's diminished fleet suffereda further heavy loss. The Ching-Yuen, commandedby Wood, wasengaging the eastern shore batteries, when shortly after eight a.m. a 9-inch shell from one of the big guns in Lu-chueh-tsui fort hit the ship forward anel just above the water-line. It went through her, blowinga hole in the other side a little further aft and under water. For two hours Wood continued the fight, trusting to the steam-pumps and the watertight compartments to keep the ship afloat. But about ten o'clock one of the forward bulkheads must have given way under the pressure of the waterrising in the forepart, for suddenly her head went downand her stern rose out of the water with the screw whirring in the air. There was nothing for it but to abandonher as quickly as might be, but, with every effort to save life, ten of the crew were drowned. The Ching-Yuen sunk with her bow in deeper water and her after-decks awash. Wood was resolved that his ship should not be