small powder magazine going up. Can it be that the war has really begun?” [Pg 45] [Pg 45] While he was meditating another explosion rent the midnight air—this time louder than ever. Waiting no longer, he sprang out on the floor of his room, and donned his clothing as rapidly as possible. He heard many folks walking through the hotel, and footsteps could also be heard on the street, hurrying in various directions. “What does this mean?” he asked, as soon as he was outside. Nobody could tell, just then. But all said the explosions had come from the direction of the harbor, and hither, by common consent, the majority of the citizens flocked. With the crowd went Gilbert, and from one of the wharves made out the searchlights of several Russian ships of war. Several shots had in the meanwhile been fired, but now all became as quiet as before. “Those explosions meant something, that is certain,” said Gilbert to the hotel keeper. “Vell, you haf been a soldier, you should know,” was the reply. “Maype dem ships vos fightin’, hey?” “Perhaps, or a magazine at one of the forts blew up.” The first blow in this great contest had been struck, and it had proved telling in the extreme. As[Pg 46] soon as the war was a certainty, Admiral Togo of the Japanese navy left Sasebo with a squadron of sixteen vessels and some torpedo boats, and steamed directly for Port Arthur. The vicinity of the port was gained on the afternoon of February 8 and at once orders went forth to torpedo every Russian warship that showed itself. [Pg 46] Among the Russian ships in the port at the time were the cruiser Pallada, and the two battleships, Czarevitch and Retvizan. The battleships were the pride of the Czar’s navy, each being about thirteen thousand tons displacement, and each having a broadside fire of thirty-five hundred pounds. The plans of the Japanese were kept carefully concealed from the enemy, and before the Russians could realize that anything was wrong that night, the three ships mentioned were torpedoed,—the torpedoes tearing great holes in their sides and bottoms. The torpedoing of the three ships occurred while the Russian fleet,
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