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THE TURN OF THE TIDE 261
exploded only on striking the armour of the lower
deck, dealing wholesale destruction to the whole
interior of the ship. Many of the shells did not
even then explode, but went through the armoured
deck as well, and the angle of the ballistic curve
was such that a number of these shells went out
through the sides of the ship below the armour
belt, thereby contributing to the sinking of the
vessel. The only ship that was scuttled by the
Russians themselves was the Peresviet all the
others, in spite of all statements to the contrary,
were sunk by the Japanese shells.
The only ship that did not allow herself to be
sent to the bottom without some show of resistance
was the battleship Sebastopol, commanded by the
gallant Captain von Essen, of Novik fame. During
the night of the 8th he took his ship, which had
been lying in the dock, out of the harbour, and
anchored her under shelter of the Tiger’s Tail
peninsula. Here, out of reach of the army guns,
she was later on exposed to furious torpedo
attacks for three days and nights, and after a
splendid fight, during which she sent five of her
pertinacious pigmy assailants to the bottom with
all their crews, she was finally so badly hit that
she ruled over, with a list of ten degrees, and
sank in the shallow water. The attacks were
then discontinued ;
but after some days Captain
von Essen succeeded in getting her afloat and
steamed out into deep water, where the vessel
was scuttled.
After December 8th the fire of the big howit-
zers was turned against the new and the old town,
while the destruction of the gunboats and the
destroyers was left to the 4‘7-iri. naval guns.
The four gunboats were sunk in the harbour,
while the* destroyers succeeded in keeping afloat.
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