CHINO-JAPANESE WAR. 395 
flotilla consisted of five boats. They started 50 minutes later on 
account of the moon, but very nearly had to give up the attempt 
owing to the high sea that was running outside the harbour. When 
they reached the boom the leading boat unfortunately ran into it, 
followed by all the others. This delayed them for some time, but 
eventually they got into the harbour all right. They had been dis- 
covered when at the boom by the Chinese and a heavy fire was opened, 
but without doing them any damage. 
As they moved westwards along the shore they were several times 
lighted up by the electric light, which was fixed on the top of the 
island. They were not, however, observed and the light enabled them 
to mark the position of the Chinese ships. The boats went right round 
the harbour as far as Kinzan point and then turned eastwards to 
attack, They were seen and fired on as they approached the ships, 
but managed to get within effective range, fired seven torpedoes and 
retired out of the harbour without sustaining any loss or damage. 
When it became light it was seen that the cruisers Lat Yuen and 
Wet Yuen and the despatch boat Pao-hua were sunk. 
On the 7th Feb. a general bombardment again took place and Nito 
fort wassilenced. There were two 8-inch guns on hydro-pneumatic 
mountings in the fort and the Japanese having got the range, as well 
as they could, waited till one of them appeared and then fired a salvo atit. 
One shot was fortunate and disabled the gun. A littie later a shell 
from Chobokushi entered one of the cartridge stores in Nito and caused 
an explosion ; and after this the fire from Nito became very weak and 
gradually ceased. The Chinese fleet took very little part in this bom- 
bardment. It appears that it was running short of ammunition. 
During the morning 11 Chinese torpedo-boats left the harbour and 
tried to escape westwards, but they were all either sunk by the 
Japanese cruisers or captured—some of them went ashore and were 
captured by the Japanese soldiers. 
The absence of these boats from the harbour enabled the Japanese 
to look for a position near the western forts where they could place 
their 12 9-c.m. mortars which they had brought with them and which 
had hitherto had. no opportunity of distinction, and after dark on the 
8th they were taken up near the outer fort and placed behind a ridge 
there. 
On the 9th the general bombardment began again. The Ching 
Yuen and the Tsi Yuen, two Chinese cruisers, joined in on this occasion, 
but a long range shot (6200 metres) from Rokakushi fort hit theChing 
Yuen and she gradually sank stern first. At the western entrance the 
Japanese mortars completely silenced Koto fort (which is the fort at 
the western end of the island, low lying and unprotected against high 
angle fire) and in the afternoon they were turned against the Chen 
Yuen, a Chinese ironclad which was lying about 2200 yards off, and 
succeeded in making her move out of range. 
There was another bombardment on the 11th for a short time and 
on the 12th the Chinese gave in and sent out a gun-boat flying the 
white flag with a proposal for surrender from Admiral Ting. 
The surrender took place on the 16th and by the end of February 
