Page:Semenoff V. The battle of Tsu-Shima.pdf/156

August our battleships had steamed north-west in the same disorder and just as hurriedly.

“They couldn't do it!”

And the awful, fatal word, which I had not even dared to think, rang in my brain, and seemed to be written in letters of fire on the smoke, on the battered sides, and even on the pale, confused faces of the crew.

Bogdanoff was standing beside me. I caught his eye, and we understood one another. He commenced to talk of it, but suddenly stopping, looked round, and said in an unnaturally calm voice: “We seem to be to be heeling over to port.”

“Yes some 8 degrees,” I answered, and, pulling out my watch and notebook, jotted down: “3.25 p.m. — a heavy