A NARRATIVE OF THE VOYAGE OF ADMIRAL ROJDESTVENSKY'S FLEET TO EASTERN SEAS, INCLUDING A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE DOGGER BANK INCIDENT BY THE LATE EUGÈNE S. POLITOVSKY Engineer-in-Chief to the Squadron, who was killed at the Battle of Tsushima TRANSLATED BY MAJOR F. R. GODFREY, R.M.L.I. NEW EDITION NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 1908 PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLESBURY, ENGLAND....

No detailed account of the voyage of the Russian fleet to the Far East has to my knowledge been published. The newspapers occasionally mentioned it as being here or there, and of course its doings in the North Sea are a matter of history; but from the time it left Tangier until it met its doom at Tsushima it was practically in oblivion. By chance this book came into my hands, and I thought it would interest British readers. Much has been said in derision of Admiral Rojdestvensky's fleet, but eve

Eugène Sigismondovitch Politovsky, engineer-constructor of the second deep sea fleet flagship, was born at Tashkend on November 12th, 1874. He received his education at the Emperor Nicholas I. Naval Engineering School, and left it in 1897. Up to the departure of the fleet for the East he served at the Admiralty at St. Petersburg. He went down in his ship, the battleship Kniaz (Prince) Suvaroff , in the fight of May 14th, 1905. This diary consists of extracts from his letters to his wife, which i

October 19th. —On the way from Vigo to Tangier. Permission came last evening for us to proceed. At 7 a.m. to-day the fleet weighed anchor and left Vigo Bay. I did not succeed in getting ashore. Yesterday an engineer of the Anadir fell from the upper deck into the hold, but escaped uninjured. There is a report in the newspapers that, during the firing on the steamers in the German Ocean, the chaplain of the Aurora was wounded, and now they have sent him into hospital at Tangier, where the remaind

November 13th (10 p.m.).— Off Gaboon. This is how it has all turned out! We stopped this morning and anchored. No one knows where we are or where Gaboon lies. We have sent the Roland north to the coast to find a lighthouse and Gaboon. We see land, but the place is unknown. I caught a glimpse of a shark. When we were weighing anchor at Dakar, a cutter approached with some important documents (perhaps it was the post). In the hurry of departure the papers were not taken on board. The navigators, i

March 23rd (morning).—Yesterday the following message was received from the captain of the Terek : "The crew will not disperse after prayers, and demand that the first lieutenant should be changed. The latter requests to be taken off the ship's books. I consider the crew in the wrong." What? A mutiny? The last sentence is specially characteristic. The fleet has increased speed. We are entering the straits of Malacca, and have said good-bye to the Indian Ocean. Two oceans successfully passed! Wha

May 1st. —The Kostroma called at Saigon and brought a mail. The last letter I received was dated March 28th. It is quick. And all because Günsburg sent it on. All the ships have received an enormous mail. They were a long time sorting it. To-day, May 1st, we left Port Dayot for Vladivostok. We go by the South China Sea. Our fleet now consists of fifty ships. Of these, nine are torpedo-boats, and two hospital-ships—a great armada. Probably we shall go round Formosa, and through the straits of Kor

These were the last pages which were sent from Shanghai, and received by me (his wife) in the month of June. During the battle Engineer E. S. Politovsky was below, as the battleship Kniaz Suvaroff had had a hole made in her, and he was probably giving instructions for its repair. The flag-captain saw him last in the sick-bay. "How are things going?" asked Politovsky. "Very badly," answered the flag-captain. Soon after this some of the staff left the battleship in the torpedo-boat Biedovy . Those

Telegram from Tokio, dated May 30th, to Japanese Legation (vide Times , June 1st, 1906). The official statement of the Russian losses in the battle were as follows, so far as ascertained:...