CO129-269 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1895 [12] — Page 502

The weather was quite against Naval operations

till the 3rd February. On that day a bombardment took place between the Mainland Forts and the Chinese ships and island forts, and the Japanese fleet also joined in for a very short time; and it was not till the night of the 4th Febry. that the Japanese torpedo boats made their first attack. They then succeeded in getting through the boom at the Eastern Entrance and in hitting the Tingyuen which settled down in the water in the evening of the 5th, thus leaving the Chinese with only 1 ironclad, which is only just able to move about slowly and probably could not stand a fight. On the morning of the 6th another attack was made what I believe to be

and

the Lai yuen, Wei yuen, and a Transport were sunk. The Japanese lost a torpedo boat stranded on the night of the 4th, and another sunk by gunfire on the morning

of the 6th. The Sai yuan was hit on the morning of the

9th and sank about 11 a.m. Meanwhile on the 7th a

general bombardment had taken place, resulting however in little more than the silencing of the small island

fort in the Eastern Entrance. On that day the 13

Chinese torpedo boats tried to escape, but were all

captured or sunk. At first it was reported that 3 only had been captured; but 5 have been brought round to the Eastern Bay (known as Insanko Bay by the Japanese).

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As far as one can see now, there are 1 iron-

clad, 3 cruisers, and 5 gunboats in the harbour. It is

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reported that there are 4000 sailors and soldiers on the

island under Admiral Ting. If they have plenty of pro-

visions, I do not see why they should not hold out for a

long time, for the Japanese are evidently anxious not to

risk their own men of war, and they keep out at long

range. They say the Chinese in the Forts make good

practice, and yesterday the Japanese "Fatsuragi" was hit

by a shell from the Western Island fort which disabled

a 17 c.m. gun, and killed one man, wounding 6 others.

This was at a range of about 3000 yards, which is closer

than the Japanese ships have ventured to approach before.

The Japanese however fully expect the Island and the

other ships to give in before long.

The troops of the 6th Division here have a

short sleeveless fur-lined coat in addition to the

blanket great coat, but they have left their ordinary

cloth great coats in Japan. They don't seem to mind

getting their feet wet in the snow at all; but their foot

gear is no protection against wet.

Of course the weather here is nothing like as

cold as it was at Kinchou. It was more like ordinary

English winter cold till Feb. 3rd, and then it became

warmer.

I saw one instance of signalling on the 30th;

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