keel. Three or four of the enemy circled round, plying her with shot
and shell. Finally, with a plunge she disappeared, and the immediate
darkening, as the smoke-clouds rolled in where the fierce blaze of
the burning wreck had been, was like the sudden drawing of a veil
over the spot where hundreds of men had met their simultaneous doom.
The cannonade slackened, but soon broke out again fiercely as ever.
About this time it seemed as if the Japanese flagship, _Matshushima_,
was about to share the same fate. She looked all in a blaze forward.
The fire, however, was got under, and later on she was taken out of
the action.

Meanwhile the Chinese ships had been forced still nearer to the land,
and the _Chao-Yung_, an absolute ruin, drifted helplessly ashore,
half a league from where we stood. By the aid of our glasses we could
perceive her condition clearly--her upper works knocked to pieces; her
decks, strewn with mutilated bodies, an indiscriminate mass of wreck
and carnage. Her crew were abandoning her, struggling to land as best
they could. Subsequently the _Yang-Wei_ went ashore similarly battered
to pieces and burning. She was much further off, and we made her out
less distinctly. On the Japanese side not one ship had sunk as far as
we had seen, and though the flagship and some of the smaller craft
were in an unenviable state, the attack was kept up with immense
spirit, and prompt obedience was paid to signals, which were frequent,
whereas we looked in vain for any sign of leadership on the part of
the Celestials. Later in the action another of their best ships, the
_Chih-Yuen_, came to grief. She had evidently been for long in
difficulties, labouring heavily, with the steam-pumps constantly in
requisition, as we could tell by the streams of water poured from her
sides. Bravely she fought on unsupported, and her upper deck and top
guns were served until she sank. At length her bows were completely