CHAPTER XIX1
THE SITUATION TOWARDS THE END
OF MAY
Moltke is credited with the saying that, to succeed in war, a nation requires the four G's—Geld, Geduld, Genie, and Gliick.
It is the last, the ever-inconstant and intangible luck, that failed Japan when one-sixth2 of her battleship-capital foundered with the splendid Hatsuse. Nothing that human foresight can have prevented seems to have been wanting in naval precaution on the part of those on board, and the loss of this fine ship can only be attributed to one of those fatal mischances inseparable from all kinds of warfare, but most of all from war upon the seas.
Admiral Togo's first report of this disaster was as follows:—
" On May 15, when ten miles south-east of Liautie-shan with other vessels, the Hatsuse was struck by the enemy's mechanical mines and sunk. Just then a Russian flotilla of sixteen torpedo-boat destroyers approached, but was repulsed by our cruisers, which saved 300 of the Hatsuse's crew, including Admiral Nashiba and Captain Nakao."
In a subsequent report Admiral Togo said :—
" I regret to have to report a third misfortune.
1 Compiled from articles in The Times of May 20, 23, and 26, 1904. * It was not until after the great battle in the Tsushima Straits a year later that the loss of the Japanese battleship Yashima was officially admitted,
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