Note 9 — III. THE TUDOR PERIOD AND BIRTH OF A REGULAR NAVY.

So far as I am aware nothing about this appears in any official account. I have no Japanese confirmation, but accounts gleaned at the time from the Russian auxiliaries—who, being foreigners had no object in lying—make it perfectly clear to my mind that the Russian admirals believed that the Japanese were astern of them till they met them at Tsushima. It is the only logical explanation of why Rodjestvensky essayed the narrow passage with his best ships, when he could equally well have gone round Japan with them unopposed, and so secured at Vladivostok that refit of which he was so much in need.