one
o'clock in the morning
This plan was , in brief , to run for the harbour at normal speed until we were practically within effective range , and then , instead of dashing in at full speed , to stop our engines -- the throb of which was loud enough to be heard at a considerable distance on a quiet night -- and head directly for our quarry , discharging our torpedoes when the momentum or `` way '' of the boat had carried her as far as she would go , trusting to the subsequent confusion to enable us to escape unscathed . I had fully explained this view of mine to the Admiral , and had obtained his sanction to put my plan to the test . Accordingly , on a certain night toward the middle of June , after the Russians had been let severely alone for some forty-eight hours , the _ Kasanumi _ , accompanied by the _ Akaisuki _ , my friend Ito 's ship , left the rest of the blockaders , with the object of putting my theory into practice . It was a splendid night for our purpose ; there was a breathless calm , the water was smooth as oil , and although there was certainly a moon , she was in her last quarter , and did not rise until close upon one o'clock in the morning . Moreover , the sky was overcast by a great sheet of dappled cloud through which only a solitary star here and there peeped faintly ; it was consequently dark enough to afford us a reasonable chance of getting within striking distance of our quarry undetected . When the Russians sent their ships out of harbour to lie all night in the roadstead , as they did pretty frequently now , it was their custom to get them out early in the afternoon , after their destroyers had carefully swept the anchorage in search of mines ; and it was my hope that -- we having left them alone for the preceding two days -- they would by this time be getting suspicious of such unwonted inactivity on our part , and consequently would send out one , or perhaps even two ships , to guard against a possible _ coup _ on our part . Our mine-laying craft very rarely got to work before one or two o'clock in the morning , that being the hour when human vigilance is popularly supposed to be least active ; I therefore planned to arrive in the roadstead about midnight , hoping that I should then catch the enemy off his guard , snatching a rest in preparation for the moment when our activities usually began .