three in the afternoon
We saw the flash and smoke of the exploding shell , but could not , of course , tell what damage was done . The next second another shell hit the same craft about her waterline , and within a minute huge volumes of smoke were seen pouring from her , seeming to indicate that she was on fire . But with ourselves at a standstill and both fleets steaming away from us at high speed , they soon passed beyond our range of vision , and all that we knew about the fight was that there was a terrific cannonading going on , while the eastern horizon bore a dense veil of smoke which came driving rapidly down upon us before the rising gale . The cannonading continued with tremendous energy for about three-quarters of an hour , and then began to slacken , until by seven bells -- half-past three in the afternoon -- it had ceased altogether . What had happened ? Was the fight over ? It might be so , although I could scarcely believe that the Russians had been utterly beaten in the short space of an hour ; for although their ships were in anything but first-class condition , the men were brave , and were scarcely likely to yield so long as the merest ghost of a chance of success remained to them .