five o'clock
Judging from appearances generally , the gunboat appeared to have been rather severely punished ; and about a quarter of an hour later she slowly retired to her former position , farther down the bay , and re-opened her fire , although with considerably less vigour than before . The fire from Fort Hoshangtao , occupying the promontory which separates Sunk Bay from Hand Bay , was a most galling factor in the fight , for its guns had a range which enabled them to drop their heavy shells right upon our left and centre , while it was out of range of our own guns . Therefore our men had to stand motionless , hour after hour , and endure the pitiless shelling of the Russian gunners , with the bitter knowledge that to silence the fort was quite out of our power . The utter annihilation of the first battalion of stormers warned General Oku that to advance comparatively small parties was but to sacrifice them uselessly , while it also indicated that the task of artillery `` preparation '' had been by no means as complete as he had judged it to be ; he therefore sedulously continued the work of preparation all through the afternoon until five o'clock , when a message from the artillery commander warned him that the crisis was at hand . The message was to the effect that he had fired away practically his entire supply of ammunition , only his reserve rounds remaining . What was he to do ? Situated as I was at a distance of more than two miles from headquarters , upon an outlying spur of the Nanshan Heights , and quite alone , save for the companionship of a solitary assistant signaller , with only occasional curt orders from the General in reference to the signals which he wished me to transmit to our ships in the offing , I was naturally ignorant as to the critical pass at which we had arrived , and could only draw my conclusions from what I actually saw happening .