about midnight
Our preparations were completed late in the afternoon of 26th March ; and we immediately weighed and proceeded to sea , escorted by a flotilla of destroyers and torpedo-boats , among which was the _ Kasanumi _ , temporarily under the command of my subordinate , young Hiraoka , who had already proved himself to be a very capable , discreet , and courageous lad . The weather on this occasion was everything that could be desired , perfectly clear , with no wind and a sea so calm that the veriest cock-boat could have safely ventured upon it . The only drawback was that there was a moon , well advanced in her first quarter , floating high in a sky dappled with light , fleecy cloud through which enough light percolated to render even small craft distinctly visible on the horizon . But , after all , this would not greatly matter , indeed it would be an advantage to us , always provided , of course , that we were not prematurely sighted by some keen-visioned , swift-steaming Russian scout ; for the moon would set about midnight , while two o'clock in the morning was the time set for our attempt . The run to the offing of Port Arthur was like a pleasure trip ; our fleet of old crocks pounded along steadily , with a soft , soothing sound of purling water rising from under their bows , dominated from time to time by the clank of our crazy engines , which our mechanics had doctored up as thoroughly as time permitted , in order to ensure that they should outlast the run across . There was nothing for us to do but follow our leader , so I spent an hour of the time in making sure that our solitary boat should reach the water with certainty and on a level keel when the time should come to launch her , taking the turns out of the davit tackles , well greasing the falls , oiling the block sheaves , and rigging up a device of my own contriving whereby the necessity to unhook the blocks could be avoided when the boat touched the water . At eleven o'clock Commander Arima signalled the destroyer flotilla , and five of the fastest of them at once went full speed ahead , spreading out in a fan-shaped formation ahead of us and on either bow to reconnoitre the roadstead .