noon
Meanwhile , the glass was falling , great masses of cloud came driving up from the eastward , and a little breeze from the same quarter sprang up , rapidly freshening and knocking up a sea which soon set even our battleships rolling and pitching ponderously . `` Well , so much the better for us , '' we told each other . Our gunners were by this time quite accustomed to shoot from a rolling and pitching platform , while the Russians had had no such profitable experience ; and the heavier the sea , the greater would probably be the superiority of our shooting . It was nearing noon when at length , broad on our starboard bow , a great cloud of black smoke began to show on the south-eastern horizon ; and shortly afterward a forest of masts , from the truck of each of which flaunted a great white flag bearing a blue Saint Andrew 's cross , began to rise above the sea-line , followed by numerous funnels belching immense volumes of black smoke . The two fleets were nearing each other fast , it was therefore not long before the ponderous bulk of the _ Tsarevich _ topped the horizon , with the _ Retvisan , Pobieda , Peresviet _ -LRB- flying Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtomsky 's flag -RRB- , _ Sevastopol _ , and _ Poltava _ following . Then came our old friend of the five funnels , the _ Askold _ , followed by the _ Pallada _ and _ Diana _ , with a hospital ship , flying a Red Cross flag , bringing up the rear but well astern . On the port beam , but well to the rear of the line of battleships , was the cruiser _ Novik _ -- easily distinguished by her three funnels with a single mast stepped between the second and third funnel -- and seven destroyers .