midnight
Nor had the ships themselves been forgotten . In turn each had been dry-docked , repaired , defects made good , down to the tightening of a loose screw , machinery overhauled and parts replaced where thought necessary , bottoms cleared of weed and coated afresh with anti-fouling composition , and hulls repainted , until each ship looked as though she had just been taken out of a glass case . And now there they all lay , in Chin-hai harbour , with boilers chipped clean of deposit and filled with fresh water , flues , tubes , and furnaces carefully-cleaned , new fire-bars inserted where needed , fires carefully laid and ready to be lighted at a moment 's notice , and every bunker packed with specially selected Welsh coal , purchased for this very purpose , long ago . Furnace fires were at once lighted and steam raised ; and before midnight the old _ Chin-yen _ -- looking very spruce and fit , despite her age -- and her three companion cruisers quietly got their anchors and proceeded to sea , while aboard the ships still in harbour the crews were busily engaged in making the preparations referred to in the general order , before retiring to what was for some of them to be their last night 's sleep on earth . As for me , I sat in my cabin , far into the night , writing long letters to my friends at home , so that , in the event of anything untoward happening to me , they might know that loving thoughts of them were in my heart up to the last . In Chin-hai harbour the morning of 27th May 1905 dawned bright and clear , and at five o'clock the crews of the Japanese ships partook of a substantial meal before proceeding to the task of clearing for action . They were still partaking of this meal when a marconi-gram arrived from the _ Shinano Maru _ , one of our scouts , informing us that the Russian fleet was in sight , entering the eastern strait ; that it was impossible as yet to say how many ships were present , as the atmosphere was misty ; also that there was a high sea running in which the Russian ships were rolling heavily .