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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.
To ensure this, the old Chin-yen, the Itsukushima, Matsushima, and Hashidate, of the protected cruiser squadron, accompanied by one division of destroyers, were to act the part of lures, approaching the Russian fleet on the following morning, as it neared the Straits, alternately attacking and retiring in the direction of the eastern strait, thus inveigling Rojdestvensky into a pursuit in that direction.
The ships told off for this duty were to proceed to sea at once, as the Chin-yen the slowest craft of the quartette was only good for thirteen knots at best, and it was not desired that any ship should be pushed to the limit of her powers until the engagement should become general.
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