Novik, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Fedorovich von Schultz, a future vice admiral, was among the ships that fled south.

On 11 August, Novik encountered the Russian protected cruiser Diana – whose commanding officer intended to steam to Saigon in French Cochinchina – and destroyer Grozovoi in the Yellow Sea, and Schultz informed the other two Russian ships that he intended to take on coal and provisions at Kiaochow in the German Kaochow Bay concession in China and then steam Novik around the east of Japan to Vladivostok.

Diana′s commanding officer believed that such a voyage would result in capture by Japanese forces, and he remained intent on steaming to Saigon.

[6] About an hour after Tsushima headed north, word arrived that Novik had passed through Friza Strait between Uruppu and Etorofu in the Kurile Islands and entered the Sea of Okhotsk.

[6] Novik had steamed at economical speed during her voyage east of Japan, but the Japanese were correct that she nonetheless required a coaling stop at Korsakov before she could proceed to Vladivostok.

[6] Fearing he could be trapped at Korsakov, Schultz decided during the early afternoon of 20 August to revise his plans, suspend coaling, and depart immediately for Vladivostok via La Perouse Strait.

[8] Novik′s steering gear had been damaged beyond repair, however, and Schultz, discerning from the play of searchlights to seaward during the night that the second Japanese cruiser had arrived, decided that she could not be saved.

[8] At dawn on 21 August, Chitose entered the harbor to find Novik sunk on a sandbank with her boats and launches around her removing her crew and valuable gear.

[8] At the end of August 1904, the Japanese auxiliary cruisers Hong Kong Maru and Nippon Maru went north from Japan to patrol La Perouse Strait, and during these operations their crews stripped Novik′s wreck of all removable gear and guns before returning to Japan, where they began operations from Hakodate on 7 September 1904.

The Battle of Korsakov is depicted in the novels Port Arthur (Порт-Артур) by Aleksandr Stepanov and Katorga (Каторга) by Valentin Pikul.