In July and early August, as the Imperial Japanese Army laid siege to Port Arthur, relations between Vitgeft and the Russian Viceroy Yevgeni Alekseyev soured.

Admiral Vitgeft believed in a fleet in being, which simply stayed at anchor, while at the same time contributing some of his weaponry to the Siege of Port Arthur as the safest course to follow.

[1][2] Although passive, Vitgeft's preference was actually more in keeping with the Russian Navy's doctrine, which was building up strength (waiting for the arrival of the Baltic Fleet, also known as the 2nd Pacific Squadron), and then engaging the Japanese navy in decisive battle.After several exchanges of letters in which both insisted on their demand, Alexeyev turned to Tsar Nicholas II, who replied to him by telegraph: "I fully share your opinion that it is important for the squadron to break through quickly from Port Arthur to Vladivostok."

The Russian fleet consisted of the ships of the line Zessarevich Withöft's flagship, the Retvizan, the Pobeda, the Peresvet, the Sevastopol of the Poltava as well as the four protected cruisers Askold, Pallada, Diana and Nowik and 14 torpedo boats.

At 9:00 a.m., the entire fleet slowly sailed out to sea, initially in line abeam to clear the shipping channel of mines, following a course along the coast of the Shandong Peninsula.

[citation needed] Just after 13:00, Tōgō attempted to cross Vitgeft's T and commenced firing his main batteries from the extreme range of more than 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi).

By about 13:30 the Russian flagship had returned fire, knocking out Tōgō's wireless communications with two 305 millimetres (12.0 in) shell direct hits at this extreme range.

Both battlefleets were maintaining about 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph), but again, Vitgeft had managed to get past Tōgō, and the Japanese were forced to commence a stern chase.

By 14:45 the Japanese flagship had closed to within about 7 nmi (13 km; 8.1 mi) of the trailing battleship Poltava, which had been unable to maintain her fleet's speed of 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) due to engine trouble.

[8][9] Although the range had dropped to about 3 miles, the secondary batteries of 155 and 203 mm guns were still ineffective, and Poltava and Peresvet, although heavily damaged, were still with the Russian battleline.

"[12] Prince Pavel Ukhtomsky of the battleship Peresvet soon realized that the flagship was out of action, and attempted to gain control of the Russian squadron.

At the same time Captain Eduard Schensnovich commanding Retvizan, immediately turned his battleship towards Tōgō's battleline, charging directly into it with all weapons firing, despite being down by the bow from battle damage.

However, as Tōgō's battleships were running low on 305 mm shells, and many of his main guns were out of action, he decided to play it safe, and with the Russian squadron scattered, he turned the fight over to his cruisers and destroyers.

[13] As Tōgō's ships began their turn, they fired a final salvo, hitting the enemy battleship with several shells, one of which seriously wounded Captain Schensnovich in the stomach.

Retvizan laid smoke and also began to turn away,[14] but the battleship had effectively ended the duel between the opposing pre-dreadnoughts, and had saved the flagship from destruction.

But the naval force that Tōgō was to meet at Tsushima the following year was not the same type of battle fleet that he engaged at the Yellow Sea either.

As a result, the naval world was quite surprised after the Yellow Sea combatants opened fire upon one another and scored hits while still over 8 miles (13 km) apart.

[20] Damage and casualties included the following:[21] The majority of the Russian squadron (five ships of the line, one cruiser and nine torpedo boats) returned to Port Arthur.

The heavily damaged Zessarewitsch arrived at Tsingtau with the three Kit-class destroyers Besposchtschadni, Besschumni and Besstraschni, where the ships were interned by the German authorities.

The damaged Askold, flagship of Rear Admiral Reitzenstein, who commanded the cruisers, sailed to Shanghai, where the destroyer Grosowoi, which had initially accompanied Diana, also arrived later.