Editing Battle of Tsushima (section)

===''XGE'' signal and Russian surrender===
At 05:23 on 28 May, what remained of the Russian fleet was sighted heading northeast. Tōgō's battleships proceeded to surround Nebogatov's remaining squadron south of the island of [[Takeshima]] and commenced main battery fire at 12,000 meters.{{sfn|Busch|1969|page=179}} The {{ship|Russian cruiser|Izumrud}} then turned southeast and started to flee.{{sfn|Tsukamoto|1907|p=116}} Realising that his guns were outranged by at least one thousand metres,{{efn|{{ship|Russian battleship|Oryol||2}} had lost its front left main gun, and the rear left gun could no longer be raised to extended-range elevations,{{efn|See [[Russian battleship Oryol#Construction and career]]}} meaning that only four 12-inch guns were left in the fleet: two older black-powder firing (shorter range) guns on {{ship|Russian battleship|Imperator Nikolai I||2}}, and two longer-range guns on the damaged ''Oryol'' that had however lost both of its rangefinders.}} and the Japanese battleships had proven on the day before to be faster than his own so that he could not close the distance if he tried, Nebogatov ordered the four battleships remaining under his command to surrender.{{efn|During Nebogatov's court martial, his defense for surrendering his battle fleet was because his guns were outranged by the Japanese guns.}}{{efn|In retrospect, the Japanese main 12" guns outranged his shorter-range 12" Krupp guns by 8000 metres and the longer-range 1895-issue 12" guns by about 3000 metres. See the [[#Gun range and rate of fire|Gun range and rate of fire]] section for details. The Japanese fleet had 14 (out of 16) of the 12" Armstrong guns operational on the four main battleships at the time.}} ''XGE'', an international signal of surrender, was hoisted; however, the Japanese navy continued to fire as they did not have "surrender" in their code books and had to hastily find one that did.{{sfn|Lardas|2018|page=99}} Still under heavy fire, Nebogatov then ordered a white tablecloth sent up the masthead, but Tōgō, having faced the difficult decision to sink a British transport ship full of Chinese soldiers during the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] as the commander of IJN cruiser {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Naniwa||2}},{{efn|See [[Battle of Pungdo#Kowshing Incident]] for details of this incident on 25 July 1894. He had suffered pneumonia and was taken off duty for 3 years from 1887 before the Sino-Japanese war. He utilised the time to research and became an expert in international law. Japan had just signed the [[Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation]] with the UK on 16 July 1894, and his decision to sink the British ship (carrying [[contraband]], flying the [[Red Ensign|British civilian ensign]]) after a boarding inspection, maritime capture, and demanding to abandon ship, was later cleared by British jurists to be in compliance with [[Admiralty law]]. He also experienced Chinese cruiser {{ship|Chinese cruiser|Jiyuan||2}} fleeing from the [[Battle of Pungdo]] after raising a white flag and the [[Rising Sun Flag|Japanese naval ensign]].}} knew the signal meant a request for a truce or parley, not 'surrender' in the legal definition, and that either meaning contradicted not stopping the ships.

His lieutenants found the codebook that included XGE signal and reported that stopping engines is a requirement for the signal and all the Russian ships were still moving, so he continued firing while the response flag signal "STOP" hoisted.{{sfn|Tsukamoto|1907|pages=119–120}} Nebogatov then ordered [[Ensign of the Russian Navy|St. Andrew's Cross]] lowered and the [[Hinomaru|Japanese national flag]] raised on the [[gaff rig|gaff]] and all engines stopped.<ref name=rngs>{{cite book|editor=Russian Naval General Staff|title=Russo-Japanese Naval War Record, 1904–1905|date=1 November 2004|publisher=芙蓉書房出版 |isbn=4829503505|language=ja|translator=Hirama Yōichi}}</ref>  Seeing the requirement for the signal met, Tōgō gave the cease-fire and accepted Nebogatov's surrender. Nebogatov surrendered knowing that he could be shot for doing so.{{sfn|Regan|1992|page=177}} He said to his men:

{{blockquote|text=You are young, and it is you who will one day retrieve the honour and glory of the Russian Navy. The lives of the two thousand four hundred men in these ships are more important than mine.{{sfn|Regan|1992|page=177}}}}

[[File:Orel1905Maizuru.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|right|Damaged {{ship|Russian battleship|Oryol||2}}{{efn|name=Oryol}} at [[Maizuru Naval Arsenal]]{{efn|{{coord|35.480815|N|135.374341|E}}}}]]

As an example of the level of damage inflicted on a Russian battleship, {{ship|Russian battleship|Oryol||2}}{{efn|name=Oryol}} was hit by five 12-inch, nine 8-inch, 39 six-inch and 21 smaller or unidentified shells.{{efn|See [[Russian battleship Oryol#Construction and career]] for details. Due to her position in the Russian formation being the last in line of four ''Borodino''-class battleships, {{ship|Russian battleship|Oryol||2}} probably received the least number of large calibre shells and possibly the most number of small calibre hits among the four.}} This damage caused her to list, and the engine ceased to operate when she was being taken by the Japanese navy to First Battle Division home port of [[Sasebo Naval District|Sasebo]] in [[Nagasaki Prefecture|Nagasaki]] after Tōgō accepted the surrender.  Cruiser {{ship|Japanese cruiser|Asama||2}} and then battleship {{ship|Japanese battleship|Asahi||2}} had to tow ''Oryol'', and their destination was changed to the closer [[Maizuru Naval Arsenal]] to avoid losing the prize of war.  Her commander Captain [[Nikolay Yung|Yung]], who was seriously injured on 27 May, died in the night of the 29th onboard battleship ''Asahi'' en route.{{efn|name=Yung}}{{sfn|Tsukamoto|1907|pp=122,136–141}}