he did not receive the message. Shortly after the Japanese turned back, Gromoboi and Rossia were forced to heave-to to make repairs. Iwate was the most seriously damaged Japanese ship and suffered a total of 40 killed and 37 wounded. In mid-September, Tokiwa and Iwate were transferred to the 1st Division. In early December the cruiser was sent home to refit. In mid-February, she was guarding the Tsugaru Strait and remained there through mid-April. Battle of Tsushima As the Russian 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons approached Japan on 27 May, having sailed from the Baltic Sea, they were spotted by patrolling Japanese ships early that morning, but visibility was limited and radio reception poor. The preliminary reports were enough to cause Tōgō to order his ships to put to sea and the 2nd Division spotted the Russian ships under the command of Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky at around 11:30. Kamimura closed to about a range of before sheering off under fire to join Tōgō's battleships. Iwate, now the flagship of Rear Admiral Shimamura Hayao, was last in the 2nd Division when Tōgō opened fire on the 2nd Pacific Squadron at 14:10 and, like most of the ships in the division, engaged the battleship which was forced to fall out of formation at 14:50 and sank 20 minutes later. The cruiser also fired upon the battleship before 14:50. The protected cruiser attempted to make a torpedo attack at about 15:06, but was driven off by fire from Iwate and the armored cruisers and . The battleship suddenly appeared out of the mist at 15:35 at a range of about . All of Kamimura's ships engaged her for five minutes or so with Azuma and the armored cruiser also firing torpedoes at the Russian ship without effect. After 17:30 Kamimura led his division in a fruitless pursuit of some of the Russian cruisers, leaving Tōgō's battleships to their own devices. He abandoned his chase around 18:03 and turned northwards to rejoin Tōgō. His ships spotted the rear of the Russian battleline around 18:30 and opened fire when the range closed to 8000–9000 meters. Nothing is known of any effect on the Russians and they ceased fire by 19:30 and rejoined Tōgō at 20:08 as night was falling. The surviving Russian ships were spotted the next morning and the Japanese ships opened fire around 10:30, staying beyond the range at which the Russian