The location sent to Tōgō had been inaccurate and his ships were out of position when they spotted the Russians; unwilling to engage the First Division, Tōgō maneuvered his ships across the front of the Russian forces and then reversed course to position his battleships on the left flank of the leading Russian ships. During this maneuver, "Knyaz Suvorov" opened fire at the , flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō at 14:05 at a range of . "Mikasa" began to return fire after the Japanese ships had finished their maneuver and was joined by the battleship and the armored cruiser as the Japanese battleships split their fire between "Knyaz Suvorov" and "Oslyabya". The battleship joined the others firing at "Knyaz Suvorov" around 14:20, which had been set on fire by hits from the other ships. At 14:35, splinters entered the conning tower killing her helmsman and wounding Rozhestvensky and the ship's captain; splinters from another shell again wounded Rozhestvensky so he drifted in and out of consciousness. Shortly afterwards, flames made the conning tower untenable so that the ship had to be steered from her auxiliary-control position. Around 14:52, another hit jammed the steering gear after a four point turn to starboard had been ordered and caused the ship to make nearly a full circle before she could be steered by her engines. Splinters from numerous shell hits shredded water hoses and made it much more difficult to put the numerous fires out. By this time "Knyaz Suvorov"s aft 12-inch gun turret had been destroyed by an explosion that blew its roof off onto the quarterdeck, her forward funnel had fallen down and her mainmast had been shot away.