 The ship participated in the action of 13 April , when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron , including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov 's flagship , the battleship Petropavlovsk . When Makarov spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division , he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night . The Russian battleship sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazines exploded , and Makarov was one of the 677 killed . Emboldened by his success , Tōgō resumed long @-@ range bombardment missions , prompting the Russians to lay more minefields , which sank two Japanese battleships the following month . 
