After that, he spent a year on a square-rigged windjammer. Graduating in 1904 as seventh in his class, he fought against Russia's Baltic Fleet at Tsushima, a strait between Japan and Korea, in an engagement recognized by historians as "one of the most decisive naval actions in history." As an ensign on the cruiser
Nisshin, part of the protective screen for Admiral Togo Heihachiro's flagship
Mikasa, Isoroku saw closeup the tactics of one of the world's greatest admirals. From Togo, he learned one thing above all: the need for surprise in battle. In a letter to his family, the young seaman described a major mishap:
When the shells began to fly above me I found I was not afraid. The ship was damaged by shells and many were killed. At 6:15 in the evening a shell hit the Nisshin and knocked me unconscious. When I recovered I found I was wounded in the right leg and two fingers of my left hand were missing. But the Russian ships were completely defeated and many wounded and dead were floating on the sea.
Between 1904 and the outbreak of World War I, Isoroku went on training cruises to Korea and China, traveled to the west coast of the United States, and toured every major port in Australia.
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