Rozhestvensky was aware of Fölkersam’s condition, and when the fleet reached Tangier, he assigned Fölkersam to an independent command consisting of five older warships and several transports, which transited the Suez Canal and rejoined the main fleet at Nossi Be in Madagascar.
His 1936 novel, Tsushima, translated into English as The Voyage of Forgotten Men, recounted the epic journey of the Russian Second Pacific Squadron, under the command of Admiral Rozhestvensky, from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan, and its defeat by the Japanese fleet at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905.