The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-06-10
TERROR NOT DESTROYED.
The American Fleet Did Not Put an
End to the Spanish DESTROYER.

On board the Associated Press boat
Dauntless, off Santiago de Cuba, Sun
day, June 5, p. M, via Kingston, ia
maica, June 6, 9:55 a. m.-Friday night
it was believed that a night attack on
the American fleet by one or both of
the torpedo destroyers with the Span
ish fleet had been frustrated by the
vigilance of the New Orleans, and that
the destroyers had been repused and
driven back into the harbor by the hot
fire poured into them by the New Or
leans, New York and Massachusetts.
1t was this heavy firing which led to
the report which reached Port Antonio
Saturday, that the Spanish destroyer
Terror had been surrounded and sunk
on Friday night as she was trying to
slip into Santiago harbor.
The latter report is now known to
have had no foundation; and there is
a conflict of opinion among the officers
of the fleet to whether the New Or
leans had in reality met a torpedo boat.
When the firing was begun on Friday
night it was dark and the object at
which the guns on our ships were di-
rected seemed to be moving close in
shore. A railroad line connects San
tiagO with Cape Point, at a distance
of fifteen miles, the site of iron manu-
factories. The track runs along the
waters edge; and the trains which
carry supplies and probably war ma
terial are only run at night and with
out lights.
Il is possible that in the darkness a
fast train may have been mistaken as
one was last week, for torpedo boat.
But the discovery by the Porter of two
torpedOes on Saturday afternoon float
ing in the water two miles from shore
tended to strengthen the theory of those
who insisted that torpedo attack had
been attempted. The tOrpedoes were
of the Schwartzkopf pattern, which are
not used by our ships. If they were
discharged at one of our vessels by the
destroyers, the Spaniards must have
had a bad case of nervous fright, as
one had only a practice head
blank cartridge.
This fact leads to the belief that the
torpedoes picked up by the Porter were
fired Friday morning at the Merrlmac
when she was discovered entering the
neck of the harbor. probably by the
cruiser Reina Mercedes, which now lies
a diSmantled wreck off Smith Cay,
where the harbor neck broadens. At
ter being fired they may have dr1tted
out with the tide.
In our navy all torpedoes are set to
sink when they have run their course.
The SpaniardS may have reckOned on
keeping them afioat in the hopes that
one of our ships would stumble on it in
the dark and share the fate of the
Maine. King Yuen, one of the Chinese
ships at the battle of the Yalu, is sup
posed by some naval experts to have
been sunk by a floating torpedo dis
charged earlier in the action by one of
her sister ships.
A sharp lookout is maintained by the
blockading squadron in guarding
against night torpedo attacks, and it
has already led to firing by our ships
upon each other, on at least two occa-
sfons. During the last week the battle
ship Texas fired upon the Marblehead
and the Vixen and both the latter YES
sells had narrow escapes. Only the
flash of their signal lights, and on the
occasion in question, the fortunate bad
aim of the gunners of the Texas, saved