Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1898-12-03

that nao gun seemea 10 De ur1ng- The
BROOKLYN was unquessiouably the point
Of attack, because she was the f1eetest
ship. In the few moments that had to
think Of the movements going on around
me was reminded that the storm of
prolectiIes about Us mbied q mill
pond during a haiissorm. but on such
occasions one has little time TO think of
himself. l was not personally aware
that a shot had come within hundred
miles Of rs until man was killed close
to me and a searchlisht was knocked
out near by.
1.-The question to be decided was
whether we were TO mask bis feet dur
ing q precious 10 or Is minutes or 60
turn out and unmask it. and the de-
cision was made to turn out The result
was that in 30 minutes four of the
Spanish ships had been annihilated-
The Nizcaya and the Colon were left.
He put three miles to port and speeded
to the westward, but the fleet Brooklyn
was not TO be left, and after running
fight of 81 minutes the ViZcaya was
struck over 100 times, was set on fire,
lost $50 of her ships company ana was
a total wreck. That was not only the
work of the Brooklyn She was assisted
magnificentiy by the Oregon and the
Texas. The Colon had speeded up con-
siderably and got very nearly out OF
range.
Il eignaled to the Texas to look orr
for the Vizcaya and started for the
Colon, feeling-as Lord Nelson did at
Trafalgar-that if one vessel got away
the victory would be incomplete. l said
TO Captain Cook that we might go to
dinner; that we would have half Sd
three-quarters of an hour before we
would be within fighting range. We
went TO dinner and We're under fire for
80 minutes, but we didn't reply. We
felt that we could reserve our supply
for better use than target practice. Aft
er dinner additional boilers having been
lighted, speed having been increased,
we were coming up with the Colon very
rapidly At O'Clock the Oregon and
the Brooklyn had distanced all the yes
sells.
1.-THE Oregon was astern Of the Brook
Ign about 400 yards, and If the fight
had continued an hour longer we would
have left her entirely, because we were
on the point of turning on two more
boilers, which would have given US q
speed of nearly three knots more than
hers. However, l signaled from the
Brooklyn to the Oregon to let go one OF
her railroad trains. This projectile land
ed Just astern of the Colon The Brook
Ign then fired an eight inch gun, which
landed about the same distance aheal
of her Clark signaled to me where my
faIl nd I Siu fod RI, ly
where his had gone The second shot
from the Oregon passed over and aft the
Colon, and the fourth shot, fired from
the Brooklyn, struck her on the quarter
explod ! in her cabin and wrecked i
comp tely, when the enemy fired gur
to leeward and hauled down his coior'
| and started for the beach
1--WE then closed in, and Captain
Cook was directed to go on board ant
| accept the surrender on uncondltiona
| terms. In the meantime the flagship
New York came up After reporting tt
| the commander in chief what had fallei
| under my observation report came tina
| the Callao, "a Spanish ship, was on thu
| coasf. The commander in chief said h.
wanted to go east with the Oregon ant
| com plete the Job. We started out, feel
| ing that there was nothing which car
| ried the Spanish flag that day that dare'
| come within the battery range of tn
l Brooklyn. -
1.-The battle was unique 1t was th
| first instance in history where q sc;
| fight occurred bet0een vessels of nearl,
| equal power in which one had complete
~ annihilated the other in an almos
| blopdless contest for the victory. l felt a
surveyed the scene upon the bridge o
the Brooklyn that day that it was al
epochmaking day New York Times