The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-08-03
SPANISH ACCOUNT
Of the Destruction Of Admiral
Cervera's Fleet.
NARRATIVES OF OFFICERS.
The Last Hour on Board the
Doomed Ships. Measure!ess
Human Blood and SUI
fering and Indescrib-
able Terrors.
able T errors.

ions. he IrlGNllul t'tL udSS ~ 'ii,'> ti''N'
dash for liberty out Of Santiago harbor
is still the only thought, the only talk
of the prisoners BY day. their only
dread. or nightmare by night. Every
one of the survivors Will, as long as he
lives, tell his countrymen that the gun
ners. Of the owa, Oregon, Brooklyn
and Texas concentrated their fire upon
the ship he was on. Now We are to see
for the first time the greatest naval fight
in modern ycars-the first open sea
engagement of armored vessels, through
Spanish eyes. We now know for the
first time exactly how it feels to have
steel projectileS. each weighing from ;
to l,100 pounds. striking and exploding
around US at the rate Of nearly l,ooo i
minute.
LIEUT.. CARLOS BoADo 5 STORY.
Let Lieut.. Carlos Boado-Suances first
tell his experience en- the Pluton. the
torpedo boat destroyer. These are near
ly his own words to 1 World cores
pondent: =.
most of his ships, but he hoped that
the Cristobal Colon would get away.
This is why he transferred his flag to
the Maria Teresa, so that he might per
ish with the less fortunate. The two
torpedo boat destroycrS We're to stay be
hind the armored cruisers until the
American ships closed IN and then the
torpedo boats were to dart out from be-
hind the armored ships, heading straight
for the nearest enemy.
THAT was the plan. See howl fal!-
ed. There were y men on our boat (the
Pluton.) I don't believe that one man
of US expected to be alive IN half an
hour. But we were confident that We
would take one Of your battleshlps
down with us. Not man showed COW
ardice. Every one was ready to dle,
but no one was prepared for exactly
what awaited us. We were shot to
pieces before we got within hall the
torpedo striking distance Of the Amer,
lean ships. We found ourselves rlddled
and could not strike blow IN return.
That young commander of the GlouceS-
ter (meaning Commander Wainwright
of the Maine) is as brave as any man
alive, but he did not destroy US. 1t
was the shells of the Brooklyn and
Texas that blew US up.
admiral Cervera signalled the other
ships behind him as he started out OF
the harbor:
"My dear boys, your admiral prays
FOR speedy victory"
But in FIVE minutes We were IN the
Internal regions. The nearest Amerl-
can ship, the Iowa, was ,, 800 yards
q niles away. Life anywhere on
board the Pluton wasn't worth an
octave "a quarter of a cent? Our YES.
sci, without armor, offered no place OF
refuge. On one of the armor clads a
man feels somewhat safer on the lee
side of turret, or with the connlns
tower between him and the enemy, but
our men were just as safe on the open
deck-safer, indeed, than below, for
the shots shattered our steam pipes, and
escaping steam scalded to death the
strokers and engineers.
My chum and classmate was struck
by a shell in the breast while standing
three feet from me. He was decaplta-
ted as quickly as by the guillotine;
The head and body separated and fell
of the deck into the sea. The same
shell struck the coming tower and
exploded. The concussion threw me on
my hands and knees At the same IL
slant heavier shell struck the Plu-
tons side and she careened violently. /
grasped at the little railing running
round the coming tower to prevent
falling overheard and pulled myself up
by my left hand. The next moment
another shell struck the deck exactly
where l had been moment before, ex-
ploding and wounding me slightly.
How escaped is miracle | cannot
explain. All this happened in the first
few minutes. The Iowa and Brooklyn
were still 1900 yards (more than a
mile) away when our gun crews were
killed or wounded, so that we soon
ceased to fire.
s'We had prepared our torpedo tubes,
but before the Texas, now the nearest
enemy, was within 1900 yards Of US
much too far to use torpedo against
her-our steering gear was crippled,
half Of our crew were killed and escap-
ing steam below showed that our en-
gines were mortally hurt. We steered
for time by the twin screws. We
then tried to get behind the Oquendo,
not to save our lives you understand,
but to save our torpedoes until we could
use them. But before we could take
the position we intended the Pluton
became unmanageable. The Oquendo
used smoke-producing powder at the
beginning of the battle, solely to ena-
Bile the Pluton and Furor to hide, but
some how the smoke did not lay on the
water. 1t rose in feecy clouds that
rendered our position all the palmer to
the enemy in the clear strip OF blue,
clean water below. Even the clements
seemed hostile to US IN this fight. The
biggest shells were fired so as to ricochet
along the water. We could see them
coming at US by the enormous Splashes
they made and they came straight. Fl
nally shell from the Brooklyn, |
think, tore the insidcs out Of US. We
had already swung our stern to the enc
my in the hope of escaping. We had
20-knot headway on at the time and
this carried US to land. We We're ut
terly helpless in that storm of death.
COULDN'T SLEEP FOR HORROR.
At this point Of Lieutenant Boado-
Suance narrative another officer in the
group, whose name | COULDN'T learn,
said in low voice:
The Americans sprung on the Plu-
ton and Furor like cats on two mice.
We couldn't even bite. The Amcri-
cans were too quick. But we on the
Furor Jared worse than you, that is, We
IL ~, ,f h,