The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1898-06-30

ed by the Marksmanship of tn,
American 0unners-One of the Re,
suits of Frequent Target Practice.
New York SUM-
Among the many letters that were
received yesterday in the Eastern
| States from officers and seamen OF
Admiral Dewey's fleet there was one
from Past Assistant Engineer f.. l..
Beach, Of the cruiser Baltimore,
under date of May Sth, addressed to
friend in this city. 1t sums up
what in the opinion of many naval
officers are valuable lessons of the
Manila fight, and in addition gives
several details, especially as to the
experiences of men below decks
during the fight, that have not ap-
peared in print thus far. The letter.
although written not for publication.
is OF such nature that these ex-
tracts can be given from it without
violating propriety:
1--WE feel that we have had a great
victory. which we ascribe to several
causes. First, the Spaniard is ALWAYS
behind the times. He knew that an
American fleet was expected and was
so sure of his tremendous superiority
that he took absolutely no precaution.
The night we ran by the forts Gn the
early morning of the engagement)
Spanish officers were all at grand
ball. The entrance to the harbor
was planted with torpedoes; he
thought that was enough, and had
no patrol, picket boats or torpedo
boats on watch. The result is that
we ran by their magnificent guns
guarding the entrance to Manila
Bay, and were out of range inside
before the Spaniards knew it.
"AnOther reason for our success
was due to Commodore Dewev's
orders. Not one of the ships had
any intimaiion that we would run by
the forts as we did until thirty miles
away, when the Commodore gave
the order. We were by the Spanish
forts and at the fleet by $50 a. m.
on Sunday, May 1st. They were ten
ships strong, carrying 1l6 modern
guns, to which we opposed superior
fleet of six ships carrying 1875 guns.
Two of their ships were over 1920
tons displacement, and the rest were
modern gun-bOats. This fleet was
assisted by batteries on shore armed
with modern guns, which made their
guns superior in number to ours. In
number of men engaged they were
undoubtedly far superior to us. The
Spaniards were absolutely confident
of victory. No other outcome was
anticipated by them; no preparation
was made for a different result. |
think that their ships, combined
with their forts, made them equal
us, so far as powers of offence and
defence were concerned. They had
as many modern guns approximately
to the same size as we had and more
men to fire them. They should have
been able to have fired as much
weight OF shot in a specified time as
we did.
"The whole thing, in other words,
lay in the fact that it was the Amer
lean against the Spaniard; the Anglo
Saxon against the Latin. Every shot
fired from our fleet was most deliber-
ately, coolly and pitilessly aimed
The Spaniards fired an enormous
of times, with apparently
the most impracticable aim. Shells
dropped all around our ships; we
we're in action for over four hours;
hundreds of shots and shell fell close
to us. Only five or six pierced us,
and they did no damage.
"The damage done by our ships
was frightful. have visited all of
the sunken Spanish ships, and had
| not seen the effects OF American
l would hardly give
credit to reports OF it. One smoke
stack OF the Castillo, a 3,3OO-ton
Spanish ship, was struck eight times.
and the shells through the hull were
SO many and SO close that it is i'm
possible that Spaniard could have
lived on her deck. The other large
ships, the Reina Cristina, was per-
forated in the same way. We did
not employ much tactics because
there wasn't much need for them
There were the enemy, and we went
Tor them bullheadedly and made
them exceedingly sick.
"The lesson l drew from the fight
is the great utility of target practice.
The Spaniard has none; we have it
every three months. Strengths OF
navies are compared generally ship
Tor ship; the personnel is just as i'm
portant. l am confident that, had we
the Spanish ships and had
the Spaniards manned our fleet, the
American side would have been as
as it was. The Spaniard
certainly was brave, for he stuck to
his gun to the last.
My personal part in the fight was
in the engine room. The hard part
Of the engagement was not the fight
ing part; that was all right, but it
was getting ready for it. | was 81
hours without relief or rest in the
engine rooms Of the Baltimore, the
varying from l20 to 100
degrees. Since the fight we have
eased down on work and are taking
it easy, except for a strict watch.
But it is intensely uncomfortable.
The heat is terrific, standing steadily
below decks at 95 degrees and on
deck much higher in the daytime
"Another thing that caused us
much Inconvenience during the fight
and after was that all Of our laundry
was being washed al Hong Kong and
We were short of necessary under
wear We are as comfortable as
Americans could be. The food, is OF
course. good, but it is all salt food.