Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-06-16
THE ATTACK ON SAN JUAN.

Some Effective shots ny the spaniards-
Marrow Escape of Admiral sampson.
Ieslie's Weekly
A feature of the action was the reck-
less waate OF inuHitlun by the enemy,
They must have fired 100 rounds at
least most ni tham, apparently with
no attempt at aiming, or elss they ware
too excited to aim straight or elevate
for the correct range. Only two pro
iectiles hit any Of our vessels before
bursting One struck the New York
near her mldship inch gun and eX.
ploded. 1t killed one man and wounded
four, smashed both the searchlights on
the middle bridge put a big hole in
the base OF the smoke Pine, destroyed
one boat and badly injured two others,
besides causing minor damages. The
other shall hit tho Iowa in the super
structure just over the after port S-inch
turret. 1t scraped along the bottom Of
| boat, cut a section out OF its keel,
struck one skid beam, pierced another
and then exploded. The flying pieces
wounded three men. none dangerously,
temporarily disabled six rounder gun,
aud puncne holes in almost every
ventilator cowl on the upper deck Que
large piece cut away the port bridge,
ladder, another cut heavy stnnchion
almost in two, third went through
the deck ami dropped near the galley
on ths gun below, whils several smaller
pisces tore holes in the ad jacent boats.
The explosion of the shell set fire to an
awning and splinter netting of manila
rope, hut both were quickly extin'
guished.
Another projsctile exploded near the
Iowa on her starboRri side. Only q
few fragments came on hoard, and tneS
did no damage Of importance. A mari
on one OF the S-inch turrets seems tt
indicate that it wns struck by very
small shell. probably from field pisce
Had the large shall, which wounded
the three men, gone 20 feet farthe
before exploding it would probably
have killed or wounded the admiral
Capt. Evans. Lieut. Sfaunton, Lieut.
Scheutze, and one or two nther officer
. who were watching tho firing from th
J coming tower bridge and were direetl
in the path of the proisctiln. 1t wa
fired after the Iowa had turned ava,
from the batteries and had temporsril
stopped firing, and was probably aimet
/ III the Indiana, which was at this tim
! between US and the forts.
5 under fire was admirable. They laugho
: and ioked about the poor Spanish gun
3 merry es the shells and fragments droppe
q around the ship or whizzed over it clos
TO their heads, But, better than this
they performed their duties with til
q utmost precision and total lack of sS
j citement or nervousness One of tn
greatest difficulties with them was I
8 make them keep under and avnid Ut
t necessary expnsure. The first thing til
d man did after the shell hurst on boar
a was, after helping the wounded hsluv
J. to search for fragments of the prl
l. iectiles as souvenirs. Not being RctiveI
9 engaged at this time and the secondar
d battery not being used after the fri
% circuit on account OF their smoke inte
:. fering with the aiming Of the more 10
y purtant pieces, many men were mere
d spectators and even those 10 the turre
b climbed out on the turret tops an
If watched the firing when We were O
| the firing line.