The Advocate and news., 1898-05-11


The insurgent leaders, however, refused
ID disembark under any consideration,
and the American ships cOasted in search
of the Spanish ships, but failed to find
them. Commodore Dewey arrived at
sud- bay, about thirty miles north Of
Manila bay on Saturday, April 30, and
sent the Baltimore and Concord to re-
cOnnOiteT the enemy. They found no
Spanish ships at the entrance Of the bay
and so the Commodore decided to risk
the mines and proceed that same night
after dark into the bay of Manila, which
he did.
The order Of battle taken up by the
Spaniards was with all the small craft
inside the stone and timber breakwaters
Of Cavite harbor. The larger ships of
Spain crulsed off Cavite and Manila. The
American feet entered Manila bay on
Saturday night, with the greatest of ease
The Spaniards had not established a
patrol and there were no searchlights at
the entrance of the bay. In fact the
American ships would probably have
passed inside the bay without any chal-
lenge had it not been some sparks few
UP from the McCulloch stacks. There
upOn few shots were exchanged with
the batteries on Corrigedor islands, but
the feet did not slow down, and soon the
United States fleet took up position
near Cavite awaiting dawn in order to
commence hOstilities.
The early hours of the morning re-
vealed the opposing ships to each other,
and the Spanish flagship opened fire.
Her action was followed by some Of the
larger Spanish Warships and then the
Cavlte forts opened up and the smaller
Spanish vessels brought their guns into
play. The American squadron which had
been led into the bay through the chan
mel by the battleship Olympia did not
reply, though the shells Of the Spaniards
began to strike the water around them,
but moved majestically onward.
When nearing Baker bay sudden up
heaval of water a short distance ahead
of the Olympia showed that the Span
iards had exploded a mine or a torpedo.
This was followed by second and sim
liar explosion. They were both utterly
unsuccessful.
The American feet was then drawing
nearer and nearer to the Spaniards,
whose gunnery was very poor, the shots
from the Cavite batteries and from the
Spanish ships being equally badly aimed,
either falling short, or going wide of the
mark.
When the American fleet entered the
bay, coming through the southern chan
mel between CabaalO Frlle inletsy the fol-
lowing way was their order: The flag
ship Olympia, the Baltimore, the Ra-
leigh, the Concord, the Boston, the Pet
rel and the McCulloch, with the two
store ships, the Nanshan and the ZafarO
bringing up the rear. And in that order
they swept grandly before the city and
faced the enemy in column line, though
the Spaniards had opened fire at 5000
yards the Americans reserved their fire
until within 1000 yards Of the enemy
when the real battle began.
The Relna Christiana, Castillo, Don
Antonio de Ulloa, lsla de Cuba, Isla de
LuzOn and the MindanarO were in line
OF battle outside of Cavlte at that time
with four gunboats and the torpedo boats
inside the harbOr.
The American ships then passed back
ward and forward six times across the
front Of the Spaniards, pouring in upon
the latter perfect hail Of shot and she'll
Every American shot seemed to tell,
while almost every Spanish shot missed
the mark.
The flagship Reina Christina was rid
died with shot and shell, one Of her steam