The San Francisco call., 1898-07-09
Captain of the Iowa De- SCribes the Santiago
 Battle.
Tried to Ram the Enemy's Ships With His Own, but They
 Were Too Fleet.
Copyrighted. 1898. by the Associated Press


 just 20 minutes after the first shot was fired
 Fifty minutes after the first shot was fired the Vizcaya put her helm to port with a great burst of flame from the after part of the ship and headed slowly for the rocks at Aserradero. where she found her last resting place.
 ''As it was apparent that I could not possibly catch the Cristobal Colon, and that the Oregon and Brooklyn undoubt- edly would, and as the fast New York was also on her trail, I decided the calls of humanity should be heard and attention be given to the 1900 or 1500 Spanish officers and men who had struck their colors to the American squadron, commanded by Admiral Sampson. l therefore headed for the wreck of the ViZcaya, now burning furiously fore and aft When I was in as far as the depth of water would ad- init I lowered all my boats and sent them at once to the assistance of the men who were being drowned by doz- ems or roasted on the decks. I soon dis covered that the insurgent Cubans from the shore were shooting on men who were struggling in the water, after hav- ing surrendered to us. 1 immediately put a stop to this but could not put a stop to the mutilation of many bodies by the sharks inside the reef.
 These creatures had become excited by the blood from the wounded mixing in the water. My boats crews worked manfully and succeeded in saving many of the wounded from the burning shin Ono uh will ha d- ed for promotion clambered up the side of the Vizcaya and saved three men from burning to death.
 '"The smaller magazines of the Viz caya were exploding with magnificent cloud effects. The boats were coming alongside in a steady string, and will ing hands were helping the lacerated Spanish officers and sailors on the Iowa's quarterback.
 "AlI the Spaniards were absolutely without clothe Some had their legs torn off by fragments of shells. Others were mutilated in every conceivable way.
 'The bottoms of the boats held two or three inches of blood. In many cases dead men were lying in the blood. Five poor chaps died on the way to the ship They were afterward buried with mili- tary honors from the Iowa. Some ex- amples of heroism, or more properly devotion to discipline and duty, could never be surpassed. One man on the lost Vizcaya had his left arm almost shot off just below the shoulders.
 "The fragments were hanging by small piece of skin. But he climbed un- assisted over the side and saluted as if on a visit of ceremony. Immediately after him oC.Ile a strong-hearted sailor, whose left leg had been shot off above the knee. He was hoisted on board the Iowa with tackle, but never a whim- per came from him.
 Gradually the mangled bodies and naked we'll men accumulated until 1t would have been almost difficult to rec ognize the Iowa as United States bat tle-ship. Blood was all over her usu- ally white quarterback, and PIP naked men were being supplied with water and food. Finally came the boats with Captain Eulate, commander of the Viz caya, for whom a chair was lowered over the side, as he was evidently wounded.
 "The captains guard of marines were drawn up on the quarterback to salute him, and I stood waiting to welcome him. As the chair was placed on the deck. the marines presented arms. Cap tain Eulate slowly raised himself from the chair, saluted me with grave dig nity. unbuckled his sword belt and holding the hilt of the sword before him, kissed it reverently with tears in his eyes and then surrendered 1t to me.
 of course, I declined to receive his sword: and, as the crew Of the Iowa saw this they cheered like wild men,
 "As I knew the crews of the first two ships wrecked had not been visited by any of our vessels I ran down to them I found the Gloucester with Admiral Cervera and a nu 1T oh his officers aboard and also a large number of wounded, some in a frightfully mangled condition. Many prisoners had been killed on shore by the fire of the Gu bans
 "The Harvard came off and I re- quested Captain Cotton to go in and take off the crews of the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Almirante Oquendo, and by midnight the Harvard had 974 prisoners aboard, a great number of them wounded.
 For courage and dash there Is no parallel in history to this action of the Spanish admiral. He came, as he knew, to absolute destruction. There was one single hope-that was that the Cristobal Colon would steam faster than the Brooklyn. The S. ctacle of two torpedo boat destroyers-paper shells at best-steaming out in broad daylight in the face O. the fire of a battleship can be described in one way: It was Spanish and it was ordered by Blanco. The same must be said of the entire movement.
 T took Admiral Cervera aboard from the Gloucester, which had rescued him from the dead, and received him with a full admiral's guard The crew of the Iowa crowded close to the turrets, half naked and black with powder. as Cervera stepped over the side. bare headed. Over his undershirt he wore a thin suit of flannel borrowed from Lieutenant Commander Wainwright of