The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-05

It is a peculiar fact that he should | have been in proper position to direct | the movement of his flying squadron against the Spanish squadron, which | he had bottled up in Santiago harbor six weeks before.
 As matter of fact, the entire Amer ican squadron was much further off | than usual when the Spaniards made their appearance this morning.
 | With the exception of the lombard ! ment yesterday which resulted In knocking down the flag on Morro Cas- l tie and the supposed silencing of the batteries which opened fire again this morning, as usual the navy had done | little recently to attract interest and the officers and crews themselves were watching the developmnts conducted l by the army It was believed that 1 Cervera would attempt to escape from l his perilous position at this late day, i but it was supposed that he would keep his ships in the harbor to shell the ad- vancing American army and that if Santiago fell he would blow up or sink his ships before permitting them to be captured by the squadron lying outside. The Spanish admlraps plans, however, | cepted the one chance open to him, | that of running the gauntlet of the | powerful memo war, lying in front of the harbor and saving his ships for | future service by dashing out of the | trap in which he found himself and | going to some other field of operations.
 There seemed to be but one chance in a hundred that he would be able to make the move successfully but he 1 took that chance, and while great giles of naval architecture, now ground to pieces on the rocks a few miles from where he started, tell the mournful | story of his failure, there are none who applaud his conduct more than the American officers and seamen who sent his ships to destruction.
 | It was about o'clock this morning when the flagship Infanta Maria Tere- | sa passed under the walls of Morro l Castle and steamed out to sea. She was followed by the Cristobal Colon Vizcaya and oouendo and last by the torpedo destroyers Fulton and Furor.
 The lookout on the American vessels, l which were five or ten miles off the entrance to the harbor, sighted them immediately. Most of the American cruisers were at the usual Sunday morning quarters without thought of anything surprising.
 There was great excitement at once and very rapid action all along the | American line. The signal for Full | speed ahead" was running from bridge U engine room of every ship and the entire fleet commenced to move inshore l toward the Spanish, and the great 12 and 13-inch guns of the battleships and the smaller batteries on the other ves- sels fired shot after shot at long lange.
 As the ships ran in towards the shore it soon became evident that the Span iardG had not come out to make an ag- gressive light, for they turned to the eastward as soon as they cleared lar- bor and started on their race for safe ty, at the same time sending answer ing shots at the American ships as fast as the men could load and fire the guns. The Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Texas, Oregon and Iowa were nearer the Spaniards than any others of the American vessels, but still most of them were too far away to get an effec- tive range They crowded on all steam, however in preparation for the chase, never stopping their fire for one mo- | ment.
 The Gloucester, a fast little yacht that cannot boast of any heavier bat tery than several six-pounders and three pounders, was lying off Agsad- ores, three miles east of Morro when the Spaniards came out. At first she joined in the attack upon large ves- sel and then held off, Captian Vain wright concluding to reserve his eff forts for the two torpedo boat destroy CTS in the rear. The Gloucester steam ed after them when they approached and chased them to @ point five miles west of Morro, pouring shot after shot into them all the time Her efforts bore abundant fruit for to her belongs the credit of destroying both destroy CTS. She fired 1,400 shells during the chase and it was not long before both destroyers were on fire and plainly dis abled. Notwithstanding this they both returned the Gloucester's fire and a shower of small shells fell all around the yacht. The Furor evidently deter mined that she would not stand the fire any longer and she put about and headed back for Santiago. Then the Gloucester simply smothered her with shots from her rapid fire guns and, running like the wind, forced her to turn around and again head westward.
 Smoke commenced to rise from the Furor's sides and she put in towards the shore. Before she had gone far what was left of her crew abandoned her and took to the boats, reaching the shore later By that time she was a mass of flames and was drifting about hopelessly.
 The Fulton was in the same dis tressed condition and was also headed for the shore, running up alongside of a low bluff, where she soon pounded tc pieces and finally broke in two com pletely. It was most dangerous landing place for her crew, and but about half of them reached the shore alive.
 The Gloucester did not go any fur ther west, but lay off shore and sent in a boat to the assistance of the crews of the destroyers. It did not take the flames long to reach the Furor's maga- zines and there were two terrific ex- plosions, probably of the gun cotton aboard of her, which blew holes in her bottom. Her stern sank immediately and as it settled in the water her bow