El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-11-14
A SANTIAGO NAVAL HERO.
iContinued from I'd page.]

out in good order we commenced to
pump it into them. That WAS one of
the quickest fights that the world has
ever seen, and one Of the most COM
plete victories.
when they started to the east all
four of US, the Oregon, the Texas, the
Iowa, and the Brooklyn, followed, and
we finished them one by one. The
Colon showed from the start that she
was the best boat of the whole lot and
it was for her that we worked the
hardest When we sank the small
torpedo boats we were firing also at
the Vizcaya and we were the ones that
finished her, for the shot which did
the work was from the for'ard twelve
inch. When she went ashore we
slowed up, but the chase was too good
to lose and when the order came to
take it up again we were shouting.
The officer on the bridge told us that
we were nine miles behind the Colon,
and it was on this run that the Texas
far excelled herself in speed. When
she was on her trial trip her engines
drove her above the contract speed of
seventeen knots, and in doing this she
made 124 revolutions of the sore VS. per
minute: on this run she made 142 re-
vOlutiOns which WAS an increase of Is
revolutions.
SIT is hard to tell how fast we were
running as there was no log taken, but
from the calculations of the work of
the prOpellers we were making over IL
knots. The Colon people said that she
was twenty-five knOtter, but she fell
way below that for when she ran
ashore, we were firing at her with q
range of about four thousand yards, q
little less than two and half miles.
It was right here that the Spaniards
showed their poor gunnery, for their
guns were set for range OF 5000 yards
and this they never changed, and when
we ran in on them they were still
throwing shells clear over US out into
the sea for over two miles;
"The Spaniards ran the boat ashore
and then the crews began to cheer; it
was here that Capt. Philip called to
soon as the colors were down we sent
boats to the ship for the crew, and If
proper steps had been taken right then |
the Colon would have been in running
order in about three hours work, but |
they let her alone until it was too late. |
When she began to settle they
sent two hundred of US aboard of her |
to man the pumps, but we could do
with her ON account of the |
large hole in her port quarter where |
the New York rammed her when she |
came up after the fight was over The |
reason that she rammed the Colon was |
because she was settling in deep water |
and by so doing she showed her up on |
the bank where the water was shallow. |
She made q whole in her about twenty |
feet long, and this will have to be the |
first work done on her by Hobsoh. He |
will have to patch that hole.
When we fret got to the side of the |
Colon we saw why they had given up
the fight. The whole crew, officers and |
all, were panic stricken. There were |
not three sober men in the ship. Some |
we're so drunk in the hold of the ship |
that we had to hoist them out and put |
hem in the boats, because the ship |
was sinking slowly and every mothe r's |
son of them would have been drowned. |
1--WE didn't any of US think that |
Schley did so much in the fight, for it |
was captains fight from start to fin
ish and there was only one signal given |
to the fleet and that was at the begin
ming. Every man fought his boat for
what she was worth. During this fight |
there was over 65 900 rounds of ammu-
n tion thrown at the Dons.
''The old Maria Teresa was not worth |
the money that they have spent on |
her, and now that she has sunk don't |
know whether they will raise her ae ain |
Or not. She isn't much good anyway. |
The Colon is a good boatand I'hope that |
they will let Hobson get her; she will |
not be near ss much trouble to get up |
as the Teresa was, The reason there |
Is so much hitch about getting the Co
lon is that there is good deal of |
difference of opinion between Hobson |
aEd the other engineers of the navy de-
partment. She rests on a ledge and |
the stern of her hangs over in about |
sixty fathoms of water. The engineers |
all say that when he removes the guns |
she will slide off the ledge before he |
can float her, but he feels confident |
that she will not. He will try it any
way"