The San Francisco call., 1898-07-27

steadily there. This lighted up the entire breadth of the channel for half mile inside of the entrance so brilliantly that the movements of small boats could be detected Why the batteries never open ed fire upon the Searchlight ship was all ways matter of surprise to me, but they never did. Stationed close to the entrance of the port were three picket launches and at little distance farther out three small picket vessels-usually converted yachts-and when they were available one or two of our torpedo boats With this arrangement there was at least certainty that nothing could get out of the harbor undetected After the ar rival of the army, when the situation forced upon the Spanish admiral de- cisien, our vigilance increased. The night blto,ekasding distance was reduced to two miles for all vessels and battle-ship was placed alongside the searchlight ship with her broadsde trained upon the channel in readiness to fire the instant a Spanish ship should appear. The com- manding officers merit the greatest praise for the perfect manner in which they en- tered into this plan and put it into exc cution. The Massachusetts. when, ac- to coal at Guantanamo, like the others, had spent weary nights upon this work, and deserved a better fate than to be ab- sent that morning.
 l inclose for the information of the de- partment copies of orders and memor- anda issued from time to time relat- ing to the manner of maintaining the blockade.
 When all the work was done so well 1t is difficult to discriminate in praise The object of the blockade of Cervera's squadron was fully accom- plished and each individual bore well his part in 1.-the commodore in command of the second division; the captains of ships, their officers and men. The fire of the battleships was powerful and destructive and the resistance of the Spanish squad t,,oIz aI,. before they had got beyond the range of their own forts. The fine speed of the Oregon enabled her to take a front posi- tion in the chase and the Cristobal Colon thrown a thirteen-inch shell beyond her. This performance adds to the already brilliant record of this fine battleship and speaks highly of the skill and care with which her admirable efficiency has been maintained during a service unprece- dented in the history of vessels of her ing position gave her an advantage in the chase which she maintained to the end, and she employed her fine battery with telling effect. The Texas and the during the last hour, and had any acci- dent befallen the Brooklyn or the Oregon would have speedily overhauled the Cris- tolbal Colon. From the moment the Span ish vessel exhausted her first burst of speed, the result was never in doubt. She fell, in fact, far below what might req SonaDly nave been expected of her. Care ful measurements of time and distance give her an average speed, from the time she cleared the harbor mouth until the time she was run on shore at Rio Tar quino, of 13.7 knots. Neither the New York nor the Brooklyn stopped to cou- pie up their forward engines, but ran out the chase with one pair getting steam, of course, as rapidly as possible on all boilers. To stop to couple up the forward engines would have meant a de- lay of fifteen minutes, or four miles, in the chase.
 Several of the ships were struck. the Brooklyn more often than the others but very slight material injury was done, the greatest being aboard the Iowa Our loss was one man killed and one wounded. both on the Brooklyn. It is difncult to explain this immunity from loss of life or injury to ships in a combat with mod ern vessels of the best type, but Spanish gunnery is poor at the best, and the su- perior. weight and accuracy of our fire speedily drove the men from their guns and silenced their fire. This Is borne out by the statements of prisoners and by observation. The Spanish vessels. as they dashed out of the harbor, were fa- vored with the smoke from their own guns, but this speedily diminished in vol ume and soon almost disappeared. The fire from the rapid-f1re batteries of the battle-ships appears to have been remark