The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-05-31

| iards were using smokeless powder. It
was the signal for the opening of a
deadly fire upon the men in the boat.
1t was promptly answered by the guns
on the ships out in the bay.
A hurricane of shells shrieked and
Kissed above the heads of the sailors in
the boats and tore to fragments the
earth where the SpaniardS were crouch
ing and hiding. Again and again the
guns roared from the ships. Again and
again the great clouds of dust and de-
other mighty crash from the Nashville
and the cable flew into the air toru in
to numberless fragments. Another crash
from the MarbIehead and the block
house was in ruins. Then this iron
storm from the sea swung around and
swept the hillside 1t shattered the
rocks and trees. 1t ploughed great fur
rows in the soft sand. 1t drove a
throng of panic-stricken men scurrying
to shelter. Then it lowered again the
rays of mighty searchlight and raked
and riddled the rife pits. What marks
manshipl
The terrible fire pouring in upon the
rifle pits passed only a few feet above
the sailors working in the boats. Who
but Yankee gunnerS could do that-who
would do it-and who but Yankee sail
ors would work on like heroes under
such blast furnace of destruction?
At the time a heavy sea was rolling
and the miscalculation of a fraction of
an inch or the fraction of a second
would have slaughtered the men in the
boats. But there came a moments
pause in the awful believing from the
ships and that moment was the fatal
one. Snap, snap, crash from a hundred
different points came the fire from the
Spanish rifles and eight brave men sank
down in the boats, two were dead and
six wounded.
But the Spaniards were too late. AL
ready one cable had been hauled I'D
and $50 feet cut out of it.
This was the cable that ran to Ba-
tabano and connected with Havana. 1t
was slow laborious work. The heavy
cables had to be hauled up across the
small boats and then by slow degrees
the tough steel wires were hacked off
with axes, chisels and saws.
After the volley had been fired by
the Spaniards the men transferred the
dead and wounded to another boat and
began looking for the other cable which
ran east to Santiago This was soon
shot and shell from the ships they
worked bravely on until a section of
eight feet had been taken from that
one. After this another smaller cable
cut, and Captain General Blanco's last
line of communication with the world
was apparently severed.
When our ships first opened fra on
the shore, it was the intention to allow
the light house to remain standing, but
when the Spaniards poured their fire in
upon the boats, the men on the Marble
head discovered that a large number of
shots had come from the light house.
The guns of the Marblehead were at
once trained upon the building. Cut
it down. shouted the commander from
the bridge and the Marblehead's guns
again Numbered.
The craftsmanship was marvellous.
First the small house about the base Of
the tower was literally torn to atoms
and then like an axeman cutting down
a tree, one of the great guns of the
ship with shot after shot, bit off the
great tower.
This was done at a range of one
thousand yards with a heavy sea roll
ing.
Then it was all over and the small
boats were towed back to the warships
with random shots from the shore fol-
lowing them.
1t was just o'clock in the morning
when the small boats were put off and
the perilOus work began and it was
l0:15 a. M, when the boats were again
hauled up with the dead and the living
heroes to the decks of the ships. For
nearly three hours these men worked
under the very shadow of death with
out flinching. 1t is said the men in our
navy are untried. That is true. But
this is how they conduct themselves
when the trial comes. They are vet
Grams without service.