The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-21
A Jack Tar Describes the Battle
at CardenaS.
SCENES ON THE WINSLOW
KISSING SHELLS CAME THICK
AND FAST.
It Was Miracle That Any of the
Crew Escaped-William O'Hearn
Relates His Experience and De-
scribes the Engagement-Bloody
Scene On Deck.


righted, 1898, by the Associated Press.)
For an hour before the passenger
steamer Key West left her dock for
Tampa a man wearing the uniform of
a naval seaman sat YEARLY against a
great bale of cordage, looking out past
the harbor and the distant keys toward
the gulf. He was William OHearn of
Brooklyn, and one of the survivors of
the torpedo boat Winslow's crew, which
passed through the terrible storm of
shot and shell that poured into her
from the Spanish boats in the bay OF
Cardenas. He was going home on
furlough for rest. Beside him, in
I bright tin cage. was the ''Winslow's
/ parrot" which made himself famous on
the day of the battle by shrieking and
chattering like a demon during the
| whole engagement.
By degrees and after much question
/ ing, O'Hearn told the whole story of
the battle, and no doubt his account of
/ the engagement is the most correct in
detail of any given yet.
From the very beginning" he said
Il think every man on the boat be-
! Iieved that we could not escape being
! sunk. and that is what would have
/ happened had it not been for the BRAY
! cry of the boys on the Hudson, who
worked for over an hour under the most
terrific fire to get US out of range"
Were you ordered to go in there2'
he was asked.
Yes. just before we were fired upon
the order was given from the Whining
I tom"
WAS it a signal order?"
mo: we were near enough TO the Will
mington so that they shouted it TO US
from the deck through the mega
phone"
DO you remember the words of the
command and who gave them?"
I don't know who shouted the or
der. but the words, as 1 remember
them. were: Mr.. Bagley. go in there
and see what gunbOats those are We
started al once TO make the Cardenas |
dock and the firing began afterward-"
What was the first you saw of the
firing?''
"A SHRIEKING HE'LL"
THE first 1 saw was a shot fired from /
a window or door of the second story /
of the storehouse just back of the dock 1
where the Spanish gunbOats were ly- /
ing. 1 saw the flash and the smoke, /
and the same instant a shell went hiss
ing over our heads. Then the firing be-
gan from the gunboats and from the
shore.
I don't think any man can forget the
sound and the effect of shell and heavy
SHOl lDG IlISl liillC llc - uAAut4 III II
is something terrible. When a shell
passes close by you, you feel ii, some
thing like the effect Of lightning when
it strikes nearby. You feel as though
it had taken your head off. First. you
hear that awful bUzzing or whiZzing-it
is hard to describe, and then something
seems to strike you in the face and
head. l noticed that day when the
shells first began to fly about the boat
that the boys threw their hands TO
their heads every time shell went
over. But they soon came so fast and
so close that it was a roaring. Shrek
ing, crashing hell. I can describe it no
other way
Where was your pOsition?"
81 am the water tender" he said,
land my place was below, but every
body went on deck when the battle
began John VarvareS, the ofler; John
Donief and John Meek, the hremen,
were both on watch with me, and had
they remained below they would prob
ably not have been killed After the
firing began l went below again to at
tend to the boilers and a few minutes I
later a solid shot came crashing
through the side of the boat and into
the boiler, where it exploded and de-
stroyed seventy of the boiler tubes. At :
first it stunned me. When the shell !
burst in the boiler it threw both the /
shell struck my feet. Pieces of the
shell came out of the door and 1 am '
taking them home with me as souve- {
Mrs of the war. 1t was a terrible crash h
and report altogether, and the boiler s
room was filed with dust and steam. a
For several seconds I was partially I
stunned and my ears rang so l could e
near nothing. I went upon the deck to
-eport to Captain Bernadou. /;
CAPTAIN JUMPED ABOUT. r
What did you say to him?p V
81 saw him near the fcrecastle jump
ng about with a towel bound about
lis left leg. He was shouting and the
noise of all the guns was like continu- i:
JUS thunder. L
Captain. 1 shouted. the forward +
,oiler is disabled. = shell has gone .
through her" =
Get out the hose he said. and q
urned to the gun again. l went back -
nto the boiler room, and in a few
minutes 1 went up on the deck again :.
nd the fighting had grown hotter than G
yer. Several Of the men were miss :
ng and I looked around. Lying ali in T
heap on the after deck on the star .
oard quarter near the after coming (;
over. I saw five of our force had :
fitted down after the shell had struck T.
hem. In other places lay men Sroan-
ne or Dragging themselves dDOul COW
red with blood. The deck had blood on
| and was strewn with fragments and s:
plinters. 1 went over whsre the five
hen were lying in a heap and saw
hat they were not all dead. John o.
Ieek could speak and move on his OF
an6s slightly. 1 went up 10 him and C,
put my face down close 10 his. Can 1 cl
o anything for you, John?' l asked. al
nd ne replied. No. Jack. I'm dying; S.
God bye. and he asked me 20 grasp
is hand. Go help there he whis-
cred. gazing with fixed eyes where
aDtain BernadOu was still firing the
1rward gun. The next minute he was b
cad. He was my friend, dead Sc
here was a pause in O'Hearn's story.
Ensign Bagley," he continued, after bJ
little, was lying at the bottom. tn