The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-21
ON THE WINSLOW.
A Survivors, Account of the Fight
with Spaniards Mt Cardenas.


Downright, 1885, by the Associated Prese)
KEY WEST, Fla, May 2.-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 great bale of cordage, looking out
mast the harbor and the distant Keys
towards the gulf He was William OHearn,
of Brooklyn, and one of the survivors of
the torpedo boat Winsows crew, which
passed through the terrible storm OF shot
and shell that poured in from the Spanish
batteries in the Bay of Cardenas. He was
going home on a furlough for rest. Be
side him, in bright tin cage, was the
WinsloW's parrot, which made himself IA
nous on the day of the battle by shrieking
and chattering like a demon during the
whole engagement.
BY degrees, and after much questioning,
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
vet From the very beginning" he said,
II think every man on the boat believed
that we could not escape being sunk, and
that is what would have happened had it
not been for the bravery 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 there?" he
was asked.
Yes. just before we were fired on. the
order was given from the Wilmington"
Was it signal order?"
mo; we were near enough to the Will
mington so that they shouted it to us from
the deck through the megaphone."
do you remember the words of the COM
mand, and who gave them?'
II don't know who shouted the order, but
the words, as L remember them, were: Mr.,
Bagley go in there and see what gunboats
those are We started at once toward the
| Cardenas dock, and the firing began soon
after"
What was the first you saw OF the FIR
| ing?'
THE first thing l saw was a shot fired
! from a window or door in the second story
| of the storehouse, just back of the dock,
where the Spanish gunboats were lying.
saw the fash and the smoke, and the same
instant shell went kissing over our heads
Then the firing began from the gunboats
and from the shore. l don't think any man
can forget the sound and the effect of she'll
and heavy shot the first time he is under
fire. 1t is something terrible, When a shell
passes close by you you feel it, something
uho the effect OF IlSHIHlnS When IL strikes
near by. 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 us. that
the boys threw their hands to their heads
every time shell went over. But they soon
came SO fast and close that it was
roaring, shrieking. crashing hell. l can de-
scribe it no other way"
Where was your position?"
Il am the water TENDER he said land
my place was below; but everybody went
on deck when the battle began John
Varvaress, the oiler; John Donief and John
Meek, the firemen. were both on watch with
me. and had they remained below thew
would probably not have been killed After
the firing began 1 went below again TO ar
tend to the boilers, and a few minutes later
a solid shot came crashing through the side
of the boat and into the boiler, where If
exploded and destroyed seventy of the boiler
tubes. At first 1t stunned me. When the
shell burst In the boiler 1t threw both the
furnace doors open, and the fuse from the
shell struck my feet. Two pieces of the
shell also came out Of the door, and / am
taking them home with me az souvenirs OF