The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-08-05
A SPARTAN sAELOR.
WIN. Ohoice Writes Of the Yose mite's Flight
. at San Juan.
(Spartanburg Herald.)


st. Thomas, d. w. l., On Board the
Yosemite, July 10th, 1893.
Dear Toni received your kind
letter yesterday when the New Or
leans came to relieve us at San Juan,
Porto Rico, where we have been
since Juno 25th.
On the 23d of Juno we left Samp.
sons fleet to relieve the st. Paul,
which was blockading the port of
San Juan. So we had a big job on
our hands when she left us there
alone.
On the 28th of June the ''real fun"
commenced. 1t had been raining
during the night, as usual, and was
foggy the next morning SO we could
not sec far; but ut 4 o'clock in the
morning we sighted large Spanish
steamer close in to the shore heading
for the city. We Immediately made
for her at full speed. She made for
the fort, which was about 6 miles
distant, but we were getting the best
OF the race and she saw it and we
having commenced general fire on
her, that decided her. She turned
her bow towards land and ran her
nose on coral reef, where she be-
came complete wreck. ,
But that wasn't the best Of it, by
any means. Lying in the harbor
wore two Spanish gunboats and the
torpedo boat Terror When they
heard our cannonade they plucked
up courage enough to come out and
try us round, and as we were now
under the fire of the heavy guns Of
Castle Moro, it also opened on us.
Thus we had against us two gun
boats, torpedo boat, and the second
strongest fort in the West Indies,
and we whipped them. The Span
ish ships had headed straight for us,
everything firing as they came, while
those big shells from the fort were
singing an awful tune. They we're
going through our rigging and bit
ting all around us. The fire from
the ships WAS not so bad, we scarce
ly noticed their shells. We had a
great deal of man@nvering to- do out
where we were and couldn't get at
the ships like we wanted, but we
gave them the best that we had, and
one heavy fire, straight and true,
proved too much for them. They
couldn't stand it any longer and at
last scooted back faster than they
came.
The battle lasted about five hours
with most tremendous cannonading,
and as the whole ships crew had
been called before breakfast, we we're
pretty hungry by the time it was
over, RS we'll as tired.
Strange to say, not one Of us was
hurt. There is not a coward on
board the vessel; all want to volun-
teer for everything that turns mp.
The nearest thing relating to COW
ardice was the "lookout;" he was
stationed mp on the main mast, and
during the battle, when he would
hear the Spanish shells whistling
too close, he would get behind the
mast and peep out. Well, I guess
! almost any inexperienced person
would have done the same, although
getting behind the mast would do no
good up there. ...-
One day while blockading, we ran
across sail vessel. At the first shot
across her bow, everybody jumped
overheard and SWAN ashore. A crew
went aboard her and found half
starved kitten and a one-eyed dog.
They were brought aboard and the
schooner was scnttled. Tho dog was
killed, but tho cat is all right now
ST. Thomas is a beautiful place
like all tho West Indian towns that ]
have seen. 1t is built on the side ol
a range of mountains green with
tropical trees and the roofs Of the
houses arc all painted rcd and you
can sec all tho foreign consups flags
flying on the hillsides.
Truly your friend,
| 49,. William GuOIrP