Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-01

Naval officers at the Brooklyn navy
yard, from Admiral Bunce and his SEN
ior aid, Captain Gilmore, down, were
puzzled recently to find some good rea-
son to explain why Cervera's four pow
erful warships did not make a better
showing than they did the other Sun
day morning in their efforts to get away
from Admiral SIMPSONS fleet. One
officer high in authority said:
"It is beyond us to know why Ger
vera's ships did not make a stand up
fight. When we first talked the thing
over, we were inclined to believe that
the Spaniards were towards and did not
dare fight our ships. But when we re-
flected that they had come out of the
harbor in broad daylight instead of at
night, which would have been the best
time for running away, we had to
change theory"
"Don't you think that the sunken
Merrimac offered too much obstruction
to the Spanish fleet to get out of the
harbor safely at night?" was asked.
"No. I think, from what we learned
afterward about the sinking of the Mer-
rimac, that the Spaniards had her buoy
ed so that if they had tried to leave the
harbor at night they could have done so
with comparative safety. We therefore
must take it for granted that when they
left the harbor they intended to give US
a good fight before they had to surren-
der. But evidently they changed their
minds. What firing they did toward
our ships seems to have been done with
out accuracy Of aim, and indeed with
out any other purpose in view except to
make a noise"
perhaps the Spaniards ran out of
ammunition" was suggested. "That
could not be-" said the officer, "for
they had enough left to blow up their
own ships. The same amount we'll d.
rected could have blown up all of our
ships" "What deductions do our naval
officers draw from the experience of
Cervera's feet?:' "The only two things
which we can be positive Of are that
there is a great lack of discipline in the
Spanish navy and woeful ignorance of
the use Of modern warship machinery.
Tt is certain that had four United States
warships and two torpedo boat destroy
ers gone out Of a harbor to attack the
warships Of Spain or any other nation
we would have made some trouble.
With the exhibitions of nerve and cour
age which have recently been displayed
by our men it is safe to say that not
one American warship would have been
beached. Firing from u guns would
have been kept up as long as there was
a gun in working order and ammuni-
tion enough to load it. IT it came down
that far, then there would be time
enough for the men still alive to scuttle
the ship and prevent it from falling
into the hands Of the enemy in service.
able condition. In the meantime our
marksmen would have sunk many of
the enemy's ships.
"We would never have run away. In
running away and sinking his W
ships Cervera not only saved us the
trouble Of destroying his ships, but he
lost all abundant opportunity to sink
some of ours. We had more ships than
he had, and to that extent we presented
a greater target. The more ships of ours
in front of the harbor the greater chance
Cervera would have had of i~nficting
damage on us. You would not have
caught Dewey, Sampson, Watson or
Schley running away merely because
there were a few more Of the enemy's
ships in sight. But in this case the dis
patches do not show that we had any
more ships at the scene of battle than
the Spaniards had. The superior num-
bers Of our feet therefore did not Of
itself cause Cervera's fight, although
the fear that all our ships might attack
him at once might have tended to
brighten his men,"
What do you think had the most
effect in making the Spanish ships run
away" "The constant and damaging
fire Of the American gunners. There is
where our target practice comes into
play. For years the United States has
been devoting more attention to tar
get practice on shipboard than any other
nation. Many Of the nations, and espe.
cially Spain, thought it was sufficient
to buy the latest guns with up to date
appliances. They did not think that it
was very necessary that the men should
be constantly trained in handling those
modern appliances. But we believed
that it vas just as useless to have big
guns without knowing how to use them
thoroughly as it would be to have a
typewriting machine without knowing
how to manipulate the keys.
Napoleon used to say that it took
three months to make a soldier, but six
years to make q sailor. If that was true
in Napoleon's time, when sailing ships
were in general use. how much more
true is the comparison today, when such
complicated machinery is used in war.
shipsl The men should thoroughly I'M
derstand how to manipulate every part
Of the machinery which they are requir.
ed to handle in a battle"
do you ascribe the infinitesimal loss
Of our navy al compared with that Of
our army to the sailor superior skill irI
handling his weapons?'' "No. Wherea}S
we all feel proud Of the marvellous sucE
cess Of the two naval engagements, on{
at Manila and the other at Santiago
with about the same disastrous resulE
to the Spaniards, we feel that we have
no right to make any comparison with
the army, which is fighting on foreign
soil, When ships get out in the ocean,