The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-06
A MODERN SEA FIGHT.
(continuer from Fourth Page.)


 and had taken off Grau's head as neat ly as if the decapitation had been by the guillotine. This shell also killed Lieutenant Ferre, the admiraPs aide. There was only time to push the corpses aside, and the new command ing officer pulled back the tube-flap to give his directions; but as he did so the Huascar staggered, keeled over, then shook in every plate, while a concus- sion more terrific than any so far told that shell had entered the turret and had burst there. When the fumes had cleared away so that a person could speak, midshipman called out that one of the great guns had been dis mounted, and twenty men killed. The survivors tumbled into the bodies through the hatch that opened into the deck below, thus releasing the clogged machinery; and as the corpses rattled down other men rushed up, throwing off their clothing as they jumped into the pools of blood to seize hold of the gear and swing the remain ing gun into position, that it might train upon one of the ships-they could no longer make out which, nor did they care-and it was discharged, hauled in, loaded and discharged again.
 Once more all was silent in the con- ming tower. Lieutenant Palacios has, tened there, but before he could enter he was compelled to push three bodies out of the way. He had barely given his first command when bullet from the well-aimed rifle of marine in an enemy's top lodged between his eyes. Then the fourth to command the Hu ascar that day, Lieutenant Pedro Garezon, took the place. and as he did so he called through an aperture, tell ing the quartermaster to put the helm to port; for he had determined to ram one of the adversaries, and sink with her if necessary. Over and over spun the wheel, but the Huascar's head still pointed between the Chilians.
 "Port! Port, I say!" screamed the | commander.
 l "She won't answer" came back the | sullen reply from the only one of the | four quartermasters alive; the bodies 1 of the others were lying upon the grat- | ing at his feet.
 | "A shot has carried away the star | board steering gear, sir" reported an ensign; and he dropped dead as the words left his mouth.
 | The Huascar now lay drifting in a hell of shot and flame, but all the while the red white and red f1uttered from the peak One by one, in two and in 7 threes, the men in the turret dropped I at their posts; and at last the remain ing great gun was silent, it's tackle lit l orally choked with dead The turret | could not be turned for the same req son. Corpses hung over the military 1 top; corpses clogged the conningtow- l CT.
 l With coats and waistcoats off, the | surgeons had been laboring in the ward | room upon the wounded, who, shriek- ing in their agony, had been tumbled down the companionway like so much | butchered beef for there was no time l to use stretchers or to carry a strick- | en comrade to doctors care. Steam and smoke filtered through the door | ways, and the apartment became sti- | fling. While they were saving, ampu- | tating and bandaging a shell tore into l the ward room, burst and fragments wounded the assistant surgeons, the chief of the medical staff having been | killed earlier in the conflict. Those unfortunates who were stretched upon the table awaiting their turn under the knife, and those who lay upon the floor, suffered no more pain; they were killed as they lay grooming. This shell tore away ward room and stern cabin, | t,,ooa Iaf+ Of Lo bulkhead. After that what little sur- gerry was done was performed in the eoal-bunkers.
 Huddled in a passageway near the engine-room were a score or more of non- mbatants-stewards pantrymen and stokers. They were in a place that was lighted only as flashes came from the guns; it was filled with powder smoke, and clouds of steam that drift ed from below told that the Huascar had been struck in a vital spot-her machinery. Suddenly they heard a crash, followed by the rending of the deck, and the little ironclad swayed as if she had struck a reef. Some one passed the word that the maintop- mast had been shot away. As it come down it brought living men to be dashed to death, also corpses that had been hanging over the sides of the mill itary top.
 There was a cry of 'Firep' and all hands rushed to stations-perhaps two men to a boats crew, one to a pump gang.
 "D- the fire!" shouted Lieuten- ant Garezon. "Repel boarders'' They were metamorphosed by this order from f1re-fghters into warriors again, and formed line of bleeding men, their clothing in rags, and ranged in company front, stokers el- lowing marines, pantrymen levelling rifles in union with midshipmen, await ed the coming of a, fleet of the enemy S boats which, crowded with marines were forcing their way through the water toward the wounded, staggering Huascar that lay like a log, motionless But fire ragged between decks, and flames flared up the after companion way; and when the boats had roweC around, like threshers attacking a whale that had been struck to the death. the few survivors were con- pelled to yield to the force of numbers and the Chilians swarmed the iron clads deck. As they mounted it the red, white and red, tattered and torn by bullets, still f1uttered it's rags at the