The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-07-06

| ( LOOK OUT FOR INVITATIONS AND SUB
| z STiTUTEs. THE GENUINE BOTTLE
BEARS THE NAME,
( PERRY DAVIS g. SON. (
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Admiral Ce-vera's Fleet Completely
Annihilated
By the Combined Squadrons of Ad
miral Sampson and Schley.
The Spariards Made Gallant Dash
for Liberty Their Ships
We're Pounded Into Helpless Hulks
by the American Guns. The Span
ish Admiral Prisoner of War,
Together With 1000 or 1900 Of
His Brave Officers and Sailors.
The American Ships Practically
Untouched. The Enemy Put Up
Gallant and Heroic Fight, in the
Face OF Almost Certain Death.
Compiled from reports.
July 1, 4:45 q. m.-Admiral Ger
vera'5 fleet, consisting OF the armor-
ed cruisers Clistobal Gallon, Almi,
rante Oquendo, Infanta Maria Teresa
and Vlzcaya, and two torpedo boat
iestroyers, the Furor and the
Pluton, which had been held in the
harbor Of Santiago de Cuba for six
weeks past by the combined squad
ron of Real Admiral Sampson and
Commodore Schley, lies today at the
bottom of the Caribbean Sea, off the
southern coast of Cuba. The Span
ish Admiral is a prisoner of war on
the auxiliary gunboat Glouchester
formerly j. Pierpont Morgans
yacht Corsair) and 1000 to 1900
other Spanish officers and sailors,
all who escaped the frightful carnage
caused by the shells from the Ameri
can warships, are also held as pris-
oncrs of war by the United States
navy. The American victory is COM
plete, and, according to the best in
formation obtainable at this time,
the American vessels were practically
untouched, and only one man was
killed, though the ships were sub
jected to the heavy fire of the Span
iards all the time the battle lasted.
The Spaniards when they found
they would be permitted to live,
adapted themselves comfortably to
the situation, rolled their cigarettes
and began playing cards among
themselves.
Admiral Cervera made as gallant
a dash for liberty and for the preser-
vation of his ships this morning as
has ever occurred in the history of
naval warfare. In the face of over
whelming odds, with nothing before
him bnt inevitable destruction or
surrender if he remained any longer
in the trap in which the American
fleet held him, he made bold dash
from the harbor at the time the
Americans least expected him to do
SO, and fighting, every inch Of his
way, even when his ship was ablsze
and sinking, he tried to escape the
doom which was written on the muz
zle of every American gun tlaiaed
upon his vessels.
The Americans saw him the mo-
ment he left the harbor and com
menced their work of destruction
Immediately. For and hour or two
they followed the flying Spanisrds to
the westward along the shore line,
sending shot after shot into their
blazing hulls, tearing great holes in
their steel sides and covering their
decks with the blood of the killed
and wounded.
At no time did the Spaniards show
any indication that they intended to
do otherwise than fight to the last.
They showed no signals to surrender
even when their ships commenced to
sink, and the great clouds of smoke
pouring from their sides showed
they were on fire. But they turned
their vessels toward the shore, less
than a mile away and ran them on
the beach and rocks, where their
destruction was soon completed.
The officers and men on board then
escaped to the shore as we'll as they
could, with the assistance OF boats
sent from the American men of-war
and threw themselves upon the
mercy Of their captors, who not only
extended to them the gracious hand
of American chivalry, but sent them
guard to protects them from the
murderous bands of Cuban soldiers
hiding in the bush on the hillside,