Evening journal., 1898-07-02
ON BOARD THE YANKEE.
Wilmington Boys Account OF
Life on the Scout Ship.
HAD A HOT ENGAGEMENT ALONE
WHICH THE PAPERS DID NOT
REPORT-A CAPTURE OFF ST.
FRANCIS POINT-ANXIOUS TO
GET BACK TO SANTIAGO.

Samuel Traynor, of Seventh and II
West streets, this city, has received a
letter from James 1logue, a Wilmington
boy, who is sailor on the auxiliary
cruiser the Yankee. 1t is as follows: 3
key West, Florida, Monday, June
II, 1S9S.-Dear Chum sam: Yours OF
the goth received, and was glad to
hear from you. You spoke OF me tell c
ing you the news. Well, my boy, on v
man-of-war everybody is anxious to i
see the papers, more so even than you e
land-lubbers. We have not received a I
bit Of mail since we sailed from New
York until to-day, and then when We
get here we find all the Yankee mail !
up to four days ago had been forward I
ed to the fleet, thinking we were still
there. While we were coming around
from Santiago we were looking for
Spanish merchantmen, and some
small gunboats that had been reported
to the fleet, so, as usual, we had the
good luck to be sent all through. AS
a second reason we needed coal, only
being able to get some 200 tons from
a collier at Guantanamo during the en-
gagement. We had some pretty hard
times landing troops.
'Since last wrote we had hot en-
lgagement alone of the harbor OF Cien- |
fuegos, which the papers did not seem
to know Of. The fort there is well up
in modern guns. Although we put a
six-inch she'll right into the gunboat
and crippled her so badly she had 10
have a tug come out and tow her in, we
also had a narrow escape. An eight
inch shell landed right beside our after
gunport, and, by a miracle, nobody
but one man was injured. A small
piece hit him in the shoulder, fractur-
ing it badly, but a few days later We
had him safe on the good ship Solace,
+ which had all the wounded from Gau
= tanamo. While on the way along the
> Cuban coast from Cienfuegos we run
d up against a small gunboat off Trini-
d dad. We peppered at her for a long
= while, but the distance was so great
d and the bay OF Trinidad so shallow we
could not touch her. Then, not being
satisfied we lay there and waited all
night for her, but she would not come
le out, and the morning what made us SO
l. mad was, she fired the last shot. We
ic reported to the admiral, and he sent us
of back here to coal and get ammunition
W and clothes for the Cubans. On our
I'd way around we steamed back into
Trinidad, and with the Dixie, our sis
ter ship, tried to do business with ouI
a. friend, the gunboat, but she kept II
az the bay, and as both our ships drew
H. too much water we abandoned the idea
~ and steamed away for here, while tn
III Dixie lay there on the lookout
~ saturday, at noon, we ran into sev
% eral fishing schooners of point calle'
st. Francis. WE no sooner hove il
sight than one little skiff run up
at great big Spanish flag. We'll, coupl
w. of rounds Of "cordie" from our six
NJ Founders brought her to standstill, an
- then the whole business had their sail
down in a jiffy. Our commander, M
Bronson. didn't like to fool with sue
ID. small boats. They were forty and SIT
IN, feet boats, but ne had orders to loo
tv out for these craft all around the "Isl
lch of Pines as they have been runnin
Hs around the coast to Barbados and sen'
op- ing fish from there by rail to Havan
So we made up an expedition Of voluI
teers. and with the rapid-fre guI
mounted on the whaleboats, we hov'
emit some two miles over the shoals an
big captured five OF the biggest sloops. III
ent small ones we fired. We also captur'
two Spaniards. The officers in char
Of the boats picked their men and p
a crew on each, hoisted sails and Z
JIM five schooners sailed over TO I
ell Yankee, a regular Spanish fleet. VIII
'1eu the men came, / mean the prisone
leld we all felt in our hearts sorry
AeE them. and instead of laughs, they pa
ed up past the boys in silence. tn
pleaded with our captain to let th'
n keep their boat, but he couldn't
an cause they are working against
u,, cause, as they had wells in all tn
! =, boats filed with sea- turtles, red sn'
ond pers, pompano, etc, which our G
tain said would have been in Have
in three days.
Of eve saw some Cubans along
ON coast standing under a white flag
days we were coming to port right be
Cienfuegos, and after sending a b
ashore we had the honor of bring
.,on ON board three officers Of the ins
eases gents, who proved to be genten
;tant One of them was governor OF the pl
ince Of Matanzas, while another VIZ
Iea1 graduate Of the University Of Penn
! 100 vania at Philadelphia. Several OF
akers reserves speak Spanish, and while
tha hridoa talking 10 the caD.ain