The herald., 1898-08-07
AS POWELL SAW IT
THE YOUNG OFFICERS ACCOUNT
OF THE FIGHT
The Wreck of the Colon by Its Own
Crew-A Description of the New
York's Long Chase

Ensign Joseph Powell of Admiral Samp-
sons flagship New York has written to
friends in Oswego, his home town, an ac-
count of the destruction of Cervera's fleet.
Powell is the young man who took the
launch in under Morros guns TO rescue
Hobson when the latter sank the Mer-
rimac Powell says in his letter, under
date of July g.
Victory has "lit upon US" today all right.
Between this point, forty-five miles to the
westward of Santiago, and Santiago city
itself are four Spanish armored cruisers
and two torpedo boat destroyers, all on
the rocks and blown up. except the Cristo-
bal Colon. which is in good condition, but
sunk by her own officers after being run
ashore when four of our ships had sur
rounded her. What a days work! And
only one American killed and two wound
ed We have from one ship nearly 400
prisoners, and 200 from another; how many
were taken from the other two we do not
yet know. The majority of the Spanish
crews from three of the cruisers and the
two destroyers were killed.
And it was all so unexpected. One bat
tleship. the Massachusetts. went to Guam
tanamo early this morning so, of course,
was out of the fight altogether. We on the
New York were only on,ookers, I'm sorry
to say, though we probably received more
fire than any other one ship, thanks to our
friends. the forts. The day started with
breakfast at s. After breakfast had the
extreme pleasure of putting on a complete
outfit of clean clothes, and it was a luxury.
Just before quarters we started down to
Siboney, where the admiral and the cap
tain were to go ashore to General Skaters 8
headquarters. We went through quarters
as usual. but, although it was the first Sun
day in the month, we didn't have general
-
the men at the guns we were dismissed.
We We're about five miles from Moro, when
10! puff of smoke from the mouth of the
harbor and a dozen puffs from our ships
in the offng, and some one yelled
THE ships are coming out.''
had reached the quarter deck when this
news was called out, and after watching
the fire for a minute, I jumped below to get
my glasses and started forward to my sta
ton The men were running around
everywhere, singing and laughing, and
though the call to general quarters had not
been given, every one was at his station.
never saw such a crowd. They were
crazy to get at the "Dagoes." One man
shouted: We'll kill every damned one of
them! Where's my dirty clothes?"
And that was the universal cry-for
their clean Sunday clothes. and put on their
dirty habiliments. After seeing that
everything was all right at my gun went
below. took off my own flnery, put on my
fighting suit and was ready for business.
All this time the battleships were pouring
in shot after shot. while the four Spanish
cruisers, who turned away from us to the
westward and were steaming along the
coast, were quite enveoped In their smoke.
We could see shells splashing the water In
all directions, a sight it was worth going
to war to see. The two parallel lines of
vessels moved up the coast, but we moved
faster astern of them and gained some
what. The Spanish vessels soon turned
point and We lost sight of them. Then
there was more smoke at the mouth of the
harbor and we knew that more vessels
were coming out. and in a minute we saw
first one, then second. torpedo boat de-
stroyer appear and head up after the other
ships. They had nearly clear chance to
run. as all the vessels had passed to the
westward except one. the little Glouces-
ter, commanded by Lieutenant Command
er Wainwright. boat not as big as either
of the destroyers. a converted yacht, with
only six G-pounders on a slde-not as much
of a battery as that of either of the de-
stroyers.
But that didn't feaze Dick Wainwright.
He sailed in and gave those boats fits first
one and then the other and when we were
about off Moro and three miles to the
eastward Oh tne tnTee vessels a SnOt struck
something explosive on one of the destroy
ers, there was a puff of black smoke, fol-
lowed by cloud of white. and the vessel
turend and made for the shore. The Glou-
cester then turned her attention to the
other destroyer, which turned and started
back for Morro but we were there, and my
forward four-inch gun was ordered toOpen
fire on it. Seeger, the gun captain, hit
that fellow the first shot, nailed boiler,
and the boat never moved again. The gun
aft of ours also hit her, and then both guns
fired one more shot. Then they stopped
as she was done for. The Gloucester had
a boat in the water when we came by and
we did not stop at all, as both torpedo boats
were clearly done for. and the Gloucester
was quite able to pick up the remnant of
their crews and look out for the vessels
and we tore along down the coast Some
of our vessels were still visible around the
point and were hot at it. All the time we
were crossing the mouth of the harbor we
were having a serenade from the batteries
fired on us In any of our bombardments
sprang into life and played a merry tat
too. They used shrapnel, which burst
about US two or three times a minute
above us, on each sde of US, ahead of us
and behind us, but never touched us. They
are fine shots! Soon after we left the
Gloucester we passed out of range Of these
shore guns and were all buslly watching a
dense mass of smoke rising from behind the
point. Ten minutes later we could make