The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-06-06

lar but equally desperate plan OF quietly
stalking the forts alone and in darkness.
Black cloud banks to the westward
had hidden the moon for two hours be-
fore Its setting. depriving Hobson OF
his own wish for just bit, OF light to
guide him In under the Spanish guns.
Fate could scarcely have been harder.
! AT 3 the moon showed for q few min
utes, blood red, In hands breadth
opening of the clouds just on the tori-
zon. and then 1t was extinguIshed in the
sea. 5s 80
TOO late" said every one. "He will
never.have time to run in by that"
Almost at the same moment dawn
broke in the east as quietly as night had
fallen the previous evening. To the
eastward. just where the Merrimac lay
last night, looned up the black shadow
of vessel.
"He has missed his chance was the
remark.
There the collier hay. spread in the
southern brillIancy.
Suddenly dazzling flash, like a hello
sraph ray. leaped from the battlements.
followed by a slow spreading cloud of
white smoke There was no report but
fnr up the coast a white jet OF spray
leaped from the sea. The battleships
were waking up. &c.
Glasses were trained where the Merrl-
mac had been. She was gone. The
Vixen had been mistaken for her in the
uncertain morning light. Glasses swept
the horizon searching for the Merrimac
She was nowhere visible. Bright flashes
and billowins smoke r'se from point to
point where the harbor batteries were
located. The Sponiards were awake,
sure enough. and huzZ!nS like an upset
hive.
What they were Shooting Mt.
"Hohson has run in on them and fool
cd us all,"" was said, but" It was added,
what ere the idiots shooting at?"
The spraying shells rose everywhere,
beyond the Brooklyn and inside the
Texas, but the fire was seemingly con-
ccbtrated westward. chose to the shore.
There tiny thread of smoke dis,
closed their target, the New York's
launch. which Ensign Powell had gall.
lantly held close under Morro's walls
until after daylight, when, driven out by
the fire of the big guns he had run far.
up the shore, under the partial cover OF
the bluffs and had turned and eventual
~ ltNhS wi vi ltlI6t. 4lleu
he passed to the New York.
Lying closer In than the warships,
Powell had seen the firing before day
light, when the Mcrr!mac and her dare.
devil crew, then well inside MORO Cas-
tie, were probably first discovered by
the Spaniards.
He also heard an explosion which may
have been caused BY Hobson's torpe-
dy,Ia<, 1,a np nm a n
waited, vainly hoping 10 rescue the
heroes OF the Merrimac, until he WIS
shelled out by the forts. rs
The fleet. seeing the launch return,
crowded close In shore to learn the news
and, learning II. went In closer still, hop-
ing to draw the Spanish fire. but the
forts remained silent. "
Yesterday afternoon while the Merrl-
mac lay stripped to the bun" for her
las. desperate run, she was inspected
by the Associated Press correspondent,
With matches of, gaping cargo ports
swung bnck and everything valuable
removed cave her engines and 1900 tons
OF coal, that scarcely seemed to count In
her cavernous hold, She was not 0p in
wiling spectacle. 4 qEt
The seven men who were to risk their
lives In her were rs cheerful rs school
boys ON n frolic. despite twcnty-four
hours slccplessncss and hard wurk.
Grttrr.of-fsGt ilcroisin.
Words cannot paint The cool. matter
of-fact heroIsm OF these enlisted men, SO
calmly confident of e,lcees of their au-
dac!Nus undertaking, so implicitly trust
4 ful in their young lieutenant who was
to lead them. so oblivlous to everything
except that tlicy were going In, They.