Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-08-03

Santiago, July 10.-"Captain
Cook, keep your men below the
protective Geek informed OF any
advantage we may gam" said
Commodore Schley, and speaking
loudly, to overcome the noise CT
the frightful guns, the gallant
captain of the Brooklyn said,
with a smile, 81 always do that,
sir. consider it necessary for
the esprit de corps" and stepping
into the coming tower, he called
down the tubes: Tell the men be-
low that the Maria Teresa is rum
ming ashore" At the same time
Executive Officer Mason rushes to
the firing turretS, and calls to the
men the same joyful news. 1t was
the Bird Of July, and the excite
ment of the first call to battle had
hardly subsidized on the big cruz
ser Brooklyn when the foregoing
incident occurred. Commodore
Schley stood upon a small tenn
pcrary bridge, running about the
coming tower, while Captain
Cock spent his time between the
interior of the tower, where he di-
rected the machinery, or the plat
form, where he could see the enc
my.
Fighting for the honor Of
America, three better prepared and
more heavily armored ships CT
Spain, this splendid type OF the
American navy was one mass Of
fame and smoke as she spit out
defiance, tinged with death, with
machine-like regularity, and yet
but one-thi-d of the crew could
see the enemy or any part CT the
fight. III the big turrets, half
naked men worked behind the
steel walls with no knowledge OF
how the battle went until they
were informed by Mr. Mason, and
below the protective deck fully
300 Or more men worked under
the glare of the eiCctric light,
keeping this great engine Of de-
struction mechanically and rapidly
at work. The big turret 8-inch
guns could not have done their
deadly shooting, even with the
trained eyes guiding them, had
not the men below sent up the am
munition and the Brooklyn could
not have kept side by side with
the other vessels had it not been
for the engineer and fire-room
force working below the deck like
fiends.
WORKING THE BIG GUNS.
The men in the turrets Of Ave-
inch steel could see as little as
the men below deck, except that
once in while they got glimpse
of the oject fired at. When the
ships of Spain were sighted COM
/ ing out On this eventful morn
hing the eight and five-inch guns
Eere all loaded, and in each tur-
let within two minutes after the
&lmmons, eleven men stood, half
Naked, awaiting the word to fire.
The chief of the turret, a lieuten-
ant is in his hood, his eye to the
telescope, gets the line of his gun
on tae harbor and awaits the sig
nal. A'Five thousand yards" sings
out an orderly in the turret open
ing land the gun goes up to the
proper elevation as the lieutenant
in the hood orders the elevating
gear turned. The number one
man at the guns connects the
Delectric wire to the primer with
the hoods hand firing apparatus,
and all is waiting. Commence
firing" comes the order, and
quickly the answer comes. The
turret lieutenant's hand closes on
the electric apparatus, and the
gun jumps back foot or more as
ITO pounds Of exploding powder
drives a 250-pound shell from the
muzzle of the great piece at a rate
of 1850 feet per second. Then be-
fore the rear has ceased the hand
of the man in charge of that tur-
ret touched the electric lever,
and the great 700 tons of steel
moved quickly and almost noise
lessly around, until the mother
gun of the twins was in the same
position as the first one had been.
Slowly the muzzle comes up to the
right elevation; once more the
nervous fingers close on the cleo
trio handle and another 2o0 pounds
OF steel shoots away on its death
errand. Then if you could have
looked in this particular turret
On that memorable and glorious
morning of July you would have
seen a picture OF activity that
would have amazed you. Hardly
had gun number one belched
forth its defiance to the group Of