Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-06-10


entrance.
AT noon Commodore Schley trans
Eerred his flag from the cruiser Brook
lyn to the battleship Massachusetts,
whereat there was great rejoicing
among the officers and crew of the
latter, for the presence of the COM
mander of the squadron told them
they were to be in the thick of the
fight.
At noon Commodore Schley left
the Brooklyn, which was taking on
coal from the collier Merrimac at the
time, and went aboard the Massa-
chuetts.
The Suns despatch boat had just
arrived from Lingston, Jamaica,
with messages for the feet, and, after
speaking, the ships had steamed
within 400 yards of the entrance to
the harbor in order to get a close
look at the Spanish fleet and secure
accurate sketches of the Notifications
at the entrance. Whilo impudently
drifting within gun range The Suns
boat saw the CommOdOre's flag raised
to the military mast of the Massa-
chusetts, and heard the jingle bell
calling for full speed on the big bat
tleship. The Massachusetts, headed
straight for The Suns boat. The
New Orleans, Iowa, and the little
Vixen, a converted yacht, followed i'll
the order named a cables length
apart.
As demonstrations, which consisted
of parades within a few miles of the
batteries, had been made on Sunday
and Monday by the blocksding fleet,
those on the other ships thought
nothing of the movements of these
four vessels. The Brooklyn and
Texas lay two miles to seaward un-
concernedly coaling. The Harvard,
Marblehead, Castine, and Eagle were
even further away, the men on board
attending to their routine duties.
At the mouth of the tortuous har-
Dor the Cristobsl Colon could be
plainly distinguished, lying with her
port broadside toward the American
ships and flying an immense ensigne'
So close had the despatch boat
moved in that / could see through
my glasses that the Spaniard had her
awnings up fore and aft, and that her
crew were moving lazily about her
decks.
On the east of the harbor at the
Colon's stern rose the grim walls of
the Moro, with another large Span
ish flag above it. Behind the flag
ship, high above the water, was
formidable island battery directly in
the centre of the channel. Close to
this could be distinguished two other
armored cruisers, the Vizcaya and
the Almirante Oquendo, and close to
them two smaller vessels, apparently
the torpedo boat destroyers Pluton
and FurOr.
Six miles inland haze of smoke,
pierced here and there by white
spires, marked the city of Santiago.
The whole scene was bathed in bril-
liant sunshine. 1t had for n back
ground a range of high, palm-covered
mountains, crowned with a tangled
mass of snow-white cumulous clouds.
Commodore Schley had known
positively on Sunday, as has been
described, that Admiral Cervera'S
squadron was inside. Calamity had
the little Marblehead, daringly com
manded by McCalla, poked her nose
into the very mouths of the great
guns of the Spanish batteries and
made out clearly four big cruisers,
two torpedo-boat destroyers and the
old Reina Mercedes.
Commodore Schley had carefully
prepared maps of the land fortitica-
tions, but knew that several additional
masked batteries had but recently
been constructed close to the en-
trance of the harbor.
1t was to draw the fire of those
b ltteries before the arrival of Sam p
sons feet that the attack was planned.
When the Massachusetts,, plungin g
through the water at the rate of SIX
teen knots an hour, was within 2OO
yards of THE SUN's boat and four
Thousand yards of the entrance to the
harbor cloud of white smoke rose
above the bow of the flagship, and an
s-inch gun on her port side bslchsd
forth the challenge that opened the
fight.
Before the course of the shell could
be followed, before the surprised
Spaniards could reply, one of the
forward l3-inch guns of the Massa
chusetts Numbered, heavy shroud o