The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-11
AGU|NALDO HAS A SCHEME OF HIS OWN
An for the Philippines With American
and European Advisers Ability
Establish Order and Maintain It.

attack on the American fleet by one or
both of the torpedo boat destroyers OF
the Spanish fleet had been frustrated by
the vigilance of the New Orleans, and
that the destroyers had been repulsed
and driven back into the harbor by the
hot fire poured into them by the New
Orleans, New York and Massachusetts,.
1t was this heavy firing which led to
the report that the Spanish destroyer
Terror had been surrounded and sunk
Friday night as she was trying to slip
into Santiago harbor.
The latter report is now known to
have had no foundation, and there is a
conflict Of opinion among the officers of
the fleet as to whether the New Orleans
had in reality met torpedo boat. When
the firing was begun on Friday night
II was dark and the object at which the
guns on our ships were directed seemed
to be moving close in shore. railroad
line connects Santiago with Cayo point.
a distance of Is miles. the site of iron
manufactures. The track runs along
the waters edge and the trains. which
carry supplies and probably war ma
terial. are only run at night and without
lights.
1t is possible that in the darkness a
fast train may have been mistaken, as
one was last week. for a torpedo boat.
But the discovery by the Porter of two
torpedoes on Saturday afternoon float
ing in the water two miles from shore
tended to strengthen the theory Of those
who insisted that a torpedo attack had
been attempted. The torpedoes were of
the Schwartzkopf patterns, which are
not used by our ships.
II they were discharged at one of our
vessels by the destroyers, the Spaniards
must have had a bad case of nervous
fright. as one had on only a practice
head, a blank cartridge.
This fact leads to the belief that the
torpedoes picked up by the Porter were
fired Friday morning at the Merrimac
when she was discovered entering the
neck of the harbor, probably by the
cruiser Reina Mercedes, which now lies
a wreck OF Cayo Smith, where the har-
Dor neck broadens. After being fired
they may have drifted out with the tide.
If this theory is confirmed, the mo-
mentary panic caused by the sudden ap-
pearance of our ships and the belief.
which probably prevailed, that the
whole American fleet was attempting
to force an entrance. might account for
a premature discharge of a torpedo--be
fore the warhead was affixed. With
deliberate preparation for torpedo
boat attack it would hardly be likely
for any of the warheads not to be ad-
justed.
Of course II IS possible tnere may nave
been torpedo boat attack on Friday
and that one of the reserve torpedoes
got adrift, or If one of the boats were
sunk the torpedo may have got loose
from its moorings as the boat went
down.
In our navy all torpedoes are set 70
sink when they have run their course.
The Spaniards may have reckoned on
keeping them af1oat in the hope that
one of our ships would stumble on it in
the dark and share the fate of the
Maine. The King Yuen. one of the Chi
nese ships at the battle of the Yalu, is
supposed by some naval experts to have
been sunk by floating torpedo dis
charged earlier in the action by one of
her sister ships.
A sharp lookout is maintained by the
blockading squadron in guarding
against night torpedo attacks. and 1T
has already led to firing by our ships up
on each other. on at least two occasions.
During the last week the battleship
and the Vixen and both the latter ves-
sells had narrow escapes. Only the
flash of their signal lights and. on the
occasion in question. the fortunate bad
aim of the gunners of the Texas, saved
them.
Several of the newspaper dispa tch
boats have also had rather stirring ex-
periences OF a similar character. 1t
should be said that on board the New
York and the New Orleans they are
quite confident a torpedo attack was re-
pulsed on Friday night.