The age-herald., 1898-07-10
BOB EVANS
 TELLS THE STORY
 gal, Graphic Account of the Capture of the ViSCaya. MADE A SLAUGHTER HOUSE The Surrender of Admiral Cervera and How He Was Received By Fighting Bcb' Evans of the Bat
 teship Iowa.
MADE A SLAUGHTER HOUSE

'Captaln BOD ENanB, OI Ine DdllleSlup Iowa, in describing the fight with and de- struction of the Spanish fleet at Santiago, part of which was printed in yesterdays Age-Herald told of the destruction of the armored cruiser Vizcaya in this graphic manner:
 Fifty minutes after the first shot was fired the Vizcaya put her helm to port with a great burst of flame from the after part of the ship and headed slowly for the rocks at Accereadores, where she found her last resting place.
 ''As it was apparent that the Iowa could not possibly catch the Cristobal Colon, and that the Oregon and Brooklyn undoubtedly would, and as the fast New York was also on her trail, I decided that the calls of humanity should be answered and atten- ton given to the twelve or fifteen hun dred Spanish officers and men who had struck their colors. l therefore headed for the wreck of the Vizcaya, now burning fu- riousy fore and aft. When l was in as far as the depth of water would permit, l lowered all boats and sent them at once to the assistance of the unfortunate men, who were being drowned by dozens or roasted on the decks. l soon discovered that the insurgent Cubans from the shore were shooting at men who were struggling in the water after having surrendered 10 us. l immediately put stop to this, but l could not put stop to the mutilatiop of many bodies by the sharks inside the reef.
 "These creatures had become excited from the blood of the wounded mixing in the water. My boats crews worked man. fully and succeeded in saving many of the wounded from the burning ship. One man, l11 fffaVa clambered up the side of the Vizcaya and saved three men from burning to death. The smaller magazines of the Vizcaya were exploding with magnificent cloud eff feet The boats were coming alongside in a steady string, and willing hands were helping the lacerated Spanish officers and sailors onto the Iowa's quarter deck. All the Spanfards were absolutely without clothes Some had their legs torn off by fragments of shells Others were muti- lated in every conceivable way
 ''The bottoms of the boats held two or three inches of blood. In many cases dead men were lying in the blood. Five poor chaps died on the way to the ship. They were afterwards buried with military hon. ors from the Iowa. Some examples of heroism, or more properly devotion to dis cipline and to duty, could never be sur passed. One man on the Vizcaya had his arm almost shot off just below the shoul- der. The fragments were hanging by a small piece of skin. But he climbed Rn- assisted over the side and saluted as if on a visit of ceremony. Immediately after him came a strong, hearty sailor, whose left leg had been shot off above the knee. He was hoisted on board the Iowa by a tackle, but never whimper came from him. Gradually the mangled bodies and naked well men accumulated until it would have been most difficult to recognize the Iowa as a United States batteship Blood was all over the usually white quarter deck and 272 naked men were being supplied with water and food by those who few minutes before had been using rapid fire battery on them.
 "Finally came the boat with Captain Eulate, commander of the Vizcaya. A chair was lowered over the side, as he was evidently wounded. The captains squad of marines was drawn up on the quarterdeck to salute him, and stood waiting to well come him. The marines presented arms. Captain Eulate slowly raised himself in the chair, saluted me with native dignity, unbuckled his sword belt and, holding the hilt of the sword before him, kissed it rev. erently with tears in his eyes, and then surrendered it to me.
 "Of course, I declined to receive his sword, and as the crew of the Iowa saw this they cheered like wild men. In the meantime thirty officers of the Vizeaya had been picked up, besides PIP of her crew. Our ward room and Steerage officers gave up their state rooms and furnished the pris- oners with food, clothing and tobacco. The war had assumed another aspect.
 "As l knew the crews of the first two ships wrecked had not been visited by many of our vessels I ran down to them. found the Gloucester With Admiral Ger vera and a number of his officers aboard and also large number of wounded, some in frightfully mangled condition. Many prisoners had been killed on shore by the To ,t.I and I requested Captain Cotton to go in and take off the crews of the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Oquendo, and by midnight the Harvard had 446 prisoners aboard, great number of them wounded.
 'For courage and dash there is no paral- Tel in history to this action of the Spanish admiral. He came, as he knew, to abso- lutely certain destruction. There was one single hope-that was that the Cristobal Colon could steam faster than the Brook lyn The spectacle of two torpedo boat destroyers, paper shells at best. deliber- ately steaming out in broad daylight in the face of the fire of batteships can be described in only one way: It-was- Spanish and it was ordered by Blanco. The same must be said of the entire mover1 ment. x'
 "In contrast to this Spanish fashion, was the cool, deliberate Yankee work The American squadron was without sentiment apparently. The ships went at their Span- ish opponents and literally tore them to, pieces But the moment the Spanish flag came down it must have been evident, that the sentiment was among the Americans, not among the Spaniards.
 q took Admiral Cervera aboard the Iowa from the Gloucester. which had rescued him, and I had him received with fulT' adta mirars guard. The men of the Bowa1 stepped out from the gun turrets, covered