The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-27
THE FIGHTING ENGINEERS
WARREN TELLS WHAT THEY DID TO
SAVE THE DAY AT SANTIAGO.
American Ships Taken Unawares, He
Says, Except the Oregon and GIOu-
cester-Denied by Chadwick.

Arthur Warren has an article in the cur
rept number of the Engineering Magazine
on 1.-The Fighting Engineers at Santiago .
In the course of his article Mr. Warren
says it is strange that not one of the cor
respondents at Santiago mentioned the i'm
portant fact that when the Spanish fleet
broke out of the harbor of Santiago the
American fleet was unprepared to make
quick movement of any kind in the face of
the enemy. In this regard Mr.. Warren
says:
For the navy the war with Spain in
American waters was an engineers war
The man behind the gun gave splendid
service-none better-and won glory for it,
So much praise was used up on him that
the supply was inadequate for distribution
among all branches of the navy. Jackie de-
served his honors. But even American war
ships do not move by wishing or by gun
fire. The engineers put the ships where
the man behind the gun could give an
account of himself Admirals and captains
are brave enough, and keen tactcians, no
doubt, but the best part of the Spanish
fleet would have slipped through somebody's
fingers that Sunday morning at Santiago
if Americas fighting engineers had not, by
the hardest work, overcome the obstacles
imposed upon them by orders from the
bridge.
IF the fighting had been against men
more nearly kin-say English or German
under conditions identical with those of
Santiago on the morning of July 8, some
American hulks might now be rustng at
the bottom of tropic seas For engines were
uncoupled, and many fires out, and steam
so low that all the energy of the stokers
was required to get it up again.
THE American ships had been off the
coast for weeks waiting for the enemy to
come out When the enemy came out the
American ships were ready to shoot but
not to give chase. This was no fault of the
engineers 1t was not the effect of over
confidence. 1t was the result of a condition
The condition is peculiar to naval practice
1t was long ago discarded in the merchant
service. In the merchant service a chief
engineer controls his department. In the
navy the captain controls the engineers.
and is in turn controlled by the commanding
officer of the fleet.
THE chief engineer of an Atlantic liner
looks to his captain for starting and stop
ping signals only; for the rest he takes his
orders from his owners and reports to them.
The chief engineer alone is responsible for
chinery. In the navy the ships captain de-
cides how many boilers shall be used, how
much coal shall be burned, what pressure
shall be carried And the American cap
tains at Santiago had everything in readi-
ness except their boilers and engines There
were two eXceptions-the Oregon and the
Gloucester
A TRIBUTE TO THE OREGON.
1.-The whole world, not excepting the Span
ish officers has praised the Oregons won
derful work-cruising and fighting What
the Oregon did other American ships could
do with similar men, The Oregon's record
is a tribute to the fighting engineers. 1t is a
tribute to the good sense of the command
ing officer who permitted his chief engineer
to control the engines. 1t is a tribute to the
engineer-in-chief of the navy, Commodore
Melville, who designed the engines. 1t
shows the relation of the engineer to mod
ern sea fighting.
From Bremerton, on Puget sound to
Jupiter inlet, on the Florida coast is 1850
distance in 1888 hours including stops for
orders and coal; she burned 4,009 tons of
coal; her highest speed was 146 knots, her
lowest 10159 her average 1116 For the
most part she suited her pace to that of the
little Marietta, which she conveyed She ar
rived at her journeys end, Joined the block
ade and entered the fight without having to
make requisition for repairs. Eternal
vigilance is the price of good engines
Robert Mllligan, fighting engineer, and the
men under him put the Oregon where the
men behind the guns could destroy the best
ships of Spain"
Mr.. Warren tells OF the hard work done
by the Oregon's men. The vessel, he says,
was tWenty-seven short in the engineer s
force, and siXty-seVen less than her build
ers furnished on her trial trip. When the
coaling was especially rapid the officers and
men of the engineers force worked twenty
four hours on end and he cites as an evil
dence of their spirit that in the Straits of
MaRdMan thew wanted
draught
Forced draught practice says Mr.. War
rem. answers to General Sherman'S descrip-
ton of war 1t is hell. Every ship in the
United States service is supposed by the
regulations to have a forced draught test
twice year. Only the commander of a
ship can order it. But some of the ships
have never made a forced draught run since
their trial trips. Perhaps the captains do
not been trained to use it in emergency
"Milligan decided to ask the captain for
permission to use forced draught. He knew
that his shorthanded crew were working
hard enough, and half their work was still
before them, and fight at the end of it.
Or the fight might come any day But the
men had caught the spirit of their chief !;
their pride was to keep everything in readi-
ness. The difficulty was not to get them to
ing. When the chief saw that they really
wanted to try forced draught for the ships
sake, he persuaded the captain to let them
DO It, 1t was to them what gun drill is to
the men on the deck and in the turret So
they did it, and they did it again and at
Santiago they handled the forced draught
like plaything.
UNPREPARED FOR THE ENEMY.
mot an ounce of salt water was allowed
in the Oregon's boilers. AIilligan writing
from Callao to brother officer, said: L fear
that l am rapidly becoming the most un-
popular man in the ship, because 1 am de-
termined that we shall not put salt water
in the boilers, and to that end have insisted
to the captain that, if necessary we must
cut down the fresh water allowance for
officers and men to the bare amount neces-
sary for drinking and cooking, using salt
water for bathing and all other PURPOSES
Inc lay mind might suppose that the OBJ
lect of sending the fleet to Santiago was to
nave 1t ready to jump at the enemy at the
sound of the general alarm. There is a
touch of the farcical in building war ships,
equlpplng them with powerful machinery
TO be able, at the instant of battle, to get
out or them only a fraction of their power
But somebody in authority reasoned in the
fashion of Gilbertian topsy- turveydom. So
the American fleet waited for the Spaniards
with engines uncounpled. boilers filled (as
they had long BEEN with salt water when
they were not empty, and naf the CRATES
clean as whistles and as cold as ice boxes.
Then there was the BROOKLYN She had
five double-ended and two single-ended boil
ers, in three water-tigft compartments She
steamed from Hampton Roads to the south
coast of Cuba, via Key West using four
boilers and four engines over the entire dis
lance.
The commodore or the captain always