The times., 1898-08-14
How Schley DESTROYED the Spar
ish Vessels.
KINDNESS OF TIE yICToRs
Commodore SchIey Would Not Al
low His Men to Make n Demon
stration That Would Wound the
Feelings of the yanquished-De-
mnnd Of Sampson Ignored.

along the Cuban coast are now in Brook
lyn. One is George Edgar McHugh, who
was aboard the cruiser Brooklyn during
the engagement with Cervera's fleet off
Santiago The other man is Frank
Rusch, who was on the Maine when she
was blown un in Havana harbor. He re-
ceived several wounds in that explosion
and was laid up in the Key West Marine
Hospital for five weeks. He was then as
signed to the Marblehead. which took
such prominent part in the cutting of
the cable at Cienfuegos. Rusch was one
of the men in command of the small boat
that left the Marblehead and went close
to the harbor. where ii remained under
heavy fire from the shcSe batteries dur
ing its work. There were sixteen in the
boat and twelve of that number Were in
jured, some fatally. but Rusch escaped
without receiving a scar. In speaking
of the fight of July 8, McHugh said to
reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle:
Everything was apparently quiet on
that morning and religious services were
being held on board the Brooklyn. Sud
denly the cry was raised that the Spanish
ships were coming OUT of the harbor
All the men rushed to the guns. l was
at No. 4, a 5-inch rapid-fire gun on the
star'bcard side When / got there | could
plainly see ship coming out. The Brook
lyn was on the western side OF the har-
Dor, and the Spanish battleship seemed
to be making directly for US as if TO
ram Us. Our ship was, however, swung
round bow forward TO meet the threaten
ed attack, and then the sport began. The
men were a title nervous at first, cut
soon settled right down TO business. The
first shot fired by the Spaniards struck
crane on the side of our vessel. In -e-
turn we fired on S-inch shell that struck
our opponent, which proved to be the
Vizcaya In this fight we got within
range of four Spanish vessels, and 1t vas
then that the Brooklyn was struck for
ty-seven times. while sheils burst all
about us. 1t looked serious for us for
time. but we fired right along and kept
our position, until the arrival of the Ore
gon. which sent 13-inch shell into the
Yizcaya that guess settled her. Capt
CLARK, ot the Oregon, deserves great cred
il. He was al the eastern end of the har-
Dor when the fighting began and must
have passed the Texas and Iowa 10 come
to our assistance There has been much
talk about the Texas saving the Brook
lyn. but didn't see anything of It.
however this may have been con-
+inued McHugh, -" as soon as Commo-
dore Schley saw that the FiZcaya was
done for, he gave chase after the Colon.
In this chase the Brooklyn was handicap
ned for she had only two of her four
engines coupled and working If her
four engines had been working. the chase
would have been of much shorter dura-
ton but as 1t was. she did nobly. The
men below did wonderful work, and were
several times compIimented by the com
modore during the engagement. which
encouraged them greatly in their work.
Il would have been impossible for the
Colon to have escaped as we had her
henmed in, and projecting piece OF
the shore cut her off from going ahead,
so she did the next best thing. and ran
ashore.
During the engagement and at all
times Commodore Schley treated the men
with great consideration and IS. in my
opinion. the greatest naval officer in the
Cuban war Sampson, as you know. had
no part in the fight. When the Colon
ran ashore Schiey sent Capt. Cook, En-
sign McAuley Lieut.. Griffin and num-
Der of seamen. of whom l was one, to
secure the surrender of the vice admiral
returning to the Brooklyn Admiral Samp-
son. on board the New York came along
and ordered, the boat to stop, and that
the prisoners be turned over to him. The
vice admiral. however. positively refused
tol surrender to Sampson, and remarked
that he would only surrender 10 the man
who had given him such a grand fight,
meaning Schley. The Spanish vice ad-
miral was then taken to the Brooklyn.
lNx,C 70. H.,
surrendered. AT this time the Resolute
came up and announced that there were
two other Spanish ships coming along
the coast and despite the fact that the
Brooklyn had just gone through a hard
battle and was short of ammunition.
Sampson ordered Schley 10 proceed after
them. saying that it was his day, and
for him to finish the others. The two
Spanish ships supposed to have been
sighted by the Resolute resolved them
selves. as you know into the Austrian
cruiser Maria Teresa We had only
twenty-five 5-inch shells and fifteen s.
inch shells on board at the time. While
returning toward Santiago de Cuba the
Vizcaya saluted US by the explosion of
one of her magazines.
To show the respect that SchIey had
for Ceryera, he refused to allow the men
on board to give vent TO their enthusi-
asm by great hurrah at II O'Clock mid
night on July g. 1t was the intention
of the men to give Schley cheer just as
the Fourth of July arrived, but he warn
ed the men against making any unnec-
essary show, because Admiral Cervera
and his officers were on board the Iowa
which lay alongside of us. He explained
this by saying that the admiral was
brave man and had shown much respect
and consideration TO Ho'bson. On the
day Ceryera was to be sent North he
came aboard our ship to bid Sehley good
by and complimented him on the victory
Schiey refused to accept compliments
then, but ordered all his men aft and
when they We're all in line he turned to
Cervera and said: Admiral, these are
the men who did the work: they are the
ones to be complimented. Cervera who
spoke very good English, then turned to
the men and complimented them on their
work. In the course of his speech he re-
marked that if he had had such men as
those who stood before him, the result
might have been different
Commodore Schley,'' continued Nc
Hugh, was not in favor of blocking the
harbor Of Santiago, as attempted by Hob
son in the sinking of the Merrimac He
wanted to force an entrance into the har-
Dor with his fleet, but this Sampson
would not permit him TO do Schley knew
nothing of Hobson's scheme until the
whole thing had been arranged. Three
attempts were made by Hobson, but he
was called back each time. Even when
he started on his fourth and last trip a
signal was raised calling him back, but
he refused to return and went ahead. It
was a mighty daring thing to do. Schley.
Cooke, Clark, McCalla, Philip and En-