The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1898-05-24
Copyrighted by Associated Press

Copyrighted by Associated Press
Key West Fla, May 20.-From
staff correspondent Of the Associated
Press.-For an hour before the passen-
ger steamer Key West left her dock for
Tampa, man wearing the uniform of
a naval seaman sat YEARLY against
a great bale of cordage, looking out
past the harbor and the distant keys
toward the gulf. He was William
O'Hearn of Brooklyn, and one of the
survivors of the torpedo boat Wins
lows crew which passed through the
terrible storm of shot and shell that
poured in from the Spanish batteries
in the Bay of Cardenas. He was going
home on furlough for rest.
By degrees and after much question
ing, O'Hearn told the whole story OF
the battle, and no doubt his account of
the engagement is the most correct III
detail of any given yet.
Expected to be Sunk.
''From the very beginning" he said,
II think every man on the boat be-
lieved that we could not escape being
sunk, and that is what would have
happened had it not been for the BRAY
cry of the boys on the Hudson, who
worked for over an hour under the
most terrific fire to get US out OF
range"
"Were you ordered to go in there"
he was asked.
Eyes, just before we were fired upon
the order was given from the Will
mington."
WAS it a signal order?'
mo. We were near enough to the
Wilmington so that they shouted it
to us from the deck through the mega
phone
do you remember the words OF the
command and who gave them!'
81 don't know who shouted the order,
but the words, as l remember them,
were:
g Mr. Bagley, go in there and see
what gunboats those are
1--WE started at once toward the Car
denas dock, and the firing began soon
after"
what was the first you saw of the
firing?"
"The first thing l saw was shot
fired from window or door in the sec
ond story of the storehouse just back
of the dock where the Spanish gun
boats were lying. | saw the flash and
the smoke and the same instant a shell
went Kissing over our heads. Then the
firing began from the gunboats and.
from the shore.
II don't think any man can forget
the sound and effect of shell and heavy
shot the first time he is under fire. 1t
is something terrible. When q shell
passes close by you, you feel it, some
thing like the effect of lightning when
it strikes near by. You feel as though
it had taken your head off. First, you
hear that awful buzzing or whizzing-
it is hard to describe-and then some
thing seems to strike you in the face
and head.
Il noticed that day when the shells
first began to fly about us that the
bows threw their hands to their heads
every time shell went over. But
they soon came so fast and so close
that it was
Roaring, Shrieking Hell.
| can describe it in no other way"
"Where was your positionT'
81 was the water tender he said,
"and my place was below, but every
body went on deck when the battle
began. John Varyares, the oiler; John
Denief and John Meek, the tiremen,
were both on watch with me, and had
thew remained below they would prob
ably not have been killed.
after the firing began | went be
low again to attend to the boilers. and
q few minutes later a solid shot came
crashing through the side of the beat
md into the boiler, where it exploded
and destroyed seventy of the boiler
tubes. At first it stunned me.
.sWhen the shell burst in the boiler,
If threw both the furnace doors open
and the fuse from the she'll struck my
feet. Two pieces of the shell also came
ont of the door, and | am taking them
home with me as souvenirs of the war.
at was a terrible crash and report
altogether, and the boiler room was
filled with dust and steam. For sew
eral seconds l was partially stunned,
and my ears rang so | could hear moth
ing. / went up on the deck to report