New-York tribune., 1898-11-06
THE MARIA TERESA LOST.
CAPTURED SPANISH CRUISER
FOUNDERS AT SEA.
THRILLING STORY OF THE WRECK
TOLD BY, LIEUTENANT-COMMA
HARRIS-ALL ON BOARD SAVED.

lace of the cruiser Maria Teresa IS given In the
onc,al report OF Lieutenant Commander Harris
"a Secretary Long. which was received by tee-
cranh at the Navy Department late this after
noon II is dated on board the wrecking steam
- Merritt fifty miles off Charleston, November
A and Is as follows:
"secretary Of the Navy. Washington.
sir: l have the honor to make the following
rsnort Of the loss Of the Infanta Maria Teresa
On November l. at ! a. m. found that 1t was
.,ow,ng hard and went on the lower bridge.
we had left Watlings Island Light abeam at
IN o'clock, and UP until midnight the weather
vas pleasant and all went wei! with the ship'
although we had trouble in keeping the pump
o. the forward fre-room from being choked
Nth coal The wind continued to increase In
force until perhaps 3 a. m, when 1t reached Its
height although there were times all day when
4, ble,y as hard as ever. The direction was about
northeast.
.rhe sea continued to rise until perhaps q
= m: there was a heavy sea all the roho"'hs
Aav. Pumps were reported every hour soon
after I came deck I relieved the se'oho
waite Mr. Johnson that he could go pelo" 10
scbt the water About $50 the first mate
co,,ain Iecato came up and he also went be-
low 10 work. Captain Chttenden. who was OH
deck almost as soon l. gave his attention 10
,be pumps. and especially 10 printing the cen'r"-
,0aI pump in the forward hre-room There
we're many new leaks
RIG SEAS START THE PLATES.
'eWhen heavy sea struck the sldes 'ne Pa'e9
baked at the butts and seams. showing 'ha'
after the fire they had resumed their FORMER
onnearance. aut were not tight There was Al
the mainmast an irch of thwartshp vloratioh'
.nd only half an inch longitudinal vibration.
while making this examination ABOUT lou
=. m. Captain Chittenden was thrown oo"h
and fell on the chain. hurting his SIDE ana pdcA
.nough TO disable him temporarily. He contn-
ued TO give US valuable advice. AT . a. H. we
made signal 10 the Vulcan and the Merritt TO
go 10 windward which they did as well as they
could Up u / O'Clock a. m. we were running
a. s,arhoard main engines and had steam on
the two central boilers and three Of the short
,orvard boilers but the trouble in the forward
Are-room caused the steam to run low. ana we
lighted fires under the starboard after boilers
and stopped the engine as TO run the steam
np for the pumps.
"The pump for keeping the water from the
forward compartment was driven by oel'' ana
when the sea broke over the bows the oeit oe-
came wet and slipped. As soon as the water
MAS up to the foorplace in the forward "'e
room the rolling OF the ship swashed INTO '"e
=, .,,rers and carried the coal out, choking
~. nuun and carrying the foorpates about
h,cb made II difficult and dangerous 10 worh
,here.
WATER IN THE CoAI~RUNkERs'
.,hout g o'clock I called for volunteers to
mis-. coal and water in the ash hoist Every
todv responded and the work was continued as
long as II seemed of any use About so" a. m
.. was reported that water was coming mo one
~ the starboard forward coal-burkers and run
ming into the irerooms. Where the water came
from We do not know. About , o'clock the IL
,,ob gpn IN the after-turrot ran out and in
twice When il recoied tho second time some
thing gave way and It settled to extreme eleva-
+ion and remained stationary We asked the
Vulcan to signal the Leondas to stay close to
us and the latter hosted the flag at the sig
nal yardarm. which was signal agreed upon
70 call the Leonidas to come within hail She
was steamng ahead Of us and making rather
had weather 1t seems as II she feared TO turn
In the heavy sea but eventually she did cross
ahead Of the Merritt. and twice passed under the
Marias stern. although at some distance.
think she picked up the life-rafts which the Nul-
can threw over
About II: 80 o'clock We slenalled the Vulcan
u ask the Merritt il We could be turned safely
70 run for the lee Of Watling's Island. To this
Captain Wolcott replied NO and as Captain
Chittenden thought would sink II we tried
10 turn. this idea given up Both the Nul-
can and the Merritt could with difficulty keep
us head 10 wind. and the sea was running
80 high that the Vuicans bits started or the
towlines parted. TIE ship would fall into the
trough Of the sea At ! .. m. Captain Chit
fenden asked me 70 signal the Vulcan TO cast
off the Merritts towlnes and have the Merritt
come alongside.
ABANDONING THE SHIP
'T then assumed the command. told the men
what was TO be done and assigned them sta
lions told the chief engineer TO start the en-
gine to aid the Vulcan in keeping our head up.
He did so. but IT could run only short time
with the steam we had. We sgnaed the Vul-
can: We are about TO abandon ship; try to
keep us head to wind / ordered Captain Le-
cato 10 take charge Of the lee surfboat, and
when IT was lowered to the rail ordered Captain
Chlttenden into II against his repeated protests.
Ee was placed in the boat with his son. This
boat was unable to reach the lines We had
astern. but the Men rtt picked it up. and after
taking Captain Chttender aboard tcw"d the
boat TO our lee quarter and repeated this ma
nouvre each trip forming lee for the boats to
come here and then towing them back She
was splendidly handled.
From until : the work Of transferring the
crew continued. Captain Lecato made two more
trims when. his arm being disabled his place
was taken by Mr. Johnson. who also took two
boaucads The liferaft was got over ana cap
sized but was rightci. II vas out in charge
Of James Bashford. ordinary seaman Oh 'he
Illinois Naval Militia. He and his crew took
six Cubans to the Merritt The smaller SURF
boat slowed inboard on the Ice side was then
Got out. and put it in charge Of Charles a
Dunno. aua-termaster. first class. gave nun
nearly all the good scamen lett for crew u
was launched very handsomely and maze t"o
trips In all these trips we poured oil from '"e