Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-06-09
BOMBhRDNENT OF SAN JUAN
Chief TcOman Walters Experience on
tho Amphitrite.

ORANGEBuRG, S. c., May Silt
may not be known generally that
Orangeburg has a young man in tho
service of the United States in tho
thickest of tho war. Mr. Eugene r..
Walter, Jr., is on the monitor Amphi-
trite, filing the position of chief yeo-
man in times of peace. but in times
battle it seems that ho has duties to
perform among the fighters.
MIR. Walter is the son of Capt. e..
II. Waiter, q successful and promi-
meet planter of this county, and Mr..
Walter himself has many friends in
this city. Capt. Walter has recently
received most interesting letter
from his son, giving the experiences
of sailor on board war ship in
actual battle.
CHIEF YEOMAN WALTERS LETTER.
Il. S. S. Amphitritc, I'd Rate,
AtSea, off st. Domingo, May 13, 1898.
To Those at Home: While the
Din of battle is still ringing in my
ears [ will try to write you my expc-
riences in our engagement with the
forts at San Juan, Puerto Rico, yes
tcrday morning.
We left the Cuban coast off Car
denas Oh Wednesday morning, May
4, and was taken in tow by the Iowa
and towed eastward at the rate Of
from 8 to II knots an hour, until the
morning of the 9Th, when we threw
off the Iowa's line and made fast to
the collier Niagara, from which we
got full supply Of coal. We were
then off the northwestcrly point of
Hayti, known as Mole St. Nicholas,
which is the station where the cable
from New York to South American
ports touches, and from where the
admiral expects to get news from
Washington, having sent the Mont
gomery into Porto Prince to price
coal ($27 per ton y at 4 p. M. we got
under way, under our own steam,
and proceeded eastward at a nomi-
nal speed to allow us, monitors, to
keep up. At midnight of the 11th
we received our instructions, and the
captains called up the chief petty Off
GERS and gave us brief outline of
plan of bombardment.
At 4.30 yesterday morning we
were routed out by the first buglc
call | have heard since we left Key
West, and which meant "man all
batteries" 1t did not take long for
us to report to our stations, and we
had to wait nearly an hour before
we heard the first guns of the engage
ment groan out in the stiffness of
the morning air.
We were formed into the follow
ing order (thc admiral had shifted
from the New York to the Iowa y
Iowa, Indiana, New York, Terror,
ourselves, then the two cruisers
came in last.
THE FIRST GUNS FIRED.
The first guns were fred from the
admiral's ship at exactly SO, and
the "Dagocs" had a hot awakening,
for the "bruto' poured four tons of
steel into tn , big fort on the right of
the harbor entrance and continued to
pour forth her destructive fire until
>out of range. We formed n circle
and the next ship took it up where
the last one left off, 80 that the forts
had the benefit Of continuous fire
for nearl y two hours. Our ship fired
her first shot of the war at 500, and
for six minutes we kept it up, when
Wo were out OF the arc of fire and
were relieved hy the Detroit. |
think the rcveilc was Q sudden one
for tho Spaniards, and that they for
got to blow their USUAL mornings $ call
and took our salutation instead.
The first shot fired from the forts
was fired from a sand battery on the
extreme right, and il recorded in our
log a. 5.41, and is rated as q canister
shrapnel.
We, at least, took the "Dagocs"
by surprise, and Judging from the
length Of time between our first shot
and theirs they may be said to be
slow, as well rs poor shots. Our
orders were to confino our aim as
much az possible TO tho Notifications
of tho harbor, Ga blue print of which
was given every man firing n g.l.)
believe it was carried out as near
as possible.
\ Thc last shot fired by us was re-
corded at 7.50, at which time We put
70 sea and left the "Dagocs" to bury
fheir dead and repair, as much as
possible, the havoc we made, 40 that