Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1898-05-19
.SANjUAN BONBARDNENI.
Interesting Details of Admiral
SIMPSONS Attack On the Cap
ital of Porto Rico.
THE BATTERIES WERE NOT sILENCED.
from the Fire of Our Fleet-Two Amer
leans Killed and Seven Injured-Nar-
row Escape of Admiral sampson and
"FIghting Bob Evans"

On BOARD THE FLAGSHIP Iowa, OFF
st. Thomas, Danish West Indies, May
1.-THE forts of San Juan de Porto
Rico were bombarded by part of Rear
Admiral SIMPSONS feet yesterday
morning. The enemy's loss is be-
lieved to be heavy. The American
loss is two men killed and seven men
injured.
After three hours firing the admiral
withdrew the fleet and headed for Key
West. He said:
Il am satisfied with the mornings
work. l could have taken San Juan,
but have no force to hold it. I only
wanted to administer punishment.
This has been done. / came for the
Spanish fleet, and not for San Juan"
The men killed were:
Seaman Frank Widemark, of the
New York.
Commensurate -, of the Amphi-
trite. The latter died from the ex-
treme heat.
Of the injured men three were on
board the Iowa and four On board the
New York.
The names of those slightly injured
on the Iowa are:
Seaman Mitchell.
Private Marine Merk1e.
Apprentice Hill.
The injured on the New York are:
Seaman Samuel Feltman, seriously.
Seaman Michael Murphy.
Two other enlisted men were slight
~ injured.
All the above-named were injured
by the bursting of shell on the New
York
This is a complete list of the killed
and wounded. The American ships
were uninjured.
The engagement began at SIS a. m.
| and ended at S:15 a. m. The enemy's
batteries were not silenced. The town
! in the rear of the Notifications proba-
| bly, suffered.
The ships taking part in the action
were the Iowa, Indiana, New York,
Terror, Amphitrite, DETROIT, Montgom-
cry, Wampatuck and Porter. The enc
my's firing was heavy but wild, and
the Iowa and New York were probably
the only ships hit. They went right
/ up under the guns in column, deliver
ing broadsides and then returned.
The line passed thrice in front of the
forts, pouring tons of steel on shore.
It is impossible to Judge the amount
of damage done to the buildings and
forts. They appeared to be riddled
with shot; but the Spaniards were
plucky.
The after turret of the Amphitrite
got out of order temporarily during
the engagement, but she banged away
with her forward guns. After the
first passage before the forts the De-
troit and Montgomery retired, their
guns being to small to do much dana
age.
The Porter and Wampatuck also
stayed out of range. The smoke hung
over everything, spelling the aim OF
the gunners and making it impossible
to tell where our shots struck. The
officers and men of all the ships be-
haved with GOODNESS and bravery. The
shots flew thick and fast over all our
ships. The men of the Iowa who were
hurt during the action were injured by
splinters thrown by an 8-inch shell
which came through boat into the
superstructure and scattered fragments
in all directions. The shots course
was finally ended on an iron plate an
inch thick. Merkle [Murtell was
struck in the arm and may lose it. All
were hurt by splinters, and fire was
started in the boat, but was quickly
extinguished.
MORO battery, on the eastward arm
of the harbor, was the principal point
of attack. Rear Admiral Sampson and
Capt. Evans were ON the lower bridg e
of the Iowa and had narrow escape
from flying splinters, which injured
three men. The Iowa was hit eight
times, but the shells made no impress
sion on her armor.
The weather was fine, but the heavy
swells made accurate aim difficult.
VIII be Allowed to Remain for Repairs
ST. PIERRE, Martinique, May IA