Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1898-07-07
Great Force Of ProjectiIes.

| the Texas took part III the strategic
movement intended to cover the land
ing. The duty assigned to the ship
was that of shelling the western bat
teries at the entrance to Santiago har-
bor This duty was undertaken single
handed, and in half an hour the bat
teries had ceased to reply. In the
hurry of catching the mail steamer |
had not time to ascertain whether any
Of the enemys projectiles had hit the
Texas, and besides | was ten miles
away to the eastward.
Today the Texas came into Guam
tanamo bay to transfer eight wounded
men to the hospital ship Solace, and |
then learned that for once the Spanish
gunners had made hit. They had
succeeded in planting shell on board
the Texas. The projectile killed one
man and wounded eight others and
did considerable damage to the vessel
herself.
By the courtesy Of Captain Philips |
was permitted to go on board the Tex
as and see the effect of the Spanish
shell. The Texas, it may be men
toned, is a second-class battleship,
built with some notifications to de-
signs prepared by Mr., Laird Cloves
in competition with other naval ex-
perts.
Lieutenant Haslar conducted me
over the ship, and pointed out the hav-
oc wrought by the Spanish shell. The
projectile was a steel six-inch shell,
fired, it is believed, from one of the
high power ships guns that have been
mounted on the Santiago Notifications
since Admiral Cervera's fleet was
blockaded in Santiago harbor. 1t
struck the Texas on the port bow, be-
tween the gun deck and the spar deck,
bursting in the forward compartment,
where there are six six-pounder guns
| three on either side The crews of all
these guns were at quarters and there
were besides number of other men
in the compartment at the time.
1t is miraculous that only one man
was killed and eight were wounded.
The part Of the ship hit is outside the
central citadel and above the protected
deck. The sides of the ship at the
point Of impact consisted Of steel
plate one and a quarter inches thick.
The shell pierced this like so much pa
per, hit metal stanchion amidships
and exploded about seven feet from
the plating on the starboard side. A
noteworthy feature of the steel plating
was that it offered no splinters or debris
to carry inboard. 1t was torn into
ribbons and folded back in a way that
gave the impression that the tough
metal had been half melted by the i'm
pact and passage of the projectile.
The shock of striking the plating
was not sufficient to explode the she'll,
and had it missed the stanchlon it
would have passed through the star
board side and possibly exploded out
side the ship, Unfortunately, the
stanchion was directly in the path of
the she'll, and the heavy metal column
offered enough resistance 10 explode
it. The effect was terrific.
Although the shell was only small
one, six inches in diameter, and, there
fore, not weighing more than about
seventy pounds, it practically wrecked
the big compartment in which 1t burst,
while the smoke from it forced itself
down the ammunition hoists and into
the forward compartments of the ship,
so that for a few minutes the crew
were almost sutfocated. The stanchion
was shivered into atoms for two feet of
its length, and the fragments of the
she'll, flying forward against the star
board side, bulged the stout steel
plates outward to depth of three
inches. Just at this point one of the
big double-headed angle irons of the
ships frame was situated. This great
rib of steel, nearly twice as thick and
heavy as a railroad rail, was cut
through in two pieces as if it had been
made of cheese, and nearly two feet Of
it was carried away bodily in minute
pieces. The base of the shell plOughed
furrow down the steel deck just as a
plough would cut through the soft soil
of a fallow field.
1t hit and broke another rib of the
ship, and, breaking itself in two, both
pieces lodged in cable reel standing
close to the starboard side. The core
of this reel was prism of oak over
two feet in circumference, and there