The San Francisco call., 1898-07-05


 wet her decks. The shell fell near her bow. The Indiana replied with her 13- inch guns and a moment later let go everything she could bring to bear. One of her first shells fell on the Spanish cruisers deck.
 Cervera was going past, and the Indi- ana rounded to to give him broadside, and then as the Iowa and Texas opened on him the doomed admiral turned to : the harbor mouth, where the Almirante
 e; -endo was just coming into view. At first one could scarcely believe his eyes but when the Oquendo appeared and steamed swiftly westward into the smoke and lohtning where Cervera's s flag. still flew it flashed upon us that here was to be history making indeed.
 It. was a sublime spectacle of a des- perate admiral who had decided to give battle against Overwhelming odds in open water rather than remain and , blow up his own ships in the harbor of the. beleaguered city. Cervera's flag was hidden for a time as he fled westward, his: port broadside emitting flashes and tongues of flame, which marked his progress.
 ' For. the next five minutes he ran a gauntlet such as no ship has ever run in history, and when his consorts were :: burning and he surrendered his ship he still had a gun or two capable. of action.
 '.::.The Indiana fell on the oquendo, pay :: ing, no heed to Morro battery, whose glinners tried hard to protect the :: cruisef.: as she: moved to the westward. The Iowa, let Cervera go on into the hands of the Oregon, Massachusetts and .BroQklyn and then turned with the Texas to pound the Oquendo. Then every American ship was in action, and smoke shrouded the coast and blew away lazily,- revealing gexsers about the ships where Spanish shells from the cruisers and Morro tore the water. Another ship emerged from the har- Dor. It was the Vizcaya coming at full speed, the smoke curling over her bow e1o SAAC IbOA' A4CA SOuI DC lO liIc hSSlW dIQ and brought her bow guns into play
 Behind her came the Infanta Maria Teresa and the two Spanish much dreaded torpedo boat destroyers, per- haps 200 yards apart. The Maria Te- resa was received with a terrific storm of shells. Smashed and on fire, she was beached close to Morro.
 The Iowa steamed for a time for ward with the Oquendo, and the h. diana did the same with the Viscaya, but as the fight thus moved westward . it became clear the Americans were willing the Spanish ships should run far enough from Morro to lose the aid of the guns there. and in twenty minutes this was done.
 This was a bit of strategy which was developed under fire and which was accepted at once by all the American ships without orders. In fact, the smoke often made it impossible to see the signals which Commodore Schley was making from the Brooklyn, so tre- mendous, was the firing all along the line.
 Both the sOquendo and Viscaya were sometimes within a thousand yards of the Indiana The range varied, but as a rule it was short and extremely dead ly. Nevertheless the high speed and thick armor of their class stood the Spaniards in good stead, as they fol- lowed in the path of honor marked out by Admiral Cervera.
 Three quarters of an hour after the action began it was evident the Span- iards had many guns disabled and would have to surrender: There were terrible casualties on the enemy's ships. As the smoke cleared a little one could see the Spanish flagship. her port broadside spouting smoke, still holding on to the westward.
 The Texas and Massachusetts joined the Indiana and Iowa, the Oquendo and Viscaya hugged the shore and steamed after Cepvera, pledged to go with him to defeat and death. Spells burst on the decks. of the Spanish cruisers at short intervals. Often they were on fire, but again and again they extinguished the flames and manned again and again the guns from which they had been driven
 Tie green coast on their starboard smoked with shells which flew over them, and crashing sounds heard amid the. thunder of great rifles told of the armorzpiercing shots driven into and through their protected sides. Still they fired. Their shots fell about the In diana and Iowa thickly.
 = The Golden Rod was close enough to see all that the. thick smoke did not hide. She was too close sometimes for comfort ! could not see that our bat tleships. were hit No doubt they were, but 1t seemed that none of their guns were 'sflenced so terrific continued their fire
 Once free of Morros battle range. I stopped the Golden Rod abreast of the Spanish destroyer to see what would be the fate. of the c 1cester. Lieutenant