The herald., 1898-06-13

would be able to fire at the patches of
smoke with little inconvenience.
Toward $50 o'clock the skies lightened
and a good breeze came along. AT 6:32 the
order to move In to land was given and as
the columns formed a beautiful and inspir-
iting sight was witnessed
Forming in two columns, at distance of
six miles, the ships moved towards the en-
trance of the harbor the Brooklyn leading
one column and the New York the other.
Slowly they moved up until within four
miles of the forts. Then they turned, the
Brooklyn to the west, followed by the Mar
blehead, Texas and Massachusetts,, and the
New York led to the east followed by the
New Orleans, Yankee, Iowa and Oregon.
The Iowa's Lead
When the ships had all turned into this
new formation they moved in battle line
to within 5000 yards of the batteries In the
positions originally detailed. The Vixen
and the Suwanee were on the left flank to
look out for rifiemen or rifle pits and the
Dolphin and the torpedo boat Porter did
similar duty on the right flank. The forts
remained silent, but at precisely TAI IL
inch gun on the Iowa shattered the silence
and from one end of the line to- the other
there was an instant response to the firing.
Through clouds of smoke the Pinch shells
of the Iowa could be seen striking on the
base of the Estrella battery.
Some of the batteries on the hills opened
at once, but their good aim of last week
seemed destroyed by the shower of shells
from the fleet, for the Spanish return shots
flew far from the mark. The great diff
Guilty seemed, so far as the American ships
were concerned to be the dense clouds of
smoke which obscured the gunners and
range frers' aim, but even with that great
difficulty the shooting was splendid. The
13-inch shells from the Massachusetts and
Oregon struck into the hills near the bat
teries and threw up mountains of earth
even when they fell trifle short. The NORA
effect of that terrible power must have been
great, for battery after battery was de-
serted by the Spaniards. The Texas, with
two pinch guns, and the Iowa, with her
four big guns raked the entire hillside,
while the Brooklyn and New York poured
in heavy fire from destructive and 5-inch
guns. The Brooklyn headed in further with
her squadron of fighters, when the smoke
became too oense, and then obtaining new
range, the ships poured in a deadly rain of
S-inch and 5-inch Shells
In the meantime the shells from a little
Spanish fort on the water front, two miles
off Moro castle, opened on the Suwanee
under the command of Lieutenant Com
mander Delehand and the Vixen in COM
mand of Lieutenant Sharpe. and they moved
in and with a fire from their small guns
soon silenced them.
Effective Shots
The great earthworks on the hill near the
flying squadron's end of the line then be-
gan putting shell in so close to the Brook
lyn and Massachusetts that it was deter
mined to silence them if possible. 1t was
difficult job, because the earthworks were
$50 feet above the water line and it required
great elevation of the guns AT S:22, after
three-quarters of an hour of firing Commo-
dore Schley ordered cease firing" and the
ships on the west moved further in until
they had good 1900 yard range. Eight
minutes later the command to open fire was
given and the guns began to crash away.
Following the whistle of the S-inch shell
from the Brooklyn's after turret in charge
of Lieutenant Russ there was burst of
fire from blockhouse near this battery and
a great cheer from the men. Ten seconds
later the Massachusetts landed two 10-inch
shells almost in the same spot and sisnaled
that the battery was silenced.
Big guns could still be seen on the hills.
but there were no gunners around them. In
the meantime shells from a few batteries
of the enemy which were keeping up a desul-
tory firing were falling either very short or
Just over the ships. One burst over the
Brooklyn and two others went dangerously
faxt- sta ioh we rA
injured.
In the meantime the four big battleships
were pounding away at the Estrela bat
terry and the inside harbor defenses, and
the frightful explosion of the big shells
could be seen causing terrible havoc. Down
at the eastern end of the line the New York
and New Orleans put the Cave batteries out
of action in fifteen minutes and then de-
voted the fire of the guns to the batteries
on the hill there being two new masked
batteries west of MORO that were very nasty
in their fire. The guns of the New Orleans
cid deadly work and the firing of the Span
iards grew more and more fitful. The Es-
trella and Catalina batteries were on fire
and the bockhouses on the eastern end were
burning.
Everything Silenced
At 9:19 the ships turned so as to bring their
unused port batteries into play and opened
a still more disastrous fire. AT $3.50 o'clock
the titful fire from one or two guns on the
Notifications showed that the Spaniards
had practically deserted their batteries and
would not return the fire.
Lieutenant Dayle's S-inch guns in the
starboard turret of the Brooklyn and Lieu
tenant simpsons forward S-inch pair
landed right in the midst of the earthworks
several times with evident disastrous eff
fects The flagship signaled at 9:37 that the
batteries were evidently silenced, but 1t was
not until 1905 that the firing was stopped.
At that time it was known that not single
shot of the enemy had taken effect on our
ships. When the firing finally stopped the
warships moved slowly away and shot