The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1898-05-14
TWO OF OUR Sailors WERE killed
Seven Injured by the Fire of
the Spanish Batteries.
BATTLE FOR THREE HOURS.
Our Warships Retired From the
Contest Uninjured,
FLYING SQUADRON OFF FOR DUTY.

Commodore Schley's Ships Sail on a Secret
Mission Perhaps to Cooperate With Ad-
miral Sampson in Forcing a Naval Bat
tie Which May End the War Meantime
the Orders For Sending Troops to Cuba
Have Been Temporarily Suspended Pend
ing the Expected Big Naval Engagement.
San Juan de Porto Rico, via st.
Thomas, Danish West Indies May a.
The forts of San Juan de Porto Rico
were bombarded by part of Rear Ad-
miral SIMPSONS fleet Thursday morn
ing. The enemy's loss is believed to
be heavy. The American loss is two
men killed and seven men injured.
After three hours firing the admiral
withdrew the feet, and heading for
Key West, he said: Il am satisfied with
the mornings work. | could have
taken san Juan, but have no force to
hold it. | only wanted to administer
punishment. This has been done. |
came for the Spanish fleet, and not for
San Juan"
The men killed We're Seaman Frank
Widemark, of the New York, and a
gunners mate, of the Amphitrite
The latter died from the effects of the
extreme heat
OF the injured men three were on
board the Iowa and four on board the
New York
Those slightly injured on the Iowa
are Seaman Mitchell, Private Marine
Merkle and Apprentice Hill. The in
jured on the New York are Seaman
Samuel Feltman (seriously) and Sea-
man Michael Murphy. Two other en-
listed men were slightly injured. All
the above named were injured by the
| bursting of a shell on the New York
| The American ships We're uninjured.
The engagement began at 5:l5 a. m
and ended at S:15 a. m. The enemy
( batteries were not silenced. The town
in the rear of the fortihcations prob
ably suffered.
The ships taking part in the actor
were the Iowa, Indiana, New York
| Terror, Amphitrite, Detroit, Montgom
cry WampatuCh and Porter. Th'
enemys firing was heavy, but wild
and the Iowa and New York wer,
probably the only ships hit The,
went right mp under the guns in col
umn, delivering broadsides, and thel
returned The line passed thrice il
front of the forts, pouring tons of stee
on shore 1t is impossible to judgt
| the amount of damage done to tn,
| buildings and forts They appeared T.
be riddled with shot; but the Span
iards were plucky,
The after turret of the Amphitrit
got out of order temporarily DURING
the engagement, but she banged ava,
with her forward guns. After the frs
passage before the forts the Detroi
and the Montgomery retired, thei
guns being too small to do much dam
age. The Porter and the Wampatuc
also stayed out of range.
The smoke hung over everything
spelling the aim Of the gunners an
making it impossible to tell whore on
shots struck. The officers and me
of all the ships behaved with coolnes
and bravery. The shots few thick an
fast over all our ships.
The men of the Iowa who were hun
during the action were injured b
splinters thrown by an eight inch she
which came through a boat into tn
superstructure and scattered fral
ments in all directions. The shot
course was finally ended ON On iro
plate an inch thick. Merkle wa
struck in the arm, and may lose i
All wore hurt by splinlors, and a fiji
was started in the boat. but was quicl
ly eSt,nguiahod
MORO battery ON the eastward arr
of the rbor was the principal poiI
Of attss,. Rear Admiral Sampso
and Captain Evans were on the lowe
bridge of the Iowa ana had a mario
escape from splinters, which injure
three men. The Iowa was hit eigl
times, but the shells made no impre
sion on her armor. The weather WI
fine, but the heavy swells made a
curate aim difficult. The broadsid
from the Iowa and Indiana rumbled
the hills ashore for FIVE minutes aft
they We're delivered. Clouds of du
| showed where they struck, but Il
( smoke hung over everything. III
shells screeching overhead and dro
ping around were the only signs tn
the Spaniards still stuck to their gun
Utter indifference was shown +
the enemy's fire. The wounded we
quickly attended, the blood was was