The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-17

Of the world, victory the significance Of
which is not lessened by the fact that an
other one, quite as decisive, was won a
little more than two months later around
on this side of the planet. which virtually
completed the work he had begun so mag
nfcenuy
Naturally the keenest interest in Dew
ey's homecoming is felt at the yard by
the men who were at Manila with him.
Many of them left Manila before him, and
two or three months ago some hundreds
were stationed in Brooklyn, the receiving
ship Vermont fairly swarming with them.
But now most of the men have dispersed.
large proportion of them left the service
when their time expired, and those who
re-enlisted have been drafted upon by
ships on station until hardly any are left.
Besides Capt Wildes, whose vessel
brought up the rear of the grim Indian
file of warships that steamed slowly yet
fearlessly, into Manila bay and destroyed
the power of Spain in Asia, those now
al the yard who were with Dewey when
May l was made a red letter day in the
American calendar are only handful.
Capt. Thomas c. Treadwell of the Ma
rines, who was on the Baltimore and spent
the hours of the battle in the ships fight
ing top, where he found life sufficiently
exciting to make him forget to be afraid,
is one of them. Leonard j. G. Kuhlwein,
gunner. served on the flagship and d.
vided his time, while the scrimmage was
going on, between duty below, in the for
ward part of the ship, seeing that plenty
of ammunition was supplied to the men
doing the shooting and duty on deck,
where he was occasionally summoned to
make necessary repairs. Besides there are
Lieut.. Chadwick, who was on the Olympia
while the battle was being fought, ana
DR. Moore, who was medical officer of one
of the other ships.
1t IS safe to say that each of these men
will take as active a part as he can in
the welcoming of Manila's hero.
INuhlwein's disappointment.
As the spelling of his name would indi-
cate, Gunner KuhlWein is of German de-
scent, but a more thorough paced Ameri-
can in spirit than he is never trod the
deck of a Yankee ship Kuhlwein is short
stocky without being stout, speaks with a
slight accent, and has the face of a man
with a keen sense of humor. He is in
clined to reticence, like most good fight
ers, but there is one subject upon which
he sometimes speaks at length. 1t is the
grievous disappointment he suffered on the
day of the Manila fight.
I'VE had twelve elegant torpeloes on
the Olympia" says Kuhlwein, land we
| had pracuced with them until we knew
exactly what they could do. over and
over again we had discharged
every one of them, and the launching
mechanism had been used sufficiently 20
be in perfect order Ever since l began
as a gunner, and that was long before
the Olympia went into commission, l had
been hoping that some day l might have
an opportunity TO see q loaded torpedo
launched in real earnest. ] wanted to see
what il would dc, and when the battle
broke out 1 wondered If the chance had
| come at last.
/ ol,o g,
pedo shooting at the beginning of the bat
| tie. The Spanish ships were too far away.
! In the regular course OF things l took my
! place below, just under the forward tur-
ret, when the fun began, so as to help
| send ammunition up.
III WASN'T the pleasantest place imagin-
! able down there We couldn't see any
thing of the fighting, and, besides we
! knew that if a shell entered our compart-
ment, or we were badly rammed, or a tor
! pedo hit us, we'd sure go to the bottom
! without the ghost of a show. Ii wouldn't
/ be right TO say we didn't feel skttsh at
! The beginning of the scrimmage. But
| things got mighty lively down there soon
after the first gun had been fired from our
ships, and then we had to hustle so hard
we didn't have time to be afraid.
| ABOUT once in so often the big gun just
over US would 80 off with a roar and
! jar that would shake everything. The
! SflDOlnS rafting EO2s anu racks ana olileI
! machinery of the turret were in constant
| opera ton, making a frightful noise Four
electric HOSTS were sending up ammuni-
| ton for The and S-inch guns as fast as
we could operate them. The handwhips
/ for supplying the 1-pOunders and 6-pound-
ers were not idle a minute. Four big cleo
| tric dynamoss were buZzing continually In
| our ears. the air compressed was pumping
| away all the time, packing atmosphere in
| to an accumulator q a pressure OF 1,7OJ
pounds TO the square inch. TO be used in
firing torpedocs. if the opportunity arose.
! Every man in the compartment was work
ing as if the result of the battle depended
sclelv upon him. On account of the I'M
mereiful noise we had to howl to make
ourselves heard, and our bowls added to
the other sounds, made the place per-
! feet Dandemonium.
every once In a while word of how
things were going would be passed 20 us.
| Sometimes the news would seem encour-
aging; sometimes the reverse The facts
were told 10 us exactly as they were.
American fighting men don't need TO be
| lied TO in order to keep up their courage
| Every time we got a bit Of information
GOOD. bad or Indifferent, II made no ODDS
we gave three rousing cheers for Dewey
and the fac and worked all the harder
down there in the depths Of the snip.
"Suddenly some one called down that
the Reina Christina was coming out art
| or MS and that a torpedo shot was 70 De
taken at her. That made the heart OF me
come right up into my mouth, ana Glo
wish I were on deck and not below. Inc