The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-13
NAVY'S ROLE in CUBA
ENTERTAINING FACTS CONTRIB
UTED BY CAPT. EVANS, OF
THE BATTLEsHIP IOWA
PLUCK OF THE YANKEE TARS

Every One of the 600 Men on the
Iowa Volunteered for the Trip
On the observation-disclosures In
cident in the Reception of Ger
vera After His Defeat at San
lingo.
CINCINNATI. o., March 9.-Captain Rob-
ley d. Evans came on from Washington two
weeks ago with Congressman Bromwel of
this city, TO be the guest of honor at the
Washington birthday celebration of the SIAM
ina League Republican club, and has since
been made much of at the clubs and in So
c;ety. especially he is the first of the
notable commanders OF the Spanish war to
visit this city. Everywhere he has been
pressed to tell the story of his experience.
You employed us in that affair with the
Spanish and We think did good job OF
it, he said in answer to one remark. But
We had two excellent bosses-the clear-head-
ed Ohio man, Mckinley, and the practical
Yarkee, Long, the latter Of whom let the
navy attend to its own business, while he
attended to his. We OF the navy had felt for
two years that inevitable, and had
been quietly preparing for 1t at your expense
and at the risk OF being court martialed out
of the service 1t i; should not come. About
the only difference between the condition of
the navy very few months before the de-
claring of war and when it was on war
footing was that it had increased by second
or two the speed at which 1t could lead and
fire a shotted gun. Twenty hours after the
declaration of the last cargo of spring
chickens had passed into Havana harbor from
Florida for many a long day. If one Of the
three or four shots fired by the Spanish at us
a warning when we were first sighted off
Havana that night had struck US Havana
would have been taken before morning. We
had been ordered not to fire the city, but
we did not interpret this as an order not to
return fire.
II consider it a remarkable record in sea-
manslip that during all our maneuvering las.
summer no two ships eollded. Luck seemed
to be with US. too. An instance OF the lat
ter is the fact that Spanish gunners one day
landed and exploded three heavy calber
shells on the Iowa in the midst of my crew
OF 600 men, just if the missiles had been
thrown into closely crowded hall lecture
room. and not man was seriously hurt.
One of the explosfI MS blew off the hats of
sixteen of my men. and | amazed TO
discover no blCodShed when the smoke had
cleared away
EXACTIONS OF PICKET DUTY.
IAN experience new to me was having the
Iowa put picket duty when watch
ing Cervera. All the fellows who have writ
ten that kind of books say that battleships
must be taken thirty or forty miles from
shore at night, anchored first at point
and then at another, so that the enemy cannot
lOtdlS IH6In. AQn1lrdi sampson s. SndleQ HE TO
take the Iowa up the harbor mouth. How
far up must l go?' | signlled back. l confess
with considerable anxiety, as, besides Ger
vera's fleet and the forts and batteries, there
were doubtless countless torpedoes in there.
Go in until you can distinguish the move
ments of a small rowing boat in the harbor,
came back the answer. How long must 1
stay" | again anXiously signaled. AL night
was the answer. | went up that harbor I'M
til | could not only plainly follow the move
ments of any small boat ahead of me with
hfrr nnra16 nffn fhn h1frlyi
of the Spanish sentries my searchight
struck them. For thirty-nine nights we kept
that kind of watch on Cervera. The ansYer
to the oft-repeated question of why did Yer
vera try to come out in the daytime is found
in that nightly vigil. Had he tried it at night
his squadron would have been blown into
toothpicks by the watchfu Sampson before he
had fairly left the harbor.
I'VE all regretted that the Merrimac had
to be sunk in the harbor. We felt that sooner
ar later would have to go in there after
CerVera and the wreck would, of course be
In our way. Therefore all deeply
thankful when we learned that she had sunk
in a way not greatly to interfere with pas
sage uD the harbor. The reason the Merri-
mac was sunk there at all was that Admiral
Sampson received orders to hurry to the Med
ite--aneaa to intercept Camaras fleet. and the
blockading fleet at Santiago would neces-
sarily be greatly weakened accordingly.
HE'LL WITH THE LID OFF.
when Sampson signaled asking for volun-
teers to sink the Merrimac and the matter
was announced, the nineteen officers and 600
men of the Iowa at once volunteered. The
work of formally enrolling volunteers was
then begun, but, when $50 names had been
inscribed as quickly as pen and ink could be
used, l saw the folly of such wholesale eff
forts, and signaled the query, How many vol
unteers do you want?' One seaman was the
response. Finally two men chosen from
whom to make the final choice. One of these.
Paine, was with me, when | had the little
trouble with the Chilians, and knew he was
"a o. INN ndi ltnltr fha
ing bets as to who would be the successful
asprant for the honor which all so greatly
coveted. / called the two men, Paine and
Murphy, up and said to them: Now lads
whoever goes with the Merrimac goes to al
most certain death. There is not one chance
IN million that a man of the expedition will
having been decided that the matter should
be settled by tossing a coin: IN give you
$50 for your choice Murphy declined and
won the toss. I'll give you $3.50 if you'll let
me go in your place said Paine Murphy de-
eIined the bride, and tears coursed down poor
Paine's cheeks from bitterness of disappoint-
ment as he joined the rest of the crew
The entrance Of the Merrimac into the
harbor under fire from every gun, it seemed,
OF the Spanish fleet and fortress was the
most terrible sight l ever saw | can best
describe it as hell with the lid off The next
morning all We could with our glasses
were the tops of the Merrimac's masts, to
which was fastened something resemb'ins a
raft There was no sign of life, and. of
course, We thought it all up with our Door
comrades: had received orders from Samp-
son to allow no boat to approach the wreck
and soon my executive officer reported to me
that steam yacht was drawing near to it
ana icI, asked if he should open fire.
For some reason other that I cannot
explain | decided for the time being to dis
obey orders, and told my officer to wait a
pit Then We saw the yacht take on hoard
from the raft | have mentioned our comrades
under Hobson. Had I fired of course they
would have persisted, as would have Admiral
Cervera who was on the barge. only learned
on reading Lieut. Hobsons recently published
story that he and his fellows had been cling
ing Tor hours with their hands to that raft
with bodies totally submerged when the
barge rescued them l have thanked God
many times since that refrained from firing
on that barge.
RECEPTION OF CERvERA.
The night before Cervera made his dash
my executive officer reported to- me indica-
tons of unusual activity In the harbor He
called my attention to the several tall col
umns of smoke standing straight up in air
from as many of Cervera's vessels 7 didn,t
treat the matter very seriously at the time
as there was nothing more to he dono on
our part ANYHOW. until they showed them
serves, Out my offcer got out and made fast
Tor instant use the signal announcinp tbat
CerNera was coming cut. That is the reason
the signal was displayed so quickly in the
a morning "a a they did come out sure
enough. A nne sight they presented too as
they came. like lot of angry bulls ready tn
go at anything. They were all neat and ciean
ard pretuly painted-it seemed a nity to Snoii
!nelr beauty. Quite different appearance
olo the oregon present little later &c
recall her. With all that mighty sneed ~
hers she was pursuing the enemy and seenoa5
but a mass of smoke and flashes Of 6ra
nothlng else could you see but the Stars and
ing smoke and fire cloud. ny
Perhaps the scene that impressed mo NOR.