Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1899-02-21
STORY OF THE FIGHT.
Prof. Aldrich Tells of the Scrap
at Santiago July 8.


Talk Delivered Before the Franklin In,
stitute at Philadelphia-In
Description of the Destructive Effects
of the American Cannon spanish
aud Americans Contrasted The
wrecks Described Fine Write up oil
the Talk.
Prof. W. S. Aldrich of the Univer-
sity on last Thursday evening deliver
ed very fine talk before the Mechan-
ical and Engineering section of the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia.
The Public Ledger gives the following
account Of the event. The write I'D
is a great compliment to one of Nor
gantown's most eminent and deserv-
ing citizens. 1t is as follows.
Prof. William S. Aldrich, who was
engineer on the United States repair
steamer Vulcan-a floating machine
op-during the war with Spain, gave
an illustrated account of the work
of the Vulcan with Admiral Samp-
sons fleet before the Mechanical and
Engineering Section of the Franklin
Institute on Thursday evening.
The speaker presented the principal
features of the campaign against San
tlago in an entirely new light, and de-
scribed the events of the now historic
sea battle in such vivid light that,
although the details were of the most
practical character, the story was in
tensely dramatic. 1t should be told
in larger ball and to a greater audi
ence.
The Vulcan was something new in
naval warfare She accomplished
much more than the task that was as
signed to her. She was expected to
look after the steam pipes and boilers
and the machinery of the complicated
cruisers and battle ships. She had
much less of that work to do than had
been anticipated, but she unexpect-
edly became a floating shipbuilder:
she repaired breaches in the vessels
plates: patched holes where the enc
my's shots had found a weak spot: cast
CRATE bars for furnaces, and did much
work which would seem impossible to
have been performed on shipboard.
As an instance Of this, Professor Al
drich spoke of making some pretty
large castings. The wooden deck of
the Vulcan, covered with sand and as
bestos paper took fire from the streams
of molten iron which would escape
from the mould Underneath those
decks were hundreds OF pounds of gun
cotton and tons of loaded shells, which
Admiral Sampson had put aboard the
vessel, because it was SO large and
convenient There was considerable
activity on board on one occasion when
a drop of this molten metal dropped
down a hatchway.
The practical interest Of the lecture
from naval point of view was his de-
scription of the condition the Spanish
vessels, as was shown by critical ex-
animation by the officers of the Vulcan
and the other officers of the fleet. after
they had been burned and wrecked on
the beach. He particularly described
the Infanta Maria Teresa, Admiral
Cervera's flagship, the Almirante
Oquendo and the Viscaya These
were sister ships, constructed under
the plans of Admiral Cervera himself
equipped with the most modern guns,
with the latest thing in speaking
tubes and Geographic signals; yet
within thirty-five minutes after the
Spanish Admiral left the mouth Of
Santiago harbor his vessel was on fire
from stem to stern, his guns silenced
his fire apparatus useless, his commun-
ication with different parts destroyed
and his ship headed to the beach a
wreck.
Professor Aldrich showed from the
internal evidences on these vessels that
their faulty construction contributed
directly to this disasSerous result.
The lantern photographs and the dia-
grams emphasized his descriptions of
these faults. The most glaring of
these was that the protective armor
belt was far below the gun deck. AL
though it ran nearly the whole length
of the vessels, there was no evidence
of its having been struck by our shot
and shell. Above this supported by
very light iron framework, was the
gun deck, with 81 inch Hontoria guns
on each side, with thin protective
armor, entirely insufficient for the pro-
lection of the gunners, and two tur-
rets, each with an IL inch gun en- bar
bette. that is with no top, but only a
hood Of thin metal over the gun for
the protection of the gun crew. Our
70 inch shells went through the thin