The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-20
MAKES AN EXPLANATION
Lieutenant Commander Hodgson
on the Schley Incident.
WHAT THE ADMIRAL SAID
And What He Did Not Say on the
Bridge of the Brooklyn When
He Was Mixing With
Cevera's Fleet.


rences on the bridge of the Brooklyn
during the battle of July having been
the subject of a controversy in the
newspapers, the navy department re-
Gently undertook an Investigation of
the various allegations. Lieutenant
Commander Hodgson and lieutenant
Commander Heilner, who have figured
in the controversy. were both called on
for explanations of the utterances at
tributed to them and the former was
directed to report for examination on
this to Captain Chadwick at Boston.
The department has now given out for
publication Captain Chadwiek's report
on the matter. 1t Is not yet deter
mined whether or not the answer of
Lieutenant Commander Heilner will be
made public at this time. Chadwick's
report is as follows: Ti
u. s. s. New York, Boston, Mass,
June IT, 1S99-Sir: In obedience to your
orders of the 18th instant l have to re-
port the following as the statement by
Lieutenant Commander Hodgson of the
conversation between Rear Admiral
Schley and himself during the action of
July 8, 1898.
He states as follows: LAS we were
l
Admiral Schley say port or starboard
several times to Captain Cook in the
coming tower the admiral being on
the platform surrounding the tower. l
had been on the bridge above and was
just coming down to report the position
of the ship when l heard the admiral
say, Hard aport.' The Maria Teresa
was then hauling abaft our port beam.
The Brooklyn was heading about
northeast. l told the admiral, or at
least suggested to him, that the Texas
was very close on our starboard hand
and would bring us close to her. / do
know that / used the word collision
l did not say, You mean staTboard' !
intended him to understand there was
danger of running into the Texas. He
said All right or words to that eff
fect-I can not repeat verbatim. When
! knew he was going to turn to star
board, / suggested backing the star
board engine in order to make a small
er circle and give the Texas a wider
decreasing the speed of the turn. He
did not say, that / know of, We are
near enough to them (the Spaniards)
already The only thing / gathered
from what he said was that II we
turned to port we should get so close
pedo attacks. l suppose he meant tor
pedo boats and replied to him that l
had not seen Them
Lieutenant Commander Hodgson
states he did not intend to convey in
his note of denial sent at the request
of Admiral Schley and published IN the
Washington Post, the idea that no such
colloquy took place.
He states, regarding this as follows:
Admiral Schley wrote me- enclosing
an editorial from a New York paper
of June 1, asking me to write a denial
of what he phrased An oft repeated
calumny. He said he had no recoiiec-
ton of any such conversation. I wrote
a lengthy letter of explanation, giving
my recollection of the conversation as
nearly as possible Admiral Schley
wrote me, saying: There is much in
your letter which I should not like to
use, as it would provoke an assault
upon you which | would not like to
happen. What / want to show is that
the dialogue did not occur I then
wrote a denial of the colloquy, certain
ly not intending that no such colloquy
occurred, but that it did not occur as
printed. At the same time sent with
this an explanatory letter explaining to
the admiral that the letter of denial
was a denial of the dialogue as it APP
peared in print, and that had told the
correspondent of the paper that sub
stance of the conversation was correct
In writing the letter I wished to refute
the fact of any controversy existing at
critical stage of the battle. It. the
letter, was a denial of the words as
they stood in the published article,
denial of their literal correctness and
not denial of the substantial correct
ness of the statement"
A copy of the letter has not been re-
tanned by him; he had a rough draft,
which has been mislaid. Lieutenant
Commander Hodgson appends his sig
nature as a. voucher for the accuracy
with which the foregoing is given
Very respectfully,
F. A. CHADWICK,
Captain, y. S. N.
A. G. HODGSON,
Lieutenant Commander u. S. N.