The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-04-28

Spoken by the RaIei9h's Com
mander Before the Union League
CIub-Great Love of the Men for
Admiral Dewey-Vivid Descrip-
tion of the Battle of May /, 1898.
A. No greater tribute has
~ been uttered in recogni-
= GSsEusP ton of Admiral Dewey's
heroic achievements in
the PHILIPPINES than was embraced in
the speech of Captain Joseph b. Cogh-
Ian before the Union League Club
in New York last Friday night. His
words of praise for Americas irwin
chile Admiral were naturally ap-
plauded to the echo at not infrequent
intervals during the address. Captain
Coghlan's vessel, the Raleigh, played an
important part in the battle of Manila,
and the commanding officer of the first
vessel to enter the bay is In position to
speak knowingly of the squadron COM
mander.
Captain Coghlan spoke as follows:
1--WE feel that we may be congratu
lated on our homecoming, not for what
we have done, but for having served
under Admiral Dewey We love him
and give him all the credit for what was
done by the American fleet at Manila
If we thought it was possible by &C
cepting this kind reception tonight to
take away from him one iota of this
credit we would feel that we were
doing wrong We were with Dewey
from the start to the finish and
on each day we learned more to love and
respect him. The more we knew him
honor was safe in his hands and that
nothing in which he was engaged but
would rebound to the credit of our coun-
try. During those days, after the great
fight was over, he suffered most out
rageous nagging On, on it went day
after day, rubbing clean through the
flesh to the bone, but always holding
himself and others up. l tell you it was
magnificent. must tell you of an Incl
dent which, think, will be of interest.
Our friend Isarcasticallyl, Admiral Won
Diedrichs, sent an officer to complain of
the restrictions placed upon him by Adj
miral Dewey. happened to be near by
at the time, and | overheard the latter
part of the conversation between this
| iaF I oh
get it, and I want the people of the United
States to know what Admiral Dewey
said that day.
" Tell your Admiral, he said. his
ships must stop where l say But we
fly the flag, said the officer. Those flags
can be bought at half dollar yard
anywhere said the Admiral, and there
wasn't bit of fun in his face when he
said it, either. ANY one can fly that
flag, he continued. The whole Spanish
fleet might come on us with those colors
if they wanted to. Therefore l must
and will stop you. Tell your Admiral I
am blockading here. am tired of the
character of his conduct. I've made 1t
as lenient as possible for him. Now the
time has arrived when he must stop.
Listen to me. Tell your Admiral that
the slightest infraction of these orders by
himself or his officers will mean but one
thing. Tell him what / say-it will
mean war. Make no mistake when l
say that it will mean war. If your peo-
pie are ready for war with the United
States, you can have it in five minutes
| am free to admit that the Admiral's
speech to that officer took my breath
away
"As that officer left to go back to his
ship he said to an American officer,
whose name l do not recall: 1 think
your Admiral does not exactly under
stand ooh. yes, he does, said the
American officer, He not only under
stands, but he means every word he
says
THAT was the end of that bosh. After
that the Germans didn't dare to breathe
more than four times in succession with
out asking the Admirals permission.
Captain Coghlan related some of the
experiences at Manila in this vein "We
held our last consultation at the dinner
hour the night before the fight, and the
Admiral said that we were going in that
night. don't think any of us ate much
dinner. We went in in calm sea, al
though we were not so calm ourselves.
About midnight we became little anx
ious, because we had arrived at point
where we had been informed there were
lots of torpedoes anchored for us, Now,
the torpedo is all very well in the store
house, but they're bad things to have
floating around a ship. I've shot some
myself and they sometimes show an in
clination to turn around and come back
after you've started them. They're
loving sort of an animal and seem to
hate to leave you. But when we got to
the entrance and the Olympia went
through without being blown up we felt
better; we felt positively brave when
the Baltimore went through all right,
and were ready to go right through
Y Il