Brookings weekly register. (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1898-1903, 1899-09-07

cially when half dozen ships are play
ing on the same target at the same
time.
The exciting times on the Iowa be-
gan long before Cervera thought of
dashing ont of the trap Sampson or
dered the Iowa on picket duty, watch
ing Cervera to see that he didn't take it
into his head to escape. "How far up
must / gof" Evans signaled to Samp-
son. $50 until you can distinguish the
movements of small rowing boat in
the harbor, was the answer. "How
long must stayr" was the next ques-
tion. "All night" came the answer
Evans says he went up until he could
detect the blinking eyes Of Spanish
sentries under the searchlight, and for
30 nights he kept that kind of watch
on Cervera.
Evans tars saw nothing in their
close vigil to scare them off from further
acquaintance. When the signal came
from the commander to muster volun-
teers for the Merrimac exploit, the en-
tire complement of 10 officers and 600
men on board the Iowa wanted to go.
After taking down the names Of $50
seamen Evans signaled the admiral to
know how many he could take from
the Iowa. lone seaman" was the re-
sponse to the query. In time the choice
lay between two-Murphy, who finally
went and Paine, who thinks he missed
the chance of his lifetime by an un-
lucky draw. Captain Evans called up
the aspirants and said: Now, lads.
whoever goes in the Merrimac goes to
almost certain death. There is not one
chance in a million that man of the
expedition will escape death.
When it came to the toss Of the coin,
Paine said to Murphy, 'I'l give you
$50 for your chanceV' Murphy said no.
Tipped the coin and won. Then Paine
said, "I'll give you $3.50 to let me take
your place" But Murphy was as ear
nest as Paine and quickly declined the
offer. Paine's shipmates said that he
actually shed tears over his disappoint-
ment. Murphy proved to be one Of the
best of Hobson's gallant crew. What
else the Iowa had to do with the Merri-
mac has been graphically told by her
brave commander.
1.-The entrance Of the Merrimac into
that barbor. said Captain Evans. "un-
der fire from every gun, ii seemed. of the
Spanish feet and fortress was the most
terrible sight ever saw. II can best be
described as hell with the lid off. The
next morning all we could see with our
glasses were the tops of the Merrimac's
masts, to which was fastened something
resembling raft. There was no sign
of life. and, of course. we thought it
was all mp with our comrades. l had
received orders from Sampson to allcw
no boat to approach the wreck, and soon |
my executive officer reported to me that |
a steam yacht was drawing near to it |
and asked if he should open fire.
"For some reason or other i cannot |
explain decided for the time being to |
disobey orders and told my officer to |
wait\a bit. Then we saw the yacht |
take ON board from the raft our COM |
rades under Hobson. Had l fired Of |
course they would have perished, as |
would have Admiral Cervera. who was |
on the barge. Hobson and his fellows |
had been clinging for hours with their !
hands to that raft, with bodies totally |
submerged, when the barge rescued |
them. have thanked God many times |
since that l refrained from firing on
that barge.