The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1899-06-16
a sroKrR.s STORY OF THE FIGHT.
WHAT TwITC HELL, OF THE RALEIGH,
DID AND DIDN'T SEE OF THE BATTLE
or MANILA.


WHAT TwITC HE'LL, OF THE RALEIGH,
DID AND DIDN'T SEE OF THE BATTLE
OF MANILA.
We all know about the man behind the
gun and the man on the bridge, and we
ali know about Dewey. What Of the fire.
man and the stoker At the battle OF Ma
Mia bay:
Down in the fire room Of the Raleigh,
the other day, Charles ii. Twitchell, who
was on the Olympia during the great sea
fight, told me how things went down in
the awful heat of the furnaces. Here is
TwitchelI's story in mis- own word -
"You see, there isn't much fun for q
man way down here, out OF sight Of
everything and everybody; it's work for
men, and plenty of it. You nay think
it hot down here now, but this Is para
disc alongside OF what we had when we
went for the Spaniards.
Midnight before the battle my shift
went down to take care of the engines.
just shout that time we got near to Cor
regidor, and the guns in the Spanish forts
woke US up and let US have 1t. We passed
'em all right and kept right on up the bay
as though nothing had happened.
"Of course we didn't know much of
what was going on up above. The battle
were shut in this little hole, the ventilst-
pipes being the only things left open.
Everybody had received orders to
stand by his post and do his best until
the shooting match was over. The tenn
perature was nearly up to 400 degrees at
this time, and it was so hot our hair was
singed. There were several leaks in the
steam pipes, and the Kissing hot steam
made things worse.
1.-THE clatter of the engines and the
roaring of the furnaces made such din
| it seemed ones head would burst. When
| a man could stand it no logger he would
put his head under the air pipe for mo-
ment and try to cool off little. The heat
grew so uDbesI ably fierce at times our
hands and wrists would seem On fire, and
we had to plunge them In water. All
the water we had was in an old pork bar
rel, and it tasted more like hot brine than
water. But bad as it was il would at
least moisren our throats. About half
past O'Clock that morning we were Or
dered on deck to get breath of fresh air
and cup of coffee. We were given to
understand when we dive6 down into our
furnaces again that the battle was going
TO begin at once.
1--WE knew that might mean that this
was the the last glimpse we would ever
pared to go to the bottom of Manila bay.
Battened down the way we were at the
bottom of the ship, had we been sunk
there would not have been the slightest
chance of escape.
''We could tell when our guns opened
fire by the way the ship shook; we could
scarcely stand on our feet the vibration
was so great. Just at that moment
glanced at the clock hanging on the wall,
and saw it was 10 minutes to O'Clock.
From that time on the din was some
thing horrible. Every once in while
one of the apprentice boys would come
to our ventilating pipe and shout down
from the deck what was going on. That
was the only way we could tell how the
battle was going. We kept on working
all the time as hard as we could. The
ship shook so fearfully that the SCOT and
cinders poured down on US in clouds.
Now and then big drop of scalding wa
ter would fall on our bare heads, and the
pain was intense. One by one three of
our men were overcome by the terrible
heat and were hoisted to the upper deck.
whenever Spanish ship would
make q move out towards US some of the
BOYS on deck would shout down that
they were coming for US full tilt. We
knew it mes Mt sure death IL the Olympia
got shot through ner anywhere In our
vicinity. We were suffering so much
from the heat and thirst that death didn't
brighten US. guess we all thought it
couldn't be much worse than what we
were going through. Along toward the
last of our first engagement an appren-
tice boy shouted down the pipe that
Spanish torpedo boat was making
straight for us. l don't believe any of
US had said more than word or two up
to that time, but at this news almost all
of us set up some kind of q shout. We
knew if that torpedo reached US that
would be the windup.
"But it never did reach US, and in 8
few minutes the boy yelled again and
said the boat had been riddled by our
guns. This news brought cheer from
the men, and we felt considerably better.
About O'Clock we drew OF for con-
sultation of war. We went deck then for
breathing spell and bite to eat, and l
can tell you we were mighty glad Of the
change. We were all surprised that the
decks weren't covered with blood and
mangled bodies, and could scarcely be-
lieve it when they told US no one was
hurt.
81 shall never forget those few hours
spent in front of the furnaces in Manila
bay. 1t seemed to me the longest day
ever lived. I'm not anxious to 60
through it again, and don't think any
of the others are