The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-01-01
ENGINES WERE NOT FIRED UP
Arthur Warren Tells Tales Out Of School
Regarding Our Battleships Before
Santiago Last July.
The BIG SEA DOGS NOT READY TO FIGHT
Flagship New York a Lame Duck For-
ward Engines Wholly Disconnected
Boilers Empty and Fireless.

Tor permission to use forced draught.
He knew that his rt-handed crew
were working hard enough, and half
their work was still before them, and a
fight at the end of 1t. Or the fight
might come any day. But the men
had caught the spirit of their chief:
their pride was to keep everything IN
readiness. The difficulty was not to get
them to work, but to prevent them
from overworking. When the chief
saw that they really wanted to try
forced draught for the ships sake, he
the captain to let them do it.
1t was to them what gun drill is to
the men on the deck and In the turre-.
So they did 1t, and they did it again,
and at Santiago they handled the force
draught like a plaything.
Not an ounce Of salt water was al
lowed In the Oregon's boilers. Milligan,
writing from Callao to brother officer,
said: Il fear that l am rapidly be-
coming the most unpopular man in the
ship, because am determined that we
snail not put salt water in the boilers,
and to that end have insisted to the
captain that if necessary, we must cut
down the fresh water allowance for
officers and men to the bare amount
necessary for drinking and cooking,
using SAT- water Tor DatnlnR ana all
other purposes"
The lay mind might suppose that the
object of sending the fleet to Santiago
was to have it ready to jump at the
enemy at the sound Of the general
alarm. There is touch of the farcical
in building warships, equipping them
with powerful machinery, to be able,
at the instant of battle, to get out of
them only a fraction of their power.
I. i ~,
the fashion of Gilbertian topsy-turvey-
dom. SO the American fleet waited for
the Spaniards with engines uncoupled,
boilers filled (as they had long been)
with salt water when they were not
empty, and half the CRATES as clean
as whistles and as cold as ice boxes.
''On the fighting ship the fighting
man must stand supreme said Theo-
dore Roosevelt, when he was assistant
secretary Of the United States navy.
And then he shrewdly added: only
he must know how to handle his tools,
and must change as the ship changes,
so that, precisely as he once knew
about sails, now he must know about
engines. There can be no divided COM
mand. Only one man can exercise it:
but he must be thoroughly fitted for
it."
1--WE were caught unprepared," said
one of the United States engineers at
Santiago; low fires in three boilers,
others empty, and furnaces not charS-
ed"
Then there was the Brooklyn. She
had five double-ended and two single
ended boilers, the equivalent Of six
double-end boilers, in three water-
tight compartments. She steamed from
Hampton Roads to the south coast Of
Cuba, via Key West, using four boilers
and four engines over the entire dis
lance.
The commodore or the captain al
ways designated the number Of boilers
and engines to be used on the Brook
lyn. In practice it took half an hour
or more to couple the forward pair to
the after pair of engines, and nearly
al hour to uncouple them. There are
no friction brakes fitted to the Brook
lyn's propeller shafts, as In the case
of the triple-screw cruisers; SO, aboard
the flagship of the flying squadron
it was necessary, when coupling up the
forward engines, to stop one after en-
CINE and run the other slowly for half
an hour or longer, and then repeat the
operation on the other side of the ship
There was another, way to do it; they
could stop both port and starboard
engines, and then couple up!
HALF POWER ONLY.
w nGH luSIS was IO C1lCAiy o1iS 1ASA Z
about-on the way from Hampton
Roads to Santiago-the flagship of the
United States flying squadron had
all her engines and four Of her boilers
in use. When she went on the block
ade at Santiago and had the enemy in
touch, the flagship Of the flying
squadron had only half her engine
power and half her boiler power,ready
hr-i1
enemy to signal: please connect your
engines and boilers and be good enough
to light your fires. I am coming out!"
Admiral Cervera was polite enough to
pay the Brooklyn the compliment Of
his best intentions. He acknowledges
that he thought her the fastest of the
United States ships, and that his hope
was to disable or sink her. Admiral
Schley commodore, as he then was)
turned his ship to starboard. swung
to the south and ran Stewards before
taking up a parallel course with the
now retreating Spaniards. Schley is
reported to have turned his ship in or
der to avoid being rammed. 1t might
be asked why he didn't do the RAM
ming himself. But, ii he had desired
to do it and if his ship had been built
for it, he couldn't have managed it
with only half his engine power. He
had steam only in three boilers; of his
remaining boilers, some had water,
others were empty. The interesting
maneuyers of the Brooklyn will be
none the less interesting If it is found
on investigation that standing orders
from the bridge to the engine room had
deprived the ship of so much Of her
power that she had to turn on her heel
and keep at a respectful distance from
the Spaniard.
After the general alarm was sound
ed there was nothing for it but to fill
the Brooklyn's empty boilers with sea
water. Then the fires had to be laid
and started. Just before the Colon
surrendered-that is, just at the end of
the battle-all the Brooklyn's boilers
were steaming at maximum pressure.
But the forward engines were, of
course, uncoupled still There had
been no time to stop or to slow up. The
engineers had their hands full with the
job of showing the ship after the
Spaniard, then pulling her away from
him and then running with him SO that
the man behind the gun could pump
shells into him. The Brooklyn's ac-
tual running time over the forty-f1ve
miles from MORO to the stranded Colon
was three hours and nineteen minutes
"a speed of 1906 knots. At her rated
speed under natural draught full power
is Is knots; under forced draught, %
knots. But the Brooklyn was not the
only ship caught unawares on that
hustling Sunday morning off Santiago
bay. SIMPSONS flagship, the New
York, was
ONE OF THE LAME DUCKS
of the fleet. The trifling distance be-
tween her eastward position and the
line of the dash of Cervera was not
what kept her out of the battle Her
forward engines, by orders from the
bridge, were disconnected. There were