The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1899-02-22
STORY OF THE FIGHT.


at santiago July 8.
Talk Delivered Before the Franklin In
stitute at Philadelphia Interesting
Description Of the Destructive Effects
OF the American Cannon = Spanish
aud Americans Contrasted - The
wrecks Described Fine Write up Of
the Talk.
Prof. w. s. Aldrich of the Univer-
sity on last Thursday evening deliver
ed very fine talk before the Mechan-
ical and Engineering section Of the
Franklin Institute Of Philadelphia.
The Public Ledger gives the following
account of the event. The write up
Is great compliment to one Of Nor
gantown's most eminent and deserv-
ing citizens. 1t is as follows:
Prof. William s. Aldrich, who was
engineer on the United States repair
steamer Vulcan-a floating machine
shop-during the war with Spain, gave
an illustrated account Of the work
of the Vulcan with Admiral Samp-
sons fleet before the Mechanical and
Engineering Section of the Franklin
Institute on Thursday evening.
The speaker presented the principal
features Of the campaign against San
tiago in an entirely new light, and de-
scribed the events of the now historic
sea battle In such vivid light that,
although the details were of the most
practical character, the story was in
tensely dramatic. 1t should be told
in larger hall and to greater audi
ence.
The Vulcan was something new in
| naval warfare She accomplished
much more than the task that was as
signed to her. She was expected to
look after the steam pipes and boilers
and the machinery Of the complicated
cruisers and battle ships. She had
much less of that work to do than had
been anticipated, but she unexpect-
eddy became floating shipbuilder:
she repaired breaches In the vessels
plates; patched holes where the enc
my's shots had found weak spot; cast
CRATE bars for furnaces, and did much
work which would seem impossible to
have been performed on shipboard.
AS an instance Of this, Professor AL
drich spoke of making some pretty
large castings. The wooden deck of
the Vulcan, covered with sand and as
bestos paper took fire from the streams
Of molten iron which would escape
from the mould. Underneath those
decks were hundreds Of pounds Of gun
cotton and tons Of loaded shells, which
Admiral Sampson had put aboard the
vessel, because it was so large and
convenient. There was considerable
activity on board on one occasion when
a drop of this molten metal dropped
down hatchway.
The practical interest of the lecture
from naval point of view was his de-
scription of the condition the Spanish
vessels, as was shown by critical ex-
animation by the officers of the Vulcan
and the other officers of the feet, after
they had been burned and wrecked on
the beach. He particularly described
the Infanta Maria Teresa, Admiral
Cervera's flagship, the Amirante
Oquendo and the Viscaya. These
were sister. ships, constructed under
the plans of Admiral Cervera himself
equipped with the most modern guns,
with the latest thing in speaking
tubes and telegraphic signals; yet
within thirty-fve minutes after the
Spanish Admiral left the mouth of
Santiago harbor his vessel was on fire
from stem to stern, his guns silenced
his fire apparatus useless, his commun-
ication with different parts destroyed
and his ship headed to the beach
wreck.
Professor Aldrieh showed from the
internal evidences on these vessels that
their faulty construction contributed
directly to this disastrous result
The lantern photographs and the dia-
grams emphasized his descriptions of
these faults. The most glazing of
these was that the protective armor
belt was far below the gun deck Al
though it ran pearly the whole length
of the vessels, there was no evidence
of its having been struck by our shot
and shell. Above this supported by
very light iron framework, was the
gun deck, with 81 inch Hontoria guns
on each side, with thin protective
armor entirely insufficient for the pro-
lection of the gunners, and two tur-
rets, each with an | | inch gun en- bar
bette, that is with no top, but only
hood Of thin metal over the gun for
the protection of the gun crew. Our
6 inch shells went through the thin
iron and killed the gunners, in one
case passing through both sides of the
ship without exploding; in another
case 6 inch shell went through the
turret hood, struck the gun, exploded
and killed all the officers in the turret
and most of the men. The most re-
markable shot struck one of the YES
sells in the stern, above the armor
belt and about waist high on the gun
deck, passing the whole length of the
vessel, killing the crews of the five
guns on that side and passing out at
the bow.
The evidence also showed that our
gunners aimed at the sides of the YES
sells directly below the turrets, their
shots not only destroying the thin ar.
NOR, but so weakening the supports of
the turrets that they sunk and almost
toppled over. One picture shows this
effect, with the IL inch turret gun
pointing skyward. 1t was also noted
as remarkably bad feature that the
decks were of wood and contributed
to the destruction of the ships as soon
as our shells exploded.
The speaker, referring to the means
of communication on ship suggested
that every class, whether pneumatic
or electric, should have its main lines
below the danger line, and that per-
pendicular risers should be taken from
these to the points to be reached.
The address was concluded with a de-
scription of Hobson's work in raising
the Maria Teresa, her abandonment
at sea during hurricane and her
stranding on Cat Island, which, he
stated, had been Unidentified as the
very island on which Columbus first
raised the flag of Spain.
WHAT IT'S FOR.