Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-20
Made Of the Schley Incl
dent Off Santiago.
OFT REPEATED CALUMNY
Is Denied By Lieutenant Commander
HOdgSOn Who Was on the Bridge
of the Brooklyn When C~ervera'S
Fleet Was Destroyed.

Washington, June 19.-The occurrences
on the bridge of the Brooklyn during the
battle of July 8 having been the subject
of controversy in the newspapers, the
navy department recently undertook an
investigation of the various allegations.
Lieutenant Commander Hodgson and
Lieutenant Commander Heilner, who
have figured in the controversy, were
both called on for explanations of the
utterances attributed to them. and the
former was directed TO report for exam
nation on this point to Captain Chadwick
at Boston. The department has now
given out for publication Captain Chad
wick's report on the matter. 1t is not yet
Lieutenant Commander Heilner will be
made public at this time. Chadwick's re-
port is as follows:
"T. S. S. New York, Boston. Mass,
June 17.-Sir: In obedience to your or
dels of the 18th inst. | have to report
the following as the statement by Lieu
tenant Commander Hodgson. of the con-
versation between Rear Adiniral Schley
and himself during he action of July ).
1898. He states as follows: AS we were
approaching the spanish ships | heard
Admiral SChley say port or starboard
several times to Captain Cook in the
coming tower, the admiral being on the
platform surrounding the tower. | had
been on the bridge above II was just
coming down to report the position of the
ship when l heard the admiral say hard
aport.' The Maria Teresa was then haul
ing abaft our port beam. The Brooklyn
was heading about northeast. | told the
admiral, Or at least suggested to him,
that the Texas was very close or our
~starboard hand. and that turning to star
board would bring us close to her. I
don't know that | used the word col
lision.' | did not say You mean star
board | intended to infer that there was
danger of running into the Texas. He
said. All right or words to that effect
l cannOt lepea verbatim. When I knew
he was going to turn to starboard 1
backing the starboard engine
in order to make a smaller circle and give
the Texas a wider berth, but he decided
against that as decreasing the speed
of the turn. He did not say that I know
of: We are near enough to them (the
Spaniards) already The only thing 1
gathered from what he said was that if
we turned to port we should get so close
that we would expose ourselves to torpedo
attacks. I ppo he meant torpedo
boats, and replied to him that l had not
seen them
Lieut.. Commander Hodsson states he
did not intend to convey in his note of
denial sent at the request of Admiral
Schley and published in the Washington
Post the idea that no such colloquy took
place. He states, regarding this, as fol-
lows: Admiral Schley wrote me, en-
closing an editorial from n New York
paper Of June /, asking me to write a
denial of what he phrased an Oft re-
peated calumny.'. He said he had no
recollection of any such conversation.
wrote a lengthy letter of explanation,
giving my recollection of the conversa-
ton as nearly as possible. Admiral
Schley wrote me saying: There is much
in our letter which ] hould not like to
use, as it would provoke an assault upon
you which I would not like to happen.
\ What | want to show is that the dialogue
did not occur | then wrote 4 denial OF
the colloquy, certainly not intending to
say that no such collouuy occurred, but
that it did not occur as printed. At the
same time I sent with this an expIana-
tory letter explaining to the adniral
that the letter of denial was a denial Of
the dialogue as It appeared in print and
that ! had told the correspondent of The
paper that the substance of the conversa-
ton was correct. In writing the letter |
wished to refute the fact of any contro-
versy existing at a critical stage of the
battle. 1t, the letter, was a denial of the
Z words as they stood in the published ar
ticle, a denial Of their literal correctness
and not Il denial of the substantial COR
rectness of the statement
4 copy of the letter has not been re-
tanned by him. he had a rough draft
which had been mislaid. Lieut.. Com
mande HOdgson appends his signature
as a voucher for the accuracy With which
the foregoing is given. Very respectfully,
"F. \. CHADWICK,
| Captain, L. s.. NJ"
"a. G. HODGSON,
lieutenant Commander, T.. $. ~"
To the secretary of the navy.