Omaha daily bee., 1899-09-17
OMAHA ILLUSTRATED BEE.

800 I'LL IVA LII bblAl
us would go off with a roar and a jar
that would shake everything. The grind
ing, rafting cogs and racks and other ma
of the turret we're In constant
operation, making a frightful noise. Four
electric hoists we're sending up ammunition
for the five and eight-inch guns as fast as
we could operate them. The handwhips for
the one-pounders and six-pound-
ers were not idle a minute. Four big cleo
trio ~dynamos were buzzing continually in
our ears, the air compressor was pumping
all the time, packing atmosphere into
an Accumulation at a pressure of ZOO pounds
to the square inch, TO be used in firing tor
pedces, IL the opportunity arose. Every man
in the compartment was working as IL the
result of the battle depended solely upon
him. On account of the unmerciful noise
we had to low to make ourselves heard,
and our bowls added to the other sounds
made the place a perfect ~pandemonium.
News for the Men Below.
Every once in a while word of how
things were going would be passed to us.
Sometimes the news would seem encourag-
ing; sometimes the reverse. The facts were
American fighting men don't need to be lied
to in order to keep up their courage. Every
time we got a bit of information-good, bad
or Indifferent, it made no odds-we gave
three rousing cheers for Dewey and the
flag and worked all the harder, down there
in the depths of the ship.
Suddenly some one called down that the
Reina Christina was coming out after us and
that a torpedo shot was to be taken at her.
That made the heart of me come right up
into my mouth, and l did wish l were on
deck and not below. The next minute l
a that NV wish WAC tn ha prati6pd for |
was called up to put the torpedo in order.
l am sure l never worked so hard in my
life as 1 did trying to get that torpedo oft.
Some little thing was out of order, and that
made delay. Meanwhile the Spanish ship
kept coming nearer and nearer. From the in
slant of her starting out the vessel had
been made a special target for the guns on
every one of our ships, but she didn't slacken
at first, and she got to within 1000 yards
of us before there vas any sign of slow
ing down. We had just got that torpedo
ready to launch, and l was looking to see
the biggest show I'd ever seen in my life,
when the Reina Christina turned tail, rid
died with shot and shell, and started, ruined,
for the shore. I'd have given six months
pay rather than suffered that disappointment.
Now I'm afraid l shall never have a chance
to see a Yankee torpedo blow up a Spanish
ship.
Dewey at His Best.
when did Dewey seem at his best to us
who were at Manila with him? All the time.
Dewey was never anything but at his best,
yet / have three special memories of him
when he was at better than his best.
while l was on deck trying to get that
torpedo in shape for the Spaniards I saw
him on top of the chart house, in the most
exposed place he could possibly find, direct
ing the proceedings. Uncle George was
well worth seeing then.
'After the battle was over and we knew
we had the Spaniards licked, he was so
happy his face fairly shone when he thanked
the men of the Olympia for their part in the
fight. He was pretty we'll stirred up then,
I tell you, and so was everybody else, and
the cheers we gave him just lifted us off our
feet.
"Dewey's face shone again the day the
first lot of Yankee transports, bringing thou
sands of blue soldiers steamed into Manila
bay. He wasn't well that day, but the ar
rival Of the transports made him better.
some time later a boat brought a cablegram
to the Olympia. Soon after he had read 1t
all hands were called on deck. We expected
something highly important, but we couldn't
guess what. We'd never seen Dewey so