The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1899-10-01
PLANS WERE LAID
IN HONG KONG
Admiral Dewey Has Said Manila
Was Won Before Leaving.
SAILED INTO UNKNOWN WATER
The Difficult and Dangerous Feat Of
Navigating The Ships Afer
Entering The Bay.
INTO UNKNOWN WATER


Dewey has said. not once only, but q
doren titnvu. This battle was won In
Hong Kong harbor"
There Ia probably no well Informed
perpon now left who supposes that
Commodore Dcwey's preparation for
The destruction OF the Spanish feet be-
gan when he heard that war had been
declared. and neither In Il probable
that any one who was not present OF
has not been through some similar cx-
perlrncc can have any realization Of
What that preparation meant. Il was
not alone the eonoealing and proyIs-
ioning OF tho ships. tho grooming OF
them aud the making Of them ready
for tho greatest possible efficiency Of
service. nor dld Il end with the buy.
lng Of the British steamers Nanshan
and Zafro 70 ~ with the fest and
carry coal and supplies
Every possibility of the expedition
was thought out. discussed. provided
for and disposcl o. The enemy might
be met here. or he might be met therc;
he might be- met by day or night under
this condition OF under that condition.
IN any and every conceivable case
Dewey and his captains knew what was
to be done, And 80 carefully had the
whole problem b,vn studied that when
IL was finished Dewey aud bis cap.
iains though they wep prepared for
anything that might happen. believed
that the battle would be fought Just
whore Il finally was and just In the
way that Il was.
The commodore and the captains
were together constantly. planning,
studying. questioning considering. de-
batting Any one who had plan or q
suggestion made Il, and Il was consId-
cred. And all this time spaniards were
circulating false reports about Manila,
us defenRcB, the Spanish fleet and It's
probable movements. and the commo-
dore had to take all that he heard
and make up his mind what he should
believe and wha, he should dlsbellcye.
There was no voting among the officers.
When the studying and considering
Wcro done. the commodore alone gave
the verdict, lie told the othcrs what
WAS to he done and what was to be the
.....a - .u.h it, .I.lufr
There was no dlstrust among the
officers and thcrc was none among the
men. They all knew the commodore.
John Barrett, who has just published a
book about Admiral Dewey, tells OF a
convcrsatlon he had with a gunner OF
the Olympia, Mr. Barrett asked
Where did you think YOU were going,
aud what did you expect to do, when
you called away from Mrs Bay7"
"Go and dcg" the gunner answered,
Damn little did or any one else on
this ship care as long as the old man
was ordering Il. We knew We were
going to hot place, and meant to
make IL hotter stil for the spanlords;
but, man, we would have sailed right
into hell after him"
The ships approached Manila bay
ON April 80. The commodore had heard
that the enemy intended 20 meet him
al Point sublg, but II this was true
the cncmy failed to keep the appoint
mont The Boston and the Concord re-
ccnnoltred the region, but found no
Spanish ships, At 1850 o'clock that
night the squadron entered Manila bay
by the south channel The ships were
IN tho same order as when they left
ailrs BAY, except that the McCulloch
and transports fell in behind the Bos-
ton. All the lights We're masked ex-
cent n screened light at the stern OF
each vessel, for the vessel behind to fol-
low
So the leet steamed up the bay TO-
ward Manila. Commodore Dewey, Lieu
tenant Calklns the navigator OF the
OLYMPIA, stood together all night max
ing their way through unknown waters
guiding their ship and those that fol-
lowed It simply by what Information
they had gained hundreds OF miles
away II was an act OF great bold
ness and terrible responsibility to make
such an entrance, but Dewey had work.
ed out the problem and believed that
this was the right way, and that was
enough. The other ships followed
overy commander on the bridge. All
who could be allowed to sleep slept be-
side the guns, which were loaded and
as ready for action as the men,
At daybreak Of Sunday, May l. the
souadron was ON Manila, and at b'lo
o'clock II was fired on by three batter
les IN Manila and two near Cavite ana
by the Spanish fleet The Spanish
feet consisted Of the Castillo, the
velasco the Don Juan de Austria the
Reina Crlstlna, the Tsla de Cuba, the
Isla de Luzon, the Don Antonio de ul-
loa and numerous small gunboa's'
AS the American ships came along two
mlnea were exploded ahead Of the
olympia. but the spanlards had been
too impetuous, as usual; they had
blown their mines too soon. and no
harm was done It is not the Ameri-
can way to begin firing before firing
can have any effect, and It was twenty