The San Francisco call., 1899-06-20
NO CONTROVERSY
DURING BATTLE
Occurrences on Bridge
of Brooklyn.
SCHLEY AND HODGSON'S TALK
DANGER OF RUNNING INTO THE
TEXAS POINTED OUT.
Comment on the Conduct of the Ad-
miral Causes Investigation
and Report to the Navy
Department.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

WASHINGTON, June 19.-The occur
rences on the bridge of the Brooklyn dur
ing the battle of July 8. having been the
subject of a controversy in the newspa-
pers, the Navy Department recently
undertook an investigation of the various
ALLEGATIONS. Lieutenant Commander
Hodgson and Lieutenant Commander
Heilner, who have figured in the contro-
versy, were both called upon for eXplana-
tions of the utterances attributed TO them,
and the former was directed to report for
examinat tion on this point to Captain
Chadwick at Boston. The department has
now given out for publication Captain
Chadwick's report on the matter. 1t is
not yet determined whether or not the
answer of Lieutenant Commander He'll
ner will be made public at this time
Chadwick 5 report is as follows:
L. S. S. New York, Boston. Mass. June i,
1s99.-Sir: In obedience TO your orders OF the the
statement by Lieutenant Commander Hodg-
son of the conversation between Rear Ad-
riral Schley and himself during the action or
July 3, 1895. He states as follows AS We
were approaching the Spanish ships heard
Admiral schley say Port or staTnoara I5fr,s sgny
tower, the admiral being on the platform sur
rounding the coming tower; l had been on
the bridge above and was just coming DOWN
to report the position of the ship when heard
the admiral say Hard a port. The Maria
Tarass was then hauling abaft port beam.
Tho Rrooklvn was heading about northeast.
| told the admiral, or at least suggested to
him. that the Texas was very close on our
etarboard hand and that turning 10 starboard
would bring us close to her. L don't know that
l used the word collision. did not say you
stand there was danger OF running into the
Texas He said All right or words 70 that
effect-I cannot repeat verbatim When |
knew he going to turn to starboard
suggested backing the starboard engine in or
der 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 | know OF, we are near
/ enough to them (the Spaniards) already The
| oniv thing I gathered from what he said was
that If we turned to port we should get so
close that we should expose ourselves 5. to tor
/ pedo attacks l suppose he meant torpedo
boats and replied to him that had not seen
them" =,
/ denial sent at the request of Admiral Schey,
and published in the Washington Post, the
idea that no such colloquy took place he
states regarding this, as follows; Admiral
Schley wrote me. inclosing an editorial from
New York paper of June |, asking me TO
write denial of what he phrased IAN oft
/ repeated calumny." He said he had no recoI-
lection of any such conversation 1 wrote q
/ lengthy letter of explanation giving my recol-
lection of the conversation as nearly as posi-
! HE Admiral Schlev wrote me. saying: There
ig much in YOUR letter which 1 should not like
to use as it would provoke an assault upon
YOU which 1 would not like to happen. What
! ! want to show is that the dialogue did not
! occur" / then wrote denial Of the colloquy,
certainly not intending that no such colloquy
/ At the same time, I sent with this an ex-
! pIanatory letter explaining to Admiral Schley
! that the letter of denial was denial OF the
dialogue as it appeared in print and that
had told the correspondent of the paper that
/ the substance of the conversation was correct.
In writing the letter l wished to refute the
| fact of any controversy existing at critical
stage of the battle. It (the letter. was a
! denial OF the words as they stood in the
published article. a denial of their literal cor
rectness and not a denial of the substantial
correctness of the statement.
A copy Of the letter has not been retained
by him: he had rough draft which has been
Tntslaid Lieutenant Commander Hodgson ap-
| pends his signature a voucher for the ac-
curacy with which the foregoing is given. Very
respectfully, F. z. CHADWlCk,
Captain L. s. y.
A. G. HODGSON.
Lieutenant Commander L. S. N.
To the Secretary of the Navy.