The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-23
Sea Fight at Santiago From an
Engineers View.
ONLY TWO WERE PREPARED
Placing Responsibilities Un-
Salt Waterford Crates.
(Arthur Warren in the Engineering
MagaZine)

All war correspondents are not i'm
mune. Their susceptibility to the fever
of excitement may be a qualification
One Of the feverish accounts of the
sinking of Cervera's fleet began: "As
the smoke from the Spanish vessels
rose from behind the hills at the mar
row entrance of Santiago harbor a fur-
ried signal from the Brooklyn was fol-
lowed by rush of the American crews
to the winches, and then all the Yam
kee ships weighed anchor and started
full speed after the enemy"
The account was possibly graphic,
but it was not true. The crews did not
rush to the winches, because they were
not ordered to do SO; there would have
been no object. The ships did not
weigh anchor, because in weeks they
had not dropped an anchor They did
were not in condition. : How
was it that the correspondents at San
tiago omitted to mention a fact no less
important than this-that on that
Sunday morning when the Spanish
fleet broke out from the harbor of
Santiago the American fleet was I'M
prepared to make a quick movement
of any kind in the face of the enemy
For the navy the war with Spain
in American waters was an engineer
are brave enough and keen tacticians,
no doubt, but the best part of the
Spanish fleet would have slipped
through somebody's fingers that Sun
day morning at Santiago if America s
fighting engineers had not, by the
hardest of work, overcome the obsta-
Giles imposed upon them by orders
from the bridge. If the fighting had
been against men more nearly kin
say English or German-under condi-
tions identical with those off Santiago
on the morning of July 8, some Amer
lean hulks might now be rusting at
the bottom of the trOpic seas. For en-
gines were uncoupled and many fires
out and steam so low that all the en-
ergy of the stokers was required to get
it up again.
The American ships had been off the
coast for weeks, waiting for the enemy
to come out, the American ships were
ready to shoot but not give chase. This
was no fault of the engineers. 1t was
not the effect of over-confidence. 1t
was the result of a condition. The
condition is peculiar to naval practice.
1t was long ago discarded in the mer-
cnant service. In the merchant service
a chief engineer controls his depart
ment. In the navy the Captain controls
by the commanding officer of the fleet.
The chief engineer of an Atlantic liner
looks to his Captain for starting and
stopping signals only; for rest, he
takes his orders from his owners and
reports to them. The chief engineer
alone is responsible for the care, oper-
alton and economy of the machinery.
In the navy the ships Captain decides
how many boilers shall be used, how
much coal shall be burned, what pres
sure shall be carried. And the Amer
lean Captains at Santiago had every
thing in readiness except their boilers
and engines. There were two eXcep- |
,ions-the Oregon and the Gloucester. |
Eternal vigilance is the price of |
good engines. Robert Milligan, fight |
ng engineer, and the men under him |
put the Oregon where the men behind |
he guns could destroy the best ships |
IF Spain. Forced-draught |
practice answers to Gen. Sherman's |
of war. 1t is hell. Every |
ship in the United States service is
by the regulations to have
| orced-draught test twice a year,
Only the commander of the ship can
order ii. But some of the ships have /!
lever made a fOrced-draught run since !
heir trips. Perhaps the Captains do |
not believe in it. At any rate their
n emergency.
Milligan declined to ask the Captain
or permission TO use forced draught.
He knew that his shorthanded crew
we're working hard enough, and half I.
heir work was still before them, and a
light at the end of it. Or the fight might |
come any day. But the men had caught |
he spirit of their shirt. Their pride was f.
o keep everything in readiness. The /
not to get them to work, |
out TO prevent them from overwork- /
ng. When the chief saw that they F..
,eally wanted to try forced draught for .
he ships sake he persuaded the Capt. |
% let them do it. 1t was to them what
gun drill is to the men on the deck and |
n the turret. So they did it, and they |