The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1900-02-26
4 SPANISH OFFICER
On the Destruction Of Admiral Ger
vera's Fleet,
A VERY ONE SIDED CONFLICT.

fanta Maria Teresa. Says the Span
ish Vessels Were Attacked, One by
Washington, Feb. 26.-The bureau of
naval intelligence has issued fresh
volume of its war notes series and
probably the last of them which will
bear on the battle of Santiago harbor.
The present publication is transla-
tion from the Spanish of Captain Vic
tor M. Concas y Palau, formerly COM
mander of the cruiser Infanta Maria
Teresa and chief Of staff to Admiral
Cervera in the battle Of July 3.
Like number of previous articles
from officers of the Spanish squadron
bearing on the same subject. Captain
Concas devotes considerable space to
the lack of naval preparation in Spain
prior to the war and also to condemn
ing the political party in Spain which
was responsible for offering up the
crippled squadron as a sacrifice on the
altar of an historic ideal All this has
been covered more fully in Admiral
Cerveras published defense.
The vital section of the narrative be-
gins with the exodus of the devoted
squadron from Santiago harbor. Cap
tain Concas says In accordance with
previous instructions, the Teresa head
ed towards the Brooklyn, hoping tor ram
her. This was frustrated by the Brook
lyn's frequently discussed loop" to
starboard, which Concas says brought
the Texas and the Iowa between her
and the Teresa A foot note inserted
in the narrative as this point reads:
THE turn was made to starboard,
though 1t would seem reasonable for it
to have been made 10 port" There is
nothing in the bureaus publication to
indicate whether this foot note is by
Captain Concas or not.
Continuing his story, Captain Con-
cas- tells of the successive sinking of
the Teresa and the other vessels of the
squadron. He dwells strongly on
point which he declares all other crit
les have overlooked namely, that ow-
ing to the narrow and tOrtuous channel
past the MORO, the Spanish vessels
had to come out so far apart that they
were each attacked by the combined
force of the American squadron and
destroyed in detail, making 1t practi-
cally series of combats, each time a
single ship against a squadron. He
calls attention also to the probability
that the American estimate of per
cent of hits out of the shots aimed at
Cervera's fleet is too low. He says the
most horrible mortality in every case
was in the upper works, where the
shots left no marks except those wiped
out by fire. He says per cent of hits
probably would not be too high
In defense of the Spanish gunnery
the writer says that Cerveras ships
fought either bow or stern on nearly
throughout the battle. This reduced
the number of guns they could bring to
bear. But he points out that the
Brooklyn. which was the only vessel
keeping up parallel broadside fight
at close range for any length Of time,
was struck Al times. As she was under
fire only OF the Vizcaya. the Teresa and
for short time of the best guns of
the Colon, Captain Concas says the
spaniards gave very good proof of
thei aDlllty as markSmen.
The author indignan0, denies that
the Colon was wrecked by her crew
after she had surrendered He says she
was run ashore and her sea valves
opened before her flag was hauled
down. He says that II Admiral Samp-
SON. with more seamanlike spirit,
had ordered the divers to close the
valves he could most certainly have
saved the cruiser, but with feverish
impotence he towed her off with his
own flagship, the New York.
Speaking of the nature Of the
wounds inflicted by modern naval shell
fire, Captain Concas declared them
more horrible than can be described.
A boatswain of the Teresa had IA
wounds. None of the men injured at
ell escaped with less than two. Many, !
he says, were blown into unrecosniz-
able fragments. The total mortality |
In the fleet reached the awful figure of |
y per cent of the men engaged