The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-27

From Schley.
Washington. September 25.-The first
witness called today in the Schley court
of inquiry was y. B. Claxton, the ma
chinist on board the Texas, who had
begun his testimony when the proceed
ings of the court was so abruptly ter
minated yesterday.
Mr.. ClaxtOn said on July 3, 1898, he
had been on duty in the engine room
of the Texas. The engine indicator had
called for full speed ahead early in the
morning which had, within an hour al
ter the beginning of the action been
changed to full speed astern." To his
knowledge there had been no signal Tor
the reversal of the engines. He SAID
that he had been excused from service
in the engine room, but still he knew
that the engines were reversed for
about two minutes.
ADMIRAL COTTON TESTIFIES.
Rear Admiral Cotton, now comman-
dant of the Norfolk navy yard who
commanded the auxiliary cruiser Har-
ward during the Spanish war. was the
next WlluGSS. he Sdlu lIIclI OAA ~'AeNS
q. 1898, he had delivered dispatches to
Commodore Schley from Admiral
Sampson and the navy department. He
had, he said, boarded the Brooklyn
about 1920 o'clock. The weather was
then moderate and he had had no diff
Guilty in going aboard the Brooklyn.
What was said about the dispatch? p
Il delivered to Commodore Schley the
original cipher in which the dispatches
had been received by me at st. Nicholas
Mole, together with Translation of those
dispatches made by Lieutenant BeaI.
of the Harvard. l handed them person
aIIy to him in his cabin in the order OF
their date. He received them, read
them and commented in a general way
upon their purpOrt; spoke of the dill
Guilty he had had in getting coal on
board his ships while at Cienfuegos and
subsequently to the date to which L
am speaking May 9th, and said it had
been an almost impossibility to get coal
on board on account of the weather.
He questioned me relative to the prac-
tiCability of cOaling ships at st. Nlchol-
as Mole and GOnaiveS channel. AS TO
st. Nicholas Mole, / said: There IS
no question the small ships can coal
there AS to GOnaiVeS camel, l know
of no reason why you should not be
able to coal there The commodore
made some remarks upon my state
mentS. the language of which l do not
recall, but he asked me: How about
the large ships at st. Nicholas Molc2'
/ said: You can't coal your big ships
there | had special reference in my
reply to the battleShips and protected
cruisers of the Brooklyn and New York
class. l said, thinking of the fact that
my own ship had been there and was
of some u ZOO tons displacement and
nearly 600 feet in length, possibly, TN
der favorable conditions, you might be
al tn coal the largo ShjDS there one
at a time but the area of deep water
for the anchorage of large ships is so
little there il was not practicable to
coal at the very utmost more than one
large ship at a time and in case the
weather became bad she would imme-
diately have to go to sea. 1 was anX-
iOuS while 1 was there with the Har-
ward, on account of her size and /
would have left at once in case bad
weather had come on. As remember
I recOllect no qualification as to Con-
aiyeS channel"
Admiral Cotton said in response to a
question from Captain Lemly that YES
sells of the fleet could have coaled where
they were on the 21th-at some time
during that day, he said. AS indica-
tive of the condition of the sea he said
he had used cookie shell boat in going
from the Harvard to the Brooklyn and
had worn white uniform.
w DIS StllS illIIlS Sdlu dl lIllS llIlls
about going to Key West for coal?'
Returning to what said with refer
ence to the difficulty which Commo-
dOre Schley stated to me he had had
in getting coal on board of any of the
ships at Cienfuegos, he said he was
very anxious. The coal supply was
getting short, the weather was bad and
it had been bad almost continuously.
It was a very serious problem as 10
how or whether he could possibly get
coal on board ships off Santiago. He
said if he found the weather did not
improve and he found it impracticable
to coal there he could only see one re-
sort and that was he would be COM
PEELED to return to Key West in order
to supply his ships with coal. Having
that question in view, he was appre-
hensiYe especially as to one ship, the
Texas. He did not even know at that
moment whether she had on board suf-
fcient coal to enable her to return to
reach Key West.
During my visit he gave an order
to make signal, a general signal, as I
remember it, not limited to the flying
squadron alone, to report whether the
ships had sufficient coal to reach Key
West. The signal was made or at least,
I assume it was made. At all events
during my presence with Commodore
Schley he received a report to the ef-
feet that all the ships, including the
Texas. had sufficient coal to return to
Key West. 1 think the commodore was
very much relieved when he received
this information.
Shortly afterward, I should say
within few minutes, he directed
signal to be made preparatory for the
ships to return to Key West. The Or
der was given in general way. /
cannot give the words of the order, but
what I have stated was their purport.
While I was still there he received a
report to the effect that the signals
we're read. Before 1 left ship he order
ed signals to be made for ships to form
preparatory for steaming to Key West.
no go back a bit. I had informed