The Monticellonian., 1901-10-11
and he remarked. God bless the ore-

T Ff
 on our starboard quarter at full speed, | We continued in that position until the | Brooklyn speed began to increase. as we | got up steam, and probably drew a little | farther ahead from the oregon. She nev-
 CT was that close to us again. as l re-
 member The Oquendo very shortly fell | out and went ashore. The Colon grad | ually drew ahead, and also went in shore.
 remember very well the time that the
 Nizcaya blanketed her from our fire This ! chase was continued in that direction un- | til, when off Acerraderus the Vfzcaya | ported her helm and ran in shore. The
 Colon at this time had gained speed, and | was tn shore, l suppose, some seven mics Alter passing the Nizeaya, we steamed ahead and ceased firing.
 The men were allowed to come out of | the turrets one at a time, to get breath
 ing spell, although, of course. all guns were manned and everything ready, but | the gaining upon the Colon was very slow | in fact, she gained apparently on us. This was about n:15, when the Nizeaya stood | in for Aeerraderos. The chase was con | tinued then after the Colon. l knew 1t
 must be six or seven miles away, untd 1 we gradually began to gain. l remem- l Der keeping the stadimeter at work on
 her, although the lS,000 yards would not
 register on the stadincJ er. l remember at one time telling Commodore Schiey that 1 1t was within about 3,000 yards, and my
 recollection i5 he told someone to signal 1 the Oregon to try one of her 'railroao l trains. At any rate, shortly afterward
 the Oregon fired one of her l3-ineh shells, 1 which feil short. Then ee tr!ei with B. | lIlAli SiltHS anu they IGI SHufI. I ne OTG- 1 gon was signaling to us the fall of our 1 shot, and We sgnaled to her the fall or
 her shot We continued occasionally t. l fire the Oregon her 1S and S-inch guns
 and We our S-inch guns.
 "I remember seeing one of the 19-incn 1 shells of the oregon fall well ahead in 1 shore of the Colon, and one of our S-incn i shells apparently fell in-shore of the | Colon. At that time the Colon ported | helm hard-a-port. Previously to this she l had ported her helm once or twice, ap- | parently seeking Il soft spot or shore. | She fired her lee gun and hauled down her flag. l pulled out my watch: 1t was ex- l slowed down. and orders were given to get out boat. The captain was ordered | 10 go on board to make terms with or
 tell the terms of the commanding officer of the Colon"
 How far was the Oregon from the 1 Brooklyn2"
 Prom 1000 to 1.5oo yards on the star | board quarter.
 The witness In reply to questions, con, l tinued his report of the battle He sald i that at the beginning of the fight he had given the range at l.4O0 yards, but that
 after the loop il was about 2,4eO or 2.500 | yards
 MT Rayner: What was the bearing of | Commodore Schley- during Uhis engage
 ment ar any engagement in which you | saw him?'
 His bearing and manner with respect l to an officer of his rank and station in the naval service. were naturally those of a commander-in-c chief of q naval force l commodore had occupied d place on a | platform around the coming tower dur
 ing the engagene It. This. he said, was
 a position of danger. as the commodore
 was there always in full view of the enc
 my,s ships.
 Rayner, that the Brooklyn ran 2.000 l yards away from the enemys ships in I making her loop"
 The witness replied: Any witness who l made that statement, although he may l have stated what he thought had oc- cured, was absolutely mistaken" How far did she go from the enemys 1 vessels"
 "She must have gone about 600 yards to l the southward. as that is about the tactpe l cal diameter Of the Brooklyn at that
 Did this turn interfere with the Brook i lyn's ability to keep up Aer fre?'
 Tt did not; she continued to fire from
 Did you ever see the Indiana during ! the engagement2f
 T did not. The smoke was very dense 1 in the direction of the Indiana. At this point Mr. Rayner questioned the l witness at length concerning his report 1 ed coiloquy with Admiral Sehley during l the battle off Santiago in which the com
 modore was reported tp hdVc said | DAMN THE TEXAS
 MT. Rayner asked the witness if 1t was 1 not Capt. Cook who had given the order
 to port helm" The reply was that
 Capt. Cock might have given the order l to the man at the wheel
 MT. Rayner then asked: Did Commo- l dore Sehley give the order to port the
 helm2"
 He did" was the reply. Was the helm already aport?' 1 ''I guess so; Capt. Cook says so Objection was made by Capt. l4emly to
 witness, but Admiral Dewey said the form | of the expression Was immaterial, and
 asked that counsel should not interrupt. Continuing his statement in response to | MT. Rayners question, the witness said 1 that when his conversation with Commo- l dore Schley had occurred on the Brook | lyn, the commodore was standing on the | platform around the coming tower and ] two or three feet from himself (the wit
 ness1, and that Capt. Cook, part of the
 time, stood in the door of the coming | tower four or five feet distant.
 He said that Capt. Cook had taken part | in the conversati )n. MT. Rayner ther questioned the witness very closely in re- | loQuy was reported by the newspapers,
 and the language used by MT. Hodgson in | his correspondence with Admiral Schley. | He read the newspaper version of Com | mander Hod,ss1u S stat ement of the coi- | loquy as follows:
 | "SchIey-'Hard port"
 '.Hodgson-sYou mean starbonrd.' - | "Schley-'No, I don't. We are near
 enough to them dhe Spaniards) aI- | rendy.'"
 "H os rson-'But 1t will cut down tn e
 Texas"
 "SchIey-'Dnmn the Texas; let her
 look out for herseIf.'"
 MT. Rayner then had the witness scrutinize the letter which he had wrii- ten to Admiral Schley on June s, ana drew from him the statement that he had not then informed the admiral that he had used the expression Damn the Texas"
 When the witness was asked if he
 thought there was any suggestion of such
 gested to Commodore Schley that there was danger of collidng with the Texas he said Damn the Texas He used the expression as not In any way condemn ing the Texas for being there but as if he were irritated as one might be about anything"
 MT Rayner asked then about the ex- pression attributed to the witness: "She will cut down the Texas" Commander Hodgson replied that there was no such expression in the letter, and that he never
 had said that the Brooklyn would cut
 down the Texas. "@rhere Is good deal
 fin that reported colloquy that I did not
 never made" he went on. but the com
 modore did say DAMN THE TEXAS.'''
 Continuing, he said that the dialogue as
 reported was fictitious, and that he had
 denied it's verbal accuracy while not de-
 nying the truth of pert of it. He said
 that he had told Admiral Schley that he
 could 1ot repudiate the entire statement,
 request him to do more than deny its
 verbal accuracy. He already had before
 writing his explicit denial TOLD THE ADMIRAL THAT HE COULD NOT DE- NY THE WHOLE STORY. He had given the newspaper reporter authority orig,