The Monticellonian., 1901-10-04
IS GETTING MONOIONOUS
The Schley Court of Inquiry Drags Along Upon Very Tedious
 Lines.
IS PROBING THE COAL QUESTION NOW,
An Attempt to Reduce to ENactitude Matter that >nyn. Men are Ac- custumrd tn Approximate Leads to Confusion of Present With Former Statements.

Washington. Oct. 1.@The bright sunshine and fresh air had the effect of bringing all the members of the Schley court of inquiry and the at tendants upon it to the court build ing rather earlier than usual.
 The first new witness of the day was Commander James NJ. Miller, who was in command of the collier Merri- mac while that vessel was d part of Admiral Schley's flying squadron.
 Commander Miller's testimony re- lated entirely to the matter of coal ing off the Cuban coast, and was only of technical interest His log was in complete. He said:
 When | was taken out summarily from the Merrimac, nearly everything l had was lost, and the only thing l can remember now, with the few notes l have here. is in this log.
 The court asked: Could you have coaled any of the vessels on May 25. had you been ordered to do so?'
 To this the reply was: Il should jude so, to the best of my knowledge and belief say | could coal, yes l could coal at any time, but, then, | could not have coaled comfortably. For the other ships it was what We call a nasty sea, and squally, rainy weather, and if | had my choice I would not have on that day; that is, the 18th
 Capt. Miller was succeeded on the witness stand by Capt. Theodore F. Jewell. who commanded the cruiser Minneapolis during the Spanish war.
 Capt. Jewell said that he had first fallen in with the flying squadron, under command of Commodore Sch1ey. on the evening of May 26. Capt. Lemly quoted from Admiral Sehley's letter to the senate commit tee on naval affairs, dated February Is, 1899, saying After having been informed by the scouts commanded by such officers as Sigsbee, Jewell and Wise, that. although they had been off Santiago for week, they had seen nothing of Cervera's fleet since it left Curacao and asked whether he had given to Admiral Schley this information or any other information concerning the Spanish fleet. The witness replied: T gave him no in formation with reference to that sub iect whatever"
 The judge advocate asked: At the time you were within signalling dis tance of the flagship of the flying squadron off Santiago were you at any time asked any question by Com modore Schley as to the presence of the Spanish squadron in Santiago"
 Not to my recollection"
 Do you recollect whether you went on board the flagship Brooklyn at this time? ?"
 ''I did not go on board that day"
 Capt. Jewell said that when he had first seen Admiral Sehley's state ment as to the information he might have given concerning Cervera's $ fleet, he had written letter to the depart- ment denying that he had done so. Objection was made to this line of testimony, and it was not persisted in. The witness said, in reply to ques- tion from Mir. &ayner. that he had no knowledge that Capt. Sigbee speak ing for himself and for Captains Jewell and Wise, stated to Commo- dore Schley on the 26th. at Santiago, that neither he (the witness) nor Wise nor himself (Sigsbee) had seen anything. or knew anything of the movements or wherea bouts of the Spanish fleet. Nor did he know wheth- CT Capt. Sigsbee wrote a letter to Commodore Schley stating that that was a fact.
 The court here asked question which opened up the coaling question. The question was as follows: How far could the Minneapolis have gone with her 100 tons of coal at the time you state?'
 If ! had burned 400 tons of coal could have made something like twelve or thirteen hundred miles. That would have left the bunkers empty. l was burning about 95 tons day, and on that making II or IS knots"
 Drawing from Capt. Jewell the fact that the distance from Santiago to Key West is $50 miles, Mir. Royner asked:
 Tn view of what you said just now, will you explain the signals l read: 's:3o p. m., May 26, flagship to the Minneapolis: Have you enough coal to go to Key West?'
 Minneapolis to flagship: Just enough.
 .'How do you explain that?"
 "I am giving my recollection at the time. As l said, my coal supply was reduced and l was concerned. There were a great many signals being made and l replied to the signal without consulting the coal account particu- | larlv. and l considered that three days steamng was about the limit l could safely go"
 "There is an error here of about 500 to 600 miles, Eight hundred, and 1,300 of 1,400 are very different"
 ,I estimated the distance l could steam l did not usually provide for burning every ounce of coal in the bunkers and furthermore, we have l got to allow for contingencies. I was l hauling the fires from the boilers very often on account of the leaks