Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-10-26
SCHLEY'S ACCOUNT
OF SANTIAGO FIGHT
Told His Story in Plain Words and Unaf-
fected Style Narrative Was Straight
forward and to the Point.

/ started with the intention of rammng,
| take d turn to the westward, leaving
gan between her and the ship following
| which subsequently proved to be the
| Vlzcaya, We were advancing In the
| direction Of the Vizcaya when she also
seemed to have given up the intention
10 ram, and turned to the westward,
following the direction Of the leading
ship.
TURN OF THE BROOKLYN.
1T then became apparent as we were
steering In Numerically opposite
courses, that the original plan had
| failed, and that the Spanish fleet. In
order and apparently at distances had
succeeded IN passing the batteshlp
| line. A new feature Of the fight be-
came Immediately apparent Capt.
Cook gave the order TO port helm.
did not should have done II in q
second l saw the shipshold swing
ing very rapidly, and / asked him
whether his helm was hard aport
never saw the ship turn more rapidly
than she did at this time. Her turn
was continuous. There was no easing
Of her helm.
TEXAS NO MENACE.
| II never saw the starboard side OF
the Texas at all. We were never across
her bow, | never was at her port side,
and she never approached any posi-
non that was within 600 yards of the
brooklyn. She never entered into my
Lead at all as a menace or danger. We
PASSED completely around the circle.
| Tho last That "a uiNan
LEO yards, and the fact OF the near
ness of that ship (the second Spanish
ehip) Impressed itself upon my mind
and will never be forgotten because |
could see with the naked eye men run
ming over her turTets to her superstruc-
ture deck, and | observed the daylight
between their legs as they ran. We
turned very rapidly. and / had been
for long time under the impression
that our starbOard engine was backed,
from the fact that ! was standing upon
the starboard and in looking astern /
saw an unusual amount of churned wa
Ter. 1t looked to me very much as If
the engine had been backing Though
the matter was not one Of record, /
found out subsequently | had always
been under the impression that that
engine had backed.
NO TALK WITH HODGSON.
During the turn Mr. Hodgson very
properly made some allusion to look
out, perhaps for the Texas. | do not
recall what II Is. but there was never
any collOquy of any character between
Mr.. Hodgson aud myself First, he
was too good an officer TO have trans
~ressed one OF the plainest duties of an
officer at such a time, and second, II
he had undertaken it ! would neither
have permitted IL for a second. That
Is fiction, there was no colloquy,
A TERRIFIC COMBAT.
Before we turned the leading ship
was abeam, on a little abaft the beam,
and when we turned about she was
ahead of us. that Is, on the starboaid
bow, and all four ships and the forts
were firing at the same time, and from
that moment the following ten or If
teen minutes were the most furious
part Of the combat. / remember very
distinctly seeing from time to time,
as my attention was attracted for a
moment, the Jets of water ahead and
astern and over and short. The roar
OF projectiles was one Of the things
that can be heard only once In life
time, and then never forgotten.
FIRING ON BROOKLYN.
1T appeared at that moment that all
four of those ships were at work upon
the Brooklyn. There was not the
slightest evidence they had even been
injured. The thought passed through
ny mind that after all our precau-
atoms and Nalting those fellows would
get away.
AT that moment | felt, and J
thought remarked TO Capt. Cook, that
we were alone and would perhaps have
most OF the fight upon ourselves, be-
cause | did not know then that the
battleships could possibly keep up their
speed But | said TO him: We must
stay with this crowd / had no idea
that we would escape. OF course, IL
they could have shot as well as our
people did they certainly would have
got US
OREGON COMES UP.
When we had completely turned
Urouno on a westerly course the ships
appeared 10 have been broken up a
little, although still In some sembance
OF formation, and Just at that moment
saw tne Oregon breaking In through
this cloud envelope. She broke throusl
on the starboard quarter. | hoisted the
signal OF close up, and then follow
the flag, feeling HAT new disposition
was necessary That signal was re-
piled to, and saw IL repeated Capt.
Clark knew very well IL was not in
tended for him, because he was fol-
lowing the Dag, SC he repeated il To
the other ships
In very few moments after the
oregon broke through this cloud of
smoke she was perhaps four or FIVE
hundred yards distant. These two
ships, the Oregon and the Brooklyn,
were firing In manner | had never
seen before. ! never before realized
what rapid gun fire meant Both ships
were az that time a sheet OF flame
Soon after that I saw that the leading
snip was evidently battered hard. She
lagged astern. ! saw smoke coming
out OF her ports and out OF her hatch-
es and the fact that impressed itself
upon me was that the columns were
going straight up in the air
KEEP THE BOYS INFORMED"
Il said to Capt. Cook. who was con-
stanty al my side we have got one.
N'Vp iht bogs DeiOW informed OF all the
moyements. They cannot see and they
ought 10 know and he did so through
out the action. Every few minutes
messages were sent below TO the men.
that were answered often times with
cheers which We could hear through
the yentiators.
ut appeared TO be a very short inter-
val OF time after that that saw anoth-
or ship on fire, which proved later 10 be
the Oquendo. She evidently had suf-
fered very severely, and started imme-
diately inshore, leaving the Vlzcaya
and the Colon The vizcaya took a
leading position ON the bow, and |
thought for a little while that she
would perhaps outfOot us. The Colon
worked inshore, and the time between
the dropping out OF action OF those two
ships until the Vlacaya turned inshore
was a period OF perhaps thirty minutes.
during which she was abreast Of the
Brooklyn and the oregon.
Il looked 20 the eastward and got oc-
casional elimpses " the Indiana and OF |
the Gloucester. could not see very
well what they were doing. owing TO
a. % a. n