The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-10-22

Now give me the date the navy de-
partment issued the order which has
been referred to in this case about not
Gripping ships by the shore batter
ies," said Mr.. Rayner.
April 6, 1885," was the response.
Saw a Great Deal of Schley.
Mr.. Rayner: "Am / right in saying
that you perhaps saw more or as much
of Commodore Schley during the whole
of this Spanish war as anyone else and
came in contact with him as much as
II saw him daily and all through
each day. generally speaking"
did you see him during the time
of the reconnaissance on May S1?''
YES, SIR
"Did you see him frequently during
the day of the battle of July p
mo sir. 1 only saw him during the
chase of the Colon"
did you see him during any of the
bombardments?
81 saw him during one of them. Ex-
actly which one. l cannot distinctly
recollect."
What was his general bearing, con-
duct and manner on any day in which
there was battle or any other timer"
$50 far as my observation went he
was thoroughly fearless and self-pos-
sessed on all occasions"
WAS he at any time within your
knowledge laboring under any men-
tai excitement?"
mo, SIR
Mr.. Hanna cross-examined the wit
ness. Regarding the progress of the
Flying Squadron from Key West to
Cienfuegos the witness stated that he
knew of no delap in its progress.
"Dear SchIey' Came on May ~.
Mr.. Hanna exhibited to Lieut. Wells
a letter dated May 80, 1898, and writ
ten by Commodore Schley. which con-
tanned a reference to the dispatches
that had been brought by the Dupont.
giving a geenral account of the opera
tions of the Flying Squadron. He
sought by this letter, as stated by him,
to show that the No. dispatch, known
as the Dear Schley" letter, was re-
ceived on the 22d and not on the 23d.
The witness said:
THE conjunction of this letter and
the changed Endorsement in lead PEN
Gil on the back of one of the dispatches
would seem to indicate that the dis
patch might have been received on the
ed"
After the examination had proceeded
along this letter for some time Mr..
Rayner addressed the court as fol-
lows:
That Troublesome No. Z.
MAY it please the court, we admit
that we got No. by the Dupont
(Which joined the Flying Squadron off
Cienfuegos on May %, 1899, and we
admit that we got No. s by the Hawk
and the Marblehead. Now, the trouble
is about the other No. Z. Where did
the duplicate of No. go? We cannot
admit we got it by the Iowa, but we
agree upon three propositions: the Du-
pont carried No. 7, the Hawk No.
and the Marblehead No. s. We admit
the receipt of this memorandum from
Capt. McCalla by the Hawk. but what
we have not been able to find out ano
cannot admit is that the Iowa carried
No. II
Mr.. Rayner turned to Admiral Schley
and asked:
"You admit that, don't you, Admir-
alp"
To this Admiral schley replied;
Certainly we admit that"
When the court met at o'clock Mr..
Hanna continued his examination of
Lieut.. Wells.
How do you account specifically
for the absence of the receiving stamp
imprint on the duplicate Dear Schley
dispatches?" he asked.
"It is possible that I jotted down
that note on them when they were
handed to me. OF course it was the
custom to put the receiving stamp on
letters generally"
"Can it be possible that the commo-
dore retained them for some timer
''It is possible, but not probable. He
sometimes held dispatches in the cabin
for a time, but he generally sent them
down as soon as received"
Knows Nothing of No. s.
In reply to questions the witness said
that he remembered absolutely moth
ing whatever about the receipt of dis
patch No. s, from Admiral Sampson to
Commodore Schley, saying that the
Spanish fleet was probably at Santiago,
except what was revealed by the re-
ceiving stamp endorsements. He said
that on this dispatch, as on the Dear
Schley' letter, there had at first been
an endorsement showing it's receipt on
May "a, and subsequently another
written over the first indicating its
receipt on the 23rd of that month.
Mr.. Hanna then put in as testimony
dispatches Nos. and s, both from Ad-
miral sampson, directing a strict
blockade at Cienfuegos, and the letter
enclosing the McCalla memorandum.
The witness was again questioned con-
cerning the receipt of more than one
copy of the McCalla memorandum, and
he maintained that he remembered
only one copy, at the same time ad-
mitting the possibility of the receipt
of another copy.
Some of schiey's Papers Missing.
Asked when he had first seen the dis
patch introduced by Capt Cotton, the
witness said he did not remember to
have ever seen 1t. This is the dispatch
sent to the Harvard saying that the
Spaniards were probably at Santiago,
and the one which Capt. Cotton said
he had delivered to Commodore Schley
on May 81. In this connection Mr.
Hanna said that he had not been able
to find the original of this dispatch
among Admiral Schley's papers. He
also remarked incidentally that there
were others of Admiral Schley's papers
missing.
Mr.. Hanna questioned Lieut.. Wells
closely about Admiral Schley's papers,
but he repeated that since he had box
ed them up and turned them over to
Admiral Schley in 1898 he had not seen
them until he saw them recently at the
navy department.
Papers CareIessly Handled.
1T saw them very much spread
about the department since have
been here" he said.
"Under what circumstances did you
examine them at the department."
'I examined them to make copies of
certain papers. ! applied to different
officers. They were handed to me.
made such copies as / desired and
turned the papers over to the respon-
sible persons concerned"
I.ienf Wells said that he had never