The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-25

F'e 10 go OH havana. [ signaled to the
admiral to know whether or not he I'M
dcrstood that my orders were to go off
Havana. He replied by signal that he
understood that his coming to Kew West
modified my orders and that | should be
prepared to carry out the orders we had
agreed upon in the afternoon I do NOT
-,eineIilSc- y fle,ict TAI Ns On that aft
ernoon or in the morning, but it was be-
fore | left Tor Ciannlegoss
The next move on the part of the flying
squadron, he said, was from Key West
to Cienfuegos, Cuba, and the admiral
told how, as the commander-in-chie9 of
that squadron, he had the vessels coaled,
so that at or O'Clock on the morning
of May 10 all the ships- of the fleet turn
ed their backs upon American soil and
laid thei" course for the southern coast
of Cuba This, he said, was done under
the order of the commander-n-chief. Adj
miral Sampson. AT this point the witness
quoted Admiral SIMPSONS Order No 5,
not failing to point out as he went along
that in this order the admiral had said:
after l have the situation more in hand
l Will write you and give you any infor-
nation that suggests itself"
The first event of note on the voyage
toward Cienfuegos occurred, Admiral
Schley said, after he had been out from
then that he
Met Capt. McCaIIa
in charge of the subsquadron with the
Marblehead at its head, which had been
doing duty on the Cuban coast near
Cienfuegos, whittier the commodore, with
his flying squadron, was bound. He re-
lated how, in accordance with the usual
custom when naval officer meets his SUI
perior in rank at sea, Capt McCalla had
asked permission to pass on, and told
how McCalla had sent the Eagle to com
municate with the flying squadron. Ad-
miral Schley also mentioned that the
Scorpion had been sent to intercept the
Eagle for the purpose of securing what
ever informa ton she might bring. aft
er little" he said, 1.-The Scorpion re-
turned and reported through the mega
phone, I think, identically as is reported
in his log, which was all the information
he gave US. The Eagle afterward pass
ed close enough to the Brooklyn to hail
her by the megaphone, and repeated that
there was no news. | was on.the quarter
deck. The thing seemed to be almost
burned into my mind, but after what
have heard I begin to think that maybe
was mistaken.
The admiral also related his meeting
the Cincinnati and the Vesuvius the next
morning off San Antonio. Capt. Chester,
in command of the Cincinnati, came
aboard the Brooklyn, remaining for about
three-quarterS of an hour. He related
the details of his conversation with Capt.
Chester saying that they had 'threshed
out a good many subjects After men
tioning number of these subjects, which
did not bear upon the present inquiry, the
admiral said that Capt. Chester had eX-
pressed himself as specially DESTROYS of
ioi,o
but said that his coal supply was so linn
tied that he would be compelled to go to
Key West at very early date to replen-
ish it. Admiral SehIey said that he had
terminated this part of the conversation
by saying to Capt. Chester that as his
ship was not in his (Sch1ey's) command,
he could not attach him to the squadron
In the same connection witness sad that
Capt. Chester had asked permission to
c9al the Cincinnati from the flying squad
ron collier, but he (Schley) had declined
this proposition
Continuing his report of this conversa-
ton, the admiral said
81 then asked him if he had ever cruis-
ed in the West Indies, as l had never
been On the south side of Cuba, and If
he knew Of any place that would be ia
vorable for coaling, where fairly smooth
water could be expected. He said nothing
more than the information given me by
the charts, and suggested a place some
thirty miles to the eastward, on a bank
or to the southwark, on another bank,
coaling upon which would be problemati-
cal and dependent entirely upon the state
of the weather and the, sea.
Il do not the admiral added, ''recol-
lect just at this moment any other con-
versation, except Capt. Chester's disap-
pointment that he could not join my
squadron, which l thought extremely
praiseworthy.''
In response to request from Mr.. Ray
ner, the admiral said that one of the places
that had been recommended by Capt.
Chester for coaling was to the southwark
of Cienfuegos, in the open sea. II did
not agree, he said, that that would be
good place to coal, because the condi-
tons in ordinary sea would be aggra-
waited in shoal water
Admiral Schley placed his
Arrival Of CienfuegOs
at near midnight of May 81 He told Of
hearing guns early that evening while
still thirty or forty miles distant from
the Cuban port Describing this Incl
dent, he said:
Toward shutdown of that afternoon I
was standing on the bridge of the Brook
lyn and distinctly heard six or seven
guns fired with the cadence of a salute
The fact of hearing these guns was I'M
doubted, so much so that the officer of
the deck spoke of it,. | Happened to be
there at the time.
He said that the feet stopped for the
night ten or twelve miles off shore off
Cienfuegos and that he had sent the
Scorpion ahead of the fleet as a patrol
and that toward daylight on the follow
ing morning, May %, all the ships had
steamed in close to the harbor entrance.
My recollection now is he said, that
we went within mile and looked at the
harbor. But owing to trees and other
obstructions it was impossible to see into
the harbor. L never saw any smoke
stacks and I was a very close watcher
on deck, generally from s o'clock in the
morning until y or l o'clock at night
There was scarcely a circumstance OF
any kind that escaped me-.
The admiral said that after this in
spection of the harbor he had taken a po-
out. 81 generally" he said, gave the
position that the squadron was from
the beach by the appearance of the surf,
which ordinarily is not seen beyond six
At o'clock of the evening of the 22d
the torpedo boat Dupont, the admiral
said, arrived with a dispatch from Adj
miral Sampson. The dispatch referred to
was
''The Dear SchIey Letter."
Referring to this dispatch the witness
81 did not remember the fact until
within the past few months that
there was duplicate of that letter, but
1 now recall it from the fact that l
sent the Scorpion to the eastward in
obedience to the injunction contained in
that letter to communicate with the
scouts, about whose presence off Santi-,
ago I was very uncertain, as L think the
admiral was, on account of orders hav-
ing been sent directing them to proceed
in the direction of the Spanish main to
look for the squadron. The admiral was
not certain whether they had got back,
nor was I. Therefore, 1 sent the Scor-
pion east and that fact fixed the receipt