The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-26


ten was that the other dispatches were
delivered on the S1St.
He called the admiraI's attention to
the fact that one of the dispatches
which he said he delivered on May y
had been dated at Washington as of
that date This is the dispatch in
which Secretary Long had instructed
the commander as TO the importance
Of determining explicitly whether Ger
vera 5 fleet was IN Santiago harb0r.
The admiral said that if he had said
that this dispatch was delivered on
the 9th he had made q mistake-that
Il was delivered on the 3lst, after HIS
return from Kingston. The admiral
said, however. that he was certain
that he had delivered more than one
dispatch to Commodore Schley on the
9TH He said;
Il delivered to Commodore SchIey
q. / think it probable that among ne
dispatches which / spoke of having
handed to him on that date there may
have been some which were addressed
TO me and not to him which contained
information such as I thought he
should have. OF the two dispatches
addressed to him. one was from Ad-
mlral Sampson and the other from the
navy department"
Schley Anxious About Coal
Referring to his conversation with
Admiral Schley concerning the coal
supply of the fleet on the 27th, Ad-
miral Cotton said that Admiral Schley
had expressed great anxiety on that
point, such as any commander would
have felt, he said, under the circum-
stances.
At this point Mr.. Raynor referred to
the previous remark concerning coal
ing in the open sea on the 9th. He
said:
after reading the dispatches the com
modore made signals inquiring the
amount OF coal. Did you see the an
swering signals?"
Il did not" responded the witness.
GU stated you could have coaled
from the Merrimac on that day; why
did not you do SOP"
In the first place had no authority
TO coal In the second place 1 was going
Tor coal, which / could receive within
twenty-four hours, and in the third
place, coal was more needed by the
fleet than by the Harvard
Did you ask the commodore for per-
mission to coal2"
I did not
Mr.. Raynor attempted to have Adj
mlral Cotton say that his conversation
with Admiral Schley concerning Lieu
tenant Beall's proposition to go ashore
and communicate with the insurgents
had occurred on the 31st instant instead
of the 9th of May. The witness said
that this might possibly be the case,
but that to his best recollection the
C0llh Il SdllOu occurred on the ZtLn. AlT.
Raynor explained that Admiral Schley
had on the 31st sent another man
ashore to communicate with the insur-
gents, which made plain Schley's
declinatiOn Of BealPs proposition.
The witness said that up to May "A
he did not know of the presence Of the
Spanish feet within the harbor at San
tiagO, nor did he know of any other
officer who had that information at
that time.
On redirect examination Admiral
Cotton said he was satisfied that he
told Admiral Schley of Lieutenant
BealIs proposition on the 9th because
he would have considered that he was
renliss in his duty if he had not $iven
the information at the first oppor-
tunity. He had then besides the order
of the department to Commodore
Schley to ascertain the facts concern
in the harbOr
Department Reports Inaccurate.
Mr. Hanna here introduced a CODY
of a dispatch from Admiral Sampson
which had been received by the Har-
ward and which had not been made
public heretofore. It was stated that
this message had been written on May
% A notation on it showed that it
had been received on May %. The
dispatch was in cipher and was di-
rected to the Harvard at Mole st.
Nicholas 1t was translated by Lieu
tenant Beall and as presented read:
The Spanish squadron at Santiago;
il previous to May 10 scout off San
t%<so- Communicate with Schley if he
(they) move west. Schley is expected
May "a at Santiago from Cienfuegos.
Telegraph me from St. Nicholas mole
to Key West if he Chey) move east
and leave letter for Schley. Then go
to Santiago to meet him. I shall be
at Bay Francis with squadron If two
scouts are available one should keen
81 Of he lr01 T=h ,lr-~,wr
Admiral Cotton said that the copy
which he had read had been retained
by him. He added that if ne had ever
given that dispatch to Admiral Schley,
31st of May.
Mr.. Raynor here raised the point
that the document read was a copy
and not the original. He called at
tentiOn to the fact that the document
had not been printed in the Official re-
ports of the navy department An ami
mated controversy followed, in which
Mr.. RaynOr commented upon the Gin
his opiniOn) inaccuracy of the depart
ment's reports. He demanded the orig
inal dispatch and added:
This is an inquiry and not a prose-
cution and you are here to protect and
vindicate Admiral Schley as much as
we are"
He said that Admiral Schlev had
turned in all his papers and that Adj
miral SIMPSONS papers should also
be available for the purposes of the
court.
Captain Lemly then produced the
original cipher copy of the dispatch.
He asked the witness how he had re-
ceived the message and the latter re-
piled:
Translation Correct.
IT received from the cable office on
board the Harvard at St Nicholas
mole the dispatch of which this is a
translation. Lieutenant Beau made
the translation
rs it a correct translation of the
cipher?"
7 believe it to be-
Did Beall so state to you or did he
hand it to you as correct transla-
tion?"
He handed that to me as a correct
translation of the original dispatch in.
cipher and believe it correct"
Now 1 will ask you whether, &C
cordlng to the best of your knowledge
and belief and your best recollection of
the subject, you delivered, on the 9th
or May. to Commodore Schley this dis
patch?'i
ITO the best of my knowledge and
belief, I delivered copy of that dis
patch to Schley on May p off San
tiagO. and that is one Of the dispatches
to which 1 referred as having deliv-
cred. To the best Of my knowledge
delivered a copy of that dispatch be-
cause it was important information for
him, and he was mentioned by name
in the dispatch"