The St. Louis Republic., 1901-10-26

also his general plan of attack. His plan
was to attack the head of the column first
The Admiral explained how the feet
steamed back and forth. using the bold
headlands at night. to determine their posi-
Every night. except when rain squalls oc-
Cured, and they were usually brief. the
Admiral testified that he could see the pick
cts either with the naked eye or with night
glasses He never went to bed without Look
. ing for them. ami there was not a night
when he could not distinguish the land and
the Mcrro
In concluding his description of the block
EIDE that had been maintained. tie Admiral
said: THAT i was sufficient was shown by
! the fact that during its existence no vessel
entered or ESCAPED from the harnor.''
RECONNoIsssHCE OE NAY ~
EXPLAINED IN DETAIL
Coming To the Reconnaissance of May 81,
-aCn,iral Schicy said 'On the 3Ist while the
Brooklyn and the MarbleLead and the Tex
as Were coaliag. | transferred r:y A.. to
the Massachusetts ard determined that I
would develop the fortifica tiU,is because Of
Information which had on board from
the photographic ofice-my Impression now
is II was rather undetermined | think one
stated that the batteries were old and
ether stated that krunis wcLe mounted:
The general beiief, however was thar all
OF the southern places were very heavily
fortified In fact. we knaw very little about
en- shore or aboard ship. and. feeling that /
ought to know something about the forti-
fcations which defended that place. l deter
mined to 70 In and take advantage of what
/ believed to he the longer range of our
guns and develop fully what these defenses
were. and incidentally. if We could get a
shot into the Colon. that was lying eX-
posed somewhat. TO do it. | think We were
lying in position perhaps four TO five miles
to the westward. The steamiIg in was at
sl5w speed. l transferred my flag. named
49, he MaSSl-
chusetts. When boarded her it near
the elmer hour ard Captain HiSg:nson
suggested that we postpone until l O'Clock
the gong IN to develop these batteries.
assented TO that.
After the meal we went 10 quarters and
steamed in pretty nearly head on. There
was not much opportunity for anybody to
seek cover behind turret unless he got be-
hind the protecting plate, which was
weight has been laid Upon the fact that We
were in white clothes. / would like to in
vite attention to the fact that that was
matter which | controlled entirely for my
squadron and it was about the only suita-
BILE dress for that region
Speaking of the range of 200 yards. the
Admiral said that Commander Potts had
himself reported on that range. and that he
admiral Schieyl had not known for sew
eral days that the range had been altered.
The moment we began firing he went on
'the shore batterei responded. some of
them using s-nokeless powder. There was
quite stream Of p.ojectiies. and / was i'm
from guns of 6 or inch caliher The shot
from the Zocapa battery evidently reached
went beyond and over the Vixen, which was
half mile distant.
1.-The strength of the batteries being es-
tablshed. II would have been military folly |
to have have risked the bat,leships further to
fire from these shore batteries under my
instructions. If we had lost one or two of
have been a very great disadvantage. and !
it might have invited attack with disastrous
results. l thought it better policy to save
the ships for wider and better use. and sub !
sequent events justified the decision
In this connection he went back and mar |
rated the incident of the capture by the ST. |
bound for. Santiago. Captain Sigsbee had |
reported that the collier Rad been captured !
May % off off Santiago siSsbee,s letter men; 5
touched at Porto Rico and Curacao. and !
that he had sent her to Key West. adding: |
There is absolutely no news of the Span
Antonio. the dispatch from Admiral Samp-
son. dated May 80 congratnlatine him on
the location of the Spanish fleet.
The witness stated that he had not gone
into foreign waters for coal. because he
wanted to avoid international complications
and especially wanted TO avoid the charge
of taking advantage of weaker nations like |
Haiti and others.
After this dgression the Admiral re-
turned to the reconnaissance of May 81.
That some OF the younger officers who tes-
titled regarding that occurrence were mis-
taken, he said. was proven by the fact that
there was that day on the deck of the In
diana plate showing where an eight-fnch
shell from the land Notifications entered
July and wrecked her wardroom The
officers referred to had testified that there
were no guns of over six inches In the San
tiago land batteries. The Admiral said the
she'll which wrecked the wardroom of the
Indiana. might possibly have been fired
from mortar, OF which there were several.
but that the range of the batteries was be-
yond the ships. as they went in for the re-
connoissance was evident not from the fact
that there were one two shells which
went over the American ships. There were.
he said. many more. perhaps fifty. '.In
TACT" said he. 'ft was very lively for few