The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-26
Admiral Bunce's Death Recalls Act
OF Injustice.


Hartford Comm Special in Washington
Post
Friends of Admiral Bunce tonight made
make while the admiral was alive. He him
self could never be interviewed on the sub
ject and refused to allow any one to
champion his cause. His death to-day, how
ever, prompts friends to speak openly. and
the Hartford Times tonight voices the SEN
timents of the Army and Navy Club and
his Hartford friends. The Times infers
that the authorities of the navy at Wash
ington dealt in contemplate and petty
jealousies and animosities. 1t says:
Our purpose is to enable the public to
understand how it happened that in the
Spanish war the United States navy did
not produce two Deweys instead of one,
and why it happened that in Asiatic
waters our navy won nothing but honor,
while in dealing with the far more pow
erful Spanish fleet in the West Indies
whatever honor was won seems to have
been almost buried out of sight by the
subsequent revelations of petty and con-
temptible jealousies and animosities among
our naval men, which have proved as dis
guisting when placed on exhibition before
the American people they democrat
izing to the navy itself. That these jeal-
ouses and animosities originated not
among the officers of the fleets, but in the
Navy Department ITSELF that John ID.
Longs preposterous strategy board, con-
sisting of Crowninshield, Sicard and Ma
han, was at the bottom of the whole mis-
chief that we now know as the Sampson
Schley controversy-this fact the Hartford
Times dwells upon. Ii is proper to make
xr-bo mis- o1a arlNy
derStOOd by the American people.
ION June q, 1895, Rear Admiral Francis
NJ. Bunce, then near the head of the list
of real admirals of the United States
navy, was given command of the North
Atlantic squadron. 1t would have been
a fortunate thing for the country if the
fleet which gained such a high degree of
proficiency in naval tactics and gunnery
under his command could have been so
continued during four years instead Of
two.
Rear Admiral Bunce's fleet captain
was Winfield Scott Schley. The battle
ship Maine was commanded from Septem-
Der 1895 until April 1897, by Aren't Schuy-
Ter CrOwinshield. said by the books TO
have been born in New York, but bearing
a Massachusetts name. Among all the
twenty captains of the North Atlantic
squadron under the command of Rear -Ad-
miral Bunce and subordinate in rank TO
Winfield Scott Schley the only one 20
whom IL was ever necessary for the rear
admiral to administer reprimand, with a
threat of a court-martial, was Captain
Aren't Schuyler Crowinshield, of the battle
ship Maine.
"The arrival in the secretary's office Of
the Navy Department of the Hon John
u. Long, of Massachusetts, in March
1897, and the immediate detail TO the head
of the Bureau of Navigation in the Navy
Department of the same Aren't Schuyler
CrOwinshield, with his hot grudge against
Rear Admiral Francis NJ. Bunce and Win
field Scott Schley, is important on May l.
1897, three weeks after the placing of
CrOwinshield in charge of the details of
officers at Washington, We find the COM
mander of the North Atlantic SQUADRON re-
Heved from the duty. Rear Admiral Sicarj
succeeded him in command of the North
Atlantic squadron, and when Sicard's
health made II lmposslDle Tor him TO con-
tinue on that duty in 1898, Bunce was the
man who should have been restored to that
command, and who would have been If
personal influence had not prevailed against
him.
Now see all the mischief and failure
that followed from this same course. the
foolish attempt of Aren't Schuyler Crown
inshield. acting as the board of strategy
with two pliable pendants, Sicard and Ma
han as his associates, selected by him
self-the foolish attempt of this captain
who had narrowly escaped cOurt-martial
az the hands Of Admiral Bunce TO run
the whole war with Spain in its naval side
the detail OF Sampson (anOther desk man
like Sicard AIahan and Crowninshield) 10
ron after the war broke out with Spain; the
persistent attempt 10 suppress and dis
credit Schley. who had been Bunces feet
commander during the fuss with Crownin-
shield the year before; the timid and old
wOmanish nature OF all the operations of
the fleet against the Spaniards as shown
in the orders from the strategy board 10
Schley not 10 expose his ships at San
tiagO before Sampson arrived, and by
SIMPSONS fear 10 go into Santiago harbor
I'VE show the influence which Is at the
bottom of the Sampson-Schley controversy
and which deprived the gallant and accom-