The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-26
SAYS SHIPS COULD HAVE
C0ALED OFF SANTIAGO
Admiral Cotton, Who Commanded the Harvard, les
titles Before SchIey Court of Inquiry.
Brought Dispatches to the cOmmandernche Informing Him
to Whereabouts of Spanish Fleet.


delivered"
What was said about the dis
patches2"
II delivered to Commodore Schley
the original cipher in which the dis
| patches had been received by me al
! St Nicholas mole, together with the
! translation Of those dispatches made
/ by Lieutenant Bean of the Harvard
l handed them personally to him in his
cabin in the order of their date. He
received them, read them aud com
menIed in a general way upon their
purport; spoke of the difficulty he had
in getting coal on board his ships while
at CienfuegOs and subsequently to the
date OF which 1 am speaking. May n.
and said il had been an almost imDos-
sibility to get coal on board on &C
count of the weather
He questioned me relative to the
pract- cabilfty of coaling ships at st.
Nicholas mole and Gonaives mole. As
10 ST. Nicholas mole, 1 said, There is
10 question the small ships can coal
As to Gonaives channel. know of no
. reason why we should not be able to
coal here
The comm odOre made some remarks
upon my statements, the language OF
which I do not recall, but he asked me;
How about coaling big ships at St.
Nicholas mole?' l said: You cannot
coal your big ships there. l had ref
erence in ny reply to the battleShipS
and protected cruisers of the Brooklyn
and New York class. said, thinking
Of the fact that my own ship had been
there and was IF some 1900 tons dis
placement and uaarly 500 feet in length,
Possibly, under favorable conditions.
you might be able to coal The large
ships there. one at a time But the
area of deep water for the anchorage
of large ships is so little there II was
not practicable to coal at the very
utmost more than one large ship at
time there, and in case the weather be-
- Nsa1rr n
70 go to sea.
i was anxious while I was there
with the Harvard, on account OF her
size. and I would have left at once in
case r al weather had come on. AS
remember. L recOllect no qualification
as to GOnaives channel.
Vessels Could Have Coaled.
Admiral Cotton said in response to a
question from Captain Lem:y that yes
sells OF the fleet could have coaled when
they were there on the 9th, 'tat some
time during that day, he said. As
indicative Of the condition Of the seas
he had used q. cookie shell boat in go
ing from the Harvard to the Brooklyn
and had Worn white unIio.Fn-
WAS anything said about going to
Key West for cOal2'
Returning TO what 1 said with ref
erence TO the difficulty which Com
mOdOre SChley stated to m he had
had in getting coal on board of any of
the shfDs at Cienfuegos, he said he
was very anxious. The coal supply
was getting short the weather was
bad and il had been bad almost con-
tinuously. 1t was a very serious prob
lem as to how or whether he could
possibly get coal on board ships on
Santiago. He said 80 he found the
weather did not improve and he found
it ir1practicable TO coal there. he could
only see one resort and that he would
be compelled to return to Key vest
in order to supply his ships with coal.
Having that question in view, he
was apprehensive, especially as to one
ship. the Texas. He did not even know
at that moment whether she had on
board sufficient coal to ena BILE her TO
return 20 Key West. During sFny visit
ne gave an order to make signal,
general signal as I remember It, not
limited TO the flying squadron alone,
to report whether the ships had sufi-
Cient coal to reach Key West
The signal was made. or at least
assume it was made IL all events.
during my presence with Commodore
Schley he received a report to the
effect that all the ships. including the
Texas, had sufficient coal TO return to
Key West. I think the commodore was
very much relieved when he received
this information. Shortly after, 1
should say within a few minutes he
directed a signal to be made prepara-
tory for the ships to return TO Key
Vest. The order was given in gen
eral way. 1 cannot give the words of
the purport.
Ordered to Key West.
While 1 was still there he received
signals to the effect that the signals
were received. Before 1 left the ship
he ordered signals to be made for the
ships TO form preparatory for steaming
to Key West.
ar
commodore Schley that it was utterly
/ impossible for the Harvard 10 get any
where except to Kingston. I had not
Sufncient coal to go to Key West. and
d he verbally authorized me to proceed
at once TO Kingston to receive such an
amount Of coal as / could get there,
sufficient to enable me to return to
the nearest United States port ! eft
the Brooklyn about noon, possibly a
few minutes before. Immediately after
my departure the Brooklyn commenced
steamihg ahead, and I noticed that
many Of the ships at the moment I'M
der Commodore Schley's command were
in motion, presumably preparatory &c
taking their stations in steaming order
TO return to Key West. As soon as
returned 70 my ship, after my boat was
hoisted. steered to the southwest roI
Kingston"
Did you state in specific terms that
you agreed with Commodore Schley as
70 the ullucultH III GodlliiS
The question was not discussed and
I expressed no opinion"
Did this conversation occur before
or after the dispatches which you took
aboard had been read by the cOmmo-
dOre2''
After"
In response TO further questions Ad-
miral Cotton said that he had the orig
inal TRANSACTIONS Of the cipher dis
patches addressed TO the Harvard Tns
dispatch of May % was then read {
him. as follows:
Washington. May p. 1895
Harvard. S.. Nicholas Mole, Haiti:
Proceed at once and inform schley
and also the senior officer present of
Santiago as follows.
All departments information midi
Gates Spanish division is still at san
tiago. The department looks to yOt
20 ascertain the facts. and the enemy
If therein. does not leave without de-
cisive action Cubans familiar with
Santiago say that there are landing
places five or six nautical miles wes
from the mouth of hsrbor. and there
insurgents probably viii be found anC
not the Spanish. From the surrounding
/ Continued on Page p