Waterbury Democrat., 1901-10-05

 shall continue to hold Havana and Santiago Then in the letter as printed refers back to other matters relating to Santiago, and the punctua- tion would appear to give it the mean ing of therefore
 MT Rayner, after securing Captain Lemly's permission, read two or three sentences from Admiral SampSOn'S
 -tter and then declared that Admiral Sampson ought to be summoned as a witness.
 When the colloquy in regard to Ad- miral Sampson's dispatch had been closed for the time, Commander Hodg son took the oath. He said that he had been navigator of Commodore Schley's flagship, the Brooklyn, during the war with Spain and was on the bridge the day of the battle of July 5.
 Detailing the particulars of that en- gagement, he said: T heard the eXecu- tive officer, Lieutenant Commander Mansen, sing out: Clear ship for ac tion,' and the crew immediately dis persed to quarters. having sounded the general alarm previously. ne commodore shortly appeared on the bridge. We were at that time headed about weSt-northwest or to the west | ward of northwest. 1 told him that there was nothing doing. and he said Co ahead 1 rang six bells and ask ed if we had not better hold her heau steady to see what course the Span iards proposed to pursue. l do not remember his reply exactly to that, because immediately afterwards told ! him they were evidently making for us, and he said, Go for them,' ana 1 rang four bells and put helm aport
 Captain Cook came upon the bridge at this time, and told him that every thing was connected up at the coming ! tower, and that we were all going ahead. The commodore took his posi- 1 tion on a platform he had had built around the coming tower. where he could be in easy communication with the commanding officer inside, and l remained on the bridge.
 .The executive officers had given previously the order to man the star i board batteries. I sang out~to him we were going into action with port helm. and he shifted over to the port battery. We were then standing tor l the enemy and as soon as the guns were brought to bear Lieutenant Simp- son fired a little off the port bow the l first gun from the forward eight-inch | turret From that time on we went 1 considerably in toward them. l then l went down to where the commodore 1 was standing to get into the coming tower, when 1 heard him sing out, l Look out, Cook, they are going to ram you' Captain Cook said he would | look after that, and starboarded the helm a little to parallel the course of | the leading vessel, the Maria Teresa, which had made broad sheer to port. '.He had hardly made that sheer, however, to port, before he fell O.. again for the reason, apparently. that a shot was fired from the Brooklyn s eight-inch gun. The Teresa got abaft our port beam and helm was ported on the Brooklyn immediately after that. We were swinging with port helm. heard the commodore sing out: Hard aport.' or words to that effect, and Captain Cook sang out Helm is aport.' I saw at that time the crucial moment had arrived in making the turn, and 1 suggested to the commodore that that | turn would run us into lne Texas, or very close to her.
 s.What did you say and what was the reply?'' asked the judge advocate. s.As near as I can remember. said l sCommOuore, if you go to Starboard you will run into the Texas, and he said. .D-n the Texas, I cannot hep l that She must look out for herself. He will take care of that and he also said T do not propose to go in any closer and subject myself to a torpedo | attack I suggested then that we back the starboard engine and he wanted to know why. and 1 sald,s Be l cause it would give the Texas a wldel berth and shorten our turning circle. sCaptain Cook objected to this ana so | did the commodore, but there was a moments discussion as to wnethef II would be better to turn that shorter 1 circle with smaller spaed or take the larger tactical diameter with faster sneed It was decided that it was very essential to get around quickly, as inc leading Spanish ship was then standing to the westward and II the Brooklyn did not stop her she had a oood chance of escaping. So the helm was put hard aport.
 q said I would run up on top or the | bridge and look out for the Texas AS l I was going up asked the chlef guar | termaster if he had seen torpedo | hoat and he said he had seen one
 hlovvn LID by large shell away in the | roar I said I had not seen any, as fold the commodore previously. The bolm however. was kept hard aport
 The Brooklyn swung clear of the Tex, as and brought around with helm hard anort until she brought in sight the leading Spanish vessel. which was then the Viscaya, the Teresa having
 fallen off and gone in shore, seeking 2 berth AS soon as we were around al inc proper position, the helm was
 eased so that we paralleled the course of the viscaya, which at that time was
 oho11f 2 400 or 2,5OO yards on our star hoard how. The Colon was probably on the beam or little forward or the baom. the Ouuendo abaft the star
 board beam. The Oquendo very soon l fau out and ran ashore, on ire. ano then we devoted our attention soieiy to tbe Colon and yiscaya.
 T1non this recital by Commandel
 5odgson. he was closely quesuonea os the fudge advocate. These questlons
 bora m mon estimates of the distance
 which intervened between the IeAas
 and Rroollyn when the Brookiyn
 sr.u orossod tbe bow of the Texas. and also
 mon changes in the log of the Brook.
 ,Tn Ip giving the account of the famous
 slooD."
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