The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-12

to the Secretary of the Navy of the en- gagement of May 3 In one of these, dated June 3, Commodore Schley said:
 Reconnaissance was intended princi- pally to injure and destroy the heavy bat teries to the eastward. Quite satisfied the Spanish fleet is there"
 Lieutenant Dewey.
 Lieutenant c. Dewey, nephew of Admi- ral Dewey, who was a watch officer on the Massachusetts, was the next witness He placed the distance of the blockading line under Commodore Schley from the mouth of Santiago harbor from five to eight miles. the distance being about the same day and night. There was. he said' no particular formation of the vessels.
 Captain Lemly: eWhen you were at the western end of the blockade with the leading vessel making the turn. what orr ders were there for attacking if you saw the enemy coming out of the entranceF
 'I do not believe we could have seen the enemy coming out, owing to darkness and the distance from the harbor. When we were at the western end Of the line the ships could have come out and stood to the eastward without our being any the wiser unless they showed lights"
 How about the reverse of that proposi- tion?'
 T think it would have been the same in either case"
 Captain Lemly then asked: Did you have any conversation with the commanding officer of the ny1ng squadron or any one in his presence in re- lation to the fire on the Colon or other wiser" Lieutenant Dewey replied: 'T was told shortly before we started into the en- trance that the Commodore wished to see the turret officers in the pilot house. went to the pilot house and the Commo- dore said that he intended to go in few moments and have try at the Colon, and that he hoped we would sink her. l asked what speed we would make and was told About ten knots I remarked at the time that thought that was giv- ing us very little chance at the Colon as she would be in sight before the head | lines only couple of minutes and the smoke from our guns would probably l make our fire very slow" The Range Increased. Describing the range at which he had ! fired his guns, he said at first it was 1000 yards, under orders, and then ne had in- creased 1t to 9,50O yards but that the shots fell short. He said in reply to ques- tions that the Spanish shore batteries had not given the American ships much trouble on that occasion. "None of their shots came near" he | said, but two or three shots from the i batteries fell about the Massachusetts, one passing over it." 1 What conclusion did you arrive at as to the calibre of the shore guns?" l 'I did not think they were over 6-inch." '" | In reply to a question by the court as to whether he was ordered to direct his fire on the Colon or the batteries on May 31st, Lieutenant Dewey said his orders were to direct his fire at the Colon directly, but he could not say whether Commodore Schley or Captain Higginson had given the order.
 Lieutenant Francis Boughter, who was watch and division officer on board the lMarblehead during Commodore Schley' s blockade of Santiago, was then called. He said that during that time the Marble head and the Vixen were on picket duty on the shore line and the blockading fleet
 and he had been stationed three miles from shore and to the westward. six miles from Morro. He would not attempt to say how far outside the squadron was,
 but he could not see the ships after night fall.
 The court asked:
 Was the Marblehead in such position
 at night while on picket duty off Santiago with the enemy's vessels that they could
 be seen had they attempted to leave the harbor?'
 That would depend on a great many
 
 the course they took and their success in
 keeping their ships dark and quiet"
 Admiral Dewey: "The Marblehead was
 on picket duty. Could she have seen the enemy coming?''
 "If the enemy kept close to shore and we were three miles off during the time we could not have seen them: if the
 enemy had stood south from the en-
 trance. which would have placed them
 about four miles off. we could not have seen therl, provided they kept reasonably
 dark and quiet.'
 Purpose of the Tickets.
 MT. Raynor: What was the purpose of the picket boats being there if they could
 not see the enemy?" They were supposed to be there pre- sume, for that purpose" Then if they were there for that pur-
 pose what was 1t that would have pre- vented them from accomplishing this ob-
 ject?"
 The fact that they could not see ves-
 sel if it ran at a distance of two to two
 and one-half miles off at night" "How far was the Vixen from the } shore?"
 'I do not know"
 What was the distance between your
 vessel and the Vixen?' "I cannot say"
 Are you prepared to say, then, if the
 enemy had come out of there neither you
 nor the Vixen could have seen him?' l answered the question put by the
 court that we on the Marbehead could |, not have seen the enemy coming out un-
 der the conditions I have named-frst In keeping close In under the land, and
 secondly, In steering due south from thf
 harbor."
 What sort of nights were there?" , 'l do not remember particularly I dc
 not remember any gales or any particu
 larly bad weather
 Lieutenant Bougher was still on th' stand when the court took its noon re
 cess.
 He said he had not informed Captair McCalla. his commanding officer, of any
 fear that the Spaniards might escape. fol
 the reason that he considered CaptaiI
 McCalla as well informed on that poin as himself. He had received no genera orders as to the distance out of the Mar 2 blehead. the captain of the vessel fxin, 9 the distance from time to time Wher n Lieutenant Boughter was excused Lieu tenant Ernst Bennett. who was flag lieu Q tenant on the New York in 1893, was call 2 ed to the stand.
 The Afternoon Session.
 When the afternoon session of the cour
 began, MT. Raynor continued his cross y examination of Lieutenant Boughter. Tn, = lieutenant said that his opinion of tn, e distance his ship was out from Morro O. l from the land at Santiago was based or e an estimate and not on measurements. y He said that when the North Atlantis r squadron arrived off Santiago they found e the flying squadron there. They stopped