Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1901-10-31

sustained the fire of all four of the
Spanish ships and also the fire Of the
Spanish land batteries. Explaining
the historical turn Of his own flagship,
the Brooklyn. he said that she had. not
approached to within 600 yards Of the
Texas and that he had never con-
sidered that vessel In the least danger.
He also said in response to an inter-
rogation from Mr.. Rayner that he had
never during the battle engaged In any
colloquy with Lieutenant Hodgson
and that he had not used the express.
sion attributed to him by Hodgson.
This refers to the alleged colloquy
in which the admiral is alleged to have
said: Damn the Texas" Admiral
Schley also gave details Of the recon
notssance OF May 81, when the Cristo-
bal Colon was 5ombarded. In this con-
nection he denied the statements at
tributed to him by Commander Potts
of the Massachusetts,.
Describes Battle Of July 8.
Admiral SchleY began his descrip-
ton of the battle Of July 8 at 2:3O
o'clock.
ION the morning OF July g." he said.
the day broke beautifully. At quar-
ter of nine my orderly reported to me
that signal had been made from the
flagship to disregard her movements
and that she had gone eastward. I
came on deck with my glasses, after
having gone below for a little while,
and whilst was sitting abaft on
hatchway heard call from the
bridge: Tell the commodore that the
fleet Is coming out That was some
time after the men had been called to
quarters. about 9:35 o'clock. looked
over the starboard side and saw the
enemy coming out Of the entrance Of
the barber. The New York was out of
sight and out Of signal distance. 1
looked at tsat in order to determine
what nay position in the action was to
be- If the vessel was not out of sight
should not have made q signal. In
the meantime Mr.. Hedgson sang out.
Commodore. they are coming right at
u.s.
Ia the Thick of II.
Before we turned the leading sisap
was abeam and when we turned about
she was ahead of us; that is, ON the
starboard bow, and all four ships and
the forts were firing at the same time,
and from that moment the following
ten or fifteen minutes were the most
furious part of this entire combat.
The roar of projectiles was one of the,
things that can be heard only once in
lifetime and then never forgotten.
It appeared at that moment that all
four OF those ships were at work
upon the Brooklyn. and up to the mo-
ment OF turning. SO far as we could
perceive. there was not the slightest
evidence they had even been injured.
When we had completely turned
around on westerly course I saw
the Oregon breaking in through the
cloud of smoke. l hoisted the signal
OF close up and then follow the flag,'
feeling that new disposition was
necessary. Thai signal was replied to
and l saw 1t repeated. These two
ships. the Oregon and the Brooklyn,
were firing In manner | had never
seen before. I never before realized
what rapid gun fire meant. Both
ships We're at the. time sheet of fame.
Soon after that l saw that the leading
shap was evidently battered hard.
saw smoke coming out of her hatches
and said to Captain Cook, who was
constantly at my side: we have got
one. Keep the boys below informed
OF all the movements. They cannot
see and they ought to know. And he
did 30 throughout the action. It ap-
peared to be very short interval of