The Washington times., 1901-10-04

Lieutenant Doyle, in answer to ques-
| tions of Mr.. Rayner, repeated substantial
| " the same story of the position of the
! Brooklyn during the battle of the Sd of
| July as he gave Wednesday He said that
| during the chase the Oregon was directed
| by ''swigswag'' signal to fire her thirteen
| inc hsunS at the Colon.
| Admiral Dewey-Directed by whom?
Lieutenant Doyle-By Commodore
Schley, by wig-wag signal, as l recoilect.
| Admiral Dewey-You saw the signal?
| Lieutenant Doyle-Yes; saw the signal
being made and understood what 1t was:
| Shortly after that the starboard turret of
armor- piercing shells These shells fell
| short Then l vas directed to fire at a
range of $500 yards. | fired both guns at
| that range, and / fired a gun at a range
| Of e. 7O0 yards. l was requested to explain
| why / had fired the third time, ana my
| reason was that / had not heard the call
to cease firing. l WAS told afterward that
the shot was a very good one After that
the Colon sheered. put her helm a-port
and went inshore. The Brooklyn steamed
M after the Colon, stopped two and a
half or three miles off. and proceeded to
get out the cutter to go over to the Colon
and receive here surrender.
Q.-HUw long did it take TO pull to the
COlon2
A.-Ahout twenty or twenty-five min
utes, / should say. Captain Cook went in
the cutter TO the Colon; and when the
boat was coming back the New York ar
rived.
The witness was shown the signal book
Of the Brooklyn and asked whether it
showed the wig-wag signal to which he
had referred. He replied that it did not.
the "Loop" Question Again.
Lieutenant Doyle was questioned closely
and sharply by Judge Advocate
Lemly as 0 why the original account of
the July battle had not contained any
| reference TO the turn known as the
loop" which carried the Brooklyn away
from the Spanish ships instead of toward
them.
How did you enter in the log book
that she turned in the battle?"
"Starboard helm"
How did she turn?'
Port helm. '--.
where did you obtain the information
or note or suggestion on which you made
the entries in the log on that day."
That particular entry about the star
board helm i gathered from my own in
formation. l made this first record on
July g.
From any officer on the BROOKLYN"
"No.- sir; from Lieutenant Commander
Sharp. OF the Vixen, on July o.
Nobody on the Brooklyn made any
suggestion to you to make the change
NO, sir
When did you write the Logo"
"On the afternoon of July g.
Did you discuss the matter of writing
the log with anybody before you wrote
Il have no recollection of discussing it
with anybody until met Sharp at
Guantanamo on July ).
To other questions Lieutenant Doyle
said he did not think that the hghtlng
ships delayed the passage of the Flying
Squadron from Cienfuegos toward San
tiago, but corrected this statement imne-
diately, saying that the gunboats Eagle
and Vixen should be considered fighting
ships. and that they did delay the
squadron To a question whether the
a-lo
and Brooklyn had delayed the squadron,
the witness answered I think not"
Cross examined by Mr.. Hanna, Lieuten-
ant Doyle told Of having heard guns from
the Brooklyn. while the Flying Squadron
was approaching Cienfuegos, and they
seemed to come with the regularity Of a
salute. admiral Schley. in his statement
to the Senate. said that. hearing guns
when the squadron was about forty miles
off CienfleSos, he suspected that the
Spanish fleet was there and was being
fuegos by Schley, the witness said the
vessels went quite close TO the harbor en-
trance
He did not see any batteries at Glen
that the lights seen ashore near Cienfue-
gos (afterward known to be signals by
Cuban insurgents to the American ships,
the Cubans desiring to communicate that
the Spanish feet was not in Cienfuegos
Harbor) were there every night that the
squadron remained. What they meant
caused comment but did not excite the
suspicion that they were signals.
Testifies Concerning the Battle.
Mr.. Hanna, referring again to the July
5 battle, asked the witness: State what
you observed while you were on the star
board turret?"
A.-When I got on top of the starboard
turret. the best place TO see from, the
Spanish ships were coming right toward
US in the column Of vessels, almost on a
line with our starboard bow.
Q.-Were they firing at our squadron?
A.-They were certainly firing in our
direction. The guns of the Colon were
firing on both sides. After that | could
not see the Spanish vessels on account of
the great volume Of smoke from one CT
more OF them.
In reply to questions Lieutenant Doyle
said that of the two shots fired from his
port turret at the beginning of the battle
the first was at a range of 1900 yards and
the second 2,200 yards. The Brcoklyns
position from the Morro when the
Spanish vessels came cut vas northeast
5000 yards. On the night Of the 18th,
when Schley's blockade was established,
the American ships were, the witness
thought, six, seven, or eight miles from
the mouth of Santiago. he then looked
at the log OF the Brooklyn and said that
the distance there given was seven miles.
After recess the cross-exa mination of
Lieut. enant Doyle was continued by Mr.
Hanna. who developed by the witness,
with the Broohlya's log book before him,
that the squadron was thirteen miles
from Cienfuegos when the firing was
heard as the squadron approached that
port The witness said that just before
the Spanish fleet came out of Santiago
Harbor on July 3, he had taken the dis
tance by stadimeter and IL was $500 Yards |
or a little more than three and One-halP
miles from the MORO. at the harbor en-
trance. The witness said he had seen no
nres at Santiago until the night before |
Cervera came out. Asked If he saw them
himself the witness answered, ''Oh my,
yesi"
Under cross-examination by Judge Ad- |
vocate Lernly. the witness was asked:
WHAT efforts were made by the F'Iyine |
from May 2 to "a at Clenfuegos, |
to discover the whereabouts of Ceryera's |
fieet?"
The witness said at first that he didn't |
any. but then referred To the |
of which he told Wednes-
day between Schley and the captain Of !
the British steamer Adula by which the |
steamer was 10 go into Cienfuegos and |
come out the next day.
other than that were any efforts |
made?"
None that l recall"
To a question as to what orders were !
given by signal from the Brooklyn to 9TH !
er American ships in the battle of july 3
the witness said he did not know as ne |
was not IN position to know. The only
one ne knew anything about was for the |
Oregon 10 fire on the Colon.
By the judge advocate:
Q.-What did you mean when you stated |
IN your testimony yesterday that you |
thought there was going to be melee on |
the 30 of July2
Al meant that the Spanish ships were |
coming toward Us at that moment. and / !
thought that we were going at each other |