The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-11-12

I defined it in the early course OF The
proceedings, between the applicant and
the morale of the service. In entering
upon my duties as judge advocate OF
the court, I had in mind advice given
me by the secretary OF the navy soon
after my appointment as follows:
Admiral Schley asks for a court Of
inquiry. A perfectly impartial is
constituted. The judge advocate and any
counsel assisting him are not (and their
duty in this respect is plain in court
to prosecute anybody or to find any
body guilty, but to bring out the facts
and aid the court in declaring the
truth
81 have endeavored TO follow this ad-
vice without fear or favor. If / have
appeared to fail in maintaining that
impartial attitude which / feel n
have always felt towards the applicant,
it is because aggression, however, nat
ural, on the part of the earnest counsel,
begets aggression, and for the further
reason that in many instances through
out the investigation honest difference
of opinion has compelled me 10 be ear
nestly contentious in order to adduce
what / believe to be material facts. /
deem it not inappropriate that I should
here remark that the navy department
in this matter has maintained an en-
tirely neutral attitude, that L have not
UGH AAAICAA Will Wy ~ III IL COn-
duct of the case; that, as the record
demonstrates there has been no alter
alton of the departments records; that
officers on duty, even in the much
abused bureau of navigation AVE free
ly testified in behalf of the
applicant; and 1 am confident that the
evidence adduced fully justifes the
views Of the department"
Captain Lemly referred to the delays
on the voyage to C~ienfuegos. Com
menting on the interview with Captain
Chester, Of the Cincinnati, on this trip,
Captain Lemly said:
Already, as appeared from their ON
versation, Commodore Schley though
treasured by Captain Chester, was
troubled in his own mind over coal con-
ditions, and the problem of coaling at
sea, demonstrating that at the very
outset he was borrowing trouble"
Referring to the McCalla signals, he
said 1T was clear hat the Marblehead
had not arrived at Key West when the
flying squadron sailed, and, therefore,
that these signals could not have been
communicated to Commodore Schley
there. There is little doubt, however"
he added, that if the commodore had.
upon meeting the Marbiehead directed
Commander McCalla to report on board
the flagship, he would have been fully
Informed as to the signals; but, indie
pendently of any signals, was it not in
cumbent upon the commodore himself
to make efforts? Was he justified in
this and in other similar matters,
notably later off Santiago, in relying
solely upon the efforts of others?"
VOYAGE FROM CIENFUEGOS.
Considering the voyage from Cienfu-
COS Captain Lemly said:
THE commodore's orders directed
that he proceed with all dispatch, but
cautiously, to Santiago. The great mil
itary necessity at this time was to find
and check the enemy's fleet. Certainly
he flying squadron did not leave with
dispatch, nor with caution, as shown
particularly by the fact with regard to
the latter condition that she was using
the Ardois system Of signals for hours
after getting under way. 1t would ap-
pea that there was little &c prevent
it's departure for the eastward from be-
ing discovered and in due course COM
municated to Santiago"
THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT
Having brought the squadron to the
southwark of Santiago. on May 2Sth,
the judge advocate too up the coaling
question. Then he considered the re-
trograde movement. This step he said
had been undertaken without suf-
ficient or decisive steps being taken to
ascertain whether the Spanish fleet was
actually in the harbor of Santiago,
leaving the mouth of the harbor I'M
watched. and Cervera free to escape,
with the possibility, of his making a
descent upon u coast-the moral, to
say nothing of the material effect of
which it is impossible to over-estimate.
THE commodore was alone respon-
sible for the ~retrograde movement. 1t
was his duty to ascertain to a certainty
whether h Spanish ships were In the
harbor, an obligation which 10 negative
information of Captain Sigsbee's could
remove or even modify. And it is in
conceivable that a positive statement
as to the contents of a harbor of the
well known formation of Santiago
could have been made by Sigsbee.'
Here Captain Lemly quoted in full
Commodore Schley's cannot obey or
ders'' dispatch to the department of
May 9th and commented upon it, say
ing:
Whether the departments instruc-
tons definitely directed, in positive
terms. hat the squadron remain off