The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-06

different light from others who knew
 less.
 T contend that up to this time, so fal
 as the blockade Is concerned, so far as
 his conduct there is concerned, there is
 absolutely nothing shown by the testi-
 mony in this case from which the
 slightest suspicion of fault can be plac-
 ed upon Commodore Schley."
 Replying to the claim that Commo-
 dore Schley did not obey orders in fail
 ing to prevent work upon new fortifi-
 cations, at Cienfuegos, Captain Parker
 said that Captain McCalla testified
 that when he got back there on the
 24th they were in the same condition as
 when he left on the 16th. Not a par i ticle O. evidence, he said, had been in- ! troduced to show that any work was
 being done on the Notifications. "The
 court will agree with me, I think in
 my statements,' said the captain, that 6 commanderin-ch chief is gifted with some discretion; that he is entitled to
 exercise it, and it is his duty to exer-
 else it''
 | The speaker then read the Dear
 Schley'' letter of May 20 in which Ad-
 miral Sampson said he had decided not
 to change his plans to hold Cienfuegos
 as he felt that even if Cervera had taken refuge at Santiago he must in-
 evitably still go to Cienfuegos, and
 commented upon it at some length
 He contended that both this dispatch
 and No. had been sent at later date
 than had been suggested by the naval
 officials. Sampson had, he said, in-
 Strl1nth1 Gnh1au tn al
 gos, notwithstanding the departments advice to proceed to Santiago and in No. discretion had plainly been given to Schley. Suppose" he said, The had gone off and it had been found that the Spaniards were there, he would have been condemned and justly, and in case of court martial learned friends here would have thundered against him. I say that no criticism is deserved for the commanders conduct at Cienfueeos.
 He contended that the Ardois lights at Cianfuegos were the best evidence that the fleet was still there, and that when he left nothing could have been known until next morning.
 This closed the discussion of the Clen- fuegos blockade and Captain Parker contended that he had then acted wisely showing that the discretion allowed him was well placed. As for himself he cared nothing for the gossip of the ward rooms or the talk of the young of ficers. Their talk pales into insignifi- cance," he said beside the achieve ments of Admiral Schley, whose name will continue to shine brighter and better every day.
 Taking up the question of the pro- gress of the flying squadron from Cien- fuegas to Santiago, Captain Parker said that if the court will take the trouble to look at the logs of the vari- ous ships the members will see that there is nothing in that charge T pre- fer to take what the officers wrote at the time rather than what they may say now"
 Regarding the state of the weather at that time Captain Parker said: "The court knows that weather is of no con- except that it produces sea. 1 It is the sea we have to deal with. l There may not be even a gentle zephyr | blowing across mother ocean, as some | ooetical fellow has described it, and | yet there may be sea rolling that will | make it dangerous for vessels to come | within a quarter of mile of each other"
 The speaker said that frequently person would go in small boat from me ship to another in a sea that it would be exceedingly dangerous for wo vessels to attempt to coal in.
 Captain Parker claimed that in the passage from Cienfuegos to Santiago he speed of the slowest vessel of the quadron must be that of the speed of he squadron. It would not have been he common sense of the idea of the Mutation, he said, to have abandoned he Eagle and the collier and make all peed for Santiago.
 Captain Parker also commended Schley's conduct of the ruise to Santiago He had, said the peaker, acted according to the dictates f his best judgment - judgment which the captain said was better than hat of the less experienced officers; an xperience which had been gained in under circumstances of ev- ry nature, in the Arctic, around both apes, on every sea and under every un" "He was" Captain Parker con- inued, "at least as likely to be as cor get as those young officers who for the rst time in their lives were given of small boat.' Taking the fleet to the southward ,om Santiago May 26 Captain Parker etailed the meeting with the scout oats, and said that the condemnation ' the commodore for not communlcat- lg with Captains Jewell and Wise was ' uerile. "All that Wise had to do" he lid, Twas to signal that he had im- :, 1rtant information and he would have cen asked to come aboard. It is the lsiness, the clear duty of any subordi- | ate officer to make known to a super r any informant ton he may have" I Tn the absence of information by the lptains of the Yale and the Minneap- is Captain Parker held that Admiral ,hley had right to suppose that aptain Sigsbee had given all the infor I ation to be had from the scouts. Ii oeaking of the information conveyed , o 7 Captain Sigsbee, Captain Parker T id that officer was "curiously blind =, 1t purposely blind-but curiously so. z, e had not only not been able to find I, t anything about the Colon, but when ~ e was there and in plain sight on = ay 20 clear, bright day, when Sigs- o en was off the harbor scouting he had s fled to see her. This is to be one of U e mysteries of the campaign"