The Washington times., 1901-09-26
MAIN CHARGES PRESSED.
Continued from First Page)


that time was too rough to permit him
to coal and this was one OF the reasons
he had to leave Santiago to go back to
Key West for coal.
Admiral Cotton said that in going to
the Brooklyn he used a whale boat. pass
ing over the sea without any difficulty.
He did not think the weather was rough
and he had no difficulty in getting out VI
The boat to the side ropes of the Brooklyn.
He had his sword on at the time.
II was on board the Brooklyn" Admiral
Cotton continued. from about 1880 to
about noon. The conversation with Com
modore Schley covered very wide range.
the most important part of which was. of
course. relative to the despatehes which l
delivered to him.. PHI
o.-what was said about the de-
spatches? OF "a
Al delivered to Comsnpdore Schley the
original cipher in which the dispatches
had been received by me, together with
the translation of those dispatches. l
handed them to him personally in his
cabin in the order of their date. He re-
ceived them and readj tiem, and COM
mented in a general way ion their pur-
port He spoke of the difficulty OF get
ting coal on board the ships. He said
that up to that time it had been almost
impossible to get coal on board on ac
count of the weather. He questioned me
about the practicability of eoaltng ships
at Mole St Nicholas or Gonafves Channel
| said that as to the Mole St Nicholas
there was no question that the small ships
could coal there and that as TO the
Gonaives Channel. l knew of no reason
why the ships should not coal there. The
aAr hp n
guage OF which do not recall. He asked
me how about the large ships at Mole st.
Nicholas said: You cannot coal your
big ships there" l had special reference
in my reply to the battleships and the
protected cruisers of the Brooklyn and
New York class. / spoke of the expert
ence that my own ship-the Harvard-a
ship of l2.oOo tons, nearly 500 feet In
length. had had there, and / said that
probably under favorable conditions he
might be able to coal the large ships
there, one at time. but that the area
of deep water was so limited that not
more than one large ship could coal at one
time. was anxious while l was there.
and would have left at once in case bad
weather came on.
Q.-Was there anything said about coal
ing at Key West?
A.-Yos. Returning 10 what / said In
ye,ation to the difficulty which Commo-
dore Sohley said he had had in getting
coal on board the ships. he said that he
was very anxious. as the coal supply was
getting short and the weather was bad,
and had been almost continuously. 1t
vas a very serious problem as TO how or
whether he was going to get coal on
board his ships He said that if the wealth
ho i'm
practicable to coal there, he had but one
resort. and that was to retIrn to Key
Vest in order to supply his ships with
coal. He did not know. he said, whether
the Texas had even ccal enough to re-
turn to Key West. During my visit he
gave orders to make general signal mot
limited to the Flying Squadron) to report
whether the ships had sufficient coal to
| reach Key West. and the reports were
that. including the Texas. they had. l
think tine commodore was very much re-
| lieved when he received that report.
| Shortly after he directed the preparatory
| signal to be given for the ships to return
| to Key West, and the order was given
! by him in a general way. l cannot give
| the words of the order My own coal
| was short and / was authorized verbally
| by Commodore Sch!ey to proceed at once
| to Kingston. Jamaica. to receive as much
coal as l could get there.
Il left the Brooklyn about noon. and
| immediately after my departure the
| Brooklyn commenced steaming ahead:
| and / noticed that many of the ships at
| that moment under Commodore Schley' S
| command were in motion, presumably to
get into line to proceed to Key West"
The Texas ConI supply.
In answer to further questioning, Admiral
Cotton said that during his presence on
| the Brooklyn Admiral Schley expressed
some concern as to whether the Texas
had sufficient coal to return to Key West.
| He told the witness that he would ask the
vessels If they had sufficient coal, and
afterward said to his visitor that all the
| ships including the Texas, had sufficient
coal to return to Key West Il shall sail
| in a few minutes remarked Schley to
| Cotton, according to the latter's testi-
| mony. and directed that the preparatory
| signal for the ships to return to Key
West be made.
| CThe Importance of Admiral Cotton's
| testimony about his conversation on
board the Brooklyn lies in his assertion
that he told Admiral Schley that his ship
could coal at Gonaives whereas Admiral
/
| ing Santiago for Key West. reported to
the Navy Department that Captain Cot
ton had told him that he could coal only
his small ships at Gonaiyes)
| Captain Lemiy-Was II before or after
| reading the department telegram that
| you delivered to Commodore Schley that
! he gave the signal to ascertain what
amount of coal was on board the vessels
of the squadron?
| Admiral Cotton-Afterward
| Admiral Cotton then identified the copy
| of the translation made on board the Har-
| ward of the Navy Department. cipher
| despatch telling Schley to proceed to San
! tiago. find out II the Spanish squadron
was there, and see that the enemy does
| not leave without a decisive action" He
| said that he delivered this cipher trans
lation TO Commodore Schley on the Brook
| lyn on his visit on the occasion OF which
| he had previously been telling.
| Captain Lemly then read the despat< h
| and it was placed in evidence. 1t was to
| this despatch presumably that Admiral
| Schley sent the response that he could
not obey the department. orders al
| though he had striven earnestly, and was
| obliged to return to Key West for coal.
Continuing his examination. Captain
| Lemly asked Admiral Cotton:
| Gould not the squadron and also the
| Harvard coal from the Merrimac on
| May Z7?'' +w
''The Harvard coaled in some part of
that day from the Merrimac," was the
| answer.
This testimony had bearing on Ad-
| miral Schleys despatch to the Navy De
partment that II was too rough TO coal.
| Admiral Cotton after examining for a
long time a paper handed him by the
| Judge advocate. identified 1t despatch
handed to him by Admiral Schley on the
| Brooklyn on May q, to be taken to King
| ston, Jamaica for transmission by tele-
| graph to the Navy Department.
| Then Captain Lemly handed the wit
| ness the official press copybook OF the
| Brooklyn for the period including May
q, and Admiral Cotton Identified In il