Evening star., 1901-11-06

/
| according to the best manners of the Paris
| ian courf and would have greeted him with
| me 1oretgn acceHt~and graceful gestures
ina, are que to any one who has been sud
deniy H7nsterred from the deck of an
ds4ship Is tha- elegant and fashiona-
pie eircses Of European diplomacy"
IN Mr, Rayner then had read letter from
the Secretary of the Navy from the ap-
pendix, In which the Secretary estimated
enat twenty-five miles was near enough for
snta snlps in eesaaing harbor If the Sec, &c
miles. he SAID "then seven or eight miles.
| which had been clearly established as the
ldistancemaihtained off shore in front of
Santiagoby the flying squadron, ought to
be near Enough under the specifications" ="
| Inere were picket boats. he said, inside
TINS line whnse duty 1t was to see things.
ana with that precaution, he maintained,
! the biockadewas emfnently efficient.
| few minutes before o'clock Mr.. Ray
ner requested that the lunch recess be
taken, and the court acceded to this re-
quest.
The Brooklyn During the Battle.
As soon as the court convened at o'clock
Mr.. Rayner continued his argument. He
had reached specification nine, he stated.
which referred to the position Of the, Brook
| lyn on July & 1t was perfectly true, he
said, as council on the other side had SO
| frankly stated, that there was nothing with
I reference to the battle in the specthca-
tions and that the testimony went in
through the generosity of counsel on the
| other side. underathe first precept, how
| ever, Mr.. Rayner said, relating to the gen.
eral conduct of Admiral Schley. a great
| deal OF this testimony could have come in.
| He announced that he would hardly say
a word on the subject Of the battle, and
bility of a collision between the Texas and
| Brooklyn. On this point he would stand
on the testimony of Capt. Cook. He 'e-
| ferred to Capt: Cook s testimony In the rec
! Soi1 hat t-Vr,f,iic ha could NOT oad
1t. there was no doubt that all would re-
member 1t. There was no one In the field
of action who had the opportunity to know
about the turn, of the Brooklyn on that
day as Capt. Cook had. Whether or not
| II the turn-had been made in the other di
rection 1t wonld have been more advan-
| tageous could only be conjectured, but that
| 1t did result in the destruction of the Span
| ish fleet in the direction in which 1t was
made there was no doubt. He paid high
tribute to Capt. Cook, and said his words
would go down in history as glittering
| record of that campaign.
| Capt. Cook was an orator he said, In de-
liyering this testimony. He was an orator
because he spoke the truth. He was an
orator because he was speaking from his
| heart.
Referring to the damage inflicted by the
Brooklyn on the Spanish ships, he said the
| result of the board of investigation had
| determined that over 30 per cent of this
damage had been inflicted by the Brooklyn,
this information having been based on the
number of hits received from the Brook
lyn's five-inch guns. This estimate was
| undoubtedly larger, he maintained because
the Brooklyn had used guns OF larger cali
Der also. The Brooklyn had received over
70 per cent Of the hits from the Spanish
fleet, which showed that she was in the hot
! test of the fight.
Regarding the stopping of the engines of
| the Texas he said that there had been
much said both in the way of testimony
and argument. However. he did not see
| ri an fhn a
| Messrs.'. HodgSon and Heilner were the
| only two witnesses, he maintained, who
| thought the Texas in danger from the
| Brooklyn. In this connection he referred
| to the chart which had been prepared since
| the battle by the board of navigators and
| said:
The navigators chart is a thing of JOY
| forever. 1t iss like the obliterated epitaph
! upon a tombstone. Six navigators met and
after three months of unremitting labor
| they resolve to give the world a chart of
the battle Of Santiago which. for all pur-
| poses of historical accuracy, might as well
| be a chart of the battle of Thermopylae Or
| OF Waterloo. 1t appears that every one of
| the navyators wanted to place his ship in
different position from where the ship
| really WAS. They were all trying to COM
| pose chart that did not represent the sit
| uation at all, land they triumphantly Sue
ceeded. As disastrous failure the chart
| Is magnificent success The. navigator,
however, who seems to have gotten the
worst Of it was the navigator of the Texas,
| because bis object was to place his ship
| either fight underneath or right on top of
the Brooklyn, whereas according to the
| chart 1t is given as at least 2.4OO yards
away
| He said this chart had been admitted as
worthless, but 1t was not worthless so far
| as the testimony of this witness was con-
| cerned, referring to Mr.. Hodgson. He had
| cross-examined him and had got him thor
| oughly fastened that he could not ex-
| tricate himself. He said the chart showed
| absolutely that the distance between the
Brooklyn and the Texas was 2,4OO yards,
| instead of $50, as the witness had testified
He said that the only danger to the Texas
| was from the Iowa and not from the Brook
| lyn that 1t did not take even the eye of a
| Bristol to see that.
| This remark caused a smile to pass over
| the countenances of the members Of the
court and audible laughter among the audi
! tors in the court room.
| Discussing the Loop.
| Mr.. RayHer commented on the loop made
| by the Brooklyn, and spoke Of one witness
| having said that the Brooklyn went 1900
| yards to the SOUTH while the truth Of the
| matter was that she described her tactical
| diameter.
81 have not word; there is not a single
| reliable witness upon whose testimony the
department itself was to stand in contra
diction to the testimony of Capt Cook.
! The learned counsel must say that Capt
| Cooks testimony cannot be relied upon or
| must abandon this specification
| Counsel then proceeded to speak of the
Hodgson controversy, and said:
| II do not know what Hodgson heard.
| cannot make out from his testimony what
| he heard during that alleged colloquy. 1
| wish I could do so.''
He then read Captain Cooks testimony
in relation to putting the helm hard aport,
and in describing the loop that was made
| by the Brooklyn.
Captain Cook" he said, ''was not max
/ ing history. when he said that. He had al
ready made history. and you cannot strike
| him down. After all, you would nave alb
solutely to be bound by his testimony, and
you could not impeach him. II had had
| my way / would have rested this case
! when Captain Cook had concluded his tes-
| timony. I would have done that had 1t
not been for the fact that the admiral
! wanted to take the stand in his own be-
half
The Alleged Colloquy.
Speaking Of the Hodgson colloquy, he
continued:
| s'This thing died when 1t was resurrected
| This was all. Mr.. Hodgson's fault Sorry
for him, but it was his fault There was
| too much gossip and magazine writing Too