The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-10-04
IS GETTING MONOTONOJS.
The Schley Court of Inquiry Drags
Along Upon Very Tedious
Lines.
is PROBING THE COAL QUESTION NOW.
An Attempt to Reduce to Exactftude
Matter that Naval Men are Ac-
custOmed to Approximate Leads
to Confusion of Present With
Former Statements.


to Confusion of Present With
Former Statements.
Washington, Sept. 3O.-The bright
sunshine and fresh air had the effect
of bringing all the members of the
Schley court of inquiry and the at
tendants upon it to the court build
ing rather earlier than usual.
The first new witness of the day
| was Commander James NJ. Miller, who
| was in command of the collier Merrl-
mac while that vessel was a part of
Admiral Schley's flying squadron.
Commander Miller's testimony re-
lated entirely to the matter of coal
ing off the Cuban coast, and was only
of technical interest. His log was in
complete. He said:
''When l was taken out summarily
| from the Merrimac, nearly everything
] had was lost, and the only thing l
can remember now, with the few
| notes / have here, is in this log.
The court asked: could you have
coaled any of the vessels on May 25,
had you been ordered to do so?''
To this the reply was: Il should
1
and belief. / say / could coal, yes
could coal at any time, but, then, l
| could not have coa1ed comforta bly,.
For the other ships it was what we
call a nasty sea, and squally, rainy
weather, and if / had my choice l
would not have on that day; that is,
the 25th."
Capt. Miller was succeeded on the
witness stand by Capt. Theodore F.
Jewell, who commanded the cruiser
| Minneapolis during the Spanish war.
Capt. Jewell said that he had first
| fallen in with the flying squadron,
under command of Commodore
Schley, on the evening of May &c.
Capt. Lemly quoted from Admiral
| Schley's letter to the senate commit
| tee on naval affairs, dated February
| is, 1899, saying after having been
informed by the scouts commanded
by such officers as Sigsbee, Jewell and
Wise, that, although they had been
off Santiago for a week, they had
seen nothing of Cervera's feet since
it left Curacao" and asked whether
he had given to Admiral Schley this
| information or any other information
COuSC1l lliC OReiAlS1A hCOt' hO
witness replied: 81 gave him no in
formation with reference to that sub
ject whatever"
The judge advocate asked: 'At the
time you were within signalling dis
tance of the flagship of the flying
squadron off Santiago were you at
any time asked any question by Com
modore Schley as to the presence of
the Spanish squadron in Santiago"
Not to my recollection"
"Do you recollect whether you
went on board the flagship Brooklyn
at this time?''
81 did not go on board that day"
Capt. Jewell said that when he had
first seen Admiral Schley's state
ment as to the information he might
have given concerning Cervera's feet,
he had written letter to the depart
ment denying that he had done so.
Objection was made to this line of
testimony, and it was not persisted in.
The witness said, in reply to a ques-
tion from Mr.. Rayner, that he had no
knowledge that Capt. Sigbee, speak
ing for himself and for Captains
Jewell and Wise, stated to Commo-
dore Schley on the Goth, at Santiago,
that neither he (the witness) nor
Wise nor himself (Sigsbee) had seen
anything or knew anything of the
movements or whereabouts of the
Spanish fleet. Nor did he know wheth-
er Capt. Sigsbee wrote a letter to
Commodore Schley stating that that
was a fact.
The court here asked a question
which opened up the coaling question.
The question was as follows: How
far could the Minneapolis have gone
with her 400 tons of coal at the time
you state?"
eff l had burned 400 tons of coal l
could have made something like
twelve or thirteen hundred miles.
That would have left the bunkers
empty. 1 was burning about 90 tons
a day, and on that making IA or Is
knots.'
Drawing from Capt. Jewell the fact
that the distance from Santiago to
Key West is $50 miles, Mr.. Royner
asked:
''In view of what you said just now,
will you explain the signals I read:
$3.50 p. M, May 26, flagship to the
Minneapolis: Have you enough coal to
go to Key West?
Minneapolis to flagship: Just
enough"
''How do you explain that?"
81 am giving my recollection at the
time. As 1 said. my coal supply was
reduced and i was concerned. There
were great many signals being made
and l replied to the signal without
consulting the coal account particu-
larly, and 1 considered that three
days steaming was about the limit ]
could safely co.
There is an error here of about
500 to 600 miles. Eight hundred, and
1900 of 1,4o0 are very different
81 estimated the distance 1 could
steam. 1 did not usually provide for
burning every ounce of coal in the
bunkers and, furthermore, we have
got to allow for contingencies. was
hauling the fires from the boilers
very often on account of the leaks