The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-26

Brooklyn had not been coupled up, say. ing this was largely because of the in tense heat and also because Captain Cook had not considered 1t necessary to do so. Admiral schiey began his description of the battle of July Sd at 2:30 o'clock. Battle of July 3.
 "on the morning of July g. he said
 'the day broke beautifully. After had eaten breakfast I came up to take a survey of the situation with glasses. We were lying at that time possible three miles from the land, and wondered why they had permitted us to remain so close. At quarter of g. my orderly reported that signal had been made from the flag ship to disregard her movements and that she had gone eastward. WIHlst I was sitting abaft on a hatchway, heard a call from the forward bridge, Tell the Commodore that the fleet is coming out. That was some time after the men had been called to quarters. about S:35 o'clock.
 Well said 'go right for them.' The helm was put aport. The ship was start ed ahead, and when we headed around, l said to Captain Cook, Go ahead, full speed. and hoist signal to clear ship for action.' That signal was followed by Close up for close action The Brooklyn and the other vessels charged inn mediately into the entrance in accordance with the original plan of seeking the enemy's ships in the entrance or driving them ashore. We continued directly for the head of the enemy's column. the idea uppermost in my mind being that if he could arrest them long enough for the battleships to close in and knock them to pieces that would be our best point of attack. suppose from the time we started we were ten to twelve minutes turning. first with port helm and then advancing direct to the enemy. I saw the ships to the eastward and westward close in. I said to Captain Cook, Close action, or close up, has been hoisted and it means to keep inside of thousand yards I looked over the starboard side and saw the enemy coming out Of the entrance of the harbor.
 Position of the Ships.
 "I then looked eastward to see the order of the ships, and l saw the Texas ap- parently a point or more abaft the star board beam, heading on some of the easterly courses. To the left and east of her were the Iowa. The Oregon was to the eastward of the Iowa. The India ma was eastward of that position and the Glocester was lying in under the land. The New York was out. of sight and out of signal distance. The moment l saw that I went forward on to little plat form I had had constructed upon the bat tie tower and in a moment was joined by Captain Cook. MT. Hodgson, Who was on the upper bridge, sang out some thing to the captain about being connect ed up and all ready and he at the same time sang to me, Commodore, they are coming right at us. Out of their effective torpedo range Captain Cook said: Yes we will son bee within the cross-fre or these ships I said: Yes and then haI oaxyo without firing The first gun l think was fired by Lieutenant Simpson. ! saw the leading ship. which apparently had started with the intention of ramming, take a turn ahead to the westward, leaving gap between her and the ship following the Viscaya. We were advancing in the direction of the Viscaya when she also seemed to have given up the intention to ram and turned to the westward. It then became ap- parent, as we were steering on diame- tricaIly opposite courses, that the original plan had failed and that the Spanish fleet, in order and apparently at distance had succeeded in passing the battleship line.
 New Feature of Fight.
 "A new feature of the fight became ir1- mediately apparent. Captain Cook gavo the order to port helm. did not. l should have done 1t in a second. I saw the ships head swinging very rapidly, and I asked him whether his helm was hard aport, and he replied that it was. either aport or hard a2ort. l think he said hard aport. I never saw the star board side of the Texas at all. We were never across her bow. I never was at her port side, and she never approached any position that was within 500 yards of the Brooklyn. She never entered into my head at all as a menace or danger. We passed completely around the circle. The last range that was given was HOO yards and the fact of the nearness of that ship
 the second Spanish ship impressed itself upon my mind, because I could see with the naked eye men running over her tur- rets to her superstructure deck, and l observed the daylight between their legs as they ran.T During the turn, MT. Hodg- son very properly made some allusion to the lookout, perhaps for the Texas. l do not recall what 1t was, but there was never any colloquy of any character be- tween MT. Hodgson and myself. First he was too good an officer to have trans gressed one of the plainest duties of an officer at such a time, and, second. if he had undertaken it, I would not have per mitted it for a second. That is fiction; there was no colloquy.
 Most Furious Time.
 Before we turned, the leading ship was abeam or a little abaft the beam. and when We turned about she was ahead