The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-16

Questioned concerning the McCal1a | memoranda, he said that it had been brought to Commodore Schley by the Hawk and by no other vessel to his knowledge.
 Commander Sears gave a detailed &C., count of the British steamer Adula, the examination on this point being as fol- lows:
 'The Adula arrived off the port there and was boarded at first under orders from Commodore Sch1ey by the Castine and after Captain Berry of the Castine had made his report to the Commodore, the Commodore sent one of the officers of the Brooklyn aboard her After he had returned and made report, the Commo- dore directed me to go aboard the Adula and see if I could contrive some manner of inducing the Captain of the Adula, an Englishman to put himself out little to tell us something of what was going on inside of Cienfuegos. The captain said of course he would be very glad to do 1t as he was coming in under some author ity of our fleet in Jamaica. "He suggested that when he came out on the next day we should bring him to with a shot so that everybody observing it from shore would see that he was act ing under force and that anybody that could speak Spanish could find out all they pleased from the refugees she had on board"
 Had an Understanding. With what understanding did they go into the port? Was there any under standing with you?"
 "That he was to come out the next day and it would be possible for us to get that information: in fact, that it would be very easy to do so."
 Did he come out the next day?"
 He did not
 The witness stated that Commodore Schley had told him that Captain Mo- Gala had brought code of signals for communication with the insurgents on shore, near Cienfuegos. Describing the blockade of Cienfuegos, Commander Sears said that it had been maintained from one to four miles out. and that the Dupont was stationed inside with in- structions to keep close into the mouth of the harbor and maintain careful watch, reporting any suspicious incl dents.
 The witness in giving the details of the cruise from Cienfuegos to Santiago, said the weather was boisterous, with a heavy sea, and that coaling at sea would not have been safe before May 27. when it was undertaken. He also said that on this voyage the squadron had been de- layed by the Eagle and other small boats, and that the ships had also been slowed up on one occasion when merchant vessel was sighted and so that the collier had to stop several times to make repairs to her machinery.
 With reference to the blockade at San tiago, the witness said that 1t had been maintained at varying distances, from | three to six miles. to suit the Comman- | der-in-Chief In thick weather and at | night the distance was less than in fair i weather and less in the day time. The witness also described the recon I noissance of May 31. when the Colon was
 fired upon. Giving his conclusions with that event, he said that it had developed the strength of the land batteries and they had proved to be stronger than he had supposed they were. Commodore l Schley had, he said, told him that his purpose was to ascertain what the bat l teries were. He said he had been with Lieutenant Potts on the Massachusetts 1 on that day and had not heard any con- versation between that officer and Com modore Schley. The witness described the engagement of July 3. After stating the preliminary incident, he said: The Battle Described. T was in my room when l heard the cry of the executive officer clear the ship for action l knew what that meant and ran to the quarter deck I
 
 signal enemy is escaping was up and saw that it was I met the Commodore on the quarterback. He directed the signal clear the ship for action,' followed by the signal to close in, all of which were made. From my position, I had good view of the entrance. Our ship was heading al the time l should say to the westward of north, not on her regu- lar heading. which was about notheast bV north The anoineE had hppn started by the time I got on deck. and she was gaining way and swinging toward the enemy. The first vessel. which proved to be the flagship Haria Teresa. came out. She was directly on our bearing from the entrance to the port
 As the ship swung toward the Te- resa, she swung slowly around. To me the Teresa appeared to not hold on an exactly steady course and the helm of our ship was eased one way or the other to keep our ram pointing toward the Teresa. The Teresa shortly turned squarely to the westward and as she did so l got view of the next ship follow ing in her wake. It was my observation that the Brooklyn was then held up to meet the second ship approaching Of course, we ported helm.
 The second ship passed in the wake of the first one, and I said to the Com- modore that it looked as if the second one was going to try and ram us. He, think, asserted. At any rate the Brooklyn was held toward her and she appeared to me to be uncertain in her course. The Brooklyn was handled by the captain and quarterma ster. She turned after she had passed to the southward of the Teresa's wake and followed her. and it was then generally remarked on the lower bridge that they were all going to try to escape to the westward.
 Ellis Gave Distance.
 Just about the time the Viscaya turn ed Yeoman Ellis, who was a trained observer with the stadmeter, came to me on the platform and said that his stadimeter showed 900 yards to the Vizcaya. I immediately took an especial look it the Nizcaya with that in my mind and my judgment confirmed the standi- meter l said to the Commodore, I think we are about our tactical diameter from that ship now, ana he said: I think so, to, or we are.
 "The order was hard aport' am not positive who gave the order think the Commodore said, hard aport' Captain Cook, said it is hard aport.' The helm was kept hard aport and the ship swung rapidly in her turning circle When the order was given hard aport' I looked at the next vessel in our fleet the Texas-and as we turned we passed well clear of her After the turn was completed we found our vessel abreast, or perhaps a little abatt the beam or the leading Spanish ship, with a slowly con- yerging course toward the flying ship The smoke at this time was very dense, but there were two ships in plain sight and occasionally we could get a glimpse of a third