The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-26
sCHL[Y ON TIVE FIGHT
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Continued from Third Page)
 Lust before the Viscaya turned tc run ashore she put her helm astar- board, apparently starting out for the Brooklyn or the Oregon, I don't remen- Der which, and evidently at that mo- ment got very severe wound for l saw quite an explosion under her bow and in a moment afterward she put helm hard aport, turing in short smoke coming from all of her hatches.
 T thought she was going to capsize, she had such tremendous list to port. Just then l saw shell strike her that appeared to me to rake her fore and aft and l thought to myself she would sink in deep water so I told the signal officer to signal to the Texas to look out for her men and to save, but the Texas was too far astern to receive the message. I made the remark at the time. however, Philip is always sensi- ble; he needs no instructions about such things During this part of tne fight noticed that all of the signal hal yards of my ship were cut, think pos- sibly with one exception. One of the speed cones we had hoisted was cut and
 
 down on the front of me and went overheard. After the Vlscaya had turned In afire her colors down, the Colon edged inshore and appeared to be following the contour of the coast and I thought at that time, looking astern and observing what had happened to her consorts, that she was seeking the best place she could find in order to end the matter at once. From Assa- deros, which was behind some sixteen miles west of the harbor of Santiago, to the point Rio Tarquino, is perhaps about thirty miles, so I said to Captain Cook Cease fire and to make the sig nal. I also told Captain Cook to let his me nconie out of the turrets into the cooler air and get something to eat and to hurry up his men below. I think I went into the battle tower myself at that time and sang out to the men be- low hat we had got all of hem except one and that I thougth they could be depended upon to catch that other ves- sel I heard a good deal of merriment and rejoicing. l went back to the bridge and soon realized that they were doing their best. There was a jingle to the rails and vibration to the vessel, but perceived that the mo- tion of the ship was sluggish. sug- gested to Captain Cook that we pos sibly had come compartments filled. He sent the carpenter down and it de- veloped that one of the after compart- ments had filled with water, which we thought was due to the fact that we had received some injury below the water line. The carpenter as we'll as the captain, thought it unwise to ex- anime the compartment until we could get into smoother water where we could possibly handle 1t more readily. That course was decided upon. The speed. of course, came up with some rapidity and toward 12 o'clock it was very ap- parent that we were going upon the chase. I said to Captain Cook several times during the action Would it not be good idea to edge in so that we could finish those fellows quicker? and he replied that we had them in the most excellent target range and that the guns of the two ships seemed to be | doing most admirable work We were at that time for Tarquino i Point under Cape Cruz, at the point extending to the southward. My idea | was that in steering that course, if the Colon kept up her course she would be obliged to come out. I then said I would get up a lot of extra ammuni- lion so that when she came out into close quarters it would be question of but few minutes before we knock sd her out. As we were going out to head her off there were various signals between the Oregon and myself, of a pleasing character. Some were official.