The Wilmington daily Republican., 1901-10-25

deal of anxiety, which Iae0uld readily
appreciate. He showed me number
Of orders. Among them was one which
stated that n division Of the two squad
rons had been decided upon one for
the north and the other for the south
coast Of Cuba, In which he was given
the preference Of commanding
1.-THE order, If l remember correctly,
stated that under any circumstances 1
was to remain with my command, and
] asked him which of the two stations
he would take. and he said he proposed
to hold the Havana. or north one. He
also told me that whichever side l
went on to remember that they were
very heavily fortified and tt6t his con
fidential instructions, which he deliy-
cred to me verbally. were that we were
not to risk our battleships against the
fortified places of the coast until after
the Spanish squadron had been dis
posed of. told him that l had been
ordered to report for duty to Admiral
Remey and that, l imagined. necessari-
ly meant himself and that l wanted to
assure him at the outset that l should
be loyal, absolutely and unreseryedly.
to the cause We were both representing.
Captain Chadwick, who was present
don't remember whether all the time
or not-said, 'Of course, commodore.
any one who has known your character
would know that II would be impossi-
BILE for you to be otherwise than loyal
II asked the admiral II there had
been established any means Of comlnu-
nlcating with the insurgents, whether
there were any pilots or whether any
locality was known where they were
to be found. He told me that he did
not know, but that when he got the sit
uatiOn better In hand he would commu-
nicate with me, but that he thought it
would he better for me to start as early
as we could get away and blockade CT
enfuegos. l said very well; that l was
prepared. Of course, to go anywhere.
The next move on the part Of the fly
ing squadron, he said, was from Key
West to Cienfuegos, Cuba. and the ad
miral told how. as the commander in
chief of that squadron, he had the ves-
sells coaled SO that at or 8 o'clock on
the morning of May 10 all the ships of
the fleet turned their backs upon Amer
lean soil and laid their ceairse for the
southern coast Of Cuba. This. he said.
was done under the order of the COM
mander in chief. Admiral Sampson.
At this point the witness quoted Ad-
mral Simpsons order No. 5. not fail
ing TO point out as he went along that
In this order the admiral had said, II
have the situation well In hand, and
will write you and give you any infor-
nation that suggests itself"
The first event of note on the voyage
toward Cienfuegos occurred, Admiral
Schley said, after he had been out
from Key West three or four hours.
1t was then that he met Captain Me
Gala. in charge of the subsquadron,
with the Marblehead at its head. which
had been doing duty OIL the Cuban
coast near Cienfuegos, whittier the
commodore with bis flying squadron
was bound. He related how. in ac-
cOrdance with the usual custom when
a naval officer meets his superior in
rank at sea. Captain McCalln had ask
ed permission to pass on and told how
McCalla had sent the Eagle to commu-
nicate with the flying squadron. Ad-
miral Schley also mentioned that the
Scorpion had been sent to intercept the
Eagle for the purpose of securing what
ever information she might bring.
after little" he said. ''the Scorpion
returned and reported through the meg
aphone, think. identically AS is report
cd in his log. which was all the infor
ma tson he gave us. The Eagle afterward
passed close enough to the Brooklyn to
hail her by the megaphone and repeated
that there was no news. ! was on the
quarter deck. The thing seemed to be
almost burned into my mind, but after
what have heard | begin to think
that maybe | was mistaken"
The admiral also related his meeting
the Cincinnati and Vesuvius the next
off San Antonio. -
Captain Chester, i'm command of the
came aboard the Brooklyn.
remaining for about>three-quarters of
IN hour. He then related the details of
his conversation with Captain Chester,
saying that they had "thrashed out a
good many subjects"
Admiral Schley placed his arrival off
Cienfuegos at near midnight of May
u. He told of hearing guns early that
evening while still thirty or forty miles
distant from the Cuban coast
lie said that the fleet stopped for the
night ten or twelve miles offshorr off
and that he had sent the
Scorpion ahead of the feet as patrol
and that toward daylight on the fol
lowing morning. May -, all the ships
had steamed in close to the harbor en-
trance. "My recollection now is," he
said. that we went within mile and
looked at the harhOr; but, owing to
trees and Instructions, it was impossi-
BILE to see into the harbor. | never saw
any smokcstacks, and l was Il very
close watcher on deck, generally from
3 o'clock in the morning until II or !
o'clock at night. There was scarcely a
of any kind that escaped
me-"
At 8 o'clock of the evening of the 22d
The torpedo boat Dupont, the admiral
said, arrived with a dispatch from Ad-
niral Sampson. The dispatch referred
to was the Dear Schley" letter. Re-
ferring to this dispatch, the witness
said:
II did not remember the fact until
within the past few months because
here were duplicates of that letter,
mt I now rpral1 II from thp fact that |