Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1901-10-12

| Washington, Oct. l0.-In the Schlcl
naval court of inquiry yesterday Lieu
| tenant Bristol completed his ttS in onN
begun Tuesday and three new witnesses
were introduced. They were Rear .Ad
| miral Taylor who aS captn II com
mandrd the battlcShip Indiana during
the war with Spain; Lieutenant Com
mander Potts. who was navigator Of
the bnttlcShip Massachusetts during
that period. and Lieutenant Lrip"r win,
| was on the New Orleans during iii,
war. the last named being still on tn,
stand when the court adjourned for th'
day.
Rear Admiral Taylor testified thai
| when the battle off Santa 90 on July :;
began the Indiana, of which he wHS il
command. had occupied the eastern
most post on the line of blockade. having
taken the place of the flagship New York
when it left for Siboncy. In reply to Il
question from the judge advocate us {,
| whether he had observed the position
Of the Brooklyn at the time Of til" begin
ming of the battle. the witness said
| when the battle had been On about |,
| or II minutes my attention WAS III
tractcd to the brooklyn 10y my sigma
| officer, Captain Dawson. He said to III,
| that tn" Brooklyn must he injured, ul
words to that effect. rs she WAS dropping
| out of action. observed the Bruokl lyu
| heading apparently about south or of
| shore.
"She was then on my port bow. half II
| mile perhaps ahead of us. and at that
| time Il quarter of Il mile outside of the
| line of our column. She was not turn
ing. as far as | could see. The Texas
was apparently lying still in the water
did not see whether she was backing
or not. The distance between those two
ships was impossible for me to see to
Judge the distance between them. |
simply observed that there waSa bunch
of ships ahead of me. Not more than
a few minutes later my attention WA
again turned to the l:roolilyn. She had
then proceeded Il distance not over two
miles and not under one mile from The
time had seen her first and the second
time | saw her as near as | could figure
out. ~ miles to Scawarl to our column
of battle Immediately aftcrwHrd she
passed into the black smoke which was
lying in patches about. took no fur
ther notice of her. On those occasions
however, my recollection is very plain
and the distance very near to what |
stated"
Judge Advocate: Can you state gen
orally in what direction the Brooklyn
was headed when you last saw herr"
mot more than two points difference
from when | first saw her: apparently.
not any difference. but can say il could
not have been more than two points
and that if she was headed as | believe
south by west, when | first saw her
her across the bows of the Texas. she
was not headed more south by west
west than when last saw her"
did you see Cpvera's fleet when they
came out of Santiago harbor:" Yes
sir"
What direction did they take first
after getting out and how far outside
the mOuth h of the harbor We're they when
they changed their dircction?" "Ther
change appeared gradual, porting their
helms as they cleared the mouth of the
harbor and proceeding perhaps with
changes. of course. of one or two pO II S
at Il time until they were in line aralle
with the shore"
Admiral Taylor said hat on the morn
ing of July > the Indiana had Signallcl:
"'rhe enemy is escaping The In
diana. was. he said. at that time always
cleared for action. He had. he said
personally seen the Brooklyn while on
her southern detUur. commonly known
as the "loop.'
Lieutenant Commande~ fottS. who
was on the witness stand i'm the after
noon. said when asked by Captain Lem
ly to give his estimate of the bearing of
Commodore Schlcy OH tn" day of the
hombnrdment of the Colon, May 81:
Ellis manner was that of Il man lab
ing under extreme mental cXcitcmrnt:
of man who had Il Il s;lgrecablc duty to
perform and tried to get through with il
as soon as he could"
During Commander Potts examna
tion, Mr. Rayner secured pcrmissi II
from the court to introduce as cvid nc
the order of Secretary Long to Admiral
Sampson. dated April q. i'm which he was
admonished against the exposure of the
American vessels to the fire of strongly
fortified ports. The paragraph in that
order which he especially wished to
have considered reads as follows:
"'rhe department does not wish tn
vessels of your squadron to he exposed
to the fire of the batteries at Havana.
Santiago de Cuba or alhrr strongly for
titled ports in Cuba. unless the more for.
midable Spanish vessels should take
refuge within those harborS. Even in
this case the department would Suggcs,
that a rigid blockade and employment
of our torpedo boats might acconpl 81
the desired object. viz. the destruction
of the enemy's vessels. without subject.
ing unnecessarily our own men-of-wal
to the fire of the land batterias'