The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-09-28
The Schley Court of Inquiry Re-
sumes Its Sessions at the
Washington Navy Yard.
SYNOPSIS OF THE TESTIMONY TAKEN.
Texas and the CoalinR
Furnished the Major Portion of
Testimony Elected mt Wednes-
days Session.

court of inquiry convened promptly
al the navy yard at II o'clock.
The first witness called to-day was
Mr.. A.. b. ClaXton, the machinist on
board the Texas, who had begun his
testimony when the sittings of the
court were SO abruptly terminated
Tuesday morning by the death of
Judge Wilson.
Before Mr.. ClaXton took the stand
Commander Heilner was recalled to
make verbal corrections in the Off
cial copy of his testimony, made var
ious changes, but they were not ma
terial.
Mr.. ClaXton said on July 3, 1898, he
had been on duty in the engine room
of the Texas. The engine indicator
had called for full speed ahead early
in the morning, which had, within an
hour after the beginning of the ac-
ton, been changed to full speed
astern." To his knowledge there had
been no signal for the reversal of the
engines. He said that he had been
excused from service in the engine
room, but still he knew that the en-
gines were reversed for about two
minutes within the first hour of the
engagement.
Rear-Adnliral Cotton. now COM
mandant of the Norfolk navy yard,
who commanded the auxiliary cruiser
Harvard during the Spanish war, was
the next witness. He told of meeting
the flying squadron under Commo-
dore Schley off Santiago on May -,
1895. and said that on that date he
had delivered dispatches to the then
commodore from Admiral Sampson
and the navy department. He had. he
said. boarded the Brooklyn about
1890 o'clock. The weather was then
moderate and he had had no difficulty
in going aboard the Brooklyn from
his boat. He had worn his sword. He
said:
II delivered to Commodore Schley
the original cipher in which the dis
patches had been received by me at
St. Nicholas Mole, together with trans
lation of those dispatches made by
Lieut.. Beall, of the Harvard. | handed
them personally to him in his cabin
in the order of their date. He received
- 'N"' ~ ~ Az tIAANb III a
general way upon their purport
spoke of the difficulty he had had in
getting coal On board his ships while
at Cienfuegos, and subsequently to
the date OF which | am speaking, May
p, and said 1T had been an almost
impossibility to get coal on board on
account of the weather. He cues
ioned me relative TO the practicable
ity of coaling ships at St. Nicholas
Mole and Gonaives channel. As to St.
Nicholas Mole, | said: There is no
question the small ships can coal
there. As to Gonaives channel, l
know of no reason why you should
not be able to coal there The COM
modore made some remarks upon my
statements. the language of which /
do not recall. but he asked me: How
about the large ships at st. Nicholas
MoleY | said: You can't coal your
big ships there | had special refer
ence in my reply to the battleships
and protected cruisers, of the Brook
Ign and New York class. | said, think
ing of the fact hat my ship had been
there and was of some l., 900 tons dis
placement and nearly 600 feet in
length: Possibly, under favorable
conditions, you might be able to coal
the large ships there, one at a time
But the area of deep water for the an
chorage of large ships is so little
there it was not practicable to coal
at the very Utmost more than one
large ship at a time there, and in case
H. r,.,tIar l..,r,o Ill IL ..z.Il
Immediately have to 90 to sea. | was
anxious while | was there with the
Harvard, on recount of her size, and
i would have left at once in case bad
weather had come on. As | remem-
Der, I recollect no qualification as to
Gonaives channel"
"Was anything said at this time
about going 70 Key IVES! for coal?"
"R%eturning 70 what | said with ref
erence to the difficulty which Com
modore Schley stated TO me he had
in getting coal on board of any of
the ships al Cienfuegos, he said he
was very anxious. The coal supply
was getting short. the weather was
bad and it had been bad almost con-
%tinuously. 1t was "a very serious
problem as to how or whether he
could possibly get coal on board ships
off Santiago. He said il he found
it impracticable to coal there,
he could only see one T sort and that
was he would be comp He'd TO return
to Key West in ord,t Il supply his
ships with coal. Having that question
in view, he was apPrehensive espe-
cially as to one ship, the Texas. He
did not even know at that moment
whether she had on board sufficient
coal to enable her TO return to Key
West. During my visit he gave an
order to make signal. a general signal
as i remember it, not limited TO the
flying squadron alone" to report
whether the ships had sufficient Goa.
to reach Key West. The signal was
made. or at least, / assume il wal
made. At all events, during tpy pres
ence with Commodore Schley he re