Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-09-02
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The BATTLE Or MANZANIhbO.
By II. e. Smith, MaseraArms of the Hornet During
Spanish American War.

! late war with Spain, and was fought
! the 30th day of June, 1S9S in the har-
Dor Of ManZanillo on the southern
! coast of Cuba, was but slightly
! brought before the public notice on ac-
! count of its being so shortly followed
| on July Sd by the decisive naval en-
! gagement in front of Santiago de
Cuba, which resulted in the complete
destruction of Cevera's formidable
! fleet, has led the writer to give to the
| public description Of the memorable
battle of Manzanillo. l say memora-
BILE, because am confident it will ever
be remembered by many and especial
ly by the crew of the Little Hornet"
of which by chance it was my fortune
to be one. AS volunteer in tho
navy, was serving on board the U.
s. S. Hornet Qormerly Mr.. Elagler's
yacht Alecia, under command of q
brave and able man in the person Of
Lieutenant J. NJ. Helm, U. S. Navy.
During the latter part of June, Admir-
al Sampson learned through Mr.. Dent,
the U. S. Consul at Jamaica, that many
vessels were sailing from that port
to ManZanillo, Cuba, carrying provi-
sions probably intended to reach the
Spanish forces at Santiago by an over
land route from the former place; in
order to put stop to this traffic, the
Admiral Immediately ordered q block
ade established west of Cape Cruz,
and despatched several Of the lighter
vessels of his command to this duty;
much to the displeasure of all on
board the Little Hornet" she was
ordered "to proceed to and take up
station on blockade off Cape CRUZ
this point being about 100 miles to the
westward of Santiago. This was in
deed much to the displeasure Of the
crew of the Hornet, for they all longed
to remain in front of Santiago in
hopes Of being able to have hand in
the great conflict which took place
there later on, but our likes and dis
likes Were not to be taken into consid-
Grafton, and the order must be obeyed;
so there was nothing left for the Lit
tie Hornet to do but to steam off to
the westward, and, If my memory
serves me correctly, and 1 think It
does, it was on Saturday evening,
June %, that We reached our station
off Cape Cruz. Early the next morn
Ing, as day dawnedr we discovered a
two -masted schooner had succeeded
In passing us under the cover OF dark
ness, and was boldly sailing on to-
wards Manzanillo; she was beyond the
reach of our guns, and paid no atten-
tion to one or two shots which we
fired in her direction Owing to the
peculiar location of reefs and shoals
in this vicinity, it was unsafe for us
to attempt to steam after her, and
was about to abandon the idea of her
capture when the writer of this mar
rative vehemently appealed to the cap
tain to allow him with a volunteer
boats crew undertake the task with a
ten-oared cutter The captain, realiz-
ing the danger Of being fred on by
Spanish soldiers from the beach, which
the schooner was hugging closely, did
not at first approve Of the idea, and
only with reluctance gave his consent
to the attempt being made The cut
ter was soon lowered, and the volun-
teer crew, armed with rifles, started
in pursuit of their prize, and, after a
hard and tedious pull of five hours
against wind and tide, they succeeded
In overhauling the schooner, but not,
however, until they had sent whizzing
through her rigging several rife balls,
the music of which was not congenial
to the ears of the crew of the schoon-
er. She proved to be the Emanuel
Roaul," loaded with provisions from
Jamaica for Manzanillo, being one of
the vessels referred to by Mr. Dent.
She was held as prize, and with q
prize crew on board was sent two days
later to Key West in company with the
steamer "Benito Estenger," which we
captured on the following day. Early
in the morning of the 30th day of June,
while we lay alongside of the two
masted schooner "E. r. Nickerson,"
which we had held up, and one of our
officers was overhauling her papers, we
discovered smoke ON the horizon to
the southeast. Without waiting to take
on board our officer and boats crew.
which were alongside the schooner, we
steamed with all speed in the direction
of this smoke, thinking it, of course,
another prize, and all jubilant over
the fact that they were coming "thiclS
and fast" and, no doubt, we would all
have a fortune in prize money before
the war was over. This smoke, how
ever. proved to be from the U. S. S.
Hist "a converted yacht, under com
mand of Lieutenant Lucian Young. U.
S. N, accompanied by the U. S. s..
Wampatuck, commanded by Lieuten-
ant Jungen, U. S. n. Lieutenant
Young was bearing n sealed dispatch
addressed to the Senior officer present
ON blockade off Cape Cruz" and ez-
pectcd to find the U. S. 8. Dixie, but
on learning that the Dixie wGs cfuis-
ing off Cienfuegos, some distance to
the westward, and finding himself to
be the senior officer present. he decid-
ed to open the Admirals comnunica
ton and called Captains Helm and
Jungen, of the Hornet and Wanpa'
tuck, on board the Hist for consulta-