The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-20
THE PRESIDENT UPHOLD MAJORITY VERDICT OF THE SCHLEY COURT OF INQUIRY;
 NO INJUSTICE WAS DONE BY MIR. MKlNLEY
The Command of the Squadron During the Bac Says Mr. Roosevelt Technical and Nominal and the Captains Deserve the Credit for the yctoryThe BrookynS Loop the One Bad Break Of the Day.
 Wainwright and Clark Arc Highly Commended ..'.l No Further Action


 transfer the command No signal was made for the second in command to as- sume command of the fleet which vas usually done hy the commander-in-chief before reaching the limit of signal dis tance when he proposed for any reason temporarily to relinquish his command to the next ranking officer"
 The following Is Admiral Taylor's state ment:
 At the beginning of the fight the New York was about as far to the eastward of me as the Brooklyn was to the west ward. The only signal I received from the New York was at the very close Of the fight. when she signalled to me to return and guard the mouth of the har- bor 90 that nothing should come out to attack our transports. received no sig nal whatever from the Brooklyn, and should not have needed any If one had been made. aS considered Admiral sampson in command. From ner posi- tion. the Indiana took full part in the actual light as the Spanish ships came out of the harbor. When they ran to the westward, the Indiana fell behind, but continued firing at them, and at the tor pedo boats, until all but the Colon were sunk or beached. I saw the Brooklyn turn and run out seaward. seemingly over mile about the time the rear one or the Spanish ships turned to the west. If, instead of making this loop, the Brooklyn had stood straight in towards the Spaniards, as the other American ships did. 1t seemed to me that the fight would have been settled then without need of the long chase"
 Thd following Is Commander Wain' wright's statement:
 At the outset of the fight the New York was not much further away from me in one direction than the Brooklyn was in the other. md was in plain sight. A signal from Admiral Taylor in connec- ton with my moving forward to attack the torpedo boats was the only signal received.I made one to the New York just before the last torpedo boat sunk. The New York at that time was coming up under the fire of the batteries. and herself fired couple of shots at the tor pedo boat. Of course. Admiral Samp- son was present and in command. re ceived no signals from the Brooklyn and would not have noticed her at all had 1t not been for the fact that when the other vessels closed in. she made what has been since called the. loop., that my attention was attracted by not seeing the Texas because she stopped and by not seeing the Brooklyn because she went to seaward away from the Spanish ves' sels. In other words, the left or vest ward part of our line was refused. and this attracted my attention because it seemed to me where I was that this per- mitted the Spanish vessels to try to es- cape to westward"
 The survey of the damages of the four Spanish war vessels shows that in addi- ton to several score, hits by the six
 nH hA American fleet, they were struck forty three times by the larger guns of four inch calibre and over. The Colon. which came out inside the others and did com parativeiy little fighting. received but three of these hits. The other three ships, which bore the brunt of the action. re- ceived forty among them. Of these forty. eleven, according to the report of the board which examined into them, were by four-inch guns. ten by five-inch guns, four by either four or fve-inch (the board could not determine which). while one was either five or six-inch, twelve were by eight-inch, and two by twelve inch guns. All of our big ships, except the Texas had eight-inch guns. Only the Texas and Iowa had twelve-inch guns. The Oregon and Indiana had thirteen inch guns and the Texas had six-inch guns. The only four-inch guns were on the Iowa, the only five-inch guns on the Brooklyn. Therefore, on the three Span- ish ships which did the bulk of the fight ing. out of the forty large calibre shot that struck. eleven certainly came from the Iowa, ten certainly came from the Brooklyn, four from either the Iowa or the Brooklyn and two from either the Iowa or the Texas. Of the three which struck the Colon two were fve-inch and ,,ot hox xh4 puAA was either five-inch or a six-inch. It must be remembered that the four or five-inch guns were the only quick firers above six-pounders in our fleet, and that they were not only much more rapidly but much more surely handled than were the larger and slower firing guns.
 The damage and loss of the, American vessels were trivial. The only loss suf- fered was aboard the Brooklyn where one man was killed and one wounded. In damage the cost of the repairs shows that the Iowa suffered most and the Oregon least. The American ships en- gagged possessed a more than two-fold material superiority over the Spanish ships. and in the handling of their guns and their engines were even greater. We have just cause to be proud of the vigilance and instant readines our ships displayed and the workmanlike efficien- cy with which they were handled. The most striking act was that of the Gloucester, a converted yacht, which her Wainwright, pushed into the fight through a hall of projectiles. any one of which would have sunk her, in order that he might do his part in des- troying the two torpedo boats, each pos sessing far more than his own offensive power.
 From the statement of the captains above. from the official reports and from the testimony before the court of inquiry the fight can be plotted with absolute certainty in its important outlines though there is conflict as to minor points. When the four Spanish cruisers came out of the harbor the New York had left her position in the blockading lines forty or forty-five minutes before. She had hoisted the signal Disregard the movements of the commander-in- chief" but had not hoisted the signal to the second in command to take charge, which as appears by the signal book, was some times. but not always used when the command was transferred As soon as the engagement began the New York turned and steamed back. hosting a signal to close in, which. however. none of the squadron saw until she was in plain sight and not very much farther from the eastermost blockading ships than the latter were from the Brooklyn which was the westermost of the line. \ As soon as the Spanish ships appeared the five big American blockaders started toward them