The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-20
< CAPTAINS FIGHT.

Continued from First Page)
 lively entitled. What I have to decide
 therefore, is whether or not President
 Mckinley did injustice in the matter
 This necessarily involves a comparison
 of the actions of the different command CTS engaged, The exhaustive official reports of the action leave little to be
 brought out anew; but as the question
 of Admiral Sampson's right to. be con
 sidered in chief command, which was determined in his favor by President | Mckinley, and later by the court ot
 claims, has never hitherto been otflclal- ly raised, l deemed it best to secure statements of the commanders ot the five ships (other than the Brooklyn ana
 New York, the flagships of the two ad-
 mirals) which were actively engaged Tn
 the fight. Admiral Philip is dead. l | quote extracts from his magazine artl- l cle on the fight, written immediately af- ! ter it occurred; closing with an extract
 from his letter to the Secretary of the Navy of February 27, 1899:
 Tt was the blockade that made the
 battle possible. The battle was a direct 1 consequence of the blockade, and upon |, the method and effectiveness of the
 blockade was very largely dependent 1 the issue of the battle. Under | the orders of Admiral Sampson the | blockade was conducted with success | eXemplified by the result. 1 When the Spanish admiral at last made | his dash to escape we were ready
 ready with our men, with our guns, and with our engines. It was only few minutes after we had seen the | leader of the advancing squadron that it became apparent that Cervera's plan
 was to run his ships in column west
 ward in an effort to escape Before he had fairly found himself out side the Morro the entire blockading squadron-Indiana, Oregon, Iowa, Brooklyn and Texas-was pumping shell into him at such rate as virtual ly to decide the issue of the, battle i'll the
 first few moments. All our ships had
 closed in simultaneously. Then
 occurred the incident which caused me
 for a moment more alarm than any thing Cervera did that day.
 Suddenly a whiff of breeze and a Hull in
 the firing lifted the pail, and there
 bearing toward us and across our bows,
 turning on her port helm, with big
 waves curling over her bows and great clouds of black smoke pouring from her tunnels, was the Brooklyn. She looked as big as half dozen Great Easterns, and seemed so near that it took our breath away Back both engines hard' went down the tube to the aston- ished engineers, and in a twinkling the old ship was racing against herself The collision which seemed imminent, even if it was not, was ayerted, and as the big cruiser glided past, all of us on the bridge gave sigh of relief Had the Brooklyn struck us then it proba- ply would have been the end of the Texas and her half thousand men.*
 At ten minutes to 10 (the Spanish ships had appeared at about 9:30) the Iowa. Oregon and Texas were pretty well punched holding parallel course westward with the Spaniards. The Indiana was also coming up, well inside of all the others of our squadron, but little in the rear, owing to her far eastward position at starting. About a quarter past 10 the Teresa, which had been in difficulties from the moment she left the shelter of the Mor- TO, turned to seek a bleaching place. She was on fire, and we knew that she was no longer a quantity to be reckoned with. Five minutes later our special enemy, the Oquendo, also turned in shore. < The Viscaya kept blaz- ing away viciously, but the pounding she got from aur four ships, more par ticularly the Oregon. was too much for her, and in half an hour she too headed for the beach. !" I determined to push on with the Texas. It gives me pleasure to be able to write that, old ship as she is and not built for speed the Texas held her own and even gained on the Colon in that chase. B" Admiral Sampson was command chief before, during and after the action.''
 Captain Clark's statement is as fol- lows:
 'The credit for the blockkade which led up to the fight is of course Admiral Sampson's The position of the ships on the morning of the fight in a semi circle head-on to the harbor in conse- quence of which we were able to close in at once, was his. In closing in, that is, in making the first movements, we were obeying his instructions; though as a matter of fact we would all have closed in any way, instructions or no instructions. When the Spansh ships came out of the harbor the navigator of my ship saw the New York to the east J ward, but I received no signal of any kind from the New York during the ac- tion, nor was she near enough to signal directly to me after the Colon surren- dered
 "Ihe engagement may be said to have been divided into three parts: First, the fight proper, while the Spanish squadron was coming out of the harbor and until it was clear of the Diamond shoals and deii- nitely headed westward; second the run hing fight with the already damaged yes seis as they fled westward, until the Teresa, Oquendo and Niscaya ran ashore, and, third, the chase of the Colon, during which there was practically no fighting. During the first stage did not see the Blooklyn or receive any signals from her. At the close of this stage the Oregon had passed the Iowa and Texas, and when we burst put of the smoke l saw the four Spanish ships going west apparently unnjured and followed hard after, at the same time ob- serving the Brooklyn q little ahead and off shore. She was brOadside to the Spanish vessels and was receiving the weight of heir fire, and was returning it. The Brook. yn and the oregon thereafter occupied sub. stantially these positions as regards each other. being about equidistant from the spanish ships as we successivey overlook -hem except when the Oregon attempted Q close with the Oquendo. The heaviest ighting was at the harbor mouth and while he enemy was breaking through or passing