The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-08-16

ling such matters have been gathered
into a written code for the service
guidance. The theory upon which all
military organization is based, whether
a squad or a squadron, is that no ele-
ment of such organization can ever be
left without a responsible commander,
and no military exigency can occur IN
war when such force is ever left
without some one in control. The
dates of commission held by officers
is for the purpose of fixing this very
question. The different graduatlons
in the commissioned ranks are but
in the continuation of the line of COM
mand, in case the ravages of battle re-
move one after another in the commits
one upon whom the responsibility of
success or defeat can be imposed"
OH JOIlll OCl VIC, OIlO VI 1IiA6
lands great sea fighters of a hundred
years ago, dispatched Nelson in May,
1898 to intercept the great French arm
ament prepared under Napoleon Bona
parties guidance to reach Egypt in Or
der to menace Englands route to In
dia.
"* The battle which took place
on that memorable night in 1898 his
tory accords rightly to Nelson, though
his command was a lewiston of Sir
John Jervis fleet.
From that day to this no military
man has ever claimed that the glory of
Aboukir Bay, or, as better known, the
Battle of the Nile, was in any respect
shored by the grand and great Jervis,
who was Nelson's commandment chief
1t made no difference then, and it
makes none today. whether a COM
mander-i in chief be eleven miles or
10 miles away from the scene of an
action in which he did not participate.
History will always grant the guerdOn
if victory to that commander who
fights and wins the battle. If the
battle here related had miscarried, or
if, through mismanagement, Cevera or
any of his ships had escaped that day,
there would have been no difficulty
whatever about who was in command
or who would have had to bear the
censure 1t is as certain, in that event.
that there would have been no effort to
prove that the New York was within
signal distance, no claim that it was a
captains battle, nor any other Of the
sophistries that were invented in the
aftermath of controversy about this
great victory"
Writing of the famous loop of the
Brooklyn, Admiral Schley says:
There was no colloquy of any kind
or of any character, with any one at
the time about the turn, and none
would have been permitted with any
officer. That was one of the many
fictions that grew up, among others,
six or eight months after the fight
Among them was the Texas incident
That ship was never for moment in
the least danger from the Brooklyn
During the turn ner distance was
never nearer than 500 or 600 yards from
the Brooklyn. Some testimony before
the court of inquiry, in 1901, placed her
at much greater distance. During the
turn the starboard side of the Texas
was never seen from the Brooklyn at
ALL
The fight having ended at 1:15 p
m. a natural interest in the vessels fol-
lowing prompted a survey of the hori-
ION with glasses. The masts Of TWO
ships and the smoke only of a third
were discerned away on the horizon
Later the first two were discovered to
be the Texas and Vixen. The third
whose smoke was visible, proved to be
the New York, which arrived on the