Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-12-22


room from being flooded out.
Thinks |, Eve can't run away, and it
looks as if we'd have to fight" l sent
Morales to try and get his gun crew
for'ard, if they wasn't too sick OF washed
overheard. 1t looked bad to me, but the
lad who was ready to wade through two
| thousand troops to get his arm around
his sweetheart wasn't going to be down
hearted over proposition like this.
| found three men who could walk, and
hauled them on hands and knees to the
stern, where my old FOUNDER was
shining between the seas that most
buried her.
| Morales grabbed three or four other
taTiers by the back of the neck, and
cuffed them for'ard to man the other
gun. We got ready not a minute too
soon. We We're hanging on, half under
water, just rammin' shell into the
breech of my gun, when 1 heard dull
"boong," and in minute something cried
in the air overhead and splashed off to
starboard.
! Her officers knew our old tug all right.
and they had opened the ball. Before
could make ready to fire, crash! and
the old tug shivered as if she had hit a
reef, and l crawled to the rail to see
past me deckhouse, and there was Mo-
rales waving his hand to me and hangin'
onto the breeeh of his twelve Founder.
| He had cut loose ahead of me. It was
gun practice fit for crazy house, you
can guess, with both vessels pretty near
rolling their tunnels under but it struck
us as mighty serious and absorbing bust
ness
| The cruisers shells were wailing and
whizzing all around us, but the only
damage so far was her knockin' couple
of feet off the top of our funnel which
didn't do our draught any good
| Meanwhile Morales landed shell so
close astern of the cruiser that [ thought
he must ha' taken the sternpost out of
her. | yelled to him to keep it up, and
he waved his hand and got busy again.
All, but he was the picture of brave
and handsome lad as he stood there over
the gun, the water washin' around his
knees, his black hair flying into the wind.
| was on my way to him when his finish
happened. "Bang!" went our bow gun,
and turned to follow the shot. Holy
Mother! My heart leaped and l yelled
| like lunatic.
A cloud of steam burst out of the
cruisers ports and gushed over her deck
amidships. Then she began to fall off in
a trough of the sea, helpless, with a she'll
| in her boiler room. blind man could see
that Morales had plugged her below the
water line as she rolled, a miracle of a
shot, and l hustled for'ard as fast as l
could crawl to tell him what thought
of him and his gunnery.
| was passin' the enginee room door
when, smash, / thought we were split
wide open. l chinned myself up to the
cabin roof and saw that the last shell
from the crippled cruiser Sanchez had
made hash of our wheelhouse, tore it
all to bits with shrapnel charge. The
mate, who had been at the wheel. was
doubled dead over skylight, and pretty
near half of him was gone. We began
to fall off into the sea. and before anv
purchase could be rugged to the tiller
chins We were rollin' our keel out of
water.
tried to get for'ard to warn Morales,
but | was too late. I saw him astraddle
of his smoking twelve FOUNDER, shakin'
his fist at the cruiser he had disabled.
/ could hear him cheer, and I caught the
words:
viva Salgada Siempre!"
| shouted and waved my arms, but he
was too proud and excited to heed me.
Then behind him / saw great brute of
a sea bearing down on the water logged
tug, roarin' like an express train. She
couldn't rise to meet it, and it caught
her cruel. 1t tumbled on her for'ard, and
thought she was going to roll clean
over bottom up.
just before it caught me l got one last
look at my pal, Perez Morales, as the sea
picked him up and tore the twelve
FOUNDER loose from its lashings, and they
went over together, just blotted out.
Then [ was washed aft against the tow
ing bits and fetched UP in the scuppers
with busted leg. Some of the men on
deck said afterward that they saw him
once astern of us, and that he waved his
hand and smiled at them. But / don't
know. There was no gettin' boat out,
for we hadn't boat left.
But / can always see him lust that
way, bright and joyous, in the moment of
his victory, snatched from us into what
ever hereafter there is for those that give
their lives for others.
He had saved us all, and a good deal
more than that. The Salgada cruiser was
reeling and drifting farther ana farther
astern and the seas were hammering her
to pieces. We made repairs and got I'M
der way before dark, when the weather
had Gained enough to let us stagger
along on our course.
And that cargo was delivered and the
/ troops that got those arms licked the
government forces in the decidin' battle
of the war. I thought I'd kind of like to
have you know about my shipmate,
Perez Morales, because man is a man
wherever you find him, and they don't
bred many like that lad.-From 1.-The
Story of Martin Coe," by Ralph D.
Paine.