Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-11-01
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mysteriously as it had begun. She bound
ed past US at a speed the like to which
l had never seen upon the deep.
SO remarkable a face-about seemed to
dumbfound our men. But the key to the
riddle was given, not by one of them,
but by Paolo, whom | now found at my
elbow.
'Ha - he cried, shes American"
| saw what troubled him. There was
a great white steamer coming up at
high speed, and | knew the form of her
at once, and Of two others that followed
her. She was one of the American navy.
The secret of the fight was no longer in
applicable; the yellow ship had fled from
the trap into which she was so nearly
falling.
You have sharp eyes, Paolo," said 1:
81 imagine it's lucky for the pair Of u.s."
The nameless ship, of sudden, ceased
her flight, and came almost to a stand
some half a mile away On our port bow.
As she swung round to head the seas, l
saw at once that another cruiser, long
and white, and seemingly we'll armed, had
come up upon that side, and now barred
her passage.
lt hdt1tIeSS snip IIdu hOW VI
men about her decks, and these were at
the machine guns, and elsewhere active in
preparation. The great hull swung round
slowly and passed at a moderate speed
past the bow of the other. When she
was nearly clear, her two great guns
were fired almost simultaneously, and as
the shells swept along the deck of the
cruiser, they carried men and masts and
deck houses with them, in one awful con-
fusion of wreckage and of death. The
cruiser was utterly unprepared for the
treachery, and lay Keeling on the sea as
her opponent treated her to the hail of
her machine guns.
The battle could have ended but in one
way, had not the other American war
ships now come so close to US that they
opened fire with their great guns The
huge shells Missed over our heads, and all
about us. The captain of the nameless
ship fired twice from his turrets, and then
headed off ct prodigious speed In five
minutes he was out of gunshot; in ten,
the American vessels were taking men
from their crippled cruiser, whose antago-
nists had almost disappeared on the hori-
zon
Upon our own decks the noise and hub
bub were almost deafening. We put out
boat with ease upon the still sea and
hailed the passenger steamer after twenty
minutes stout rowing. She was vet a pit
iful spectacle. When we got I'D on her
main deck, Captain Ross, her commander,
greeted us with great thanks. He took
US to his chart room, for he would have
all particulars about US
Twenty years." he said, with tears Ct
anger in his eyes, Il have crossed the
Atlantic, but this is the first time that
ever heard the like! It's piracy on the
high seas and they shall swing. if there's
only one rope in Europe. What does it
mean? Are we at WARP You saw the
Gillian flag. Is there no treaty of Paris? 2"
The first of the American ships came
up with US, and the commander of her
put out boat, and having gone aboard
the MANNED cruiser, he came afterwards to
the Black Anchor ship, and joined us in
| the chart room.
ITS an international question.
guess" he said; land if he doesn't paw
with his neck for the twenty men dead
| on my cruiser, to say nothing of the TWEEN
| ty thousand pounds or more of damage to
her, l will-why, we'll run him down in
| four-and-twenty hours"
heard it agreed between them that
the second cruiser of the American fleet
should start at once in pursuit, while the
ironclads should accompany us to New
York, so making a little convoy for safe
tvs sake.
With this arrangement we left the ship
and regained the Celsis. Paolo stood at
the top of the ladder as 1 came on deck,
and listened, | thought, to our protesta-
tions that the danger was over with
something of a sneer on his face In
deed, l thought that I heard him mutter,
but did not know then how much the
laugh was to be against us, and that we
should leave the convoy long before we
reached New York.