New-York tribune., 1906-04-29
Eighth Anniversary of That Famous Naval Engage
ment Falls on Next Tuesday-Some Unrecorded
Incidents of the Spa aniards' Defeat

Luckily for our vessels which were lying
closely around the Castillo the holes made in
her by shots caused her to fill before the
flames reached the magazines Even the mud
scows with which the Spaniards tried to protect
the Castillo conspired against that ship. There
were two large scows loaded with sand or stones
secured on the outboard side, making a sort of
protection against our shot. Our shells would
strike in them and exploding throw the stones
themselves into the ship
'One Of the prettiest things occurred that
AFTERNOON after we had cleaned up. looked
around to see where the Olympia was and spied
her heading directly for Manila alone. The
BOSTON, the Raleigh and the Baltimore turned
around as soon as they could and raced after
ieeing rather anxious. She got over ahead of
us and anchored close under the guns of Manila
commodore Dewey already communicating
WIN the governor general through the British
Oohsui General when got there. The Span
isrds did not fire the Olympia at all. It was
very good thing they didn't We would have
eSuoyed the city if they had. That afternoon
''e "uihlfal Informed them that if the batteries
"a :" Gu on US we would destroy the city From that
'iihe not shot was fired against the fleet
before we left Hong Kong Consul General
" iiiaihs brought over to US maps Of the city
wing Ihe locations of the hospitals principal
iofeish buildings. etc, so that we would know
- - e' Inc information about the batteries
NdS exceedingly general in it's tenor Aftor,ra,.7
we were convinced that the Snsniards ,rere ne
f tLs Ineir own spies to give Mr. Williams false in
recniTeS = one piece Of information which we
~ ITCeiNeu from Mr.. Williams proved 10 he exact
he located for us on the man an Sincb bottar,, -
on CorreSldor Island. When 7 went 70 taLe Tho
csted ~ NJ, roInu II exactly where he had indi-
S ateu II IL III fraile Rock, according to our in
formation, was not fortified To onr surnrise We
4tut tSund battery there and it was the only one
that hred on us. 1t showed that the Snaniarde
keeping hotf
secret from everybody. 0o'''i''
one incident had a pathetic as we'll as
tulhy sloe 10 II The Raleigh was doing picket
duty outside on the morning of Nav p We
saw saw smoke down the bay and made out Span
which we had been looking We stAoraaJ - -
between her and the fleet and fred Two or
three SnetS ross her bow. She paid no atten-
ton TO to and then We put a shot through her
upper work She came to and her commandar
came aboard. The boat we found IN he tho
CallaO. Her commander was astonished 70 fnd
that var had been declared. He had been long
time among the southern islands and had heard
nothing about the strained situation between
at llofo or he would have learned of the events
at Manila, for the Spaniards had secret cable
between the two places that we knew nothing
about until some time later.
1T was pathetic when he asked about the diff
ferent Spanish vessels and learned that they had
all been sunk and when he asked about Spanish
portant one for the Caao had aboard all the
mail of the other islands. containing exact re-
loits VI .e huIipei % men al me ulIIerehJ
posts. The little Callao was captured at II
o'clock in the morning. At l o'clock in the after
noon she was flying the American flag. had an
American crew on board and doing picket
duty in front of the city.
We met great many Of the Spanish officers.
They were kind and polite. They were vastly
surprised with everything about the American
fleet. The officers had been taught TO believe
we had a riffraff that i'll disciplined,
had no sense OF order and pride OF country,
whereas probably no squadron went into
battle better fitted 10 make a good showing than
the little squadron commanded by Admiral
Dewey"