The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-11

cruiser Raleigh, not only fired the first
shot in the Spanish American war in
the far east, but silenced the last bat
teTies there. The story of his part in
the battle OF Manila bay he told to a
Sun reporter not long before his death
1t was a beautiful night" he said
calm, still, cloudy the moon shining
through a haze. an ideal night for a
quiet stroll along a peaceful lane. We
steamed in slowly, and as we came near
| the bay the Spanish detected Us. for we
saw their signal lights flashing, carry
ing word along that we were coming.
AS the Olympia steamed past the ISL
and Of Corregidor more rockets were
| seen. We were all at what we cali
quarters, that is, cleared away and
ready for action, the men at their sta
tons and waiting for the developments;
and IL is the most horrible wa ting. to
simply stand and wait. wait. wait for
| something. And such a something
] None knew what might happen at any
i oment.
As we passed Ell Fraile I thought I
saw a flash. One of the officers said
| that he had seen it some moments be-
| fore. We thought maybe it was a sig
t nal from the insurgents to warn us of
our danger. But then there was an
other fash and the report of a gun
broke the stiffness, and a shot flew over
our heads very close. Every man i'm
the squadron declared that il passed d.
! rectly over his head: at any rate, it
passed over It's, doing no harm
L didn't want to bring the fleet into
an engagement just then, lest they
might locate us too accurately. The bat
terry cut loose a second and third time.
and finding no other way out of il | let
| them have shot, and that is how the
Raleigh fired the first American gun of
the campaign"
OF the start of the battle, Captain
Coghlan said;
Signals flashed all night long. At
daWn-and day breaks in the tropics. a :
kipling says, like a clap of thunder
we were off to Manila city. All Of us
were out scanning the bay with our
glasses looking for the Spanish feet.
put much to our surprise and DISGUST
none appeared. The report of a gun
called my attention to the right side
of the bay, and there close in, sheltered
by the Notifications of Cavite, some six
miles away, We saw the entire Spanish
feet.
AS We turned in front of the city.
about three and a half miles away, Ad-
miral Dewey made the signal, Prepare
to engage the enemy and a few min
utes later we were breaking our battle
flags. Every mast and peak that would
hold flag was decorated-not the kind
you see herea bout, but those that cover
half the side of a house. We wanted
the Spaniards to make no mistake as to
what flag we were carrying 1t was an
inspiring sight TO see the whole squad
ron unfurling its flags to the breeze,
and the ships going forward fioated
them splendidly
saTbe
front began firing They threw many
ten-inch shells over US, but did no harm.
Without agreement each officer acting
for himself, no answer was made to the
fire from the shore batteries on account
of the women and children. Therefore
no one replied until the Concord came
up and Captain Walker fired a couple
of shots back at them. He merely in
formed the spectators and foreign gun
ners that we were still awake and not
passing in review.
We had come up head on, the Olym-
pia leading, and had to turn so that the
squadron made an arc of a circle: the
vessels sailing majestically along, pay
ing no attention to the great guns now
booming from the shore, both at Cavite |
and Manila. The Olympia was some
thirty minutes under this fire before she |
got a chance to reply We were 10000 |
miles from home and had to be saving /
with ammunition because it would be /
a long time before any more could be |
got. My ship was under fire for thirty /
seven minutes before she could open a 4
gun, and to most of us ii seemed like |
thirty-seven years"
Speaking of the Spanish fleet, Captain
Coghlan said:
They had hemmed themselves in
with torpedoes and with old barges in
front of them to support great chains
from one to another. This they thought
would prevent our coming in: about as
much hindrance If our ships had wanted /
to go in there as If they had held up |
their hands and told us to keep away
We had them eornered
They were steaning around the en-
closure, but without the slightest order
like flock of chickens some one II
way, some another. All we had to do
was to rain shells upon them. There
was no chance of missing, because a
shot had no chance to get through II
without striking a ship somewhere.
The fve-inch guns of the Raleigh II
were able to shoot six times q minute II
and l had five of them on a side. The II
other big gun-a six-inch-could fire
once minute Besides these there
were six six-pounders peppering away
AZ the rate OF twenty times a minute, so
you can imagine the amount of metal
we would send into those ships in ff-
teen minutes And all the rest of the
ships were doing the same.
I'VE would only cease firing long
enough for the smoke clouds to blow
away, for at times it became so thick
that we couldn't see. 1t often took If
teen minutes for the smoke to pass
away. That is the reason we couldn't
90 to breakfast sooner.
The admiral in the Reina Christina
got under way and came sailing down |
lpon US. We could see that he had. been
badly punished. He came right at us
and we opened on him all at once. His
poor vessel reeled and staggered under
he cannonade and turned the other
way. steam escs ping in many places. A
mate tried TO tow the sinking
ship TO a place Of safety.
About this time I fancied I heard
music from the Spanish ship. Certa My
hey were brave. I thought. TO be max
ng such pathetic effort to be cheerful.
An officer near me said he didn't hear
lnything. That made me feel a bit
Iueer- So an investigation was started.