Evening star., 1934-04-29
NEWS Of DEWEY'S
VICTORY STRANGE
Sender of Telegram to Chi
cago Newspaper Man Was
Never Discovered.
BY CHARLES A. HAMILTON.

BY CHARLES A. HAMILTON.
On Sunday morning. May |, 1898,
Charley Peck, who represented Chi
cago newspaper entered the Office on
Newspaper Row which he occupied
jointly with several other correspond
ents. and exclaimed. What do you
think of this grapevine dispatch which
I have just received from Chicago?"
The telegram read as follows:
Dewey entered Manila Bay this
morning; has sunk the Spanish fleet.
captured the city with the loss of two
ships and 200 men 9" The sigma
ture was simply the Christian name
of the sender and Peck did not know
from whom it came. But the occu-
pants of the Office Immediately got
busy. They interviewed personally, or
by phone every one in the depart
ments or Congress who might by any
chance know any of the details. But
there was not an official or a member
of either House of Congress who was
able to give any information.
Long Not Surprised.
Secretary Long was found in his
office in thu Navy Department but he
had nothing. He admitted, however.
that the telegram caused no surprise
as Admiral Dewey's fleet-it was little
more than a squadron as compared
with the Pacific fleet which had just
reached the Atlantic, through the
Panama Canal-was due in the bay
about that time. The Secretary ad-
mitted that the admiral was simply
carrying out his orders if he had
really succeeded in destroying the
Spanish armada"
The dispatch was sent out for what
it was worth, with the statement add
ed that there was no way to obtain
confirmation of the report in Wash
ington. Several newspapers to which
the telegram was sent printed extras"
and one of them on the Pacific Coast
even went so far as to print a vivid,
and as it turned out later, a fairly
accurate description of the sea fight
This was made possible through the
fact that one of the staff of the news
paper had only recently returned from
Manila and had thorough knowledge
of the physical character of the bay
and its surroundings as we'll as
knowledge of the names of the vessels
that comprised Deweys fleet. 1t was
not until three days later that the re-
port of the victory of the Americans
over the Spaniards was confirmed, and
it was some time after that that the
error as to the loss of American lives
~ tyr,o hi
planned.
Origin Never Learned.
The origin of the telegram from
Chicago has never been learned. 1t
may be that some one in that city
had made a wild and lucky guess on
the battle-or perhaps this much in
formation managed to seep from the
battle scene before communication
lines were severed.
On that historic first day of May
Admiral Dewey's fleet consisted of the
Olympia. the Baltimore, the Raleigh,
the Concord and the Petrol of the
Navy proper and the revenue cutter
McCulloch. The first four named
really did all the fighting. The Bos-
ton and the McCulloch were left to
follow the others and were regarded
as dispatch boats rather than fighters,
and it was because they were many
miles behind the flagship when the
victory was won that the fear existed
that they had been destroyed by the
guns of the fort on Corregidor Island.
AS those two minor vessels passed the
island. with all the lights concealed,
the smokestack of the Boston caught
fire and the flames Illuminated the
heavens, thereby disclosing their pres
ence to the garrison of Corregidor.
Workmanship Poor.
The Spaniards were not slow in
seizing the opportunity, but unfortu-
nately for them, their craftsmanship
was so poor that not a single shot
reached either of the targets.
However, the fact that the two
ships had been fired upon by the guns
of the fort led those on the Olympia,
Admiral Deweys flagship, to the
natural conclusion that both vessels
had been destroyed, and as the COM
plement of the two approximated 200
officers and men, the dispatch sent
from Manila-the very last as it
proved before Dewey cut the cable
enormously reported the loss Of two
ships and 200 men on the American
side.
Shortly after the Boston and the
McCulloch reached the other ships
in front of the city Admira! Dewey
directed Capt Hodsdon to proceed
Immediately "all speed ahead" to
Hongkong with dispatches, for up to
that hour, owing to the destruction
of cable communications with the
outside world it had not been pos
sible to advise Washington of the
details and result of the engagement.
Capt. Hodsdon suggested that as his
chief engineer had fallen dead with
heart disease just as the bay was en-
tered it would be advisable for the
admiral to assign another engineer
officer to the McCulloch before un-
! dertaking the long journey to the
port of Hongkong. But the admiral