The Boys of '98 Part 14

The American vessels were about six miles from the schooner when the chase began. They steamed after her at full speed, the _Morrill_ leading, until within a mile and a half of the Santa Clara batteries.

Commander Smith of the _Vicksburg_ was the first to realise the danger into which the reckless pursuit had led them. He concluded it was time to haul off, and sent a shot across the bow of the schooner.

The Spanish skipper instantly brought his vessel about, but while she was still rolling in the trough of the sea with her sails flapping, an 8-inch shrapnel sh.e.l.l came hurtling through the air from the water-battery, a mile and a half away.

It pa.s.sed over the _Morrill_, between the pilot-house and the smoke-stack, and exploded less than fifty feet away on the port quarter.

Two more shots followed in quick succession, both shrapnel. One burst close under the starboard quarter, filling the engine-room with the smoke of the exploding sh.e.l.l, and the other, like the first, pa.s.sed over and exploded just beyond.

The Spanish gunners had the range, and their time fuses were accurately set.

The crews of both s.h.i.+ps were at their guns. Lieutenant Craig, who was in charge of the bow 4-inch rapid-fire gun of the _Morrill_, asked for and obtained permission to return the fire.

At the first shot the _Vicksburg_, which was in the wake of the _Morrill_, slightly insh.o.r.e, sheered off and pa.s.sed to windward under the _Morrill's_ stern. In the meantime Captain Smith also put his helm to port, and was none too soon, for as the _Morrill_ stood off a solid 8-inch shot grazed her starboard quarter and kicked up tons of water as it struck a wave one hundred yards beyond.

All the guns of the water-battery were now at work. One of them cut the Jacob's-ladder of the _Vicksburg_ adrift, and another carried away a portion of the rigging.

As the vessels steamed away their aft guns were used, but only a few shots were fired.

The _Morrill's_ 6-inch gun was elevated for four thousand yards, and struck the earthwork repeatedly. The _Vicksburg_ discharged only three shots from her 6-pounder.

The Spaniards continued to fire shot and sh.e.l.l for twenty minutes, but none of the latter shots came within one hundred yards.

Later in the day the _Morrill_ captured the Spanish schooner _Espana_, bound for Havana, and towed the prize to Key West.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOHN D. LONG, SECRETARY OF NAVY.]

The _Newport_ added to the list of captures by bringing in the Spanish schooner _Padre de Dios_.

_May 7._ The United States despatch-boat _McCulloch_ arrived at Hongkong from Manila, with details of Commodore Dewey's victory.

Secretary Long, after the cablegram forwarded from Hongkong had been received, sent the following despatch:

"The President, in the name of the American people, thanks you and your officers and men for your splendid achievement and overwhelming victory.

In recognition he has appointed you acting admiral, and will recommend a vote of thanks to you by Congress as a foundation for further promotion."

_May 8._ A brilliant, although unimportant, affair was that in which the torpedo-boat _Winslow_ engaged off Cardenas Bay.

The _Winslow_ and gunboat _Machias_ were on the blockade off Cardenas.

In the harbour, defended by thickly strewn mines and torpedoes, three small gunboats had been bottled up since the beginning of the war.

Occasionally they stole out toward the sea, but never venturing beyond the inner harbour, running like rabbits at sight of the American torpedo boats.

Finally a buoy was moored by Spaniards inside the entrance of the bay to mark the position for the entrance of the gunboats. The signal-station on the sh.o.r.e opposite was instructed to notify the gunboats inside when the torpedo-boats were within the limit distance marked by the buoy.

The scheme was that the gunboats could run out, open fire at a one-mile range thus marked off for them, and retreat without the chance of being cut off. The men of the _Winslow_ eyed this buoy and guessed its purpose, but did not attempt to remove it.

On the afternoon of the eighth the _Machias_ stood away to the eastward for a jaunt, and the _Winslow_ was left alone to maintain the blockade.

In a short time she steamed toward Cardenas Harbour. There was great excitement at the signal-station, and flags fluttered hysterically. The three gunboats slipped their cables and went bravely out to their safety limit.

Three bow 6-pounders were trained at two thousand yards. In a few minutes the sh.o.r.e signals told them that the torpedo-boat was just in range. Every Spaniard aboard prepared to see the Americans blown out of the water.

Three 6-pounders crackled, and three sh.e.l.ls threw waterspouts around the _Winslow_, but she was not struck. Instead of running away, she upset calculations by driving straight ahead, attacking the boats, and Lieutenant Bernado no sooner saw the first white smoke puffs from the Spanish guns than he gave the word to the men already stationed at the two forward 1-pounders, which barked viciously and dropped shot in the middle of the flotilla.

On plunged the _Winslow_ to within fifteen hundred yards of the gunboats, while the row raised by the rapid-fire 1-pounders was like a rattling tattoo.

The Spaniards were apparently staggered at this fierce onslaught, single-handed, and fired wildly. The _Winslow_ swung around broadside to, to bring her two after guns to bear as the Spanish boats scattered and lost formation.

The _Winslow_ soon manuvred so that she was peppering at all three gunboats at once. The sea was very heavy, and the knife-like torpedo-boat rolled so wildly that it was impossible to do good gun practice, but despite this big handicap, the rapidity of her fire and the remarkable effectiveness of her guns demoralised all three opponents, which, after the _Winslow_ had fired about fifty sh.e.l.ls, began to gradually work back toward the shelter of the harbour.

They were still hammering away with their 6-pounders, but were wild.

Several sh.e.l.ls pa.s.sed over the _Winslow_. One exploded a hundred feet astern, but the others fell short.

At last a 1-pounder from the _Winslow_ went fair and true, and struck the hull of the _Lopez_ a little aft of amids.h.i.+ps, apparently exploding on the inside.

The _Winslow_ men yelled. The _Lopez_ stopped, evidently disabled, while one of her comrades went to her a.s.sistance. By this time the Spanish boats had retreated nearly inside, where they could not be followed because of the mines. The _Lopez_ got under way slowly and limped homeward with the help of a towline from her consort.

During this episode the _Machias_ had returned, and when within a two-mile range let fly two 4-inch sh.e.l.ls from her starboard battery, which accelerated the Spanish flight. But the flotilla managed to creep back into Cardenas Harbour in safety, and under the guns of the sh.o.r.e-battery.

The Spanish gunboats that lured the _Winslow_ into the death-trap were the _Antonio Lopez_, _Lealtad_, and _Ligera_. During the fight the two former retreated behind the wharves, and the _Ligera_ behind the key. It was the _Antonio Lopez_ that opened fire on the _Winslow_ and decoyed her into the channel. The Spanish troops formed on the public square, not daring to go to the wharves. All the Spanish flags were lowered, as they furnished targets, and the women and children fled to Jovellanos.

Off Havana during the afternoon the fis.h.i.+ng-smack _Santiago Apostal_ was captured by the U. S. S. _Newport_.

The U. S. S. _Yale_ captured the Spanish steamer _Rita_ on the eighth, but did not succeed in getting the prize into port until the thirteenth. The _Rita_ was loaded with coal, from Liverpool to Porto Rico.

The bread riots in Spain continued throughout the day. At Linates a crowd of women stormed the town hall and the civil guard fired upon them, killing twelve. _El Pais_, the popular republican newspaper in Madrid, was suppressed; martial law was declared at Badajos and Alicante.

_May 9._ Congress pa.s.sed a joint resolution of thanks to Commodore Dewey; the House pa.s.sed a bill increasing the number of rear-admirals from six to seven, and the Senate pa.s.sed a bill to give Dewey a sword, and a bronze memorative medal to each officer and man of his command.

The record of the navy for the day was summed up in the capture of the fis.h.i.+ng-smack _Fernandito_ by the U. S. S. _Vicksburg_, and the capture of the Spanish schooner _Severito_ by the U. S. S. _Dolphin_.

The rioting in Spain was not abated; martial law was proclaimed in Catalonia.

_May 10._ The steamer _Gussie_ sailed from Tampa, Florida, with two companies of the First Infantry, and munitions and supplies for Cuban insurgents.

Rioting in Spain was the report by cable; in Alicante the mob sacked and burned a bonded warehouse.

_May 11._ Running from Cienfuegos, Cuba, at daybreak on the morning of May 11th, were three telegraph cables. The fleet in the neighbourhood consisted of the cruiser _Marblehead_, which had been on the station three weeks, the gunboat _Nashville_, which had been there two weeks, and the converted revenue cutter _Windom_, which had arrived two days before. The station had been a quiet one, except for a few brushes with some Spanish gunboats, which occasionally ventured a very little way out of Cienfuegos Harbour. They had last appeared on the tenth, but had retreated, as usual, when fired on.

Commander McCalla of the _Marblehead_, ranking officer, instructed Lieutenant Anderson to call for volunteers to cut the cable early on the morning of the eleventh. Anderson issued the call on both the cruiser and the gunboat, and three times the desired number of men offered to serve.

No one relented, even after repeated warnings that the service was especially dangerous.

"I want you men to understand," Anderson said, "that you are not ordered to do this work, and are not obliged to."

The men nearly tumbled over one another in their eagerness to be selected.

In the end, the officer had simply the choice of the entire crew of the two s.h.i.+ps.

A cutter containing twelve men, and a steam launch containing six, were manned from each s.h.i.+p, and a guard of marines and men to man the 1-pounder guns of the launches, were put on board. In the meantime the _Marblehead_ had taken a position one thousand yards offsh.o.r.e opposite the Colorado Point lighthouse, which is on the east side of the narrow entrance to Cienfuegos Harbour, just east of the cable landing, and, with the _Nashville_ a little farther to the west, had begun sh.e.l.ling the beach.