The Boys of '98 Part 34

"Moreover, both overmatched the speed of the _Gloucester_ by at least ten knots per hour. But both had thin-plated sides. The sh.e.l.ls of the _Gloucester_ could pierce them, and at them went Wainwright, with the memory of that night in Havana uppermost in his mind.

"The two boats-even the whole Spanish fleet-were still within easy range of the Spanish forts, and to reach his choice of enemies the _Gloucester_ was obliged to risk not only the land fire, but that of the _Vizcaya_ and the _Teresa_. Nevertheless, as the torpedo-boats steered toward the _Brooklyn_, evidently bound to torpedo her, Wainwright headed them off, and they never got beyond range of the forts.

"The shots they threw at him outweighed his three to one, but theirs flew wild, and his struck home.

"The day of the destroyers was done. As the big _Maria Teresa_ turned toward the sh.o.r.e, these two destroyers, like stricken wild fowl, fled fluttering and splashing in the same direction, and they floundered as they fled.

"While the _Infanta Maria Teresa_ was on fire, and running for the beach, her crew was still working their guns, and the big _Vizcaya_ was handily by to double the storm of projectiles she was hurling at the _Iowa_ and _Texas_.

"It was not that the _Vizcaya's_ crew were manfully striving to protect the _Teresa_; they were making the snarling, clawing fight of a lifetime to escape the relentless Yankees that were closing upon them. For both the _Texas_ and the _Iowa_ had the range, and it was only when the smoke of their own guns blinded them that their fire was withheld, or a shot went astray.

"The _Iowa_ and the _Texas_ had headed off both the _Vizcaya_ and the _Infanta Maria Teresa_, while the _Indiana_ was coming with tremendous speed to join them.

"And then came the finishing stroke. A 12-inch sh.e.l.l from the _Texas_ went crashing into the stoke-hole, and the _Vizcaya_,-the ship whose beauty and power once thrilled the hearts of New Yorkers with mingled pleasure and fear-was mortally wounded. Hope was gone, and with helm aport she headed away for the beach, as her consort had done.

"The battle had opened on our side at 9.33 o'clock, and at 9.58 two of the magnificent armoured cruisers of the Spanish navy were quivering, flaming wrecks on the Cuban beach, with the _Texas_ rounding to less than a thousand yards away off the stern of the _Vizcaya_.

"For a moment the _Texas_ tarried there to let the smoke clear, and to see accurately the condition of the enemy, but while her gunners were taking aim for a final broadside a half-naked quartermaster on the _Vizcaya_, with clawing hands on the halliards, hauled down the fever-hued ensign from her peak and hoisted the white flag instead.

"'Cease firing!' commanded Captain Jack Philip of the _Texas_.

"So far as the _Vizcaya_ and the _Infanta Maria Teresa_ were concerned, the battle-and for that matter the war-was ended.

"Huge volumes of black smoke, edged with red flame, rolled from every port and shot hole of the _Vizcaya_, as from the _Teresa_. They were both furnaces of glowing fire. Though they had come from the harbour to certain battle, not a wooden bulkhead, nor a part.i.tion in the quarters either of officers or men had been taken out, nor had trunks and chests been sent ash.o.r.e. Neither had the wooden decks nor any other wooden fixtures been prepared to resist fire. Apparently the crew had not even wet down the decks.

"But the _Texas_ tarried at this gruesome scene only for a moment. They wished only to make sure that the two Spaniards were really out of the fight, and when they saw the _Iowa_ was going to stand by both, away they went to join the race between the _Brooklyn_ and the _Oregon_ on our side, and the _Cristobal Colon_ and _Almirante Oquendo_ on the other.

"In spite of the original superior speed on the part of the Spaniards, and in spite of the delay on the part of the _Texas_, the Spaniards were not yet wholly out of range, though the _Cristobal Colon_ was reaching away at a speed that gave the Spanish sh.o.r.e forces hope.

"Under battened hatches the Yankee firemen, stripped to their trousers, plied their shovels and raised the steam-gauges higher. The Yankee ships were gra.s.s-grown and barnacled, but now they were driven as never before since their trial trips. The Spaniards had called us pigs, but Nemesis had turned us into spear-armed huntsmen in chase of game that neither tusks nor legs could save.

"For while the _Colon_ was showing a speed that was the equal at least of our own _Brooklyn_, long-headed Commodore Schley saw that she was hugging the coast, although a point of land loomed in the distance to cut her off or drive her out to sea.

"Instead of striving to close in on the Spaniards, Schley headed straight for that point,-took the shortest cut for it, so to speak,-and in that way drew steadily ahead of the _Colon_, leaving to the _Oregon_ and _Texas_ the task of holding the Spaniards from turning out across the _Brooklyn's_ stern.

[Ill.u.s.tration: U. S. S. IOWA.]

"It was a splendid piece of strategy, well worthy of the gallant officer, and it won.

"The task of the battle-ships was well within their powers. It is not without reason that both the _Oregon_ and the _Texas_ are the pride of the nation as well as of their crews.

"The _Oregon_ and the _Brooklyn_ had hurled a relentless fire at the flying Spaniards, and it had told on the _Almirante Oquendo_ with increasing effect.

"For the _Oregon_ was fair on the _Oquendo's_ beam, and there was not enough armour on any Spanish ship to stop the ma.s.sive 13-inch projectiles the ship from the Pacific was driving into her with unerring aim.

"At ten o'clock sharp the _Oquendo_ was apparently still fore and aft, but within five minutes she wavered and lagged, and a little later, flag-ship though she was, she put her helm to port, as her consorts had done, and fled for life to the beach.

"The _Texas_ was coming with unflagging speed astern, and off to the east could be seen the flag-ship of Admiral Sampson racing as never before to get a shot in at the finish. An auxiliary had been sent by Commodore Schley to call her, and it had met her coming at the call of the guns of the Spanish fleet. She had overhauled and pa.s.sed the _Indiana_ long since, and was well-nigh abreast of the _Texas_. So the _Oregon_, in order to vie with the _New York_ in the last of the mighty race, abandoned the _Oquendo_ to her fate and stretched away after the _Cristobal Colon_.

"Some of the crew who looked back saw the _Texas_ bring to near the _Oquendo_, and then the sea trembled under the impulse of a tremendous explosion on board the doomed Spaniard, while a vast volume of smoke filled with splintered wreck rose in the air. Had they been near enough they would have heard the crew of the _Texas_ start in to cheer, and have heard as well the voice of Captain Philip say, as he raised his hand to check it:

"'Don't cheer; the poor devils are dying.'

"Only a man fit to command could have had that thought.

"The battle was well-nigh over. But one ship of the Spanish squadron remained, and she was now in the last desperate struggle, the flurry of a monster of the deep. Her officers peered with frowning brows through gilded gla.s.ses at the _Brooklyn_ forging ahead far off their port bow; at the _Oregon_ within range off the port quarter; at the _New York_ just getting the range with her beautiful 8-inch rifles astern. They shivered in unison with the quivering hulk as shot after shot struck home. They screamed at their crews and stamped and fumed. At the guns their crews worked with drunken desperation, but down in the stoke-hole the firemen plied their shovels with a will and a skill that formed the most surprising feature of the Spanish side of the battle. Because of them this was a race worthy of the American mettle, for it put to the full test the powers of the men of the three ships in chase.

"In the open sea they might have led the Yankees for an hour or more beyond, but the strategy of Schley had cut them off, and yet it was not until 1.15 o'clock-three hours and three-quarters after the first gun of the _Oquendo_-that the _Colon's_ gallant captain lost all hope, and, from a race to save the ship, turned to the work of destroying her, so that we should not be able to float the stars and stripes above her.

"The _Oregon_ had drawn up abeam of her, and was about a mile away. The shots from the _New York_ astern were beginning to tell, and those from the _Brooklyn_ had all along been smiting her in the face.

"Baffled and beaten she turned to the sh.o.r.e, ran hard aground near Tarquino Point, fifty miles from Santiago, and then hauled down her flag.

"The most powerful sea force that ever fought under the American flag had triumphed; the most remarkable race in the history of the world was ended."

On board the flag-ship _New York_ is published a tiny daily newspaper, 4 7 inches in size, with the name "Squadron Bulletin" on the t.i.tle-page.

Following is the account of the destruction of the Spanish fleet as given in that publication:

"This is a red-letter day for the American navy, as dating the entire destruction of Admiral Cervera's formidable fleet; the _Infanta Maria Teresa_, _Vizcaya_, _Oquendo_, _Cristobal Colon_, and the deep-sea torpedo-boats _Furor_ and _Pluton_.

"The flag-ship had started from her station about nine to go to Siboney, whence the admiral had proposed going for a consultation with General Shafter; the other ships, with the exception of the _Ma.s.sachusetts_ and _Suwanee_, which had, unfortunately, gone this morning to Guantanamo for coal, were in their usual positions, viz., beginning at the east, the _Gloucester_, _Indiana_, _Oregon_, _Iowa_, _Texas_, _Brooklyn_, and _Vixen_.

"When about two miles off from Altares Bay, and about four miles east of her usual position, the Spanish fleet was observed coming out and making westward in the following order: _Infanta Maria Teresa_ (flag), _Vizcaya_, _Cristobal Colon_, _Almirante Oquendo_, _Furor_, and _Pluton_.

"They were at once engaged by the ships nearest, and the result was practically established in a very short time. The heavy and rapid sh.e.l.l fire was very destructive to both ships and men. The cruisers _Infanta Maria Teresa_, _Almirante Oquendo_, and _Vizcaya_ were run ash.o.r.e in the order named, afire and burning fiercely. The first ship was beached at Nima, nine and one-half miles west of the port; the second at Juan Gonzalez, six miles west; the third at Acerraderos, fifteen miles. The torpedo-boat destroyers were both sunk, one near the beach, the other in deep water about three miles west of the harbour entrance.

"The remaining ship, the _Cristobal Colon_, stood on and gave a long chase of forty-eight miles, in which the _Brooklyn_, _Oregon_, _Texas_, _Vixen_, and _New York_ took part. The _Colon_ is reputed by her captain to have been going at times as much as seventeen and a half knots, but they could not keep this up, chiefly on account of the fatigue of her men, who, many of them, had been ash.o.r.e at Santiago the day before, and had been, while there, long without food; her average speed was actually thirteen and seven-tenths knots, the ship leaving the harbour at 9.43 A. M., and reaching Rio Tarquino (forty-eight miles from Santiago entrance) at 1.15.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE DESTRUCTION OF CERVERA'S FLEET.]

"She was gradually forced in toward the sh.o.r.e, and, seeing no chance of an escape from so overwhelming a force, the heavy sh.e.l.ls of the _Oregon_ already dropping around and beyond her, she ran ash.o.r.e at Rio Tarquino and hauled down her flag.

"She was practically uninjured, but her sea-valves were treacherously opened, and in spite of all efforts she gradually sank, and now lies near the beach in water of moderate depth. It is to be hoped that she may be floated, as she was far the finest ship of the squadron. All her breech plugs were thrown overboard after the surrender, and the breech-blocks of her Mauser rifles thrown away.

"The flag-ship remained at Rio Tarquino until eleven P. M., and then returned to Santiago. The _Texas_, _Oregon_, and _Vixen_ remained by the prize. Commodore second in command of fleet, Captain de Navio of the first cla.s.s, Don Jose de Paredes y Chacon, Captain de Navio Don Emilio Moreu, commanding the _Colon_, and Teniente de Navio Don Pablo Marina y Briengas, aid and secretary to the commodore, were taken on board the _New York_.

The 525 men of the crew of the _Colon_ were placed aboard the _Resolute_, which came from Santiago to report sighting a Spanish armoured cruiser, which turned out to be the Austrian _Maria Teresa_. The other officers were placed aboard the _Resolute_ and _Vixen_.

"Admiral Cervera and many of his officers were taken off the sh.o.r.e by the _Gloucester_, and transferred to the _Iowa_, which ship had already taken off many from the _Vizcaya_; thirty-eight officers and 238 men were on board the _Iowa_, and seven officers and 203 men were aboard the _Indiana_.

"All these were in a perfectly dest.i.tute condition, having been saved by swimming, or having been taken from the water by our boats. Admiral Cervera was in a like plight. He was received with the usual honours when he came aboard, and was heartily cheered by the _Iowa's_ crew."

The Independence Day number is very brief. It announces that the prisoners are to be sent north on the _Harvard_ and _St. Louis_; that they number 1,750; that the dead among the Spanish ships were over six hundred; that General Pando had reached Santiago with five thousand men; that the _Brooklyn_ and _Marblehead_ had gone to Guantanamo to overhaul and coal, and then tells of the _Reina Mercedes's_ skirmish on that day, saying:

[Ill.u.s.tration: U. S. S. INDIANA.]

"Just before midnight of this date the _Ma.s.sachusetts_, which was in front of the port with her search-light up to the entrance, reported an enemy's vessel coming out, and she and the _Texas_ fired a number of shots in the direction of the harbour mouth. The batteries also opened, and a number of sh.e.l.l fell at various points, the attention paid by the batteries to the ships being general. The _Indiana_ was struck on the starboard side of the quarter-deck by a mortar sh.e.l.l, which exploded on reaching the second deck near the ward-room ladder; it caused a fire which was quickly extinguished. This was the first accident of the kind to the fleet. The vessel inside turned out to be the _Reina Mercedes_, which was sunk on the east edge of the channel just by the Estrella battery. She heads north, and is canted over to port with her port rail under water. She does not appear to obstruct the channel."