CHAPTER VIII.

Superb Valor of the American Fleet at Manila.

MONG the passengers who arrived at San Francisco on the Belgic from Hong Kong were four men who participated in the fight of Manila, on May 1. They were paymaster G. A. Loud, of the dispatch boat McCulloch; Dr. Charles P. Kindleberger, surgeon of the Olympia; Ralph Phelps, secretary to the captain of the McCulloch, and J. C. Evans, gunner of the Boston.

They all spoke of the valor and determination of their opponents in the battle of Manila. They said that the Spaniards fought bravely, even after the last vestige of hope had gone, and stayed by their guns as long as they could be used. Dr. Kindleberger gave a graphic account of the terrific fight. He was on the Olympia through it all. In the first assault the flagship took the lead, the other vessels following in her wake at four ships' lengths. At one time the smoke became so dense that it was necessary to draw aside, allowing the cloud to lift. The vessels were examined, and it was found they had sustained no damage.

Breakfast was then served to the men, and in a few minutes they reentered the fight with the greatest enthusiasm. The second fight was even more fierce than the first. It was in that that the Baltimore was struck.

During the first fight the Spanish admiral's ship put bravely out of the line to meet the Olympia. The entire American fleet concentrated fire on her, and she was so badly injured that she turned around to put back. At this juncture the Olympia let fly an 8-inch shell, which struck her stern and pierced through almost her entire length, exploding finally in the engine room, wrecking her machinery. This shell killed the captain and sixty men and set the vessel on fire.

In the heat of the fight the two torpedo boats moved out to attack the fleet. They were allowed to come within 800 yards, when a fusilade from the Olympia sent one to the bottom with all on board and riddled the other. The second boat was later found turned upon the beach covered with blood. In the second fight the Baltimore was sent to silence the fort at Cavite. She plunged into a cloud of smoke and opened all her batteries on the fortifications. In a very few minutes a shell struck the ammunition and the fort blew up with a deafening roar.

The work on the Baltimore was glorious. After the principal ships of the enemy had been destroyed, the Concord, Raleigh and Petrel, being of light draught, were sent in to handle the remaining vessels of the fleet. They made quick work of them. In taking possession of the land forts several hundred wounded Spaniards fell into the hands of the Americans and nearly 200 dead were accounted for on the spot. Holes in which numbers had been hastily buried were found. The dead were returned to relatives so far as this could be done, and the wounded were cared for in the best manner by the American surgeons.

After the first battle the Americans were greatly fagged out by heat, and the rest and breakfast allowed them by the Commodore was of inestimable benefit. When the men were at breakfast, a conference of all officers was held on board the Olympia, when the plan of the second battle was made known by the Commodore.

Several shots struck the Olympia and she was pierced a number of times. One shell struck the side of the ship against the hospital ward. The chaplain and nurses who were watching the fight through a port hole a few inches away were stunned by the concussion.

Experts have figured out the fighting volume of the guns of the respective sides of the battle was three for the Americans against seven for Spanish It is clear then, that the superiority was in the ships and the men, the latter having the experience and nerve. Gunner Evans, of the Boston, directed the fire of one of the big guns. Not a man on the Boston received a scratch.

Steady Thunder of Cannon.

Paymaster Loud, who was on the McCulloch, during the battle and was a witness of events on both sides, furnishes an interesting account of the battle. From his position he could see every movement of the American ships and could also see the Spaniards.

"For two hours," said Mr. Loud, "the steady thunder of cannon was kept up. The roar was something terrible. At one time, I really thought we would be beaten. This was after the fire had been kept up an hour. It looked like every gun on the Spanish ships had turned loose on us all together and the shore line was a veritable blaze of fire from the batteries. The din was simply indescribable. Tons upon tons of shot fell over our ships. There was steel enough to have sunk our entire fleet.

"Our salvation was in the bad marksmanship of the Spaniards. They handled their pieces like children. Nearly all of their shots went wide. Most of them were high, flying over the fleet and falling into the bay beyond Some of the batteries, however, were better trained. Several guns maintained

a raking fire on the fleet. Nearly all of our ships were struck by both large and small shot, but no damage of consequence was done.

"We left Manila on the 5th. At that time Commodore Dewey was in possession of the shore forts and arsenal. Considerable ammunition and some fair guns were captured.

"Manila, on the opposite side of the bay, had not been taken, and it was not the intention of the admiral to do so at that time. Of course the city and its suburbs were completely at the mercy of our guns and we could have laid it in ruins in a very short time. But the force on the warships is too small to land and take possession."

A letter from Manila said the Spaniards were so sure of whipping the Americans that they had prepared a prison for them. It was the infamous Black Hole of Manila, where so many insurgents were smothered to death in 1897.

The letter briefly adds: "Living aboard the vessels is simply awful on account of the extreme heat which we are bound to endure. In addition to the heat of this place everything on board ship is at fever heat, with fires kept constantly up in four boilers and everything closed up. You can have no idea what it is."

Spaniards Sure They Could Defeat the Yankees.

In a letter to a friend in New York an engineer of the Baltimore wrote, a week after the fight: "The Spaniards were absolutely confident of victory. No other outcome was anticipated by them: no preparations were made for a different result. I think that their ships, combined with their forts, made them equal to us, so far as powers of offence and defence were concerned. They had as many modern guns approximately the same size as we had, and more men to fire them. They should have been able to fire as much weight of shot in a specified time as we did.

"The whole thing, in other words, lay in the fact that it was the American against the Spaniard, the Anglo-Saxon against the Latin. Every shot fired from our fleet was most deliberately, coolly and pitilessly aimed. The Spaniards fired an enormous number of times, but with apparently the most impracticable aim. Shells dropped all around our ships; we were in action for over four hours; hundreds of shot and shell fell close to us. Only five or six pierced us and they did no damage.

"The damage done by our ships was frightful. I have visited all of the sunken Spanish ships, and, had I not seen the effects of American marksmanship, I would hardly give credit to reports of it. One smokestack of the Castilla, a 3,300 ton Spanish ship, was struck eight times, and the shells

through the hull were so many and so close that it is impossible that a Spaniard could have lived on her deck. The other large ship, the Reina Christina, was perforated in the same way.

"The lesson I draw from the fight is the great utility of target practice. The Spaniard has none; we have it every three months. Strength of navies are compared generally ship for ship; the personnel is just as important. I am confident that, had we manned the Spanish ships and had the Spaniards manned our fleet, the American side would have been as victorious as it was. The Spaniard certainly was brave, for he stuck to his guns till the last.

"The hard part of this engagement was not the fighting part, that was all right, but it was in getting ready for it. I was thirty-two hours without relief or rest in the engine-rooms of the Baltimore, the temperature varying from 120 to 160 degrees. Since the fight we have eased down on work and are taking it easy, except for a strict watch."

Too Late to Save the Islands.

A most gloomy message was received by the Government at Madrid, on May 8th, from the Governor General of the Philippines. As the result a member of the Cabinet admitted that the despatch of Spanish troops could not save the Philippine Islands. He added: "We could send six thousand troops; but, if the natives are against us such a force would be inadequate. If they were with us, it would not be necessary to send troops to the Philippine Islands."

A communication from Captain General Augusti was as follows: "The situation is very grave. Aguinaldo has succeeded in stirring up the country, and the telegraph lines and railways are being cut. I am without communication with the provinces. The province of Cavite has completely rebelled, and the towns and villages are occupied by numerous bands. A Spanish column defends the Zapote line to prevent the enemy from invading the province of Manila, but the foe has entered through Bulacon, Lagina and Moron, so that Manila will thus be attacked by land and sea.

"I am striving to raise the courage of the inhabitants, and will exhaust every means of resistance, but I distrust the natives and the volunteers because there have already been many desertions. Bacoor and Imus have already been seized by the enemy. The insurrection has reached great proportions, and if I cannot count upon the support of the country the forces at my disposal will not suffice to hold the ground against two enemies."

An interesting letter was received at Easton, Pa., by Judge Scott from his son, Ensign W. Pitt Scott, of Admiral Dewey's flagship Olympia, describing the great victory in Manila Bay on Sunday morning, May 1st.

Ensign Scott was especially commended by Admiral Dewey in his official report for his efficient work during the conflict. The letter is dated on board the Olympia, at Cavite, Manila Bay, on May 11th. The writer, telling of the opening of the famous fight, said:

"The Spaniards had ten ships fighting to our six, and, in addition, had five or six shore batteries, some of which bothered us a good deal. We steamed by the line and fired some deadly shot at them. We had anticipated that once across their line would be sufficient to silence them, but they did not yield, and so when we got to the end of the line we turned and went back at them again. It was getting real interesting now, for many of their shots were coming close aboard, and the screech of the shots as they whistled over our heads was anything but pleasant.

"Now and then we would see a shot strike in the water ahead of us and explode and the pieces of it come at us. I will never forget it. I was surprised to find how little it disturbed us. I never believed that I would ever feel so entirely unconcerned while the shots were falling all around. No one seemed to care an iota whether the shells dropped on us or fell a long distance away, and in the intervals, between which we were making signals, the most commonplace remarks were made.

"We passed across the enemy's line the second time, but that did not seem to silence them any more than the first, and we had to try it a third time, with no better result, although perhaps their fire was not so heavy as at first. A small torpedo boat came out and attempted to get within striking distance of the Olympia, but our secondary battery drove her in; a second time she came out and at us, but again our fire was too much for her, and some of our shots striking her she had barely time to get back to the beach, or she would have sunk.

Flagship Bore the Brunt.

"It soon became apparent that the Spaniards were concentrating their fire on the Olympia (as flagship), and we then received the brunt of the fight. At one time the Reina Christina, the Spanish flagship, attempted to come out from her position and engage us at closer distance, but we turned our fire on her and drove her back. A fourth time we steamed across their line, and a fifth, and it began to look as if they were not going to give in until after all our ammunition would be exhausted, which would leave us in a very serious predicament, in the midst of the enemy and in one of their ports, being over seven thousand miles from supplies; so after the fifth time across their line we withdrew to count up our ammunition, to see how we stood and to get breakfast.