All In Dewey's Way

ALL IN DEWEY'S WAY

BOLD WORK ALL AROUND IN THE YANKEE FLEET.

Captain Coghlan's Story of the First Shot-The Hero of the Raleigh Who Fired It-Plucky Little Gunboat Petrel Ahead of Her Big Consorts.

[Copyright. 1899. by G. L. Kilmer.]

DEWEY'S way with the Spaniards at Manila was the way with the entire Yankee outfit. The commodore, - the ship captains, the sailors and even the guns and shells had it in them to smash the enemy on sight.

It is not in human nature that fighters having back of them the traditions of the American navy would stand aloof and Indulge in target practice. With ships under them having a head of steam on able to move into the ring of the enemy's champions, Yankee sailors admit of no holding. Another feature which makes for hot fighting is the fact that all our ships now have an individuality and are the especial pride of the officers and crew. They'll never haul off from a scrap until the ship has done the best there is in her.

Captain Coghlan's story of how the fleet went in and his own ship, the Raleigh, put in the first shot for the mastery of the Pacific, discloses the spirit of the hour as it was at Manila. He said: "We held our last consultation at dinner the night before the fight, and Dewey said that we were going in that night. I don't think any of us ate much dinner. We went in in a calm sea, although we were not so calm ourselves. About midnight we became anxious, because we had arrived at a point where we were informed there had been lots of torpedoes anchored for us.

"Now the torpedo is all very well in the storehouse, but they're bad things to have floating around a ship. But when we got to the entrance and the Olympia went through without being blown up we felt better. We felt positively brave when the Baltimore went through all right and were ready to go bang into a graveyard ourselves then.

"Well, the Spaniards on duty at the shore batteries slept four miles away from their guns that night and didn't get back to their posts until the old Raleigh came along. I saw a flash on shore and said to an officer, 'Hello, what's that?' He told me it was the second time be had noticed it and asked if he should fire. I told him not to as It was probably the insurgents, who were friendly then, signaling to us, but when a solid shot came along later I knew better. Then a second shot came, and it was in response to this that the Raleigh fired the first shot in the naval battle of Manila.

"I tell you we were all on the qui vive that night. Our orders were to go inside the harbor, anchor and take breakfast at daylight, then wipe the Spanish fleet off the face of the earth. But in the darkness we overran our reckoning and at daylight found ourselves right under the batteries of Manila. The enemy on shore opened on us, and instead of the anticipated signal to take breakfast the signal came from the flagship, 'Engage the enemy!' That was where the old man (Dewey) came in. His plan had to be changed In a second. We turned and stood toward the Spanish fleet, taking the fire of the batteries without response for 37 minutes. We finally got the position we wanted and opened up. We kept at It for 2 1/2 hours, and at the end of that time there was no Spanish fleet."

Captain Coghlan gave the credit of firing the first shot in Dewey's memorable battle to Ensign Babin of the Raleigh. Babin's story of it is as follows: "It was about midnight when we came to the outer entrance of the bay, between Corregidor island anti El Fraile. The passage is five miles wide, and instead of taking the middle channel, which was mined with torpedoes, we took the channel close to Corregidor, preferring our chances against the Spanish batteries on the island rather than with the torpedoes. Just as we started in, a few minutes after 12 o'clock, the smokestack of the dispatch boat McCulloch, at the end of our line, caught fire and blazed up like a piece of fireworks. This sudden illumination gave us away at once to the Spaniards on shore, and presently a gun boomed out from El Fraile.

As soon as that first shot came from EI Fraile Captain Coghlan sent me word to answer at once with the after gun. So after a hasty glance around and correcting the sights - it was a pretty long range, and the gun had to he elevated a good deal- I let her go. I don't suppose I will ever know positively whether that first shot hit anything or not. Some time afterward I met a Spanish officer who had been at El Fraile, and he told me it had disabled 23 men and put one gun out of the fight. But I wouldn't vouch for that. It may have been only Spanish politeness."

Although not responding to the fire of the batteries, Dewey's ships were not dodging the main enemy. They were getting into position for the desperate game of smashing the forts and fleet at the same time. At 5:35 a. m. Dewey's flagship. Olympia, began firing with her forward 8 inch guns and, swinging round, gave the forts broadside after broadside from her rapid fire guns. The other ships followed suit and moved up and down in front of the enemy, giving furious battle and receiving a deluge of missiles in return, which, for a wonder, hurt nobody. Suddenly a large white Spanish ship started for the Olympia, and as this was the Reina Cristina, having the Spanish admiral on board, the contest for a moment at the head of the line was between flagship and flagship. But all the American guns made a target of the daring Spaniard, and she couldn't get to close quarters with the Olympia. She turned to make the little harbor of Cavite, but a shell from the 8 inch rifle in the forward turret of the Olympia crashed into her stern and raked forward to the boiler, which exploded, setting the ship on fire and making a complete wreck of the pride of the Spanish navy in the Philippines. This shot alone killed the captain of the Reina Cristina and 60 of his men. Altogether, Admiral Montijo's tilt with Dewey's own cost the lives of 140 Spaniards and the wounding of over 200.

About this time two Spanish torpedo boats set out to do for the Olympia what the Reina Cristina so sadly failed in. The men and officers of the American fleet looked on in alarm, for they realized the terrible power that might lie in those two black engines creeping steadily toward the flagship. Every gun that would bear was trained upon them, and the men of the Olympia turned from their ineffectual heavy batteries to the rapid fire 6 pounders. A hail of shot churning the water into foam is the only expression to describe what the anxious spectators saw around the torpedo boats. Suddenly one launch blew up, either by the explosion of her boiler or of her own torpedo, and she disappeared with all on board. The second torpedo launch went on the beach with a dozen holes in her and a coating of blood on her decks.

Forging ahead, leading the line up and down past the Spanish ships and batteries, the Olympia once more neared the forts at Cavite, and a mine field exploded about 1,000 yards away. The Olympia was not hurt and made her fourth trip, turning again for the fifth and last of the morning battle. After the fifth bout with the enemy the Olympia steamed out into the bay, followed by the rest of the ships, beaten, as the Spaniards believed But no, it was only a 20 minutes' wait for the Dewey breakfast, which had been ordered in those waters for the daylight hour.

During the wait it was signaled from ship after ship that there had been no loss in the American fleet, astounding intelligence, which was lustily cheered all along the line. At 10:45 the signal to renew the battle was hoisted on the Olympia. This time the Baltimore took the lead, steaming close to the forts at Cavite. She opened with her big guns at a range which tore every thing In sight. The Olympia seconded the Baltimore in the attack and Dewey ordered the Concord, Boston and Petrel to go into the inner bay of Bakor, where the defeated vessels were seeking refuge. The little gunboat Petrel which had pluckily fought the big Spanish ships in the morning took the lead into the bay. She entered the heart of the Spanish stronghold, and the officers of the fleet thought she was lost when they saw her steam up within rifle range of the enemy.

In Bakor bay Captain Wood of the Petrel found the Spanish Castilla afire, the Don Antonio de Ulloa on the bottom and Don Juan de Austria, the Marquis Duero, the Isle de Cuba, which had carried the admiral's flag after the loss of the Reina Cristina and the Correo, deserted by their crews. Lieutenant Hughes of the Petrel went out with a small boat and fired the deserted ships. When the last shot was fired, at 1 o'clock, the Petrel, Boston and Raleigh were in close action with the Spaniards, and the little gunboat signaled back to Dewey that the last flag of the Spaniards had been lowered. It was a shot from her guns which had brought it down.

In the second attack on the batteries at Cavite the Baltimore stood out as a single target for the Spanish marksmen, hut they failed to score a second hit or to improve upon their best shot of the morning. That best shot was given to the Baltimore when she first opened her broadsides against the fresh batteries and warships. It was an armor piercing shot, and when it entered made the steel splinters fly in all directions. Six men were wounded by these splinters in a single gun crew, and the shot spun around, bounding from side to side, until it fell spent upon the deck.

But, if there was no damage worth mentioning sustained by the American ships, Dewey's battle at Manila was a wonderful one. Every ship took its own chances against torpedoes, sunken nines and Spanish gunnery. This last, and not the Spanish valor, seemed at fault.

On board each one of the American vessels it was believed that the other ships were suffering great slaughter, so fierce and continuous the Spanish fire, but all were prepared to share the slaughter if it came to that, and the western world echoes the words of Dewey when he said, "I've the prettiest lot of men that ever stepped on shipboard, and their hearts are as stout as the ships." --GEORGE L. KILMER.