. Schley and Santiago; an historical account of the blockade and final destruction of the Spanish fleet under command of Admiral Pasquale Cervera, July 3, 1898. tteries ashore respondedwith unusual activity that day, and althoughnone of their shells hit us—while the shootingof our fleet was exceedingly accurate and quitespectacular — remarks were made that theSpaniards were improving. We knocked downa lighthouse, tore up a western battery, dis-mounting one of their heaviest guns, and fin-ished the performance by the destruction ofthe corner of the tower of Morro, and knock-ing down the Spanish
. Schley and Santiago; an historical account of the blockade and final destruction of the Spanish fleet under command of Admiral Pasquale Cervera, July 3, 1898. tteries ashore respondedwith unusual activity that day, and althoughnone of their shells hit us—while the shootingof our fleet was exceedingly accurate and quitespectacular — remarks were made that theSpaniards were improving. We knocked downa lighthouse, tore up a western battery, dis-mounting one of their heaviest guns, and fin-ished the performance by the destruction ofthe corner of the tower of Morro, and knock-ing down the Spanish flag. No schoolboy wasever so tickled over some juvenile accomplish-ment, as was Commodore Schley that morn-ing over the lowering of this Spanish red andyellow. Every day for five weeks we had seenthat Spanish flag go up in the early morningas if in defiance of our presence, and all daylong it would flaunt us, only to be hauled downat sunset, when the evening gun was Schley watched the bombardmentthat morning from a position on the port side ofthe Brooklyn, about half way between the for-ward eight-inch turret and the port eight-inch. AND SANTIAGO 273 turret. He was standing on the deck, insteadof on his little platform near the conningtower, and his flag lieutenant, Mr. Sears, hadseveral times asked him to step back, the lat-ter being afraid the tremendous blast of theguns of our own ship would knock him over-board. It was drizzling rain, and the Commo-dore had on a rain coat, and once when a for-ward eight-inch gun fired I saw the blast fromit drag the long tails around his legs, so thatit very nearly threw him down. Finally, Lieu-tenant-Commander Mason and LieutenantSears together used respectful force and com-pelled Schley to get up on the platform, out ofthe way of the blasts. The blasts from these eight-inch guns areso terrific that they will take things weighingtwo or three hundred pounds that happen tobe on deck, under the muzzle, and waft themoverb
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