. The chicago Record's war stories : by staff correspondents in the field ; copiously illustrated. n was plunged into the zoneof death before a signal flag could havespelled out Commander Newcombs address. Just what the megaphone can do amid theclangor of battle is unknown, but there aremany sailormen who believe that the smokewill obscure the signal flags which are not atthe main truck and that the megaphone willearn ah official place for itself in the comingbattle between the Spanish and the Ameri-can fleets. Wigwags and signal lights have hadtheir inning: the steam whistle is the key tothe
. The chicago Record's war stories : by staff correspondents in the field ; copiously illustrated. n was plunged into the zoneof death before a signal flag could havespelled out Commander Newcombs address. Just what the megaphone can do amid theclangor of battle is unknown, but there aremany sailormen who believe that the smokewill obscure the signal flags which are not atthe main truck and that the megaphone willearn ah official place for itself in the comingbattle between the Spanish and the Ameri-can fleets. Wigwags and signal lights have hadtheir inning: the steam whistle is the key tothe new telegraphy of the sea. The juniorlieutenant steoped to the middle of the bridgeas he spoke—his ship is the smartest gun-boat of the blockading fleet—and pullingdowa the front of a small japanned boxclamped to the rail disclosed just such a keyand sounder as clatter in every telegraphoffice in the world. The key itself was fixedi to the drop front: sounder and battery werestowed in the shallow square of the case. Look, now! my friend of the silver bar 170 THE CHICAGO RECORDS WAR STORIES. USING THE MEGAPHONE TO GIVE ORDERSFROM SHIP TO SHIP. commanded, snapping over a small switchand pounding furiously away at the brassfor perhaps forty seconds. Ive repeatedthat statement of mine to the ships allabout us here—only they know it already—and when I turned that switch I cut theships whistle off from the key. If I hadntbroken the circuit it would have taken meabout a minute and every vessel in the har-bor would have read it off. Quick, wasntit? A wigwagger would have spent sixminutes sending it and signal lamps cantblink and glow fast enough to keep pacewith a whistle. Thats why the signal flagand red and white flags are doomed as soonas all our ships can put this whistle con-troller in. Its speed is one point; its cer-tainty is another. You cant tell a red lightfrom a white one when theres a fog on andyou are a cables length away. But you cantmistake the dots and dashes of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectspanish, bookyear1898
