The Boys of '98

May 8. A brilliant, although unimportant, affair was that in which the torpedo-boat Winslow engaged off Cardenas Bay.

The Winslow and gunboat Machias were on the blockade off Cardenas.

In the harbour, defended by thickly strewn mines and torpedoes, three small gunboats had been bottled up since the beginning of the war. Occasionally they stole out toward the sea, but never venturing beyond the inner harbour, running like rabbits at sight of the American torpedo boats.

Finally a buoy was moored by Spaniards inside the entrance of the bay to mark the position for the entrance of the gunboats. The signal-station on the shore opposite was instructed to notify the gunboats inside when the torpedo-boats were within the limit distance marked by the buoy.

The scheme was that the gunboats could run out, open fire at a one-mile range thus marked off for them, and retreat without the chance of being cut off. The men of the Winslow eyed this buoy and guessed its purpose, but did not attempt to remove it.

On the afternoon of the eighth the Machias stood away to the eastward for a jaunt, and the Winslow was left alone to maintain the blockade.

In a short time she steamed toward Cardenas Harbour. There was great excitement at the signal-station, and flags fluttered hysterically. The three gunboats slipped their cables and went bravely out to their safety limit.

Three bow 6-pounders were trained at two thousand yards. In a few minutes the shore signals told them that the torpedo-boat was just in range. Every Spaniard aboard prepared to see the Americans blown out of the water.

Three 6-pounders crackled, and three shells threw waterspouts around the Winslow, but she was not struck. Instead of running away, she upset calculations by driving straight ahead, attacking the boats, and Lieutenant Bernado no sooner saw the first white smoke puffs from the Spanish guns than he gave the word to the men already stationed at the two forward 1-pounders, which barked viciously and dropped shot in the middle of the flotilla.

On plunged the Winslow to within fifteen hundred yards of the gunboats, while the row raised by the rapid-fire 1-pounders was like a rattling tattoo.

The Spaniards were apparently staggered at this fierce onslaught, single-handed, and fired wildly. The Winslow swung around broadside to, to bring her two after guns to bear as the Spanish boats scattered and lost formation.

The Winslow soon manœuvred so that she was peppering at all three gunboats at once. The sea was very heavy, and the knife-like torpedo-boat rolled so wildly that it was impossible to do good gun practice, but despite this big handicap, the rapidity of her fire and the remarkable effectiveness of her guns demoralised all three opponents, which, after the Winslow had fired about fifty shells, began to gradually work back toward the shelter of the harbour.

They were still hammering away with their 6-pounders, but were wild. Several shells passed over the Winslow. One exploded a hundred feet astern, but the others fell short.

At last a 1-pounder from the Winslow went fair and true, and struck the hull of the Lopez a little aft of amidships, apparently exploding on the inside.

The Winslow men yelled. The Lopez stopped, evidently disabled, while one of her comrades went to her assistance. By this time the Spanish boats had retreated nearly inside, where they could not be followed because of the mines. The Lopez got under way slowly and limped homeward with the help of a towline from her consort.

During this episode the Machias had returned, and when within a two-mile range let fly two 4-inch shells from her starboard battery, which accelerated the Spanish flight. But the flotilla managed to creep back into Cardenas Harbour in safety, and under the guns of the shore-battery.

The Spanish gunboats that lured the Winslow into the death-trap were the Antonio Lopez, Lealtad, and Ligera. During the fight the two former retreated behind the wharves, and the Ligera behind the key. It was the Antonio Lopez that opened fire on the Winslow and decoyed her into the channel. The Spanish troops formed on the public square, not daring to go to the wharves. All the Spanish flags were lowered, as they furnished targets, and the women and children fled to Jovellanos.

Off Havana during the afternoon the fishing-smack Santiago Apostal was captured by the U. S. S. Newport.

The U. S. S. Yale captured the Spanish steamer Rita on the eighth, but did not succeed in getting the prize into port until the thirteenth. The Rita was loaded with coal, from Liverpool to Porto Rico.

The bread riots in Spain continued throughout the day. At Linates a crowd of women stormed the town hall and the civil guard fired upon them, killing twelve. El Pais, the popular republican newspaper in Madrid, was suppressed; martial law was declared at Badajos and Alicante.

May 9. Congress passed a joint resolution of thanks to Commodore Dewey; the House passed a bill increasing the number of rear-admirals from six to seven, and the Senate passed a bill to give Dewey a sword, and a bronze memorative medal to each officer and man of his command.

The record of the navy for the day was summed up in the capture of the fishing-smack Fernandito by the U. S. S. Vicksburg, and the capture of the Spanish schooner Severito by the U. S. S. Dolphin.

The rioting in Spain was not abated; martial law was proclaimed in Catalonia.

May 10. The steamer Gussie sailed from Tampa, Florida, with two companies of the First Infantry, and munitions and supplies for Cuban insurgents.

Rioting in Spain was the report by cable; in Alicante the mob sacked and burned a bonded warehouse.

May 11. Running from Cienfuegos, Cuba, at daybreak on the morning of May 11th, were three telegraph cables. The fleet in the neighbourhood consisted of the cruiser Marblehead, which had been on the station three weeks, the gunboat Nashville, which had been there two weeks, and the converted revenue cutter Windom, which had arrived two days before. The station had been a quiet one, except for a few brushes with some Spanish gunboats, which occasionally ventured a very little way out of Cienfuegos Harbour. They had last appeared on the tenth, but had retreated, as usual, when fired on.

Commander McCalla of the Marblehead, ranking officer, instructed Lieutenant Anderson to call for volunteers to cut the cable early on the morning of the eleventh. Anderson issued the call on both the cruiser and the gunboat, and three times the desired number of men offered to serve. No one relented, even after repeated warnings that the service was especially dangerous.

“I want you men to understand,” Anderson said, “that you are not ordered to do this work, and are not obliged to.”

The men nearly tumbled over one another in their eagerness to be selected. In the end, the officer had simply the choice of the entire crew of the two ships.

A cutter containing twelve men, and a steam launch containing six, were manned from each ship, and a guard of marines and men to man the 1-pounder guns of the launches, were put on board. In the meantime the Marblehead had taken a position one thousand yards offshore opposite the Colorado Point lighthouse, which is on the east side of the narrow entrance to Cienfuegos Harbour, just east of the cable landing, and, with the Nashville a little farther to the west, had begun shelling the beach.

The shore there is low, and covered with a dense growth of high grass and reeds. The lighthouse stood on an elevation, behind which, as well as hidden in the long grass, were known to be a large number of rifle-pits, some masked machine guns, and 1-pounders. These the Spaniards deserted as fast as the ships’ fire reached them. As the enemy’s fire slackened and died out, the boats were ordered inshore.

They advanced in double column. The launches, under Lieutenant Anderson and Ensign McGruder of the Nashville, went ahead with their sharpshooters and gunners, looking eagerly for targets, while the cutters were behind with the grappling-irons out, and the men peering into the green water for a sight of the cables. At a distance of two hundred feet from shore the launches stopped, and the cutters were sent ahead.

The first cable was picked up about ninety feet offshore. No sooner had the work of cutting it been begun than the Spanish fire recommenced, the soldiers skulking back to their deserted rifle-pits and rapid-fire guns through the high grass. The launches replied and the fire from the ships quickened, but although the Spanish volleys slackened momentarily, every now and then they grew stronger.

The men in the boats cut a long piece out of the first cable, stowed it away for safety, and then grappled for the next. Meantime the Spaniards were firing low in an evident endeavour to sink the cutters, but many of their shots fell short. The second cable was finally found, and the men with the pipe-cutters went to work on it.

Several sailors were kept at the oars to hold the cutters in position, and the first man wounded was one of these. No one else in the boat knew it, however, till he fainted in his seat from loss of blood. Others took the cue from this, and there was not a groan or a complaint from the two boats, as the bullets, that were coming thicker and faster every minute, began to bite flesh.

The men simply possessed themselves with heroic patience, and went on with the work. They did not even have the satisfaction of returning the Spanish fire, but the marines in the stern of the boat shot hard enough for all.

The second cable was finally cut, and the third, a smaller one, was grappled and hoisted to the surface. The fire of the Spanish had reached its maximum. It was estimated that one thousand rifles and guns were speaking, and the men who handled them grew incautious, and exposed themselves in groups here and there.

“Use shrapnel,” came the signal, and can after can exploded over the Spaniards, causing them to break and run to cover.

This cover was a sort of fortification behind the lighthouse, and to this place they dragged a number of their machine guns, and again opened fire on the cutter. The shots from behind the lighthouse could not be answered so well from the launches, and the encouraged Spaniards fired all the oftener.

Man after man in the boats was hit, but none let a sound escape him. Like silent machines they worked, grimly hacking and tearing at the third cable. During half an hour they laboured, but the fire from behind the lighthouse was too deadly, and, reluctantly, at Lieutenant Anderson’s signal, the cable was dropped and the boats retreated.

The work had lasted two hours and a half.

The Windom, which had laid out of range with a collier, was now ordered in, and the surgeon called to attend the wounded. The Windom was signalled to shell the lighthouse, which had not been fired on before, according to the usages of international law. It had been used as a shelter by the Spaniards. The revenue cutter’s rapid-fire guns riddled the structure in short order, and soon a shell from the 4-inch gun, which was in charge of Lieut. R. O. Crisp, struck it fair, exploded, and toppled it over.

With the collapse of their protection the Spaniards broke and ran again, the screaming shrapnel bursting all around them.

At the fall of the lighthouse the Marblehead signalled, “Well done,” and then a moment later, “Cease firing.”

The only man killed instantly was a marine named Eagan. A sailor from one of the boats died of his wounds on the same day. Commander Maynard of the Nashville was grazed across the chest, and Lieutenant Winslow was wounded in the hand.

The list of casualties resulting from this display of heroism was two killed, two fatally and four badly wounded. The Spanish loss could not be ascertained, but it must necessarily have been heavy.

CHAPTER VI.

CARDENAS AND SAN JUAN

May 11. The Spanish batteries in Cardenas Harbour were silenced on May 11th, and at the same time there was a display of heroism, on the part of American sailors, such as has never been surpassed.

A plan of action having been decided upon, the Wilmington arrived at the blockading station from Key West on the morning of the eleventh. She found there, off Piedras Bay, the cruiser Machias, the torpedo-boat Winslow, and the revenue cutter Hudson, which last carried two 6-pounders. Shortly after noon the Wilmington, Winslow, and Hudson moved into the inner harbour of Cardenas, and prepared to draw the fire of the Spanish batteries on the water-front. The Wilmington took a range of about twenty-five hundred yards.