MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
Hear Admiral Clark 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS 
 IN THE NAVY 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES E. CLARK 
 
 REAR ADMIRAL, U.S.N. 
 
 With Illustrations 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 
r^ ) 
 
 6 51 
 
 Copyright^ 1917^ 
 By Little, Brown, and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 Published, October, 1917 
 
 THE COLONIAL PRESS 
 C. H. SIMON DS CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. 
 
■^.t 
 
 ,A, 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 Doctor S. Weir Mitchell, scientist, author, 
 and physician, who instructed, delighted, and 
 cared for me, made me promise that sometime 
 this record should be published. It is now grate- 
 fully inscribed to those who so devotedly and 
 capably served on board the Oregon and to all 
 who so tensely watched and waited while, 
 
 " Through tropic heat. 
 Through snow and sleet 
 She hastened onward still." 
 
 575375 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Foreword v 
 
 I First Days at Annapolis ...... 1 
 
 II Rumors of War 23 
 
 III The First Cruise 51 
 
 IV On Board the Ossipee 73 
 
 V With Farragut at Mobile 95 
 
 VI The Bombardment of Valparaiso . . . .123 
 
 VII The W'reck of the Suwanee 167 
 
 VIII An Asiatic Cruise 196 
 
 IX Off Many Coasts 235 
 
 X The Oregon's Race 258 
 
 XI Santiago 282 
 
 XII A Sailor's Log 298 
 
 Index 339 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Rear Admiral Clark .... 
 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Constitution. "Old Ironsides" 
 
 Facing Page 16 
 
 Midshipmen G. T. Davis, F. A. Cook 
 
 
 
 and C. E. Clark, before leaving the 
 
 
 
 Academy for active service . 
 
 « 
 
 " 48 
 
 David Glasgow Farragut 
 
 a 
 
 " 102 
 
 Ossipee 
 
 et 
 
 " 106 
 
 Commodore John Rodgers 
 
 t( 
 
 " 124 
 
 VanderUU 
 
 <( 
 
 " 130 
 
 Rear Admiral Clark and granddaughter, 
 
 
 
 Louisa Russell Hughes 
 
 it 
 
 " 198 
 
 Hartford, with topgallant masts housed 
 
 
 
 and without covered spardeck. Rig 
 
 
 
 during the Civil War .... 
 
 it 
 
 *' 212 
 
 Neic Hampshire . . . , , 
 
 (( 
 
 " 236 
 
 Ranger 
 
 « 
 
 " 244 
 
 Oregon 
 
 « 
 
 " 260 
 
Now north, ondriven with hot coals of wrath, 
 While all our home nerves vibrate hope and 
 
 fear; 
 Will the dark Spaniard bar her perilous path ? 
 Must one fight six ? Oh, could we see and hear ! 
 Not they disturbed who towards the battle 
 
 guide her! 
 Not she, the lithe and springing water tiger ! 
 On to the rescue day and night she runs 
 
 With men who force the fires, 
 
 With men who load the guns." 
 
 By J. M. Finch, Judge of the Court of Appeals, New York. 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS IN 
 THE NAVY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 First Days at Annapolis 
 
 Bradford, Orange County, the Vermont vil- 
 lage where I was born, on August 10, 1843, is 
 situated upon the left bank of the Waits River, 
 nearly a mile above its junction with the 
 Connecticut. From the elevated ground on 
 which it stands, one looks across the intervening 
 meadows to the New Hampshire hills and the 
 mountains beyond them : Moosilauke, forty-six 
 hundred feet high, Sugar Loaf, or Black Hill, 
 Owl's Head, Cube, and Dorchester, while the 
 more distant blue peak of Mount Lafayette of 
 the Franconia Range rises to its height of fifty- 
 two hundred feet, between two perfect saddles 
 formed by the nearer mountains. 
 
 From my earliest childhood I never wearied 
 1 
 
2 MV 17FTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 of watching every changing aspect of the differ- 
 ent mountains, and I felt the general devotion 
 to them all not uncommon perhaps to boys 
 brought up among the hills; but Mount La- 
 fayette was the special object of my admiration, 
 and one of my first extravagances was the pur- 
 chase of a small telescope to bring this wonder- 
 ful mountain nearer. 
 
 My parents were James Dayton Clark,^ also 
 born in Bradford, and Mary Sexton Clark, a 
 native of Brookfield, Vermont. The first of our 
 family to live in Vermont were Thomas and 
 Lois Williams Clark, my great grandparents, 
 who came to Bradford from Roxbury, Massa- 
 chusetts, at the beginning of the last century. 
 My great grandfather was a member of the 
 General Court towards the close of the Revolu- 
 tionary War, in which his health had never per- 
 mitted him to take an active part. The records 
 show, nevertheless, that when a battle was im- 
 minent, he had joined the provincial army. My 
 mother's father. Major Hiram Sexton, had served 
 during the War of 1812, and her grandfather, 
 
 1 Rear Admiral James Dayton, U.S.N., and James Dayton Clark 
 were first cousins, but the former was junior to me in rank. 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 3 
 
 Captain Williams of Wilmington, Vermont, was 
 an officer in the Revolutionary army. Several 
 relatives had also served with credit in the 
 colonial, or earlier wars, so there was enough of 
 the military spirit on both sides to account for 
 a longing on my part to enter the army. As my 
 father, however, left an orphan at two years of 
 age, had neither means nor political influence, 
 I generally pictured myself as carrying a musket 
 in the ranks. 
 
 I was very young indeed when I established a 
 military post on the roof of our house. I was 
 working out some ideas in fortification, when my 
 foot slipped, and I began a rapid slide towards 
 the eaves. I must have gone headfirst, for I 
 still have a picture in my mind of a neighbor, 
 who, with her arms upraised in horror at my 
 performance, seemed to me to be walking on her 
 hands. A lucky grab at the waterspout, which 
 held long enough to partially right me, was 
 responsible for my landing on the ground, rather 
 less damaged than might have been expected. 
 
 I did not come off quite as well in my first and 
 only experiment in aviation. I had been read- 
 ing of the possibilities of the parachute, and it 
 
4 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 occurred to me, as it did to Mr. Richard Swivel- 
 ler, that an umbrella might have its uses, outside 
 its regular sphere. I spread the news among 
 my comrades, one Saturday afternoon, that at 
 a certain hour I was prepared to jump from the 
 second-story window of our house. My appear- 
 ance at the window was greeted by quite a num- 
 ber of spectators who were very free in their 
 expressions of opinion, some derisively calling out 
 that I "wouldn't dare!" and others that I'd 
 "better not !" Affecting a composure that I was 
 far from feeling at that exciting moment, I climbed 
 the sill, spread my umbrella, and launched myself 
 into space. All went well for one brief second. 
 Then the umbrella collapsed, and when I recov- 
 ered consciousness, my faith in parachutes had 
 collapsed likewise. 
 
 I only recollect one other experience in the 
 military line that occurred during my early 
 boyhood. My brother and I owned a little 
 cannon, which made a very desirable racket when 
 it was fired, but which we felt might be made to 
 do even better. So we tried ramming down the 
 charge with wooden plugs, and this not giving 
 entire satisfaction, we finally drove in the iron 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 5 
 
 rammer, and shoved its outer end against a rock. 
 When the explosion came, something resisted, but 
 it was the rock and not the cannon. We got a 
 very fine notion of how it feels to be in the path 
 of a projectile. This one, fortunately, cleared 
 our heads, flying past us into the woodshed where, 
 after splintering a beam, it came to rest in a 
 much agitated pile of chips in a corner. We were 
 quite unaware at the time that we were actually 
 demonstrating the principle of the Congreve 
 rocket. 
 
 My favorite companion in Bradford was 
 William Rogers, a boy about a year older than 
 myself. He had a fine mind and was an omnivo- 
 rous reader. We were almost inseparable, and 
 from him I was for some time content to take a 
 great deal of my reading at second-hand. I was 
 an imaginative youngster, and while not lacking 
 in courage to meet the ordinary give and take of 
 my boyish world, my head was pretty well stuffed 
 with a tissue of fanciful dangers. Preeminent 
 among these was a fearful trio — Abductors, 
 Barn-burners, and Ghosts. I had once seen in an 
 illustrated paper a picture of the abduction of 
 some fair lady by armor-clad knights, and her 
 
6 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 terrified expression haunted me. I felt that my 
 mother, the most attractive woman in the world, 
 according to my notion, would naturally be the 
 next to be carried off. I often used to make some 
 excuse to run home from school at recess, to 
 assure myself that she was really there, and I soon 
 found it was quite useless to try to spend the night 
 at a playmate's house. My apprehensions were 
 certain to urge me out of bed about midnight, 
 to travel home through a darkness peopled with 
 ghosts and burglars, just to make sure that 
 nothing had happened in my absence. I used to 
 plead homesickness as my excuse, for I did not 
 wish to have my mother alarmed about the 
 dreadful dangers to which she was exposed. 
 
 There was a little more reality mixed with the 
 barn-burner terror. Just why the village of 
 Bradford should have been harried as it was a 
 few years previously by one or more incendiaries, 
 it would be hard to say, but it was a fact that 
 during this period the number of barns that had 
 gone up in flames furnished the village chronicles 
 with matter for some time to come. I used to sit 
 in Pritchard's store in the evening, my ears wide 
 open, while the old patrols recalled their experi- 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 7 
 
 ences and disputed as to who was first to arrive 
 on the scene, on that memorable night, when 
 Jake Flanders, having fired at one barn-burner, 
 was slashed by the knife of another. Then some 
 cynic would suggest that Flanders himself might 
 have cut that slash in his clothing, just to make 
 a good story, and I, for one, would feel that this 
 was a cruel doubt. Generally speaking, the 
 patrols seemed to have traveled conveniently 
 in pairs, so that one was able to tell how the 
 other had been shaken with fear, while he had 
 supplied the courage for the occasion. 
 
 My ideas about ghosts were largely derived 
 from some of Washington Irving's tales, which 
 Will Rogers and I read and discussed together. 
 I must confess that Ichabod Crane's "headless 
 Hessian" and Dolph Heyliger's specter, with its 
 dreadful habit of walking right through locked 
 doors into any house, gave me some very bad 
 hours. Will, who was more sceptical than I, 
 assured me that these were only old Dutch legends, 
 but I retorted with the story of Caesar's ghost 
 that appeared to Brutus at Philippi, and the 
 spirit that pursued Xerxes' brother in so vigorous 
 a fashion, and this argument seemed to us both 
 
8 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 unanswerable, for of course history could not 
 lie, and therefore ghosts must exist. 
 
 I began my education at the district school in 
 Bradford, and after that was a pupil for several 
 terms at the Bradford Academy. Its principal, 
 Roswell H. Farnham, was afterwards an oflScer 
 of Vermont troops in the Civil War, and later 
 became governor of the State. He had an inspir- 
 ing personality which ought to have brought out 
 the best in his scholars, but I fear I cannot claim 
 that I was a special credit to him at that time. 
 Another principal of the Academy, to whom I 
 was strongly attached, was George A. Low, a 
 tall graduate of Dartmouth; my liking was 
 based not so much perhaps on his scholarly quali- 
 ties as on the interest he showed in our sports, 
 notably football, which we often played in front 
 of his house. 
 
 During my vacations I was expected to make 
 myself more or less useful in my father's book- 
 bindery, but as he remarked, when there was 
 any real work to do, I suddenly became a great 
 reader. There was no lack of opportunity, with 
 so many books lying about. I was particularly 
 fond of military history and read everything I 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 9 
 
 could lay my hands on concerning Hannibal, 
 Napoleon, Marlborough, and other great generals. 
 Fed on this reading, my desire for a soldier's 
 career became very strong, and I often used to 
 talk to my father about it. It was during one of 
 these talks that I suggested that he write to the 
 Honorable Justin S. Morrill, with whom he was 
 acquainted, for an appointment to the Military 
 Academy for me. My father finally agreed 
 to do so, telling me at the same time not to set 
 my heart on it too much, as about all he could 
 say for me was that I had reached the required 
 age — sixteen years. 
 
 Mr. Morrill did not leave us long in doubt. 
 Within a few days a letter arrived with his frank 
 on the envelope. That letter meant so much to 
 me that I have never forgotten its exact words, 
 which ran thus : "There is no vacancy from this 
 district at West Point, as I have just appointed 
 Doctor Rockwell's son, of Brattleboro. But there 
 is one at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, which 
 I have offered to Judge Hibbard's son, of Chelsea. 
 He is hesitating about accepting it. Should he 
 decline, I shall be glad to let your son have it. 
 Would he like to be a sailor boy?" 
 
10 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 While I did not consider a commission in the 
 navy, with its prospect of captain, the highest 
 rank then attainable, as equal to one in the army, 
 with its more high-sounding titles, yet I was 
 excited and anxious enough about that appoint- 
 ment to harbor very sinister thoughts about 
 the Hibbard boy. These vanished when Judge 
 Hibbard told my father that he did not care to 
 have a son of his go into the navy, and I realized 
 that the coveted position was actually to be mine. 
 The appointment came in the spring of 1860, one 
 year before the breaking out of the Civil War. 
 Soon after its arrival, finding that I could not 
 endure the sight of my mother's unhappiness 
 over our impending separation, I decided to 
 return it to Mr. Morrill. That fine statesman, 
 whose continuous service in Congress for forty- 
 four years exceeded that of any other American, 
 giving him the title of Vermont's Life Senator, 
 and who had declined Cabinet positions, took 
 the trouble to write to us, letting us know just 
 what we were setting aside, explaining the ad- 
 vantages of an education at government expense, 
 and something of what it meant to be a graduate 
 of Annapolis. With this better understanding, 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 11 
 
 my mother insisted that I should not sacrifice 
 my opportunity, and the appointment was re- 
 turned to me. So I might say that I owe it 
 twice over to Mr. Morrill. 
 
 Sleeping-cars were probably not in existence 
 at the time I made my journey to Annapolis. 
 At least, I had never heard of them. Traveling 
 by day was thought to be a sufficiently risky 
 business. Many, if not all roads, ran their 
 trains by a time schedule. When a train reached 
 a station, its conductor waited for a certain length 
 of time, after which he acquired the right of 
 way and ran full speed for the next. When 
 watches did not happen to agree, collisions were 
 in order. 
 
 On my journey to Annapolis I slept one night 
 on the boat from Troy to Albany, and the next 
 in Philadelphia, where I saw "The American 
 Cousin" played at the Arch Street Theatre. The 
 role of Lord Dundreary, made so famous after- 
 wards by Sothern, was then only a secondary 
 one. When I boarded the train at Baltimore, 
 I had my first sight of a midshipman's uniform. 
 The boy who wore it was engaged in conversa- 
 tion, the greater part of the trip, by a father and 
 
n MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 son who were evidently getting information 
 from him about Annapohs, in which I would have 
 gladly shared. 
 
 Annapolis, of course, was full of boys arriving 
 for the examinations, and as I was walking along 
 one of its quaint streets, I overheard one little 
 group making inquiries as to whether a certain 
 Stirling, from Baltimore, had received a passing 
 mark. Strange to say, Thomas Williams, the 
 boy in uniform on the train, the first midship- 
 man I ever saw, and Yates Stirling, the first 
 whose name I heard, were my roommates during 
 my first year ashore at the Academy. The com- 
 bination lasted no longer, the commandant being 
 heard to remark that it was a good one to break 
 up. Williams was found deficient and dropped. 
 Stirling, who became a rear admiral and com- 
 manded a fleet on the Asiatic Station, now lives 
 in Baltimore. The boy whom I had noticed on 
 the train, talking to Williams, and whose name 
 was Carmody, had one of the lengthiest careers 
 at the Academy. He "bilged", to use the 
 Academy term, that next February. Reap- 
 pointed to the next class, he was turned back for 
 another year, and then he was suspended for a 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 13 
 
 year. So he was accustomed to speak quite 
 contemptuously of some of the officers who 
 returned to Annapohs as instructors, saying that 
 they came into the service long after his time. 
 
 Not long after I entered the Naval Academy, 
 my parents left Bradford and moved to Mont- 
 pelier, the capital of the State, which became 
 their permanent home and mine, as far as a naval 
 officer can be said to have one. My leaves of 
 absence were always spent there, and I was still 
 young enough when the change was made to 
 have many of my youthful memories connected 
 with the town. 
 
 Montpelier, as is well known, was the birth- 
 place of the late Admiral Dewey, and I could feel 
 that I was certainly regarded as her adopted son 
 when I heard of the speech made by a local orator, 
 who after referring to the battles of Manila and 
 Santiago, spoke with true native humor of the 
 Spanish American War, as "the war between the 
 village of Montpelier and the kingdom of Spain." ^ 
 
 1 At one time in Montpelier much was said about the astonishing 
 escape of Dewey and Clark, but this referred to the Admiral's nephew 
 William and my brother Lloyd. The Rialto Building that spanned 
 the Branch collapsed during the great fire, falling on the ice in the 
 river bed below. Dewey remained under it and Clark in it, untU 
 the crash came. 
 
14 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The superintendent of the Naval Academy, at 
 whose little office near the south gate I reported, 
 September 29, 1860, was Captain George S. 
 Blake. Because of his judicious management of 
 affairs, he was kept in command with the title 
 of "commodore" several years beyond the usual 
 term of superintendents. He was a portly old 
 gentleman, who had a habit of placing his hand 
 upon his stomach and remarking impressively: 
 **I can lay my hand upon my heart, and say I 
 never wronged a midshipman ! " 
 
 His colored office attendant, Jim HoUiday, also 
 had the welfare of the midshipmen at heart, and 
 remarks overheard at the conferences of the 
 Academic Board were often used by him as a 
 basis for a word of friendly advice or warning, 
 to such of the boys as consulted him about their 
 standing, — and they were not a few. A tip 
 from Holliday was not to be despised. "Yo* 
 mus' sutinly pay mo' attention to yo' mechanics, 
 suh," he would gravely admonish some young 
 questioner, "or I'm ve'y much afraid yo' are 
 going to * bilge.' " 
 
 One of my classmates, returning from leave, 
 brought back a message of remembrance from an 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 15 
 
 officer he had met, which greatly pleased HoUiday, 
 but at the concluding words — "And he told me 
 to ask you, Holliday, how the * Epidemic Board' 
 was getting on?" Holliday's face fell. "Did 
 he say that? 'Deed, suh, I'm ve'y sorry that 
 eveh got out in the service." 
 
 The historic frigate Constitution — "Old Iron- 
 sides" — had just been fitted out as the school- 
 ship, and also with quarters for the fourth class, 
 so I at once went on board. Her commander 
 was Lieutenant George W. Rodgers, a nephew 
 of the hero of Lake Erie. He was soon after- 
 wards killed, fighting bravely for the Union. 
 Next in rank was Lieutenant John H. Upshur, a 
 true scion of the Old Dominion, who loved it 
 much, but the country more. At this day, active 
 in body, as well as in mind, his many friends 
 hopefully and affectionately see him approaching 
 the century mark. 
 
 Mrs. Upshur, whose father fell at Monterey, 
 and whose unusual beauty was enhanced in the 
 eyes of our Southern comrades by her ancestry, 
 captured all hearts. She not only was lovely to 
 look upon, but had an unrivalled faculty for 
 detecting the homesick, shy, and despondent 
 
16 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 among the boys and drawing them into the 
 charmed circle about her. It was the knowledge 
 of this quality that prompted her husband one 
 evening, after a reception, to offer William K. 
 Pipkin, painfully awkward and homely, and just 
 arrived from the backwoods of Missouri, the 
 privilege of escorting her home. Instead of 
 accepting with eagerness the honor that had 
 fallen to him, the embarrassed youth, blushing 
 hotly, managed to stammer out, "Excuse me, 
 sir, but the last thing Dad and Ma said to me 
 when I left home, was : * Bill Pip, you beware of 
 the women ! ' " 
 
 "Bill Pip" had entered the class next ahead, 
 but had failed in some branch and had fallen back 
 into ours. Rumor says he became the colonel 
 of a Confederate regiment when only twenty- 
 three, and ended his life as a millionaire. How- 
 ever that may be, he passed many bad hours at 
 the Academy and would doubtless have "bilged" 
 at the first semi-annual examination but for Mrs. 
 Upshur's tactful encouragement and sympathy. 
 Later, when promoted to the rank of rear admiral, 
 I had sincere pleasure in asking the Navy Depart- 
 ment to order an oflEicer to the Academy, knowing 
 
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FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 17 
 
 that his wife, the only daughter of our battle 
 scarred President, was like Mrs. Upshur in love- 
 liness of character. 
 
 Belonging to the academic staff on shore were 
 a number of officers, who afterwards attained 
 high rank, or gained distinction in the Union or 
 Confederate navies. C. R. P. Rodgers, then 
 commandant of midshipmen, Edward Simpson, 
 and Stephen B. Luce, afterwards j&rst president of 
 the Naval War College, became rear admirals. 
 Lieutenant Flusser, a Southerner, was killed fight- 
 ing bravely for the Union. Lieutenants John 
 Taylor Wood, Hunter Davidson, and William 
 H. Parker joined the Secessionists. 
 
 Lieutenant Parker was the first naval officer 
 I ever saw, but as he was in citizen's clothes 
 at the time, I was not deeply impressed. He 
 was the author of nautical sketches, sailing direc- 
 tions, and artillery tactics. He became super- 
 intendent of the Confederate States Naval Aca- 
 demy, and the last I heard of him, before his 
 death, he was president of an agricultural college. 
 The way his resignation came about was rather 
 curious. Despite his Southern birth — he was a 
 Virginian — William Parker was strongly dis- 
 
18 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 inclined to leave the service in which he had been 
 reared. His brother, Foxhall Parker, a com- 
 mander in the navy, was of the opinion that his 
 duty lay with the South. The brothers happening 
 to meet just before the outbreak of hostilities, each 
 urged his side of the question upon the other, 
 Foxhall pleading their birth, connections, and 
 traditions, and William loyalty to the flag, and 
 to the service in which they had been educated. 
 After separating, each reflected upon the other's 
 arguments to such purpose that William ended 
 by sending in his resignation, while Foxhall 
 decided to withhold his. 
 
 Years later, in Washington, William Parker 
 pointed out his brother to a friend, saying : 
 *' There goes Foxhall, the disloyal Unionist, on 
 full pay, and here stands William, the loyal 
 Secessionist, down on his uppers." 
 
 To return to the Constitution, Having been 
 hauled in as near the Academy sea wall as possible, 
 she had been moored head and stern, and a narrow 
 footbridge connecting her with the shore had 
 been constructed. Under the poop deck, and in a 
 small deckhouse amidships, were four recitation 
 rooms. The three study rooms were on the gun 
 
FIRST DAYS AT ANNAPOLIS 19 
 
 deck, bulkheads having been run along parallel 
 with the sides, and the gun ports serving as win- 
 dows. Our lockers, one for each midshipman, 
 were fitted against the sides on the berth deck. 
 Forward was the wash room, the number of basins 
 averaging about one to five of the washers, who 
 scrambled for the first chance, and then put 
 in claims — which were always respected — for 
 second and third places. Inspection came before 
 breakfast, so delays were inveighed against, and 
 much attention to the ears or neck reprobated. 
 In the interval between supper and evening study 
 hours, one of the six gun crews w^ould be marched 
 over to the bathhouse on shore. I think I may 
 say that the majority of us considered it a great 
 hardship that one of our short periods of recrea- 
 tion should be taken for such a purpose. 
 
 The only guns remaining on board the Con- 
 stitution were eight or ten of the thirty-two 
 pounders of the quarter-deck battery, and with 
 these we were exercised after four o'clock,* when 
 the afternoon studies and recitations were over. 
 At the end of the first month, it was found that 
 in one of the crews were six of the ten men first in 
 class standing, but as the second crew, to which I 
 
20 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 belonged, could run the guns in and out, and shift 
 trucks and breechings in the shortest time, and 
 also pull our cutter the fastest, we were the fellows 
 that were envied and looked up to by the others. 
 
 I remember very well the first time Lieutenant 
 Rodgers attempted to teach us something about 
 sails. He had the mizzen topsail broken out, 
 and stretched along the deck. "Now," said he, 
 "Mr. Clark, you and Mr. Glidden lay aloft and 
 overhaul down the buntlines." 
 
 "The buntlines?" I repeated, staring at him. 
 
 "Yes, sir! the b-u-n-t-1-i-n-e-s ! " he roared, 
 spelling it out, and without waiting for any 
 further explanation, I hurried aloft, determined 
 to overhaul down any rope that offered. 
 
 We were quite fearless by this time about 
 running up the rigging, and those of us who had 
 imagination enjoyed looking down from the 
 royal jack upon that deck, which "once had felt 
 the victor's tread" and where "knelt the van- 
 quished foe." I had read the poem beginning, — 
 
 "Old Ironsides at anchor lay 
 In the harbor of Mahon" 
 
 with its account of how the captain's little son 
 had climbed to the main truck, and stood sway- 
 
FIRST DAYS x\T ANNAPOLIS 21 
 
 ing there, until his father by threatening him 
 with a rifle, had made him jump into the sea. 
 I was incHned to think that there was more 
 poetry than truth in this alleged occurrence, yet 
 I have seen Rear Admiral Harry Taylor, who was 
 one of the little fellows in my class, sitting on 
 the main truck of "Old Ironsides" amusing him- 
 self by rolling up the pennant and letting it flow 
 again. His only rival was "Brick Top" English, 
 who once got on his feet on the truck, aided a 
 little by the lightning conductor, which projected 
 about a foot above it. Finally the superintendent 
 got wind of these proceedings, and ordered that 
 no midshipman should climb above the eyes of 
 the royal rigging. 
 
 The colored servants who waited on us at 
 mess were slaves, hired from their masters, in or 
 near Annapolis. Except Dorsey, the steward, 
 I recall the name of but one, and that only because 
 of a couple of accidents in which he figured. He 
 came sliding down the ladder at dinner hour, 
 one day, holding up an inverted soup tureen, 
 and pouring its hot contents over himself, en 
 route. Very soon after this he again engaged 
 public attention by falling overboard. One of 
 
n MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the crew, promptly seizing a boat hook, suc- 
 ceeded in shoving it under the waistband, but 
 although his rescue seemed thus to be assured, 
 another negro from his place in a gun port con- 
 tinued making a great outcry. 
 
 "Oh! shut up!" cried a sailor impatiently. 
 ** They'll save him ! Can't you see they've hooked 
 on to him all right ? " 
 
 "'Taint all right, nuther ! Dat's my brudder, 
 Caleb Watkins, an' he done got on my bes' Sun- 
 day breeches ! " 
 
 Another name I recollect among the colored 
 personnel was that of Moses Lake, the Academy 
 barber. He had been the servant of Commodore 
 Buchanan during a European cruise, and the 
 walls of his shop were decorated with pictures 
 and inscriptions, such as the following: "Wind- 
 sor Castle, visited by Mr. Moses Lake, Septem- 
 ber, 1858." "Mount Vesuvius, first seen by Mr. 
 Moses Lake, October, 1858." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Rumors of War 
 
 Ever since my class entered the Academy in 
 September, the growing unrest and trouble of 
 the country had been disturbing the equilibrium 
 of our little world. There were much wrangling 
 and many arguments among the boys, but no 
 real quarreling. In the general sense of upheaval, 
 no one — this was especially true of the North- 
 erners — felt certain enough of the ground under 
 his feet to take an assured position. In fact, the 
 youngsters at the Academy were in about as 
 bad a muddle as the country at large. After the 
 secession of South Carolina in December, however, 
 our classmates from the South began to talk with 
 more conviction. They insisted, for one thing, 
 that as in a division of the country the North 
 would have West Point, the Naval Academy 
 should go to them. They declared that New 
 York City sympathized with their cause, and if 
 
 23 
 
24 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 a war should come, the Seventh Regiment, the 
 finest in the country, would be sure to fight on 
 their side. As for Baltimore, they knew she would 
 never allow Abolitionists and John Brown sym- 
 pathizers to pass through her streets, nor even 
 Northern troops to march through to the support 
 of Washington, if it were attacked. 
 
 These opinions were being hotly voiced by the 
 Southern element in a little group of midshipmen, 
 one day, when a first-class man who was walking 
 by overheard a sentence that brought him to an 
 abrupt halt. He was the late Rear Admiral 
 Sampson, then at the head of the first class. He 
 was the ranking cadet officer, as adjutant wore 
 the most gold lace, and, being strikingly handsome 
 moreover, was probably a greater man in the eyes 
 of the junior classmen than any of their officers 
 or instructors. 
 
 "You say," he slowly and deliberately repeated 
 the words of the last speaker, "if the capital of 
 the nation is attacked. Northern troops will not 
 be permitted to march through Baltimore to pro- 
 tect it } Well, then," his voice, usually so quiet, 
 rang out like a call to arms, "the North will 
 march over Baltimore — or the place where it stood ! " 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 25 
 
 He said nothing further and went his way, 
 leaving a silent group behind him, and with the 
 Northern boys an indescribable sense of comfort. 
 Those few words, so clear and decisive, seemed 
 like a flag around which we could rally. We 
 realized for the first time what it would mean to 
 us if war really came, and the safety of the Re- 
 public were at stake. At the same time, I believe 
 there were very few of us that had any miscon- 
 ception of the herculean task the North would 
 have to face. Even six months' association with 
 our Southern comrades had taught us that they 
 came from a military class. Every one of them 
 was an unerring marksman, and we heard that 
 they could ride as well as they could shoot. We 
 were not prepared, however, to swallow their as- 
 sumption that one Southerner was equal to four 
 Northerners, nor did subsequent history bear out 
 this boast. ^ Yet it must be conceded that until 
 
 1 The rifle-carrying poor white who shot squirrels in the head 
 only, was as yet thoroughly dominated . So the South was prepared or 
 organized for war. But this homogeneity and even the social fabric 
 could not last. Only on the great plantations was slave labor really 
 profitable, so there was a natural limit to the number of slaveholders. 
 And while the planter's son was taught that virtue was more than 
 the courage which must never be questioned he was exposed to a 
 great temptation, and this was deplored by the thoughtful men and 
 
26 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 inured to war, or thoroughly trained, no equal 
 number of men in the world could have stood 
 against the quarter million of slave-holders, who 
 practically formed in the South a military caste, 
 like the Samurai in Japan, or the Spartans in 
 Lacedsemon. 
 
 It has always been easy to persuade the unread 
 soldier who fought in the Southern ranks that he 
 was never defeated except when overpowered. 
 This cherished idea was probably never so com- 
 pletely refuted as by the publication of Hender- 
 son's "Life of Stonewall Jackson." The admira- 
 tion felt by this accomplished English officer for 
 the Southern hero makes it impossible to question 
 his carefully prepared statements, and he shows 
 that except at Chancellorsville, where the Union 
 army, overpowering in strength, was defeated 
 through wretched handling, the victory generally 
 went to "the strong battalions"; that the claim 
 of triumphs won by inferior numbers, without 
 the advantage of position, was unfounded. 
 
 The first of my classmates to resign was Bryan 
 
 the notably loyal women of the South. There were many who felt 
 keenly the condemnation of slavery that was increasing in the civi- 
 lized world. 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 27 
 
 of South Carolina, who soon wrote back that he 
 was a real midshipman, on board the Excel in 
 Charleston harbor. Then the Gulf State fellows 
 began to fall out rapidly, among them WilHam 
 Earle Yancey, son of the noted Alabama seces- 
 sionist. In March came the inauguration of 
 Lincoln, followed by Anderson's retirement to 
 Sumter. This fort, with its walls rising per- 
 pendicularly from the water, we had fondly 
 imagined to be impregnable, and its fall was a 
 shock, but at least it opened our eyes to the fact 
 that the North was united. 
 
 After this, reports came rapidly of the seizure 
 of one fort after another, culminating in that of 
 the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. The capture of 
 this arsenal gave us the uneasy feeling of being 
 cut off from our base, as it was situated farther 
 north than Annapolis. Next, there were rumors 
 that Maryland, being a slave State, intended to 
 secede, and in that case, one of her first steps would 
 be an attempt to capture our frigate and the guns 
 and munitions of war at the Academy. Our 
 authorities at once began to make preparations 
 for defense. Old Fort Severn, which stood in 
 the Academy grounds, had been used as an ex- 
 
28 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 ercising battery for the midshipmen, but as it 
 was actually valueless for defensive purposes, 
 and its guns, if they fell into the enemy's hands, 
 could have been turned against the Constitution, 
 they were hastily dismounted, taken aboard, and 
 added to our battery. When it was reported 
 that troops had appeared north of the Severn, 
 ammunition was served out, and the midshipmen, 
 both afloat and ashore, were stationed to repel 
 an attack. There were no marines at the Academy 
 at this time, and not more than twenty-five sea- 
 men on board the Constitution. Her gun-deck 
 ports were closed at night, and Number 1 gun's 
 crew told off to guard that deck. The rest of us 
 were to fall in on the spar deck, in case of an 
 alarm. One of the crews was kept on duty at 
 night, and from.it the sentries were detailed. I 
 remember my first watch was from midnight to 
 two A.M., on the bowsprit, where I could see any- 
 thing approaching from up the river. 
 
 One of the sentries on shore one night (Mid- 
 shipman Benjamin Porter, who was afterwards 
 killed at Fort Fisher) discovered a number of men 
 on the wharf, just outside the north wall of the 
 Academy, making preparations to remove the 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 29 
 
 ferryboat which was moored there. Having had 
 his instructions as a sentry, he ordered them to 
 desist, and when they refused to obey, he fired, 
 and called for the guard. When the guard ar- 
 rived, it was in charge of Lieutenant Hunter Dav- 
 idson, and the offenders, who by that time had 
 judged it best to submit, expressed their satis- 
 faction in having a Secessionist to deal with. 
 Davidson, however, promptly warned them to 
 expect nothing from him, for although he had 
 resigned, he still wore the United States uniform. 
 
 When the Union troops were fired upon while 
 passing through Baltimore, and the city seemed 
 to be completely in the hands of the Secessionists, 
 it was evident that we were cut off by land from 
 the North and from Washington as well, if the 
 report were true about the large force assembled 
 at Annapolis Junction. Concern for our own 
 position almost disappeared in the greater anxiety 
 that was felt for the safety of the Capital. 
 
 Early one Sunday morning in April, we heard 
 that a large steamer filled with troops was on her 
 way up from the bay, and we soon learned that 
 she was the Maryland, diverted from her* usual 
 employment of taking trains across the mouth 
 
30 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 of the Susquehanna at Havre de Grace. She 
 had on board the 8th Massachusetts Regiment, 
 with General Butler in command. At the re- 
 quest of Governor Hicks, it was decided not to 
 land the troops at once. The Governor, himself 
 a Union man, feared that an exhibition of armed 
 force just then might cause the State to secede. 
 No one realized at that time how strong the Union 
 sentiment actually was in Maryland. 
 
 The Academy authorities took advantage of 
 the presence of the steamer to change the un- 
 favorable position of the Constitution, It for- 
 tunately happened that the Massachusetts sol- 
 diers were from the eastern part of their State, 
 and consequently many of them were seamen. 
 With their help, the anchors were soon raised, 
 and our frigate, with the Maryland alongside, 
 moved slowly out into the bay. Ten of the 
 class were kept on board, and they were naturally 
 proud of this selection, but the rest of us could 
 feel, at least, that in joining the three classes on 
 shore, we were going to what was supposed to 
 be the post of danger. I have often thought 
 since what an anxious time that must have been 
 for our superintendent and his officers. If they 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 31 
 
 had known the real depth of loyalty among the 
 people surrounding us, they would have had 
 little occasion to feel uneasy, but the Secessionists 
 were the ones in evidence, and according to their 
 noisy talk, Baltimore was backing them. What 
 had we to oppose to a determined attack? We 
 numbered less than two hundred in all, and the 
 average age of the midshipmen in the four classes 
 was eighteen years — the age of admission being 
 then fourteen to seventeen inclusive. The low 
 brick wall around the Academy grounds was not 
 intended for defensive purposes, and had no pro- 
 jections from which an attacking party could be 
 swept by a fire along its face. 
 
 A couple of days passed slowly, while we were 
 in this state of tension, and the sense of relief 
 was great, when late in the afternoon of the 
 second or third day, a steamer was sighted com- 
 ing from the Roads. She hauled in at the wharf, 
 and the famous 7th New York marched ashore. 
 More troops followed, and it was decided to open 
 the road to W^ashington. The only locomotive at 
 the station had been disabled, but the Massa- 
 chusetts 8th men were mechanics, as well as 
 sailors, and it was soon put in working order. 
 
32 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Other regiments arrived; among them the 
 71st New York, the 69th Irish, a German regi- 
 ment talking their own language, but cheering 
 for the flag, and the 1st Rhode Island, under 
 Colonel — afterwards General — Burnside. The 
 soldiers of the last named wore blouses belted at 
 the waist, and had such a businesslike air that the 
 Southern boys admitted they did not like their 
 looks. Neither had they greatly relished the 
 sight of the much-talked-of 7th, which they had 
 formerly claimed as their own. 
 
 Of course there could be no school at such a 
 time, and we imagined it was done with forever, 
 and rejoiced accordingly. We flung our text- 
 books from the windows, causing much vexation 
 of spirit to the officers of the German regiment, 
 which was drilling below, for their men would 
 persist in leaving the ranks to pick up the books, 
 and then try to drill, holding them under their 
 arms. The efforts of one stout private to man- 
 age his musket and retain his hold on two cor- 
 pulent dictionaries were especially conspicuous. 
 
 It was on one of these idle days that a rumor 
 ran the rounds that a steamer which had hauled 
 in to the wharf had a passed midshipman on 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 33 
 
 board. A number of us hurried to the water- 
 front to verify this report, and there, sure enough, 
 he sat upon the rail, a bit of gold lace upon his 
 shoulder, apparently quite oblivious to the gazing 
 crowd below. He knew he was a rare bird, and 
 expected us to stare at him. The grade was 
 soon after abolished, so he was the only one of his 
 kind I ever saw. 
 
 Finally came the change which we had all been 
 expecting. One morning at roll call, we were 
 ordered to be ready to go on board the steamer 
 Josephine, which would take us out to the Con- 
 stitution. Part of the first class had already been 
 detached and gone with the troops to Washing- 
 ton, and there were twenty Southerners who had 
 resigned and would be left behind when we em- 
 barked. They took their usual places in the ranks, 
 when we formed to march down to the wharf, 
 and the soldiers closed in, front and rear. The 
 wharf was crowded, and there was some confu- 
 sion, the Southern boys falling out of ranks, and 
 saying good-by to their classmates, but when 
 the commandant of mishipmen, C. R. P. Rod- 
 gers, came down the long line, and paused opposite 
 its center, all were hushed, for it had been said 
 
34 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 he meant to give us a farewell address. Looking 
 at the rows of boyish faces turned expectantly 
 towards him, and at the flag floating above their 
 heads, he raised his arm, and pointing to it, be- 
 gan, "Be true to the flag", and then broke down 
 completely. I am sure many others were in tears ; 
 I know I was. But what affected us the most, 
 and amused us as well, was the behavior of the 
 soldiers, who broke into the ranks, embracing 
 the midshipmen and crying out : 'Never mind ! 
 You'll soon be coming back, boys ! We'll see 
 that you get your school again ! ' To this day I 
 remember how thankful I felt that the big soldier 
 who was hugging me had not seen me throwing 
 my books out of the window. 
 
 As the Josephine shoved off, some one shouted 
 to run up a bigger flag than the one she was carry- 
 ing. So a large ensign was hoisted, but just as 
 it reached the staff, the knot at the lower corner 
 gave way, and the flag became nothing but a 
 streamer. In trying to lower it, the wind carried 
 it so far astern that it could not be reached, and 
 we were well down the river before it was finally 
 hoisted. If our late classmates felt that this was 
 a good omen for their cause, they did not show 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 35 
 
 any signs of exultation. In fact, the last we saw 
 of them, they were a sorrowful looking lotJ 
 
 We found changes on board the Constitution, 
 The study rooms had gone, and the guns had 
 been shifted from the spar deck. Never did a 
 man-of-war sail with such a motley crew ! There 
 were midshipmen from all four classes, about 
 twenty-five sailors, and two companies of the 8th 
 Massachusetts from Marblehead and Salem — if 
 I remember rightly — the one in blue uniforms, 
 and the other in zouave costumes. I suppose 
 these companies were selected because there were 
 so many seafaring men among them. I know 
 when we got outside the Capes, we found them 
 very handy, below and aloft. 
 
 Just before weighing anchor, Dorsey, the col- 
 ored steward, who was dear to us all, left the 
 ship, quite broken-hearted. The poor fellow, 
 who could not foresee that all his race were to 
 be made free by the war, felt that the breaking 
 up of the Academy meant additional years of 
 slavery for him. His master, who we under- 
 stood was not well off, had always generously 
 permitted a large part of Dorsey's pay to go to- 
 wards the purchase of his freedom, but a con- 
 
36 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 siderable sum was still lacking. After we reached 
 Newport, Commodore Blake allowed each of 
 us to subscribe a small amount, which was charged 
 to our accounts, and this, with what he and the 
 other officers gave, enabled Dorsey to rejoin us, 
 a free and grateful man. 
 
 What seemed to afford Dorsey a little comfort 
 at parting was the trust reposed in him by Lieu- 
 tenant Scott, who handed him a quantity of 
 bills and the money to pay them, saying, "Dor- 
 sey, we may never meet again, for we can't tell 
 what will happen to us or the country. Please, 
 when you get ashore, settle these accounts for 
 me, and be sure to take receipts, because all people 
 can't be trusted like you, Dorsey." 
 
 We started down the Chesapeake, towed by 
 the steamer R. R. Cuyler and with the Harriet 
 Lane steaming ahead. The latter did not go 
 further than the Capes. Off the Jersey coast 
 we passed over the ground where the Constitution 
 was once so closely pursued by the British fleet 
 that she barely escaped by resorting to kedging 
 and towing with her boats. 
 
 In later years it has been a source of satis- 
 faction to me to remember that I first saw the 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 37 
 
 open sea from the deck of "Old Ironsides", and 
 that I was on board when the last preparations 
 were made to defend her from an attack. It 
 was from this same anchorage, Annapolis Roads, 
 that the Constitution sailed at the beginning of 
 another war — the War of 1812 — in which she 
 won such renown.^ The voyage she made this 
 time was quite uneventful, the only incident I 
 can recall being a sight of the Niagara as we went 
 through the Narrows. She and the General Ad- 
 miral were the two largest steam frigates in the 
 world. We found at the Brooklyn Navy Yard 
 two fine vessels of that type, fitting out for the 
 blockade — the Wabash and the Roanoke. 
 
 We were a little disposed to regard ourselves, 
 on our arrival in New York, in the light of returned 
 warriors, and imagining others did the same, en- 
 joyed the sensation hugely. But this dream was 
 rudely dispelled, and we were intensely chagrined, 
 when one of the illustrated papers came out with 
 a picture which showed the 8th Massachusetts 
 charging across the deck of the Constitution^ 
 
 1 One of the references to the Oregon that I most value was that 
 made by the Secretary of the Navy, when he spoke of her in an 
 official dispatch as the Constitution of the modern navy. 
 
38 xMY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY' 
 
 driving the rebels over the rail, while we — the 
 imprisoned midshipmen — peered anxiously up 
 through the hatches of the deck below. 
 
 I think we must have received our allowance of 
 spending money at this time — the sum of one 
 dollar per month — for I remember our hurrying 
 in large numbers to the restaurants of lower New 
 York, which we invaded like a swarm of hungry 
 locusts. The months of wholesome but very plain 
 fare at the Academy had given our appetites an 
 extra edge. A dollar must have gone far in those 
 days, or else people were kind in giving us its 
 full value, for even after this raid on the restau- 
 rants, we were able to take a ride in the Broad- 
 way omnibuses, ending up with a visit to Bar- 
 num's Old Museum, which stood at the corner of 
 Broadway and Fulton street. Among its other 
 attractions it contained a theater, to which we 
 at once obtained admission. The principal char- 
 acter in the play was a dashing highwayman, who 
 rode and robbed in England, long before the 
 United States or the Stars and Stripes were ever 
 thought of. Historical sequence was not a part 
 of this drama, however, for when its exciting situ- 
 ations did not seem to stir the audience quite 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 39 
 
 enough, a pretty actress, wishing to reassure a 
 little fellow who was fearful about crossing a 
 lonely heath, caught up a small American flag, 
 and throwing it over his shoulders, cried, "Wear 
 this ! It will protect you anywhere ! " Immedi- 
 ately there was an outburst of patriotism. The 
 whole audience sprang to its feet, shouted, 
 stamped, and cheered. 
 
 Sunday morning some one proposed going to 
 hear Henry Ward Beecher, and after much noisy 
 argument nearly all of us put our names down 
 on the list as applicants for permission to attend 
 the services at Plymouth Church. Five or six 
 Southern boys, whose resignations had been sent 
 in, said they would go with us, because they 
 wanted to say when they reached home that they 
 had seen "the accursed Abolitionist." Plymouth 
 Church had to accommodate such crowds that 
 after the pews were filled, seats at their outer 
 ends could be turned down, taking up the space 
 in the aisles. These seats had been reserved for 
 us, so that when Mr. Beecher reached his pulpit, 
 he looked down at two lines of youngsters in blue 
 jackets with brass buttons, and bright anchors 
 on their rolling collars. Whether this addition 
 
40 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 to his congregation affected his sermon I cannot 
 tell. I only know that I was in a state of patri- 
 otic ecstasy, wanting to cry one moment, and 
 cheer the next. When we left the church, and 
 fell into ranks outside, there was an awed silence. 
 At last one of the Southerners said in a husky 
 voice, "Well, fellows, I'm going South, all the 
 same. My people are there, and I still believe 
 we are right, but you can bet your life I'll never 
 curse that man again ! " 
 
 Our shipmates, the soldiers of the 8th Massa- 
 chusetts, had left us to rejoin their regiment, 
 when we reached the Navy Yard, and the re- 
 mainder of the first class were detached while 
 we were in New York. On our arrival at our 
 destination, Newport, Rhode Island, the second 
 class was ordered to active service, and a few 
 days later, the third followed. To our great in- 
 dignation, we learned that we were to be kept — 
 at any rate, until the new appointees were 
 broken in. 
 
 At first it was intended to quarter us in Fort 
 Adams, and for some months, though we con- 
 tinued to live on the Constitution, we did use the 
 fort's casemates for recitation rooms, and had our 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 41 
 
 infantry drill and artillery tactics on its parade 
 ground, or just outside near the redoubt. As 
 there was no sloop-of-war available for a prac- 
 tice cruise then, and there were not men enough 
 to man a vessel of the Constitution's class, we re- 
 mained that summer in Newport harbor. 
 
 In the meantime, the Government had secured 
 the Atlantic House, which fronted on the Old 
 Stone Mill park and Belle vue Avenue, and the 
 beginning of the academic year found us quartered 
 on its second and third floors. Lieutenant Rod- 
 gers, now become commandant of midshipmen, 
 occupied rooms on the first floor, while some of 
 the ofiicers who were our instructors had quarters 
 on the second. The Constitution had been warped 
 into the inner harbor, and tied up alongside the 
 Goat Island wharf. As two midshipmen had 
 been appointed from each Congressional district 
 for the new fourth class, she had to accommodate 
 nearly two hundred. A little later in the autumn, 
 the frigate Santee was sent to Newport, turned 
 into a schoolship, and was moored just ahead 
 of the Constitution. By the next season we had 
 as practice and training ships the sloops-of-war, 
 John Adams, Marion, and Macedonian, which 
 
42 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 had been replaced on the blockade by vessels 
 having steam power. 
 
 At first we used to drill in an open field a little 
 way out on Catherine Street, and later, when the 
 Atlantic House was filled with fourth classmen 
 from the ships, in a larger field off Bath Road, 
 back of the old Ocean House. Much of this 
 ground is now covered by fine residences. Sat- 
 urday forenoons we sent down spars on the John 
 Adams or got the Marion under way, and occa- 
 sionally, when she went aground, had to spend our 
 precious Saturday afternoons getting her afloat. 
 Our great gun drills took place on board ship, and 
 our battalion drills on Goat Island. 
 
 This island was always particularly suggestive 
 to me of the animal for which it was named, be- 
 cause of an allusion once made to it by a class- 
 mate. Prince Pierre d'Orleans. He was writing 
 an excuse for some alleged misconduct in ranks, 
 and began with this truly French construction, 
 "As we were marching over to the Island of the 
 Goat." 
 
 D'Orleans, or Pete, as we used to call him, was 
 a grandson of King Louis-Philippe. His father, 
 the Prince de Joinville, wished him to receive a 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 43 
 
 naval education, and as this was impossible in 
 France, during the time of the Second Empire, 
 when all the Bourbons were in exile, our Govern- 
 ment had given him permission to enter the 
 United States Naval Academy. He graduated 
 and became an ensign, but resigned soon after- 
 wards. The overthrow of the Empire enabled 
 him to return to France, only to be banished later 
 by a decree of the Republic. 
 
 If d'Orleans felt himself a prince in exile, it 
 was never obvious. He neither asked nor ex- 
 pected any different treatment from that given 
 to the other midshipmen. The only luxuries he 
 allowed himself were two great eider-down pil- 
 lows, and a very superior quality of chocolate, 
 which was sent him from France. We approved 
 of the chocolate; he distributed it generously; 
 but the pillows, which could not be shared, were 
 not looked on with favor. In fact, we felt that 
 like Carthage, they "must be destroyed." To 
 effect this, the class took a niean advantage of 
 Pete's dread of getting demerits. He was very 
 desirous of making a good record while at the 
 Academy, and followed every regulation to the 
 letter. 
 
44 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Evening study hours ended at half-past nine, 
 and for the ensuing twenty-five minutes the cor- 
 ridors of the old Atlantic House swarmed with 
 midshipmen skylarking in light attire. At the 
 stroke of ten, every one was supposed to be in bed, 
 and when five minutes before the hour the drum 
 began to roll, Pete was always the first to make a 
 break for his room and a dive for his bed. One 
 night, while the accustomed frolic was going on, 
 two midshipmen entered Pete's room, tucked the 
 cherished pillows between the sheets, and cutting 
 them open turned them wrong side out. Five 
 minutes later, when the drum rolled, and Pete 
 made his usual home run, he was followed by 
 every member of the class. If he was surprised 
 at this attention, he made no comments, but turn- 
 ing his back on the crowd, jumped into bed, and 
 immediately vanished in a swirling cloud of 
 feathers. Even the next day his room was like 
 the center of a snowstorm, and for a week after 
 the servants found employment in chasing the 
 elusive bits of down. 
 
 D'Orleans took the loss of his pillows with 
 philosophy. In fact, it is probable he could have 
 borne the loss of many another thing more easily 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 45 
 
 than that of the sense of equality, which enabled 
 him to be the victim of such a jest. That he 
 heartily enjoyed the feeling of being just a boy 
 among other boys was very clearly shown by some- 
 thing that occurred later, during our second prac- 
 tice cruise. While we were in England, d'Orleans 
 was given leave, with permission to rejoin the 
 ship at Lisbon, where he was to visit some of 
 his royal relatives. On our arrival in that port, 
 the King of Portugal, attended by a large retinue, 
 came on board, bringing d'Orleans with him. 
 Pete broke away from his party as soon as he 
 could, and was on his way forward, when he noticed 
 a classmate standing near the mainmast, gazing 
 at royalty, which was making its way along the 
 quarter-deck. As a gentle means of attracting 
 his friend's attention, Pete dealt him a vigorous 
 kick in the rear, and then fled. There was at 
 once a wild pursuit up one gangway and down the 
 other. D'Orleans could easily have escaped by 
 taking refuge with his party upon the quarter- 
 deck, but instead he chose to be caught just 
 where the mauling he received could be seen to 
 the best advantage by the king and the scandal- 
 ized courtiers. 
 
46 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The instructors of whom I have the clearest 
 recollection during this period at Newport were 
 Lieutenants Alfred T. Mahan and E. O. Mat- 
 thews. Mahan, whose name has now an inter- 
 national reputation as an authority on all mat- 
 ters relating to naval strategy and sea power, 
 was then distinguished as being the only graduate 
 of the Naval Academy who had completed the 
 course in three years. This distinction was 
 later shared by a number of my date, and by a 
 still greater number of the next, who, spurred by 
 the hope of an early promotion, also secured their 
 certificates at the close of the third academic year. 
 
 Mahan was of a reserved nature, and had a 
 manner that was rather apt to make others feel 
 that they had better keep their distance. I 
 remember my sense of surprise, when I first no- 
 ticed that he was inclined to favor me in such 
 little ways as an officer could. For instance, on 
 the practice cruise, when he was executive officer, 
 I was released from all other duties during drill, 
 except the very easy one of standing near him, 
 and repeating his orders on the gun and berth 
 decks. This position of a sort of aide to him 
 carried with it certain privileges about shore 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 47 
 
 leave, which he assumed I was entitled to, and 
 these practical evidences of kindly feeling in- 
 spired a very genuine attachment on my part. 
 
 Lieutenant Matthews was of a totally differ- 
 ent stamp. We midshipmen found him very 
 companionable, and his only great fault in our 
 estimation was his fatal ability. Languages, 
 mathematics, or navigation — all were the same 
 to him. If one of the regular instructors hap- 
 pened to be absent, there was no hope of missing 
 the recitation. "Pat" Matthews not only could, 
 but did, take the absentee's place. In spite of his 
 intellectual attainments, he was very modest, and 
 if he was ever found at a ball, it was usually be- 
 hind a group of bashful youngsters, who listened 
 with respectful attention and real enjoyment to 
 his stories of the service. If we had not seen this 
 side of him at Annapolis, we should have thought 
 him a terror, when we were on our way up the 
 Jersey coast in the Constitution. Indeed, he was 
 the only officer I ever knew who actually threat- 
 ened us with personal violence. I can see him 
 now — he was almost diminutive in stature — 
 brandishing a small tin deck trumpet, his thin 
 voice raised into what he fancied was a roar. 
 
48 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 "Haul away now!" he would shrill. "Never 
 mind looking aloft there ! I'll do that, and you 
 do the rest! If you don't haul, I'll break all 
 your heads ! " 
 
 Or on the gun deck, if he chanced to run against 
 a crowd of us, it was, "Gangway there! Gang- 
 way ! Get out of my way, or I'll knock you all 
 down!" and then as he pushed his way along, 
 breathing threatenings and slaughter, we could 
 see the back of his neck reddening at our affected 
 alarm and only half repressed laughter. 
 
 At recitation he required not only correct but 
 prompt answers. Delay, besides affecting the 
 value of the mark, was apt to expose us to sar- 
 castic comment. 
 
 "Mr. Clark," he asked me one day, "how do 
 you take in a mainsail, blowing fresh ? Promptly 
 now!" 
 
 "Well, sir, I would man the main-clew garnets 
 and buntlines — "a pause. 
 
 "Of course. Go ahead ! Go ahead!" 
 
 "Yes, sir. Then I would slack off a little of 
 the sheet, and then, then — I — " 
 
 "No use doing anything more!" he snapped. 
 "By this time your mainsail's all blown to pieces !" 
 
]\ridsliipnicn G. T. Davis, F. A. Cook and C. E. Clark, before 
 leaving the Academy for Active Service 
 
RUMORS OF WAR 49 
 
 Such being his style, it may be easily imagined 
 that the following episode was much relished by 
 those who were in the section room at the time. 
 The midshipman who was being questioned on 
 this occasion was invited to consider himself 
 officer of the deck of a full-rigged frigate like the 
 Wahash, while "I," continued Matthews, "am 
 her captain. We are walking up and down to- 
 gether, and all the officers except ourselves are 
 two decks below. We are under all plain sail to 
 t'gallant sails, the royals being in, and running 
 ten knots before the wind. Now," with a rush, 
 "I'm overboard! Quick! What'd you do?" 
 
 "Why, I'd set the royals, and try to make eleven 
 knots!" was the reply, delivered without a 
 moment's hesitation. 
 
 Matthews looked a little nonplussed, but before 
 the general laugh subsided, he had recovered 
 himself. 
 
 "Capital!" he cried. "Prompt and decisive! 
 But now suppose it was your roommate who fell 
 overboard ! What would you do then ? " 
 
 My roommates at the Academy during my 
 second year on shore were Francis A. Cook and 
 George Thornton Davis. We were congenial 
 
50 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 spirits with much the same ideas as to the relative 
 value of study and such pleasure as could be 
 found in a much regulated Academy existence. 
 Our association may not have been profitable as 
 far as our class standing was concerned, but it 
 is pleasant to look back upon, and lasted through 
 the years. Cook and I were comrades at the 
 battle of Santiago, in which it is perhaps super- 
 fluous to mention he had command of the flag- 
 ship Brooklyn, and received the surrender of the 
 Colon. Davis, whose ill health obliged him to 
 retire some time before the outbreak of the 
 Spanish-American War, yet had the good fortune 
 during our Civil War to be in the largest landing 
 expedition ever organized by our navy, that is, the 
 assault upon Fort Fisher, in which he distinguished 
 himself, being the only regular oiBScer to penetrate 
 beyond the stockade.^ 
 
 1 See reports of Cushman and Parker, Naval War Records. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The First Cruise 
 
 We made our first real practice cruise, during 
 the summer of 1862, in the sloop-of-war John 
 Adams, with Commander Edward Simpson as 
 captain. We ran first into Gardiner's Bay, for 
 a kind of shake-down, as the saying goes, and 
 then sailed for Hampton Roads. There we felt 
 that we were really in touch with the war, for 
 General McClellan was then making his way up 
 the Peninsula, and Fortress Monroe was a base 
 of operations. The battle of Fair Oaks had just 
 been fought, Norfolk taken possession of, and 
 the once formidable Merrimac — after her defeat 
 by the Monitor — had been sunk by the Confed- 
 erates themselves, before making their retreat. 
 We knew that some distance above our anchorage 
 lay the wrecks of the Congress and the Cumber- 
 land, mute witnesses to the gallantry and endur- 
 ance of our navy. The one had been burned to 
 
 51 
 
52 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the water's edge, and the other had gone down 
 with her flag still flying. Although I had not 
 then read Longfellow's beautiful tribute to the 
 Cumberland, I knew that the Prince de Joinville 
 had said on seeing her mastheads, just showing 
 above the surface of the water, *'They ought to 
 stand forever, a monument over the graves of 
 the wooden ships ! " And it seemed to me — 
 I was even at that age a great lover of Greek 
 history — that the spirits of the heroes who fought 
 at "divine Salamis" must have inspired the 
 defenders of the last of the "wooden walls." 
 
 To those who like to trace coincidences, the 
 careers of two officers of the Cumberland will 
 present some interesting features. They were 
 Lieutenants Selfridge and Stuyvesant, who 
 graduated at the heads of their respective classes 
 at the Academy, and were on the gun deck of the 
 Cumberland when she went down. Selfridge later 
 commanded the Cairo. She was destroyed by a 
 torpedo. Then he was sent to the Conestoga, 
 and she was sunk by a ram. Stuyvesant became 
 executive of the Weehawken, which was blown 
 up by a torpedo while lying off Charleston, then 
 of the Wateree, wrecked by an earthquake wave 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 53 
 
 at Arica. After these experiences, they seemed 
 to have exhausted their ill luck, fortunately for 
 the service as well as for themselves. 
 
 From Hampton Roads we proceeded to the 
 anchorage off Yorktown, where we visited the 
 fortifications and siege works, and also saw those 
 of the Revolutionary period, and the headquarters 
 of General Cornwallis. The field hospitals were 
 crowded with the sick and the wounded brought 
 back from the front. It was my first sight of the 
 real horrors of war, and made a deep impression ; 
 the crowded condition of the hospitals, the heat, 
 the swarms of flies, and the terrible suffering, 
 which there were so few comforts to relieve. If 
 war had its glories, here was the reverse of the 
 medal. 
 
 From Yorktown we sailed to Port Royal, 
 South Carolina, keeping outside the line of 
 blockaders. In the Entrance, as the harbor is 
 called, we found the old ship of the line Vermont 
 and the steam frigate Wabash, the flagship of 
 Admiral Dupont, and commanded by his chief- 
 of -staff, our former commandant, C. R. P. Rodgers. 
 
 Returning north, the John Adams, a dull 
 sailer, had the advantage of the Gulf Stream 
 
54 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 nearly all the way. We ran up Long Island 
 Sound as far as Oyster Bay, which I particularly 
 remember as the place where the Great Eastern 
 
 — that first experiment in colossal shipbuilding 
 
 — passed us. We touched at New Haven, where 
 we all went in a body to the home of Rear Admiral 
 Foote, to pay our respects. He was then on 
 leave, recovering from a wound received during 
 his service on the Mississippi, where he had so 
 greatly distinguished himself. 
 
 After our return to Newport, we were granted 
 a month's leave. 
 
 Our second practice cruise — a more extended 
 one — was in the corvette Macedonian, in the 
 summer of 1863. Our captain was Commander 
 Stephen B. Luce, an authority on seamanship, 
 as I have already remarked. We ran across the 
 North Atlantic, making our first port at Plym- 
 outh, England, where we stayed several days. 
 D'Orleans' father, the Prince de Joinville, visited 
 the ship while we were there. He was a man of 
 genial manners, and must have had a well devel- 
 oped sense of humor, for I remember his telling 
 with considerable unction of an experience of 
 Prince Alfred's, then a midshipman on board 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 55 
 
 H.M.S. Euryalus. The throne of Greece offered 
 to him had been declined, but his messmates, 
 determined the occasion should not pass un- 
 marked, constructed a diadem of tallow and slush, 
 "and," ended the French prince, rubbing his 
 hands gleefully, " they have mount him on a 
 table, and have crown him King of Grease ! " 
 
 I dare say many things more worthy of recol- 
 lection during our stay in Plymouth will be for- 
 gotten before the memory of her wonderful 
 strawberries and clotted cream. The bumboat 
 women. brought these dainties off to the ship in 
 large quantities and never had any trouble in 
 disposing of them. 
 
 From Plymouth we ran up the Channel to Port- 
 land, and later we went to Spithead. While at 
 Spithead, I was given four or five days' leave to 
 visit London, in company with Midshipman 
 Nicoll Ludlow and the captain's clerk, Harris. 
 Ludlow and I, having only money enough to 
 make the trip, could not afford to purchase 
 citizen's clothes, and were obliged to wear our 
 uniform jackets and caps. We considered this 
 quite an affliction, and were the m_ore pleased to 
 have Mr. Harris with us, as we felt that his years 
 
56 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 and frock coat gave an air of dignity to the party. 
 We were to find, however, that our brass buttons 
 were our best asset, and procured us an entrance 
 to places that even a golden key would not have 
 unlocked. 
 
 At Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square, where 
 we took rooms, an elderly Englishman, who 
 overheard us in the coffee-room making our plans 
 for the day, became interested, and coming over 
 to our table, entered into the discussion. Having 
 a thorough acquaintance with London, he was 
 able to lay out a schedule for us that was of the 
 greatest value, and it was largely owing to him 
 that we managed to see as much in our four or 
 five days as many people do in a month. 
 
 Our little naval delegation had no idea of calling 
 at the Legation, but the Secretary came to see us, 
 and when we went in return to pay our respects 
 to Mr. Adams, the Minister, he gave us cards of 
 admission to the House of Commons. This was 
 a privilege we had not looked for, but we were 
 to be more fortunate still. We were passing 
 through one of the corridors of the House of 
 Commons, when a young Englishman, whose 
 eye had evidently been caught by the American 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 57 
 
 uniform, stopped us and introduced himself. 
 He told us he was the nephew of a peer — Lord 
 Castlereagh, I think it was — and if we wished 
 to visit the Gallery of the House of Lords he 
 would be glad to get us an invitation. He not 
 only did this, but went with us to the Gallery and 
 made our visit doubly interesting by pointing 
 out the leading statesmen, such as Lords Palmer- 
 ston, Russell, and Derby, and others whose names 
 I do not now remember. 
 
 Of course we visited Madame Tussaud's Wax 
 Works, and one of the relics there which greatly 
 excited our interest was Napoleon's traveling 
 carriage, captured at Waterloo. While we were 
 gazing at it, a custodian invited us to crawl under 
 the rope, and enter the coach if we wished. The 
 seats were arranged to form a bed on one side, 
 when swung about, and I remember wishing 
 Will Rogers could me see, as I stretched myself 
 out on the cushions where the great conqueror 
 used to sleep. 
 
 We had another pleasant experience when we 
 went to see Windsor Castle. We climbed the 
 Round Tower there with a number of other people, 
 and there was a general request for permission 
 
58 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 to ascend the Square Tower, which rose above it. 
 This was refused, but as we were leaving with the 
 others, a gentleman of military bearing, whom 
 we had heard addressed as Colonel Albert, whis- 
 pered to us to wait, and after the rest had gone, 
 he would take us up the Square Tower. He said 
 we were the first American naval officers he had 
 seen in uniform at Windsor since the officers of 
 the Niagara had been entertained there. This 
 was after the laying of the first Atlantic cable 
 by that ship and H.M.S. Agamemnon. From 
 the top of the tower he pointed out Eton College, 
 Runnymede, and the church made so famous 
 by Gray's Elegy. His courtesy and kindness 
 converted what might have been an ordinary sight- 
 seeing expedition into a living and happy memory. 
 
 We had a strong desire to visit the Arsenal at 
 Woolwich, but when we went to the War Office 
 with our request, the official to whom we applied 
 said, "No, you will have to come to-morrow. 
 Tuesdays and Thursdays are the only days visitors 
 are admitted." 
 
 We told him that this was our last opportunity, 
 for our leave was up the next day, and we had to 
 return to our ship. 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 59 
 
 "Where is your ship?" he asked. 
 
 "At Spithead." 
 
 "Well," said he, after thinking a moment, 
 "you'll have to know about these things some 
 day, at any rate, so perhaps I had better let you 
 go." He made out and signed two cards of 
 admission for us, and we thanked him, and hurried 
 off, but discovered on examining them, outside, 
 that they referred to us as English subjects. We 
 returned and told him of the error, and for a 
 moment he was in quite a rage with us for having 
 been the cause of it. When he finally paused for 
 breath, we ventured to remind him that we had 
 not taken advantage of his mistake, and then the 
 wind veered, and the choleric old gentleman was 
 disposed to give us so much credit for our honesty 
 that we were quite embarrassed, for we perfectly 
 understood that oUr American uniforms would 
 never have passed unquestioned at the Arsenal. 
 However, our partisan, as he had now become, 
 declared that we should go now if it took a special 
 order to the commandant, and he wrote one for 
 us. Its presentation caused some little excite- 
 ment and consultation among the officials there, 
 but when they at last decided to admit us, it 
 
60 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 was in royal fashion, and the Arsenal was prac- 
 tically ours. Several officers were detailed to 
 escort us, and we were frankly told that we must 
 not attempt any sketches. In fact, that our 
 escorts would be held responsible for seeing that 
 we did not. Said one, *' We are going to fill you 
 so full of information, you won't know anything 
 about what you have seen," and this was no idle 
 boast. They even started the largest of their 
 trip hammers for us, to show their enormous power, 
 and then cracked filberts beneath them to show 
 how delicately they could strike. It would 
 have taken a trained head to carry away any 
 connected ideas from the amount we saw, and 
 it certainly would have been an ungrateful spirit 
 that could have taken advantage of the more 
 than courteous treatment that we had received 
 both at the War Office and Arsenal. 
 
 Naturally, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, 
 and equally of course our first object of interest 
 there was the tomb of Nelson in the crypt. It 
 pleased us to remark that the "greatest sailor 
 since the world began" occupied the place of 
 honor, rather than the Iron Duke. W^hen we 
 mounted to the cupola to visit the famous Whis- 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 61 
 
 pering Gallery, the custodian who accompanied 
 us suggested, with a smiling glance at our uni- 
 forms, that he could give us an unusual privilege, 
 which as we were used to climbing would not be 
 likely to turn our heads. He then explained 
 that the ball and cross that crowned the dome, 
 at a height of four hundred and four feet above 
 the floor of the cathedral, were being regilded, 
 and if we cared to, he would allow us to climb up 
 and touch the cross. It was not in the nature of 
 boys to refuse such a chance, but I must confess 
 that the experience I had had aloft on the Mace- 
 donian had not quite prepared me for what was 
 before us. The ex-sailor who was carrying on 
 the work, told us that a few weeks previous, 
 when the Prince and Princess of Wales were 
 married, he had set off fireworks from the cross. 
 He then opened a window for us, and with some- 
 what cooling ardor, we began to climb by a dan- 
 gling rope ladder over the eaves of the cupola, 
 which seemed inhospitably trying to crowd us 
 off. The ascent of the little ladder leading to 
 the top of the cross was straightaway work in 
 comparison, and the view of the city spread out 
 at our feet was truly impressive, though the 
 
62 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 thought of the return trip robbed it of some of its 
 charm. 
 
 Years afterwards, when I revisited London 
 as a grizzled rear admiral, I was riding about the 
 city with my family, on what my little grand- 
 daughter called the "roof garden of an omnibus", 
 and was doing my best to point out the places 
 I had seen as a midshipman. A gentleman 
 seated near us kindly undertook to help me, and 
 as we drew near Ludgate Hill, he observed, 
 "Now you will see St. Paul's." Then, as it 
 came in sight, he spoke of the Whispering Gallery, 
 and added that if we wished, we could climb 
 into the cupola above the dome. 
 
 "Oh, yes!" I said, "but I have been above 
 that." 
 
 With a look that said plainly, "You evidently 
 do not understand," he pointed again to the 
 dome, and remarked, "You can only go as high 
 as those windows." 
 
 "But I climbed out of one," I persisted, "and 
 went up above the ball," — 
 
 I never got any farther with my explana- 
 tion, for at this point he stopped the omni- 
 bus and departed, throwing me a glance in which 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 63 
 
 incredulity and disgust were about equally 
 mingled. 
 
 We ran over to Cherbourg from Spithead, and 
 there a number of us were given leave to go to 
 Paris. We could not have seen that fair city at 
 a more opportune time. Louis Napoleon was 
 then in the heyday of his fortunes, the empress 
 was remarkable for her beauty, and the court 
 and capital were the most brilliant in Europe. 
 
 Our hotel had two names and two entrances. 
 The one fronting on the Rue St. Honore bore 
 the name of "St. James", while the other, facing 
 the Tuileries, called itself the "Hotel de Rivoli", 
 thus appealing equally to French and English 
 patronage. The French side was most in favor 
 with us, because there we had a fine position for 
 observing the reviews of troops and whatever 
 was going on opposite us at the Tuileries. Our 
 uniforms and generally bad French attracted 
 some attention as we went about, but there was 
 no positive partiality shown us, as in London. 
 
 I had always regarded the French language 
 as solely designed to harrow the feelings of mid- 
 shipmen and to prevent them from securing a 
 good class standing, and I can still remember 
 
64 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the vague surprise I felt on coming into contact 
 with it as a practicable tongue, and in finding 
 that even / could make myself understood occa- 
 sionally. This was quite encouraging, but any 
 little pride I may have felt soon had a severe fall. 
 One day, in a small restaurant on one of the 
 boulevards, I fell in with several members of 
 the junior class, who were in trouble. Mine 
 host had charged them with a chicken, which 
 they vowed had never appeared except in the 
 bill. They appealed to me to interpret for them, 
 and I was so flattered at being retained in the 
 case, that I took the matter up at once. The 
 more I talked, the wilder became the protests 
 and gesticulations of the proprietor. At last an 
 Englishman, who had been an amused witness 
 of our difficulties, offered to mediate. The story 
 goes — though I shall not vouch for the truth of 
 it — that the Frenchman had for some time 
 contended that he would rather lose the price of 
 ten chickens than hear me talk French. 
 
 Of the sight-seeing that we did in Paris, I 
 remember best one pleasant afternoon at the 
 Invalides, where we all went in a body. At first 
 there was a slight hint of frost in the air which 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 65 
 
 we could not account for, until it occurred to 
 one bright spirit in our party that the old Na- 
 poleonic veterans who acted as doorkeepers and 
 guides, and seemed to be the molders of public 
 opinion, supposed that we were Englishmen. 
 When this misunderstanding was cleared up, 
 there was a decided reaction in our favor. One 
 of the repentant veterans even insisted on taking 
 us to the Governor's office and presenting us 
 to him. In the course of a conversation, pursued 
 with some difficulty I must admit, one of our 
 number happened to remark that although 
 Americans, we came from an English ship; one 
 that had been captured by the American frigate 
 United States, during the War of 1812.i The old 
 Governor immediately became enthusiastic, and 
 was not satisfied until he had heard and recorded 
 in a journal all we could tell him about the battle 
 between the United States and the Macedonian, 
 He himself went with us to the tomb of Napoleon, 
 
 1 Thirty-eight years later, the gifted Doctor S. Weir Mitchell gave 
 me a sheave-shaped box, with gold engraved plate, which bore the 
 name Macedonian, saying he valued it greatly, and therefore took the 
 more pleasure in presenting it to me. It had been given him sixty 
 years before by Commodore Biddle, and was made of a splinter torn 
 from the side of the Macedonian during the battle in which she was 
 captured. 
 
66 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 which was of course the main object of our visit, 
 and pointing out an English flag that hung among 
 the captured trophies, gave "perfidious Albion" 
 such a broadside of invective, that it was evident 
 Inkerman and Sebastopol had not suflSced to 
 make him forget Waterloo. 
 
 It was somehow borne in upon us that the 
 veterans were not loath to accept our franc pieces, 
 and when it came to a survivor of the Old Guard, 
 we felt we could not well offer him less than a 
 crown. I suppose every old fellow turned seventy 
 was run in on us, as a veteran of Austerlitz, 
 Borodino, or Dresden. I do not remember 
 hearing of any from Waterloo or Leipsic, however. 
 
 This tribute to valor caused a financial deficit 
 in our party and necessitated the floating of a 
 loan. Two or three of the midshipmen, whose 
 parents were known to Mr. Dayton, the American 
 Minister, and to some of the Paris bankers, con- 
 trived to raise several hundred dollars, which 
 were used as a common fund. This enabled us 
 to remain some days longer in Paris, and also 
 got us into trouble with our captain. When we 
 obtained our leave, he had advised us to buy 
 return tickets, and then stay as long as our money 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 67 
 
 lasted, as some of us perhaps would never have a 
 chance to see Paris again. He thought he knew 
 the state of our finances, but with this additional 
 fund we managed to outstay him by a couple of 
 days, and when we did return to the ship, our 
 reception was not altogether pleasant. When 
 we recalled his suggestions, he said we knew per- 
 fectly well what he meant, but to avoid further 
 misunderstandings, he would keep us on board 
 ship for the rest of the cruise. So my impressions 
 of Cadiz and Lisbon, where we afterwards touched, 
 were limited to what I could observe from the 
 deck of the Macedonian. 
 
 While in Paris, we had seen several Confederate 
 officers, who were either on leave from one of 
 their cruisers, or had crossed the Atlantic in 
 blockade runners, and were ready to join anything 
 that might be fitting out. We recognized two 
 or three of our former classmates among them 
 and would gladly have renewed acquaintance, 
 but their senior officer and our captain objected 
 to our associating in any way. Rumor had it 
 that the Confederate cruiser Florida had arrived 
 at Brest, and as it was well known that the French 
 harbors were much in use for the refitting of 
 
68 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Southern men-of-war, it was natural that Captain 
 Luce in such a neighborhood should feel it neces- 
 sary to take every precaution. We realized this, 
 even while we felt it a trifle hard that we were not 
 allowed to speak to our old comrades. 
 
 As it turned out, neither the Florida nor Ala- 
 hama was in European waters at that time, but 
 their possible presence caused a great deal of 
 speculation among the midshipmen, as to the 
 results should one or both of them attack us 
 during a calm, when their steam power would 
 enable them to take an advantageous position. 
 The Macedonian had eight 64-pounders and four 
 32-pounders on her gun deck and two 100- 
 pounder rifled pivot guns on her spar deck. One 
 of these last could be fired right ahead, and the 
 other astern, while two of the 64s could be shifted 
 forward to the bridle ports and two or three to the 
 stern cabin ports. So we felt we could put up 
 a stiff fight, even if the wind failed us. We had 
 fine officers, and Captain Luce could handle the 
 Macedonian like a yacht. Though probably 
 better informed than we of the whereabouts of 
 the enemy's ships, he must have done a little 
 speculating too, for immediately after leaving 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 69 
 
 Cherbourg, he had the royal poles cut off, and 
 some other changes made to give the ship as 
 much the appearance of an English one as possi- 
 ble. If I recollect rightly, we also ran up Eng- 
 lish colors on one or two occasions. Thus dis- 
 guised, we might reasonably hope to lure an 
 enemy near enough to pour in one or two effective 
 broadsides at the start. 
 
 Late one afternoon, near Cape Finisterre, a 
 steamer with braced-up yards overhauled us 
 slowly, coming up astern. The captain may 
 have had his suspicions of her, or he may have 
 wished to startle us a little — he had a great 
 liking for practical jokes. At any rate, he chose 
 about the time when she might be reckoned on 
 to overtake us, to exercise us at clearing ship for 
 action, and going to night quarters. 
 
 After visiting the ports of Lisbon and Cadiz, 
 we ran over to Funchal, Madeira. There, as a 
 party of the unquarantined were leaving the 
 ship. Lieutenant Mahan, seeing me standing 
 near the rail, said with a friendly nod, "Don't 
 forget to be back by sunset," and as I could not 
 logically return without having gone, I waited 
 for no further encouragement, but joyfully joined 
 
70 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the others, and had a fine coast in one of the 
 famous sledges of Madeira to add to my experi- 
 ences. 
 
 From Funchal, we steered about southwest, 
 until we struck the trades, and then for days we 
 ran with all sail set, scarcely touching a brace. 
 A storm and thick weather came on, as we neared 
 Sandy Hook — or what we supposed to be Sandy 
 Hook, for we had not been able to take observa- 
 tions for some days — and we ran to the east- 
 ward. I did not know — and probably no one 
 else did — how far we were from the land, but 
 as the gale was from the south. Long Island was 
 a lee shore. It was our first experience in carry- 
 ing sail to escape to windward, and we found 
 it a very thrilling one. We were under reefed 
 topsails, and once, when the ship laid over so far 
 it seemed to us a question if she could right, 
 Mahan, the first lieutenant, was about to slack 
 the lee-topsail sheets, but Captain Luce, who 
 must have known what she could do, and did not 
 want to lose an inch of sea room, told him to hold 
 on, and the good ship justified his belief in her. 
 
 We did not remain long in New York and when 
 we left there for Newport, we were towed into 
 
THE FIRST CRUISE 71 
 
 Long Island Sound by the steamer Freeborn. 
 As a dead calm fell with night, she kept on with 
 us. We were proceeding smoothly, when all at 
 once the silence was broken by a startling crash. 
 A tall mast appeared out of the darkness, and 
 stood for an instant, outlined against our cathead, 
 and braced-up fore and fore-topsail yards. Then 
 a sloop, her men struggling under the sail and 
 falling hamper, scraped along our side, severing 
 the Freeborn's tow ropes and cutting her clear. 
 We rescued the crew of the sloop before she 
 sank; and her captain, when asked why he was 
 drifting about in that fashion, with neither lights 
 nor lookouts, answered that he had seen the 
 Sound boats go past, and supposing there would 
 be no more steamers that night, had lashed the 
 helm over, and one and all had gone to sleep. 
 
 We worked the Macedonian into the harbor 
 of Newport during the midwatch, tacking re- 
 peatedly; everybody stood with the gear led 
 out, ready to raise the clews and swing the yards, 
 whenever the lookout on the jib boom end sighted 
 the beach, and shouted "Hard a-lee !" 
 
 In spite of being dog-tired, we all felt a thorough 
 sense of enjoyment of such a performance in 
 
72 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 seamanship. It was virtually the last experience 
 of our academic careers, for our detachments 
 sent by the Department were waiting for us on 
 shore. 
 
 The new commandant of midshipmen, from 
 whom we received our detachments, was Com- 
 mander D. M. Fairfax. He was a Virginian, and 
 it was said, when Virginia seceded, he remarked 
 despondently to this wife, "Well, the State to 
 which we both belong has gone out of the Union.' 
 She answered with spirit, taking both his hands in 
 hers — "Donald McNeil Fairfax, we don't belong 
 to any State ! You belong to the whole country, 
 and I belong to you." 
 
 Fairfax was the officer sent by Wilkes on board 
 the Trent to take off the commissioners. Mason 
 and Slidell, and transfer them to the San Jacinto. 
 They were still on board the San Jacinto when she 
 came into the outer harbor of Newport for coal 
 in November, 1861, a fact in which we would 
 have been much more interested if we had known 
 at that time of the bitter feeling that would 
 prevail, when England demanded their release a 
 little later. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 On Board the Ossipee 
 
 After a short leave of absence, spent at home, 
 orders came for me to report to the commandant 
 of the Philadelphia Navy Yard for passage in 
 the supply steamer Bermuda, and on her arrival 
 at New Orleans to report for duty on board 
 the U.S.S. Ossipee, Western Gulf Blockading 
 Squadron. 
 
 I found the Bermuda taking in stores. She 
 had only three or four staterooms, and as already 
 about twenty officers, including eight or nine of 
 my class, had reported, her condition was not 
 such as to induce us to take up our quarters on 
 board until we were obliged to. We were tem- 
 porarily in funds, having just drawn our advances, 
 so we lived in luxury at the Continental Hotel, 
 up-town. 
 
 Officers, when they joined a ship, were allowed 
 to draw three months' pay, and could continue 
 
 73 
 
74 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 to draw what was due them, until the day of 
 sailing, when the working out of the indebtedness 
 began. This advance was very welcome to most 
 of us, for we had just been promoted to the rank 
 of acting ensigns, and new uniforms, swords, 
 storm clothes, and numberless small articles had 
 to be bought. The amount of money in hand 
 — three hundred dollars — might have seemed 
 more dazzling had we not known that recruits 
 at that time often received bounties of a thousand 
 dollars and more, to induce them to enlist. 
 
 I had pulled out a roll of greenbacks to pay a 
 bill one day, when a classmate, just arrived, 
 said wonderingly, "How did you come by that 
 wad of money ?" 
 
 "Drew it at the Navy Pay Office," I answered. 
 
 Learning that he could do the same by simply 
 showing his orders, he demanded to be led at 
 once to the El Dorado. His outfit had been 
 provided by his father, and future needs did not 
 concern him much. Life might be brief where 
 we were going, so let it be a gay one, while the 
 money lasted. He constituted himself paymaster 
 for our party, and I was especially favored, as 
 the one to whom he was mainly indebted for 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 75 
 
 the bonanza. Afterwards, when our accounts 
 were taken up on board ship, and there was some 
 trouble in meeting the demands for mess and 
 entrance fees, young Lord Bountiful announced 
 that he would meet all obligations. He had not 
 drawn any pay since leaving the Academy, and 
 therefore must have over one hundred dollars 
 due him. This statement caused a sensation, 
 for we all supposed he must know he had over- 
 drawn his account. Before we had time to 
 enlighten him, the paymaster bounced out of 
 his room, excitedly waving a paper. 
 
 "See here!" he shouted, "you say you have 
 a hundred dollars due you ? Why, man alive ! 
 You're two hundred in debt!" 
 
 "In debt!" echoed our Croesus. "How can 
 that be?" 
 
 "Well, here's the endorsement right on your 
 orders that you were paid three hundred* dollars 
 at the Philadelphia Pay Office." 
 
 "Was that my pay? Thunder and %htning! 
 I thought that was bounty!" *. 
 
 Our trip south in the Bermuda was chiefly 
 remarkable for its extreme discomfort, as we 
 were packed into her about as tightly as sardines. 
 
76 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 I had my first sight of a Confederate flag just 
 after leaving Pensacola, Florida, which was then 
 in our possession. We had the town under our 
 guns, held the Navy Yard, six miles away, and 
 also the forts at the harbor entrance. The flag 
 I speak of was flying from a small sloop, mount- 
 ing a fieldpiece, or swivelgun, and captained by 
 a sort of water guerrilla, named Duke. Three 
 schooners loaded with coal, probably for the Navy 
 Yard, had run rather close in shore to the west- 
 ward, and Duke, noting this fact from his lurking 
 place in the Perdido River, had slipped out, 
 captured one of them, and was just boarding 
 another, when we came upon the scene. We 
 carried a very convincing argument in the shape 
 of a nine-inch pivot gun, which adjusted matters 
 in short order. The schooner was recaptured, 
 and the sloop taken a few minutes later. 
 
 On reaching New Orleans, I reported to Com- 
 modore H. H. Bell, and was ordered to continue 
 down the coast in the Bermuda. 
 
 We found the Ossipee lying off Galveston, 
 Texas, and I joined her late in the afternoon, 
 the day before Thanksgiving. The Bermuda 
 had brought fresh beef, potatoes, onions, and ice, 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 77 
 
 to be issued in place of the salt beef or pork ration, 
 and as I came off with the first boat-load I had 
 a hearty welcome. 
 
 The Ossipee was one of the lately constructed, 
 bark-rigged, screw sloops. She was supposed 
 to be high-powered, though I never knew her 
 to make more than eleven knots under full pres- 
 sure of steam, and with topsails, topgallant sails, 
 and foresail set. She carried three pivot guns 
 (an eleven-inch, a 100-pounder rifle, and a 30- 
 pounder rifle) and eight broadside guns (six 
 32-pounders and two rifled 30-pounders). We 
 thus had seven guns in broadside, and later, 
 during the passing of Fort Morgan, with our 
 starboard battery engaged, we fought nine guns, 
 having shifted two over from the port battery. 
 
 The Ossipee^s captain was John P. Gillis, who 
 while in command of the Monticello and the 
 Seminole had acquired the title of "Fighting 
 Gillis." The executive oflficer was Lieutenant 
 John A. Howell, who graduated at the head of 
 the class of '54, was the inventor of the Howell 
 torpedo, and afterwards, as a rear admiral, com- 
 manded the squadron off Matanzas and Havana 
 during the Spanish War. He and the captain 
 
78 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY. 
 
 were the only regular line officers attached to the 
 ship, until W. A. Van Vleck — a classmate of 
 mine — and I joined her. The others were vol- 
 unteer officers appointed from the merchant 
 marine, but with two years' experience in the 
 navy to their credit. The chief engineer, indeed, 
 had once been in the regular service, though at 
 this time he held merely an acting appointment. 
 He used to say he had inaugurated two wars, for 
 he was at Point Isabel, within sound of the guns 
 of Palo Alto, at the beginning of the Mexican 
 War, and was on board the Pocahontas off 
 Charleston when Fort Sumter was attacked. 
 
 He rather enjoyed telling of a command he had 
 once had. It was a steam dispatch boat, or 
 tender, which boasted an armament of two small 
 brass guns, mounted on mahogany carriages. 
 These guns, carefully tended and kept in the 
 highest state of polish, had had names conferred 
 on them, and were known as George Washington 
 and Thomas Jefferson. Their muzzles had never 
 been acquainted with the taste of powder, however, 
 until one Fourth of July it was decided to fire a 
 twenty-one gun salute. At the first discharge, 
 George Washington recoiled unexpectedly, and 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 79 
 
 laying a determined course for the main hatch, 
 ploughed over the coaming and disappeared. 
 This was disconcerting, but orders were given 
 to proceed. Thomas Jefferson, not to be out- 
 done, joined George Washington in the hold, 
 and the salute ended with two guns. 
 
 Another of the Chief's experiences, which he 
 did not relate himself, happened while the ship 
 was in New Orleans. The occasion was a dinner 
 given by the wardroom officers to the captain, 
 and as the latter was known to have a liking 
 for a particular brand of port, the Chief went 
 ashore to order a case. Rumor did say that the 
 Chief, in his youth, had had a thorough and 
 practical knowledge of all sorts and conditions 
 of wine, and though for years his potations had 
 been very moderate, it is always hard to live 
 down an established reputation. He ordered 
 the case of port and then, reflecting there might 
 be some delay in sending it off, decided to take a 
 couple of bottles with him, that the captain 
 might run no chance of missing his favorite 
 beverage. On reaching the levee, where there 
 was the usual tangled mass of Mississippi steam- 
 boats, he climbed to the upper deck of one of them. 
 
80 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 and began waving to the Ossipee to send in a boat. 
 He was so absorbed that he did not notice the 
 steamer had cast off her moorings and backed 
 into the stream. When this did dawn upon him, 
 he made a break for the bridge, which at once 
 became the scene of a heated interview between 
 him and the captain. The latter, however, 
 finally agreed that he would try to hold his ship 
 in the current until the Ossipee could send off a 
 boat for his unwilling passenger. The officer 
 who was pacing the Ossipee's deck noticed the 
 approaching steamer, and a handkerchief in 
 energetic motion at her rail. He looked through 
 his glasses, recognized a friend, and though some- 
 what surprised, pulled out his own handkerchief 
 and returned the salute. As he made no further 
 move, the Chief, to make matters clearer by 
 recalling his mission, caught up the two bottles 
 of port and waved them frantically. All was now 
 understood. The officer-of-the-deck ran to the 
 wardroom skylight, and thrusting down his head, 
 shouted to those below, "Hurry up on deck, 
 you fellows ! Here's the old Chief off on the worst 
 tear yet ! He's hired a whole steamboat, and he's 
 capering round the deck with a bottle in each 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 81 
 
 hand, just whooping it up! Hurry, or you'll 
 miss it!" 
 
 They hurried, and feeling that the poor old 
 Chief had at last irretrievably committed himself, 
 there was a faint cheer, and much shaking of heads, 
 when in final desperation he was seen to smash 
 the bottles on deck, and tear wildly at his hair. 
 He landed at a point some distance above the 
 city, and got back to the ship, footsore and weary, 
 to find the dinner over, and his character in sad 
 need of rehabilitation. 
 
 Another of the volunteer officers in the fleet 
 off Galveston, whom I recall very distinctly, 
 was Acting Lieutenant Commander Bem. He 
 was said to be a Hungarian, but I rather cherished 
 the idea that he might be a Pole, and so possi- 
 bly a relative of the illustrious General Bem,^ 
 
 1 When, as a small boy, I used to read rejoicingly of General Bern's 
 escape from the Austrians, I was equally interested in the marvellous 
 exploits of General Gorgey, and often wondered if people were right in 
 their condemnation of his final surrender to the combined forces of 
 the Austrians and Russians. In 1906, happening to say before a 
 member of the Hungarian Parliament that I considered Gorgey's 
 surrender entirely justifiable, owing to the hopelessness of further 
 resistance in an open country, and against overpowering numbers, I 
 was surprised indeed when he asked me if I would write a letter to 
 General Gorgey, repeating what I had said. It seemed almost incred- 
 ible that Gorgey, who led the Hungarians toVictory nearly sixty years 
 before, was still alive. 
 
82 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 whose great services to Hungary had made many 
 forget the fact that he was Pohsh by birth. I was 
 so fond of my fancy that I never asked Lieutenant 
 Commander Bem whether he was related to the 
 General. I was afraid he might say he wasn't. 
 
 Bem did not have the apearance of belonging 
 to a family of heroes. He was so fat as to be 
 almost unwieldy, and neither spoke our language 
 fluently, nor understood it very well. We were 
 told that one day, when his ship — a side-wheeler 
 — was pushing up a narrow river in North Caro- 
 lina, a sailor, putting his head into one of the 
 paddle boxes, which made his voice seem to come 
 from the opposite river bank, began to shout, 
 in the most pitiful fashion, "Save me! Oh, save 
 me! the Rebs are after me!" 
 
 Bem was instantly alert. "Yes, stop her!" 
 he cried. "Lower ter boat to once quick, undt 
 safe dot refugee!" 
 
 "Yes, hurry! Oh, hurry!" came the call from 
 the bank. "Hurry, you chaw-mouthed, thick- 
 waisted, Hungarian son of a sea cook!" 
 
 "Yes, mine cracious!" yelled the now madly 
 excited Bem. "Hurry up! It iss sompoddy 
 vot knows me!" 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 83 
 
 Captain Gillis was the officer next in rank to 
 Farragut and Bell, although there were four or 
 five ships in the fleet larger than the Ossipee. 
 He was in command of everything west of the 
 Mississippi, so we did not spend all our time at 
 the Galveston station, although we did remain 
 there once for a stretch of one hundred days, 
 heading to the southwest current and rolling 
 in the sea from the southeast, except when a 
 norther came to our relief. 
 
 One trip we made was down the coast as far 
 as the mouth of the Rio Grande, where a large 
 number of English steamers were loading with 
 cotton which had been carried across the river 
 from Texas into Mexico; but as they kept well 
 to the southward of the river's mouth and within 
 three miles of the Mexican coast, we, of course, 
 could not touch them. 
 
 Another time, on our way to Pensacola, we ran 
 in to communicate with the senior officer off 
 Mobile, Captain Jenkins of the Richmond. As 
 this was at night, we had our distinguishing lights 
 showing, burnt our signal number, and could see 
 the vessels to the eastward repeating our flag 
 number to the Richmond. In spite of all this, 
 
84 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Captain Jenkins was determined that we should 
 anchor until daylight. He excused himself after- 
 ward for this extreme caution by citing the case 
 of Captain Preble, who had been dismissed for 
 allowing the Confederate steamer Oreto to come 
 close up to the line, and then run by. A blank 
 cartridge was first fired in our direction, then a 
 solid shot, and finally there was the threat of a 
 broadside. Captain Gillis was furious, but could 
 only comply with the signal to anchor, solacing 
 himself with the retaliatory message, "Save your 
 shot and shell for your enemies, and not for your 
 friends, who you know cannot fire back." 
 
 Captain Jenkins came on board promptly the 
 next morning, and I rather expected to see the 
 fur fly, but the two captains went aft to the cabin 
 quietly enough, where they may have had it out 
 with each other, or else decided to bury the hatchet. 
 
 Galveston had been a name long associated 
 in the minds of officers and men with defeat and 
 disaster. Of our two vessels, the Harriet Lane 
 and the Westfield, one was captured, and the other 
 destroyed in its harbor, and their captains, Wain- 
 wright and Renshaw, and executive officers. 
 Lea and Zimmerman, had all been killed. Just 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 85 
 
 outside the Hatteras had been sunk by the Con- 
 federate cruiser Alabama. Even the brilHant 
 capture of the armed Confederate yacht. General 
 Rusk, so heroically conducted by Lieutenant 
 James E. Jouett, ended ineffectively, for the 
 fires he lighted to destroy her were afterwards 
 extinguished by the Confederates. 
 
 A few days before we left Galveston for New 
 Orleans, we saw the blockade broken in broad 
 daylight by a sailing vessel. The weather was 
 slightly hazy, and as she had kept close to the 
 land, she was nearly up to the South Battery 
 before being discovered. Her captain, certainly 
 a man of superb courage, had taken desperate 
 chances, and was rewarded by success. We 
 had five or six ships, and all ran in promptly, 
 opening fire upon him. He kept close to the 
 breakers, and in such shoal water that an attempt 
 to ram him would have meant the loss of an armed 
 vessel. The South Battery, Fort Magruder, 
 and the Pelican Spit batteries opened on us, 
 to cover him as much as possible, but I do not 
 think our shots could have troubled him greatly. 
 They were almost bound to be inaccurate, for 
 the ships were rolling deeply in the trough of a 
 
86 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 heavy sea, running from the southeast. I was 
 at the forecastle pivot gun at this time, and one 
 of the training levers coming adrift, I nearly went 
 overboard with it, in a violent roll of the ship. 
 I had no idea until then that guns could be fought 
 in such a seaway. 
 
 Soon after this Captain Gillis was detached, 
 and Captain William M. Walker took his place. 
 This oflScer had found there was quite a comfort- 
 able revenue to be derived from the capture of 
 blockade runners, and kept a sharp watch for them. 
 One day, off Mobile, he went a step further and 
 laid a plan to lure them out. He sent nearly 
 all the ships under his command off in column to 
 the southwest, hoping to persuade the enemy 
 that an attack was to be made upon some Texan 
 port, and that the coast would be comparatively 
 clear for the cotton steamers, waiting behind 
 Fort Morgan. It was planned, however, that 
 our ships should turn as soon as they were below 
 the horizon, and take their stations on two con- 
 centric arcs, so that any steamer running out 
 would be seen about daylight. 
 
 Admiral Farragut was in Pensacola with both 
 the Hartford and Richmond, and when word came 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 87 
 
 to him of this manoeuvre he was in a fever of 
 apprehension lest the Confederate gunboats in- 
 side Mobile harbor should take advantage of the 
 absence of so many of our vessels to overpower, 
 or drive away, the few that were left on the block- 
 ade. This would mean that it was legally raised 
 and could not be reestablished until after sixty 
 days. Farragut's flagship, the Hartford, was 
 rushed away from the Pensacola Yard, where 
 she was undergoing slight repairs, and the Itasca, 
 commanded by Captain Brown, was sent out 
 to order the offending cruisers to return to their 
 stations. Rear Admiral Chester, then an ensign 
 on the Richmond, says in his interesting account 
 of this incident, that at Brown's suggestion the 
 Admiral had a few tons of soft coal tumbled on 
 board the Itasca, and she went off, sending up a 
 column of black smoke. As the blockade runners, 
 unable to obtain anthracite, always used soft 
 coal, black smoke was what our ships made for, 
 whenever it was sighted. Conseqently, it was 
 only a matter of a few hours before Brown had all 
 of Walker's ships corralled. 
 
 Captain Walker was at once sent for, to go on 
 board the flagship, where he must have passed 
 
88 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 a very bad half hour. If the Admiral did not 
 relieve him at once, I have no doubt that it was 
 only because there was no other officer then avail- 
 able. That was his last performance at sea, 
 and I never heard of his employment on any duty 
 again. When he returned from the Hartford, 
 he was in a towering rage, and vented his wrath 
 on Mr. Howell, the executive ofiicer, for some 
 neglect of duty, actually mine, but for which 
 the executive was at least partially responsible. 
 Howell, as soon as the captain disappeared, 
 naturally fell upon me, but I was not disposed to 
 accept the entire blame, and fortunately I had 
 heard him refer some point in the matter to the 
 chief engineer, merely to make sure of his ground, 
 I suppose. So when he began some sarcastic 
 remarks about my recent Naval Academy knowl- 
 edge, I answered that not only did it fail to shed 
 light on that particular point, but that I also 
 had not had the advantage of instruction by the 
 chief engineer. Howell looked at me for a moment 
 as if he would enjoy licking me more than any- 
 thing else in the world, but he was broad-minded, 
 as well as broad-shouldered, and the matter ended 
 there between us. This was not the end of my 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 89 
 
 troubles, however, in connection with Captain 
 Walker's strategic operations. 
 
 The Ossipee was for some time out of favor 
 with the Admiral. He regarded — or affected 
 to — every one on board her as members of a 
 trust attempting to control the output of cotton. 
 Having been sent over to the Hartford one day, 
 with a requisition, I was told to go to the cabin, 
 where Captain Drayton and Flag Lieutenant 
 John C. Watson began to question me about 
 the articles required. It was a little difficult 
 for me to keep my mind on the business in hand, 
 I was so interested in watching the Admiral, 
 who was seated at his desk farther aft. I had 
 never before had as close a view of this man, 
 whom the London Times had spoken of as "the 
 doughty Admiral, whose deeds in war had placed 
 him at the head of the nautical profession upon 
 the earth." So it was not surprising that I, 
 who was not then of age, and expected soon to 
 follow him into battle, should have been gazing 
 at his strong, yet kindly face with admiration 
 and affection. All at once he glanced in my 
 direction, and broke in with, "Brass plate, eh? 
 What's that for?" 
 
90 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 "To cover the socket of the after eleven-inch 
 pivot, sir," I explained, greatly pleased that he 
 had spoken to me. 
 
 "There's nothing in the Ordnance Manual 
 providing for that," he remarked. 
 
 "No, sir, but you see, on board the Ossipee — 
 
 "What?" he interrupted, "so that's where 
 you come from, is it ? There's a great deal too 
 much brass already on board that Ossipee, young 
 man!" 
 
 He ended his speech with a threatening gesture 
 and a wave of his hand, as if to clear me out. 
 Somehow, he did not look exactly dangerous, 
 and I had to account to my own captain for the 
 success of my mission, so I persisted. "But, 
 Admiral, you see. Captain Walker — " The 
 mention of that name finished my case. I sud- 
 denly found myself making for the companion- 
 way, hastened by the knowledge that my ears 
 were to be cut off, pulled, or in some way sacri- 
 ficed. This was the only marked attention I 
 ever received from the great Admiral. Probably 
 he only meant to let our captain understand that 
 any request coming from him would be summarily 
 dealt with. At any rate, when Commander 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 91 
 
 William E. LeRoy relieved Captain Walker a 
 few days later, the ban was removed. 
 
 I once heard a speaker at a banquet in Phila- 
 delphia refer to me as one of Farragut's eaglets, 
 and was inwardly amused as I reflected that I 
 might at least lay claim to having been pushed 
 from the nest of the parent bird. 
 
 LeRoy, who was afterwards Admiral Farragut's 
 chief-of-staff during his European cruise, was 
 a perfect example of a gentleman of the old school. 
 Once, when he was about to ram an enemy's ship, 
 an officer remarked to another, standing near him, 
 "There goes Lord Chesterfield at the Reb. I'll 
 wager he's getting ready to apologize now for 
 being obliged to hit him so hard." 
 
 The term Lord Chesterfield could only be ap- 
 plied to LeRoy's deportment, for his disposition 
 in no way resembled that cold diplomat's. I 
 remember once, when he saw an inferior contemp- 
 tuously treated, hearing him say, with a fine scorn, 
 "Sir, in my opinion, a gentleman is one who is 
 a gentleman to everybody." 
 
 In spite of this broad view of good breeding, 
 LeRoy was quite a stickler for convention, and 
 his feeling in this respect was often severely 
 
92 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 tried by the bearing of a good-natured but poorly 
 trained servant whom he found in the position 
 of cabin boy, when he took command of our ship. 
 
 "Do you know," he would say, appealing to 
 the general sympathy, "that worthless fellow 
 Tripp will drive me distracted. Why, I can't 
 thank him when he helps me to put on my coat, 
 or hands me a glass of water, but he strikes an 
 attitude and says, 'You are entirely welcome, 
 Captain LeRoy.' " 
 
 The climax came when Tripp, who was to be 
 sent north for discharge, asked for a letter of 
 recommendation. The captain was genuinely 
 perturbed. "Good heavens!" said he. "Sup- 
 pose I give him a letter such as he wants, what 
 is his employer going to think of me ? " 
 
 When the detachment to which Tripp belonged 
 was mustered, before leaving the ship, LeRoy 
 came on deck, nervously handling an envelope. 
 As he motioned Tripp to his side, some one near 
 me was heard to observe that "the skipper must 
 be putting up a job on Tripp, to judge from his 
 guilty expression." 
 
 "Tripp," began the captain, "you asked me 
 for a letter, and I am giving you this. I have 
 
ON BOARD THE OSSIPEE 93 
 
 done the best I can for yoii, but remember, you 
 must not open it until you reach New York." 
 
 A few weeks later, the captain's steward re- 
 ceived a letter from Tripp, in which he said that 
 there was no recommendation in that envelope, 
 but he did find a fifty-dollar bill. It must be 
 added here that LeRoy had little beside his salary. 
 
 Among other mannerisms, our captain had a 
 bow that was so very low and sweeping, it was 
 suspected he took much secret satisfaction in it. 
 The deepest one I ever saw him make, however, 
 I am sure gave me more pleasure than it did him. 
 We were at quarters, one day, firing at a stranded 
 blockade runner in order to prevent the enemy 
 from landing her cargo. Suddenly, from a bat- 
 tery on shore, came the screech of a projectile. 
 It came as if it meant business and was evidently 
 headed straight for me. I instantly doubled up 
 like a jackknife, and just as quickly came the 
 feeling of anger and shame at the exhibition I 
 must be making before all hands, from my ele- 
 vated position on the forecastle. As I straightened 
 up, I stole a covert glance aft, to see if the cap- 
 tain had by any chance failed to observe me. 
 To my enormous relief, I saw he too was slowly 
 
94 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 getting back to the perpendicular, and I heard 
 him say to the executive officer, "By Jove, Howell ! 
 that was an awfully close shave ! That confounded 
 thing only went about a foot clear of our heads.*' 
 
 I had no mind to question the captain's claim, 
 but the words were hardly out of his mouth, 
 when a wild Irishman stationed in the gangway 
 midway between us shouted, **Begorry, b'ys, 
 I cud have caught thot in me hat!" 
 
 The fate of the vessel we were firing at was 
 settled a night or two later by Flag Lieutenant 
 Watson, who boarded and practically destroyed 
 her, setting fire to everything ^ that the enemy 
 might use. There was no force to oppose him, so 
 the conflict he was prepared for did not take place.^ 
 
 ^ John C. Watson was Farragut's personal aide and was with him 
 in all his battles. He was the officer who threw a line about the 
 Admiral, when he sprang over the rail and outside the mizzen rigging 
 just as the Hartford struck the Tennessee, at that moment so well 
 shown in the painting, "An August Morning with Farragut." 
 
 It was the second time during the battle that the Admiral's activity 
 and absolute fearlessness had caused this precaution to be taken. 
 On the first occasion, it was Quartermaster Knowles who at Captain 
 Drayton's suggestion followed Farragut up the main rigging, which 
 he climbed almost to the top, in order to be able to see above the 
 smoke. Though protesting at first, he finally allowed Knowles to 
 lash him to the rigging, when it was pointed out to him that a wound 
 not necessarily fatal might yet be enough to make him lose his footing 
 and fall overboard. This is mentioned here, because the two incidents 
 have occasioned some confusion, and a good deal of discussion as to 
 who really lashed Farragut to the rigging at Mobile, 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 With Farragut at Mobile 
 
 It was the morning of August fifth when we 
 fell into line to pass the forts and attack the 
 Confederate fleet at the entrance of Mobile Bay. 
 The Admiral had inspected our ship a few days 
 before. He had shown particular anxiety to have 
 the guns trained as far forward as possible, and 
 when the eleven-inch pivot gun had been trained 
 forward until it was almost against the side of 
 the port, he was still not quite satisfied, and in 
 his impetuous fashion, again called, "Haul 
 away ! " 
 
 "But if it's fired in that position, it's liable to 
 blow away the main chains. Admiral," objected 
 the ofiicer in command. 
 
 "Well, blow them away, then! Any way to 
 get a shot in first thing!" 
 
 The eleven-inch pivot did not belong in my 
 division, but I overheard this remark of the Ad- 
 
 95 
 
96 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 miral's because, with a desire to keep as near him 
 as possible, I had joined the Httle group of officers 
 following him about the ship. A look of recog- 
 nition in his eye as it happened to glance in my 
 direction almost tempted me to say, "That gun 
 would have trained easier, Admiral, if you had 
 allowed us the brass plate for the socket," but the 
 captain and executive were both standing near, 
 and I did not have the courage. 
 
 In my own division I had four guns — the fore- 
 castle pivot, two 30-pounder rifles, and one 32- 
 pounder, which was under and just abaft the fore- 
 castle. 
 
 The Brooldyn led the line that memorable morn- 
 ing, the Hartford second, with Farragut's blue 
 pennant at her mizzen. The Ossipee had sixth 
 place, there being only one ship after her. All 
 our ships had their largest flags floating from 
 peak, staff, and every masthead. From my 
 position on the forecastle,! counted nearly sixty. 
 It was a beautiful and inspiring sight. The moni- 
 tors were to starboard of the line of ships and a 
 little in advance, the Tecumseh leading and 
 opening the ball. The plan was for each ship to 
 keep a little on the starboard quarter of the next 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 97 
 
 ahead, until nearly up to the forts and batteries, 
 so as to get into action at the earliest possible 
 moment. 
 
 The forecastle pivot was the first gun fired on 
 the Ossipee, and a moment later another of my 
 guns in the bridle port let go. The men aft 
 began cheering as wildly as if we were putting 
 down the Confederacy, then and there. When 
 one of our leading ships sheered a little and poured 
 in a whole broadside, there were cheers for the 
 Brooklyn, Richmond , or whichever vessel it was. 
 All at once, an officer who had climbed into the 
 rigging, called out something about the Tecumseh. 
 Those below, catching only the name of the ship, 
 started another cheer, but Mr. Howell, waving 
 his trumpet, shouted "Great heavens, men! 
 Are you cheering, when your own companions 
 are lost ? " 
 
 Some one has well described the moment when, 
 after the sinking of the Tecumseh, Farragut took 
 the lead : 
 
 " One ship is gone, but the wooden walls 
 Defy the walls of stone. 
 And proudly steaming past, give back 
 The greetings fiercely thrown. 
 
98 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Beyond, their ships and iron-clad 
 Loom in the dawning gray, 
 
 But Farragut is leading us. 
 And we shall win the day." 
 
 I believe the statement has been made that the 
 fire of Fort Morgan and the water batteries slack- 
 ened when the Brooklyn, Hartford, and Richmond, 
 with their powerful broadside batteries, were just 
 opposite, but if this were; so, they had certainly 
 recovered by the time we came along. Before 
 we fairly got into action, our smokestack guys 
 were shot away, and when I remarked upon this 
 to our game little boatswain, Mr. Milne, he 
 shrugged his shoulders, and said, "That doesn't 
 trouble me. The engineers will have to attend 
 to it." 
 
 "How about that?" I asked, as a shot struck 
 the forestays. He became very vehement then 
 about the appearance they would make when 
 spliced. I thought, myself, we had come off very 
 luckily, for one stay, entirely cut through, was 
 only held by the snaking, while of the other but 
 a single strand remained, and this was all that 
 kept the whole length of them from crushing down 
 upon us, on the forecastle. 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 99 
 
 Our consort, the gunboat lashed to our port 
 side to carry us through, if disabled, was the 
 Itasca; her commander that same George Brown 
 who had once decoyed our ships with black 
 smoke. As we approached Fort Morgan, Brown 
 began firing to the westward, over towards 
 Dauphin Island, and Captain LeRoy shouted to 
 him from the bridge, "Do you think, Brown, 
 you're going to reach Fort Gaines from here?'* 
 
 "No;" was the answer, "but I can add to the 
 smoke and bother Fort Morgan for you." 
 
 A little later, a shot that came through our 
 side, just at the angle of the deck and waterways, 
 sent a lot of splinters flying, and one of them 
 landed on board the Itasca, striking Brown on 
 the leg. Fortunately the flat side hit him, so 
 he escaped with only a painful bruise. LeRoy 
 saw him jumping about the bridge, and called 
 out, "Did one of those splinters hit you, Brown?" 
 
 "Well, you might call it a splinter on board 
 your big ship," returned the aggrieved Brown, 
 "but over here, it ranks as a log of wood." 
 
 The smoke lifted a little, as we were passing 
 the water batteries, and their men could plainly 
 be seen, frantically loading and training the guns. 
 
100 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Our fire at point-blank range must have eon- 
 fused them somewhat, for they only succeeded 
 in hulling us a couple of times with nine or ten- 
 inch round shot. Even with this small per- 
 centage of hits, however, the casualties at our 
 Number 5 gun were enough to silence it for a 
 time. 
 
 Just after we passed the forts, the ironclad 
 Tennessee came out of the smoke on our star- 
 board bow. Before I could report her, the 
 captain and Mr. Howell had taken in the situa- 
 tion, and a critical one it was. It seemed to me 
 there was really no escape for us. Howell, who 
 was on the bridge, shouted to the captain, "shall 
 we port, and ram.^^" but LeRoy, who was aft, 
 coolly answered, "No, steady! I think we'll go 
 clear.'' 
 
 That question having been officially settled, 
 and as none of my guns would bear until the 
 Tennessee came farther aft, my attention centered 
 on a big rifle gun that was projecting from her 
 bow, the hole in it looking ominously large. The 
 projectile, when it came, raked our berth deck, 
 and as the big ironclad was almost alongside by 
 that time, we returned it with the muzzles of our 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 101 
 
 guns depressed, but I imagine all our shot simply 
 struck her casemate and bounded off. I was glad 
 to see that she had the rammer in one of her broad- 
 side guns, and could therefore only give us one 
 more in passing. It fortunately missed the 
 boilers, going through just forward of them. 
 Her stern gun, which could have raked us, was 
 not fired, and Lieutenant Wharton, the officer 
 who was training it, told me afterwards that the 
 primers failed. Our narrowest escape was from 
 a ten-inch shot that grazed our main steam pipe, 
 tearing off the fearnaught and wooden battens in 
 which it was encased. 
 
 Our ships having run up the bay, beyond the 
 range of the forts, several had anchored, and 
 their captains were preparing to go on board the 
 flagship. I believe the thought had come to many 
 of us — and it was not a comforting one — that 
 the Tennessee, which had proved that she could 
 fight her way through our fleet from van to rear, 
 might, when darkness fell, steam up into our 
 midst, and w^hile we were hampered by the fear 
 of injuring our friends, she would feel free to 
 ram and fire in any direction. W'e learned after- 
 wards that Farragut, fully aware of the advan- 
 
102 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 tages his enemy would have in a night battle, 
 had determined, after a short respite, to attack 
 the Tennessee, even though it had to be under 
 the guns of Fort Morgan. The gunboat Morgan 
 was still with her, but we had destroyed the 
 Gaines, and the Selma had been captured after 
 a running fight with the Metacomet, commanded 
 by Captain Jouett, the officer who had boarded 
 the General Rusk at Galveston. 
 
 Those of us who did not know of Farragut's 
 decision were still wondering what was to come 
 next, when all uncertainty was ended by Admiral 
 Buchanan, who resolved to attack at once. 
 When it was seen that the Tennessee was steaming 
 back up the bay, Farragut hoisted his famous 
 signal, "Run down the enemy's principal vessel 
 at full speed." The distinguishing pennants of 
 three ships followed this signal, the Monongahela's, 
 the Lackawanna's and our own. Farragut, after 
 referring to the signal in his detailed report, 
 calls the combat that followed, "One of the 
 fiercest on record." 
 
 The first to attack was the Monongahela. I saw 
 her strike the Tennessee going at full speed, and 
 then pass on, her bow badly crushed. The 
 
David Glasgow Farragut 
 
 FroDi a Plwlografh by Brown Bros.. X. )' 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 103 
 
 Lackawanna made the next attempt, dashing 
 against the ironclad with a force that it seemed 
 must fairly ride her down, but the Tennessee 
 shook her off as a baited bull might one of the 
 dogs tormenting him. Then the grand old Hart- 
 ford rushed at her, but the blow was a glancing 
 one, and broadsides were exchanged with the 
 muzzles of the guns almost touching. The guns 
 of the Hartford went off at less than two-second 
 intervals, a salute never to be forgotten. 
 
 The monitor Chickasaw^ Commander Perkins, 
 had been dogging the Tennessee everywhere, 
 battering her casemate at close quarters. Her 
 colors had been shot away, and as the Richmond 
 or the Brooklyn passed, letting go a whole broad- 
 side, overboard went her smokestack. In the 
 rush, as the ships were circling about, the Lacka- 
 wanna struck the Hartford, cutting her down al- 
 most to the water's edge. We were then pre- 
 paring to ram, but our captain, fearing the Hart- 
 ford might go down altogether, was about to check 
 his ship to go to her assistance, when the Ad- 
 miral, who was storming at the rail, observed 
 his intention, and waved him on. We were pointed 
 straight for the Tennessee with throttle wide open. 
 
104 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 All at once, I saw an officer with a white flag 
 appear above her casemate. Facing about, I 
 started aft, shouting "The ram has surrendered! 
 She's showing a white flag !" 
 
 Perhaps the captain and executive saw this as 
 soon as I did, but it was my duty to report any- 
 thing ahead, and I was, of course, excited. As I 
 ran forward again from the break of the forecastle, 
 I heard our boatswain, Mr. Andrew Milne, call- 
 ing to the Confederate officer, "Put your helm 
 to starboard!" This direction, if complied with, 
 would have thrown the Tennessee s stern off, and 
 made the blow a glancing one. Seeing that the 
 officer either had not heard, or did not under- 
 stand, I repeated, "Put your helm to starboard !" 
 adding, "Ours is to port !" 
 
 He answered, "I cannot. Our wheel ropes are 
 shot away." 
 
 So it happened that I was the first to com- 
 municate with the enemy's flagship, when she sur- 
 rendered at the close of America's greatest naval 
 battle. 
 
 The order to back our engines and put the 
 helm over had been promptly given and obeyed, 
 but it is doubtful if there was time for the Ten- 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 105 
 
 nessee to have aided in averting the coHision. Our 
 captain and executive reached the forecastle just 
 as the ships struck, and began to swing alongside. 
 It seemed to me as if the whole ship's company 
 were on deck by that time. They came swarming 
 up from below, wild with excitement. An Irish- 
 man from the fireroom, in a perfectly frenzied 
 state — and little else — dashed forward, yelling, 
 "Board her! Board her!" I caught him by his 
 undershirt, knowing if he leaped the rail, he 
 would slide down the slope of the casemate and 
 be crushed between the two ships, and with some 
 assistance, dragged him back and down on deck. 
 
 As soon as order could be restored, Captain 
 LeRoy hailed, and asked, "Do you surrender?" 
 
 The officer answered, "Yes, we surrender. 
 This is the Confederate States ship Tennessee. 
 I am the commanding officer. Admiral Buchanan 
 is wounded." 
 
 Captain LeRoy replied, "This is the United 
 States steamer Ossipee. I accept the surrender 
 for Admiral Farragut." 
 
 We lowered and sent over a boat for the Con- 
 federate captain. As he came on board, he 
 was nervously handling his sword, but LeRoy, 
 
106 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 ignoring this, shook him warmly by the hand, and 
 said in his cordial way, "My poor fellow, have 
 a glass of ice water. You see, my steward has it 
 ready for you. Wasn't it fortunate our supply 
 steamer came in a day or two ago ? " 
 
 The other bowed his head to hide his emotion, 
 and taking LeRoy's arm, the two went aft to the 
 cabin. 
 
 In arranging to take over the surrendered 
 Tennessee, Captain LeRoy, so habitually thought- 
 ful and considerate of others, did a great wrong 
 to Lieutenant Howell, which he immediately 
 and deeply regretted. To that officer naturally 
 belonged the honor of taking possession of the 
 ram, and no one had as much reason as LeRoy for 
 feeling that he was highly deserving of it. At 
 the moment of sending off our boat however, 
 other vessels were closing in, and in the haste 
 and excitement LeRoy, seeing Acting Lieutenant 
 Girard standing near, asked him to go over 
 and take charge. Girard, a zealous officer, was 
 not a regular member of our ship's company. He 
 had been very desirous of coming in with the fleet, 
 and having received permission from the Admiral, 
 had applied to LeRoy to be taken aboard the 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 107 
 
 Ossipee, where he had not been assigned to any 
 duty. When questioned afterwards about this 
 matter, LeRoy said he knew that our ships had 
 drifted down nearer the forts, and fearing the 
 battle might be renewed, he felt that Mr. How- 
 ell could ill be spared from the Ossipee. He 
 acted on this thought before other considerations 
 had entered his mind. 
 
 Our temporarily crazed fireman was not the 
 only one who became drunk with the excitement 
 of battle. An acting officer commanding the tug 
 Philippi, whose application to accompany the 
 fleet past the forts had naturally been rejected, 
 suddenly decided after the other ships were well 
 on their way, that he would force the passage 
 alone. The audacity of this proceeding was so 
 great that he was some distance up the channel 
 before the garrison at Fort Morgan realized 
 what he was trying to do. Then the gunners be- 
 gan to pour their fire upon what they doubtless 
 supposed was a laggard. Of course his little 
 craft was quickly obliterated, and as might have 
 been expected from such an idiot, he neglected 
 to throw his signal book overboard. Having it 
 in their possession, the enemy could read every 
 
108 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 signal made while our fleet was in the bay. To 
 those who have never seen a signal book, it 
 should be explained that its sides are faced with 
 sheet-lead plates, heavy enough to sink it in- 
 stantly, and it is understood by all nations that 
 it is the one thing a conquered foe may destroy, 
 when resistance has ceased, and forbearance is 
 expected. 
 
 The Morgan, the only Confederate vessel that 
 had escaped destruction or capture, and which 
 had taken refuge under the guns of Fort Morgan, 
 slipped away in the night, and keeping well over 
 to the eastward in shallow water, reached Mobile 
 in safety. 
 
 Grant's Pass, a shallow entrance to Mobile 
 Bay from the west, had depended for its defense 
 upon a small fortification in midchannel, which 
 must have been built on piles, and was called 
 Fort Powell. It had withstood repeated at- 
 tacks from our light-draught gunboats in Missis- 
 sippi Sound, and our prisoners from the Selma 
 and Tennessee were confident of its ability to hold 
 out. We were now behind it, however, and the 
 small garrison soon learning what it meant to be 
 shelled from the rear, it was abandoned and 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 109 
 
 blown up during the night. This not only opened 
 a door for us to receive supplies, but cut off the 
 solitary chance of escape for the garrison of Fort 
 Gaines on Dauphin Island. A Union force under 
 General Gordon Granger had landed to besiege 
 this fort, and as we too could easily reach it with 
 our guns. Colonel Anderson, who was in com- 
 mand, recognized the hopelessness of the case, 
 and surrendered with over eight hundred men. 
 
 This left only Fort Morgan to be dealt with, 
 and accordingly our troops were landed on Mobile 
 Point, in its rear. As their flanks could be pro- 
 tected by our ships, and any attack upon their 
 rear fully guarded against, the reduction of the 
 fort was only a question of time. The troops were 
 backed by heavy guns, which were landed on the 
 Point. A number were sent from the ships, in 
 charge of Lieutenant Tyson of the Hartford. 
 The soldiers ran zigzag trenches up towards the 
 fort, and the riflemen, to protect themselves while 
 shooting, placed sandbags in pairs a few inches 
 apart, with a third bag on top, on the edge of the 
 trench towards the enemy. Pushing their rifles 
 through the openings between the bags, they were 
 able to pick off those of the garrison who ven- 
 
110 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 tured to show themselves in an embrasure, ' or 
 above the parapet. During the last few days of 
 the siege, these approaches were carried close up 
 to the ditch of the fort. 
 
 By keeping low in the trenches, operations 
 could be observed with reasonable safety, and a 
 number of officers from the fleet landed for this 
 purpose. One of them. Acting Ensign Charles 
 Putnam, had been a former shipmate of ours on 
 the Ossipee. He used to tell of an instance which 
 showed the sharpshooting was not confined to one 
 side. A soldier near him in the trenches confided 
 that he was after a marksman in the fort who 
 had been sending bullets into his particular aper- 
 ture with unfailing regularity. "I've just fired, 
 so he's got the turn on me now," said the soldier, 
 **but after he's had it, he'll have to take to cover, 
 you bet!" He had hardly finished his sentence 
 when a bullet came singing through the orifice, 
 and on the instant he bent forward, sighting his 
 rifle, but almost as quickly fell back with another 
 bullet through his cheek. The idea that his 
 adversary might employ a partner in this little 
 game had not occurred to him. 
 
 The commander of Fort Morgan was General 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 111 
 
 Randolph Page, formerly an officer in our navy, 
 where he had been known as "Ramrod" Page. 
 He put on a bold front during the siege, but one 
 of his assumptions amused us greatly. Admiral 
 Farragut one day sent in a flag of truce, asking 
 for permission to despatch some of our seriously 
 wounded men in the Metacomet to Pensacola, 
 where they could be cared for in the hospital. 
 General Page humanely acceded to this request, 
 but also stipulated that the Metacomet should 
 return at once from Pensacola, since he regarded 
 all the ships in the bay as his prizes and the crews 
 as his prisoners. We did not use the expression 
 '* bluff" in those days, but this was certainly a 
 superb instance of it. 
 
 On August 22, the army was ready to open 
 with its batteries, and several ships — the Ossipee 
 among them — took position in Bon Secour Bay 
 to assist in the bombardment. At this time I 
 was in command of the quarter-deck division, 
 Lieutenant Chew, who had formerly held that 
 position, having just been promoted to that of 
 navigator. We expected to be more severely 
 punished than on the fifth, for then the ships had 
 simply run past the batteries, while we knew that 
 
112 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the Admiral meant to make this a stand-up fight 
 to a finish. To our surprise, the guns of the fort, 
 on this occasion, did comparatively little execu- 
 tion. Either the fire from our ships and shore 
 batteries combined was overpowering, or else the 
 Northern sharpshooters may have made it almost 
 impossible for the Confederates to work their 
 guns. At night our ships ceased action, but as 
 a fire which had broken out in the fort made it a 
 glowing mark, the shore batteries kept on more 
 furiously than ever. There was an inside work, 
 called the citadel, which was completely burned 
 out, and the garrison, unable to extinguish the 
 flames, was forced to retire into the casemates. The 
 column of fire, rising straight up toward heaven, 
 and the flashes and roar of the guns made the 
 scene an appalling one, and as I watched it from 
 the deck of our ship, I wondered what means the 
 poor fellows in that inferno could take to com- 
 municate with their enemies, had they wished to 
 surrender. In the morning, a white flag waving 
 from the ramparts bore witness that the last of 
 the fortifications that had guarded Mobile Bay, 
 and formed the first line of defenses for the city, 
 had fallen. 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 113 
 
 The consideration that would have been shown 
 the vanquished was at first withheld, when it was 
 found that they had spiked their guns, and that 
 General Page and several of his officers had either 
 broken their swords, or thrown them into the 
 fort's well. The commander of the Lackawanna, 
 Marchand, had been a former shipmate of the 
 general, and had asked permission of Admiral 
 Farragut to take him as a guest on board his 
 ship, until the prisoners were sent north, or to 
 New Orleans; but learning of this violation of 
 the laws of war, he said, "Admiral, if you send 
 General Page to me now, I shall put him in irons 
 in the coal bunker." 
 
 This feeling of indignation gradually wore 
 away. At least I never heard that the Fort Mor- 
 gan prisoners were subjected to any unusually 
 rigorous treatment. 
 
 This period of stirring action was followed by 
 a little outside cruising and another tour of block- 
 ading duty, at our former station off Galveston. 
 We then returned to Mobile Bay. Its upper 
 portion was still held by the enemy, but as we 
 were in possession of the entrance and the an- 
 chorage inside, no great exercise of vigilance was 
 
114 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 required, and the men had little to occupy them. 
 It was rumored that when the Northern troops 
 departed, after the fall of Fort Morgan, they had 
 been obliged to leave behind them several bar- 
 rels of commissary whiskey, which they had 
 buried, for safe keeping, behind one of the sand 
 dunes on the Point. The grog ration had been 
 lately abolished in the navy, and the anxiety our 
 sailors displayed to get ashore and dig for that 
 whiskey was only equalled by the energy and 
 perseverance with which they spaded up every 
 place that looked at all promising. Their weary 
 and dejected air when they returned from these 
 excursions was sufficiently good evidence that the 
 treasure had not been found. 
 
 Captain LeRoy actually made use of this de- 
 votion to the "demon Rum" to improve the re- 
 ligious tone of the ship. It was his custom to 
 read prayers in the evening when, the crew hav- 
 ing been called to stand by their hammocks, he 
 was sure of having two long lines of quiet, if not 
 very attentive, listeners. But on Sundays, when 
 the quarterdeck was transformed into something 
 like a chapel, and the bell was tolled, the captain 
 was apt to read the service to almost empty 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 115 
 
 benches. One afternoon, remarking a crowd of 
 eager faces in the starboard gangway, he asked 
 Mr. Howell what it was the men wanted. 
 
 "Oh, they're wild to get their names down on 
 the liberty list so they can be off to the diggings," 
 explained Howell. 
 
 "Indeed!" said LeRoy. "Well, Mr. Howell, 
 will you please only allow those to go who came 
 to church this morning ? " 
 
 The next Sunday he read to a full congregation. 
 
 During the last few months of the war, the men 
 accepted by the recruiting officers, or those for 
 whom the government paid bounties, were often 
 physically weak or too aged to be serviceable. 
 One day a draft of men came on board the Ossipee 
 to fill vacancies, and our captain, recognizing one 
 of them, exclaimed, "Well if there isn't old Paul 
 Jones ! How could they have allowed him to 
 leave the Naval Asylum.? Why, I remember 
 his being called 'old Paul Jones' when I was a 
 midshipman ! " 
 
 As some occupation had to be provided for 
 this ancient mariner, Mr. Howell made him 
 captain of the starboard watch of the afterguard, 
 a position which gave him little to do, but plenty 
 
116 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 of opportunity to be in evidence. He used to 
 toddle about the deck at all hours, with a paint 
 swab and bucket, cursing — for the benefit of 
 the ofiicer-of-the-deck — all the lazy lubbers who 
 had been assigned to him, and whose work he 
 was obliged to do. If you offered to send for the 
 "lazy lubbers", he promptly objected, swearing 
 he would rather do all the work himself, than 
 have to instruct such haymakers. There was 
 always a most piratical expression in his bleared 
 old eyes as he made these complaints, which 
 showed he particularly enjoyed breaking the regu- 
 lations about profanity in the presence of an 
 officer. 
 
 I once tried to stem the tide of complaint by 
 asking him if he had ever seen the Admiral in 
 any of his cruises. 
 
 "Seen him.^*" he sneered contemptuously. 
 "Knowed him when he was a cussed little squirt 
 of a midshipman, dependin' on me and other 
 smart topmen to steer him straight!" and with 
 this tribute to Farragut's early abilities, our 
 conversation ended. 
 
 Of course it was not long before old Jones went 
 under the surgeon's care. His cot was swung 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 117 
 
 under the light poop deck, where the officers often 
 gathered to smoke after dinner. 
 
 "What you got there?" would be his greeting 
 to the steward, coming from the cabin, a dish in 
 his hand. 
 
 "Just a little pudding, Jones, that the captain 
 has sent you." 
 
 "What the hell's the matter with it, that he 
 can't eat it.^^" If the steward, on this, showed a 
 disposition to sheer off, he would be rounded to, 
 with, "Here! put that down. I'll see about it 
 by and by." Jones had no idea of giving up 
 the pudding, but wished to have it thoroughly 
 understood that nothing like gratitude or obliga- 
 tion was entailed. He was soon shipped back 
 to the Asylum at Philadelphia, later known as 
 the Naval Home. 
 
 Just before the final surrender of the Confed- 
 erate armies, the Ossipee was sent to New Orleans, 
 where we had a chance to observe what a great 
 relief a little blood letting may be to a strongly 
 felt hatred. New Orleans, which had not suffered 
 the hardships of four years' virtual siege, like 
 Richmond, Mobile, Charleston, and Savannah, 
 was more inclined than those cities to show her 
 
118 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 dislike of the hated North. I remember hearing 
 of a tremendous commotion one evening at the 
 Varieties Theater, because after "The Bonny 
 Blue Flag" had been played, some one rose and 
 asked for "The Star Spangled Banner." There 
 was such a riot that the performance had to stop. 
 Finally the manager came out on the stage, 
 stated that the money paid for admission that 
 night would be refunded, and assured his audi- 
 ence that no Yankee air would ever be played in 
 the Varieties Theater. His announcement was 
 followed the next day by an order from Butler, 
 who was then military governor: "The orchestra 
 of the Varieties Theater will henceforth open with 
 the 'Star Spangled Banner', close with 'Hail 
 Columbia', and 'Yankee Doodle' must be played 
 at least once during the evening." 
 
 One of the first things I had noticed on coming 
 to New Orleans was the inscription on the pedestal 
 of the Jackson statue, "The Union must, and 
 shall, be preserved." I expressed my surprise 
 that the Confederates had allowed these words 
 to remain, and was informed that Butler had or- 
 dered them to be chiseled in, when he took over 
 the governorship. 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE 119 
 
 In spite of the detestation of New Orleans for 
 the Yankees, no other city, north or south, made 
 such a display of mourning for the death of 
 Lincoln. We did not receive news of the assas- 
 sination until the morning after it had occurred, 
 and as we heard that Secretary Seward had also 
 been attacked, the idea for the moment pre- 
 vailed that there was a wide-spread plot. Four 
 or five wretches — it is safe to say they had never 
 been near the firing line — ventured to call for 
 cheers for this crime against the nation, and were 
 promptly shot, or cut down. So great was the 
 excitement and resentment that for a time it 
 seemed as if the soldiers would break loose from 
 all restraint. I remember some army officers 
 asked me and my companions, "Where are your 
 side arms.f^ There will be no arrests made for 
 slashing any scoundrel to-day. This comes 
 straight from the Provost Marshal's." 
 
 Of course, there were many citizens who deplored 
 the atrocity that had taken place, not only be- 
 cause it was a crime, but because they felt too 
 great provocation might convert a merciful into 
 a merciless North. They needed no suggestion 
 to hang out mourning, but even those not so in- 
 
120 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 clined were very quick to take a hint from the 
 bands of soldiery pervading the streets, keenly on 
 the alert for any lapses of this sort. Indeed, by 
 sunset, there probably never was a city more 
 thoroughly draped in black than New Orleans. 
 Care was taken that there should be no object 
 to offend a Northern eye. Even the gallant 
 survivors of the Washington Artillery whose 
 war-worn uniforms were not only regarded with 
 respect by our veterans but were the delight of 
 the fair sex, went into temporary retirement. 
 
 It was while at New Orleans that we heard the 
 last shot fired by the navy in the Civil War. We 
 congratulated our chief engineer, Adams, on 
 thus rounding out his career, for, as I have men- 
 tioned, he had heard the opening guns at Palo 
 Alto and Fort Sumter. It was after resistance 
 had apparently ceased everywhere that **Savez" 
 Reed, the Cushing of the Southern navy, conceived 
 the idea of loading the ram Webb with cotton, 
 and escaping with her to Havana. There he 
 hoped to be able to dispose of her and her cargo 
 to the benefit of himself and his daring associates. 
 
 I do not know whether the Webb had any pro- 
 tection beyond the cotton piled up around her 
 
WITH FARRAGUT AT MOBILE ni 
 
 boilers and machinery. Reed had fitted some 
 sort of torpedo to her, with which he thought he 
 might dispose of one adversary, and with this 
 sHght preparation he proposed to run past ships, 
 forts, and batteries on the lower Mississippi, 
 from the mouth of the Red River to the sea. He 
 managed to slip by the Manhattan and Tennessee 
 ironclads, and a little farther on successfully passed 
 the Selma and Quaker City; but although he had 
 taken the precaution of cutting the telegraph 
 wires, a rumor of his attempt had reached New 
 Orleans. Captain Maxwell of the Pembina, see- 
 ing a steamer rapidly approaching, shouted to 
 Captain Emmons of the Lackawanna, "That's 
 the Webb ! I know her ! She's the only double- 
 walking-beam steamer on the river!" 
 
 The Lackawanna opened fire, and the Ossipee 
 followed suit, but the Webb, apparently uninjured, 
 dashed through, and down the river out of sight. 
 The Hollyhock and the Quaker City were soon in 
 pursuit, and then the Ossipee, a little delayed by 
 a collision with a heavy coal barge lying at the 
 levee at Algiers, opposite the city. 
 
 Late in the afternoon, we sighted the Hollyhock 
 returning. She signalled the Webb had been run 
 
122 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 ashore and was on fire. It seems the Richmond, 
 which was on her way up river, had anchored to 
 repair her machinery. Reed naturally supposed 
 she was lying in wait for him, and if she failed 
 to sink him with her heavy broadside battery of 
 nine-inch guns, she would certainly drive him 
 down to the forts, thus shattering his only hope, 
 which had been to pass them in the dark. So, 
 yielding to what he thought was the inevitable. 
 Reed destroyed his ship. As the Rebellion had 
 been absolutely crushed, I think there was a gen- 
 eral sense of disappointment that this daring ven- 
 ture against such heavy odds had not won through. 
 Soon after this, the Ossipee was sent north, as 
 were nearly all the other ships in the Western Gulf 
 Blockading Squadron. Admiral Farragut had 
 been succeeded some time before by Rear Admiral 
 H. K. Thatcher. We left Lieutenant Howell in 
 the hospital at New Orleans, and Lieutenant Chew 
 became executive officer. I was then second 
 watch and division officer, having been advanced 
 gradually from the fifth. When we reached 
 Philadelphia, I was detached and ordered home. 
 It was a year and eight months since I had sailed 
 from that port to join the Ossipee, 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Bombardment of Valparaiso 
 
 The month of September saw me again at the 
 Philadelphia Navy Yard. I had orders to report 
 for duty on board the VanderhilU which was 
 fitting out for a cruise around South America. 
 The situation in Mexico was then engaging the 
 public attention. Our attitude had made it 
 clear to Louis Napoleon that he must either 
 decide to fight us, or else withdraw the French 
 troops from Mexico and leave his dupe Maxi- 
 miHan to his fate. The newspapers, of course, 
 were full of rumors of war, and I remember 
 some verses the London Punch published at this 
 time that were widely quoted, especially their 
 refrain, which was in the form of a duet between 
 the Emperor and Secretary Seward, and ran, 
 
 "I can't" 
 
 "You must " (get out of Mexico) 
 
 "I won't—'' 
 
 "You will." 
 
 123 
 
124 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The French naval force on the Pacific coast 
 was superior to ours, and in view of this fact, our 
 Government had determined to send out to that 
 station the double turreted monitor Monadnock, 
 then considered one of the four most formidable 
 vessels in the world. She was to be convoyed 
 by the Vanderbilt which, with the Powhatan and 
 Tuscarora, made up a squadron commanded by 
 Commodore John Rodgers. The Vanderbilt was 
 chosen for the flagship. Her captain was Com- 
 mander J. H. Sanford, and among her officers I 
 was pleased to find Ensign F. A. Cook, my room- 
 mate at the Academy, and Ensign W. A. Van 
 Vleck, who had been with me in the Ossipee. 
 
 Our Commodore, under whom we were proud 
 to serve, came of navy stock. His father, also a 
 Commodore John Rodgers, commanded the only 
 cruising squadron during the War of 1812, and 
 his severe handling of the English sloop-of-war 
 Little Belt, though quite unpremeditated, afforded 
 some satisfaction to a people sorely indignant at 
 that time over the attack of the Leopard upon 
 the frigate Chesapeake. The record of the elder 
 Rodgers has been somewhat obscured by the 
 better known achievements of his son, whose 
 
Lommodore John Rodgers 
 
 From the I'liutograph. in the Collection of Frederick H. Mc 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 125 
 
 great services to the country, at that dark period 
 when the Army of the Potomac was falling back 
 from Richmond, can scarcely be overestimated. 
 Their importance can perhaps be best understood 
 by a few quotations from his own dispatches. He 
 writes in one, "To save the army as far as we can, 
 demands all our disposable force. The fighting 
 has been continual, the losses very great. We 
 fall back in admirable order, disputing every 
 inch of the way. ... If, as I hope, we can 
 get the army upon a plain, on the river bank, 
 and then protect each flank by gun-boats, it 
 can have a chance for rest." And again, "Now, 
 if ever, is a chance for the navy to render a signal 
 service, but it must not delay." 
 
 When the first monitor foundered off Hatteras, 
 there was a general feeling among the wooden- 
 wall seamen of the navy that an iron craft, heavily 
 armored, and floating only two feet out of water, 
 was nothing but a death trap. Rodgers, sure that 
 it would require a practical proof to dispel this 
 feeling, took the monitor Weehawken to sea in a 
 gale, and having shown that a vessel of her type 
 could survive a storm, confidence was restored, 
 not only in the navy, but also in the country. 
 
126 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 A little later he won a signal victory in this very 
 ship, compelling the Confederate ironclad Atlanta 
 to strike her colors, after an engagement so sharp 
 and decisive that the Weehawken's consort, the 
 Nahant, was not even obliged to open fire. It 
 was a triumph the more marked, because so many 
 of the citizens of Savannah were spectators, 
 having come to see and rejoice over what they 
 supposed would be a Confederate victory. 
 
 A belief in the monitor type was an article of 
 faith with the Commodore. His ofiicers soon 
 discovered this. We left Philadelphia with the 
 Monadnock in November, and the Powhatan and 
 Tuscarora joined us at Hampton Roads, but to 
 all intents and purposes there was but one ship 
 in the squadron for the Commodore, and that 
 the Monadnock. When he spoke of "that ship", 
 we knew without inquiring that he meant the 
 Monadnock. He had this habit of concentrating 
 one of the most magnificent minds I ever knew 
 on some particular object, to the exclusion of 
 all others. He used to make me think of a walker 
 who, with eyes fixed on some noble and distant 
 view, is quite heedless of any obstacles that may 
 lie in his path. Mrs. Rodgers, knowing his in- 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 127 
 
 difference to the affairs of everyday life, had 
 sent to sea with him a servant called David who, 
 although the Commodore would have scorned 
 the idea of needing a valet, really filled that 
 oflBce. Sometimes the Commodore got away 
 from David, and then there would be noticeable 
 oddities in his attire. Mrs. Rodgers used to 
 say that after her husband's behavior on their 
 wedding day, she was prepared for any eccen- 
 tricity on his part, for on that momentous oc- 
 casion, when all the friends and relatives were 
 assembled and the bride was ready and waiting, 
 the groom was not to be found. After an awk- 
 ward and trying delay, he was finally discovered 
 in the kitchen, entirely absorbed in the mysteries 
 of a cookbook. 
 
 Often when he was pacing the deck during my 
 watch, his fine head sunk in thought, I have seen 
 his face suddenly light up, and beckoning me over 
 to the rail, and resting his arms comfortably 
 upon it, he would fix his eye upon me, and begin, 
 "Now, this officer — " and ramble along, until 
 I interrupted him with, "Really, Commodore, I 
 haven't the slightest idea of whom you are talk- 
 ing." 
 
128 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 When he alluded to ^Hhat officer", the rest of 
 us soon learned that he meant Cook, whom he 
 had chosen for his flag-lieutenant, and who ran 
 him a close second as to heedlessness. Having 
 sent for "that officer" one day at his request, I 
 overheard the following conversation between 
 them. 
 
 "Mr. Cook," began the Commodore, "did you 
 make the signal I spoke of, to 'that ship' at day- 
 light this morning?" 
 
 Cook, of course, knew "that ship" referred to 
 the Monadnoch, but he was equally certain that 
 he had not been ordered to make any signal to 
 her at that particular time. There ensued quite 
 an animated discussion, the Commodore very 
 positive he had given the order, and Cook as 
 stoutly declaring if he had been told, he should 
 have at least recollected something about it. 
 At last the Commodore brought the argument 
 to an end by remarking somewhat wearily, "I 
 say I told you to make the signal. You say I 
 did not. Well, — we never shall know." And he 
 turned sadly away. 
 
 Our chief engineer, John Germain, regarded 
 the Vanderbilt in much the same light that the 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 129 
 
 Commodore did the Monadnock. With the ex- 
 ception of one voyage across the Atlantic, he 
 had been her chief engineer ever since her con- 
 struction, and when Commodore Vanderbilt, her 
 builder and owner, turned her over to the navy, 
 he requested that Germain should continue with 
 her. To effect this, Germain and two or three 
 of his assistants were made acting officers, the 
 chief with the rank of lieutenant commander. 
 They all served through the war and went with 
 us to the Pacific. Germain had many stories 
 to tell of Commodore Vanderbilt; among others 
 of his interview with President Lincoln, which 
 had resulted in the transfer of the ship to the 
 government. It was when the country was in 
 a state of alarm over the exploits of the Merrimac, 
 Vanderbilt had the idea that she might be effec- 
 tively attacked by steamers, so strengthened at 
 the bows that they could be used as rams, and 
 he offered one of his own ships to make the trial. 
 Mr. Lincoln suggested calling in the Secretary 
 of the Navy to discuss the project, but Vander- 
 bilt objected, saying in his blunt way that he 
 wouldn't trust him with a flatboat on the Con- 
 necticut River. The President, who never allowed 
 
130 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 personal feeling to interfere with what might be 
 of service to the country, overlooked this criticism 
 of his cabinet officer and heard Vanderbilt through, 
 remarking, however, at the end, "But suppose 
 your fine steamer is lost; what will the Govern- 
 ment have to pay?" 
 
 "Don't worry about that, Mr. President!" 
 answered Vanderbilt. Then in his impulsive 
 fashion, he seized a sheet of paper, and wrote a 
 receipt of five dollars for the ship, saying, "There, 
 Mr. President, keep that, and if she's lost, the 
 country pays five dollars for her, and if she isn't, 
 she'll be worth more to me than ever." After 
 telling of this offer, he used to add, "But old 
 Welles got ahead of me, after all, for having 
 heard what I had said and done, he had a bill 
 introduced, giving me the thanks of Congress 
 for the gift of the ship, and of course, after such 
 an honor, I couldn't have the face to say that I 
 had only meant to give her temporarily, for a 
 time of need." 
 
 I have often wondered whether, when it was 
 decided to sell the Vanderbilt, her former owner's 
 wishes were consulted. The purchasers took out 
 her engines and boilers, making her a four-masted 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 131 
 
 sailing ship, with the name of The Three Brothers. 
 I last saw her in the harbor of Gibraltar, in the 
 year 1906. She had been turned into a mastless 
 coal hulk, and yet in her ancient timbers there 
 still remained something of the old beauty of line 
 and proportion, so pleasing to a sailor's eye. 
 
 Germain was a man of enormous strength. His 
 assistants used to tell with great unction of their 
 chief's encounter with the prize fighter, Billy 
 Mulligan, who took passage in the Vanderbilt 
 when he crossed to England to attend the inter- 
 national prize fight between Heenan and Sayers. 
 The tw^o countries were in a ferment of excite- 
 ment over this match. I recollect, as a boy, 
 hearing my teacher, Roswell Farnham, say that 
 he wished our people had taken as much interest in 
 the contest between Buchanan and Fremont for 
 the presidency as in that of Heenan and Sayers 
 for the championship belt. With this feeling in 
 the air, it was natural that Mulligan, a celebrity 
 in his profession, should consider himself un- 
 hampered by the regulations that governed 
 ordinary people. Germain found him in the 
 engine room one morning, complacently breaking 
 some rule of the ship. Germain called his atten- 
 
132 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 tion to this, and added that he was the chief 
 engineer. **Are you really?" answered Mulligan, 
 *'Well, I'm Billy Mulligan, and I'd have you 
 know that when it comes to chiefs, I'm the Big 
 Chief, wherever I happen — " Just here, some- 
 thing like a circular storm struck him, and he 
 was outside in the gangway before he came to a 
 realizing sense that he had been interrupted. He 
 often visited the engine room after that, coming 
 to the door and inquiring for "Mr. Chief", and 
 when invited within, would enter and bask in the 
 presence. Heenan was a passenger on the return 
 trip, and one of his first proceedings after coming 
 on board was to present himself at the door of 
 the engine room, and ask for Mr. Mulligan's 
 friend. 
 
 Germain and our executive officer, Franklin, 
 got on well together, though it was known that 
 the former, when he entered the service, had 
 proclaimed that "no first mate should ever give 
 him orders when the skipper was aboard." 
 
 On leaving Hampton Roads, we headed for the 
 port of St. Thomas. Our order of sailing was in 
 the form of a diamond, the Monadnock on our 
 starboard quarter, the Tuscarora on our port 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 133 
 
 quarter, and the Powhatan right astern. In 
 good weather the Monadnock could make about 
 seven knots, which of course became the speed 
 of the squadron. Quite early in the voyage, we 
 struck a heavy gale, and she parted her wheel 
 ropes. For hours we waited, watching her, where 
 she lay in the trough of the sea, the waves making 
 a clear break across her. We lost sight of the 
 Powhatan and Tuscarora, but with his eyes fixed 
 on the distressing plight of "that ship", I doubt 
 if the Commodore was hardly aware of their 
 disappearance. We found them riding at anchor 
 when we reached St. Thomas, where the Com- 
 modore had a mast stepped on the forecastle of 
 the Monadnock, which fitted with yards and sails 
 from the Vanderbilt and Tuscarora, gave her a 
 course, topsail, and jib. 
 
 Our next stop was at the Isles de Salut, near 
 Cayenne, where we coaled. One of this group, 
 Devil's Island, became well known later as the 
 scene of Dreyfus' imprisonment. At the time 
 of our visit, there were about a thousand convicts 
 on the islands, with a force of marines in charge 
 of them. Among them was a prisoner who ex- 
 cited our interest and speculation, because he was 
 
1S4 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 on such a different footing from the others. He 
 lived apart in a pretty cottage, and we noticed 
 that his guards treated him with respect. The 
 night before we sailed from the Isles de Salut, 
 a French officer who was dining on board the 
 Monadnock volunteered the information that this 
 prisoner was Felice Orsini, supposed to have been 
 guillotined with his confederate Fieri for their 
 attempted assassination of the Emperor Na- 
 poleon III, in January, 1858. We never had 
 any means of knowing whether this statement 
 was an indiscreet betrayal of the truth, or a flight 
 of fancy on the part of its author. It is not an 
 impossible supposition, however, that Louis Na- 
 poleon was so alarmed by the threats of the 
 Italian secret societies, of which he and Orsini 
 were both members, that he had agreed to a 
 merely apparent execution of the latter, and 
 contrived that some common criminal should 
 suffer in his place. ^ 
 
 We visited the ports of Cira, Bahia, Rio de 
 Janeiro, and Montevideo on our way to the 
 Straits of Magellan, but the only occurrence I 
 
 1 See Orsini, Encyclopaedia Britannica. It states that Louis 
 Napoleon's apprehensions impelled him to attack Austria. 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 135 
 
 can recall in connection with any of these places 
 was a visit made by the Emperor of Brazil, Dom 
 Pedro, to the Monadnock, and the very thorough 
 inspection he gave her. 
 
 Speaking of thoroughness reminds me that 
 few could equal our Commodore in that respect. 
 He had a passion for research, and would go to 
 almost any lengths to satisfy himself. When 
 we were off the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, it 
 happened that an odd looking fish was caught by 
 one of the men. A volunteer officer on board, 
 whom the Commodore considered an authority 
 in such matters, unfortunately remarked that 
 this fish was luminous. The Commodore was 
 interested at once and bent upon having light. 
 He retired to the cabin with his treasure, and 
 there followed a great commotion of closing 
 ports and skylights. The captain presently made 
 an explosive exit, declaring the darkness and 
 lack of air unbearable. A little later the Com- 
 modore appeared, baffled and perspiring, but 
 still hopeful. It had occurred to him that there 
 were empty water tanks on board. Inside one 
 of these, with the plate on, he thought absolute 
 darkness might be secured. But Franklin, the 
 
136 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 executive, discouraged this project. "You know, 
 Commodore," he protested, "you are really too 
 large to crawl through that manhole, and even 
 if you did manage to squeeze in, we might have 
 to cut the tank open to get you out again." 
 
 The chief engineer was next appealed to. How 
 about that after boiler, in which steam had not 
 been gotten up.^^ Germain was even more em- 
 phatic in his disapproval than Franklin. "Good 
 heavens. Commodore ! There's not only the risk 
 of getting caught in the manhole, but it's danger- 
 ous to get inside one boiler when there's steam 
 up in another." 
 
 What scheme the Commodore would have 
 evolved next will never be known, for just then 
 our pilot, a fat, important little Englishman, 
 came mincing along the deck, and his acquaintance 
 with that part of the coast prompted the Com- 
 modore to ask if he could give the local name for 
 the luminous fish, which was placidly swimming 
 round and round in the narrow confines of a 
 bucket. The pilot looked, thrust his hand into 
 the bucket, drew out the fish, and uttering the 
 one word, "Squid!" tossed it over the rail and 
 strutted away. 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 137 
 
 The Commodore stared indignantly after the 
 retreating figure, and then turned to those of us 
 who were gathered about him, for we were always 
 interested in him, if not in his works. 
 
 **Did you ever see anything to equal that?" 
 he complained. "A man gets a rare — I may 
 say an almost unique specimen — and some in- 
 fernal fool comes along, calls it a 'squid', and 
 throws it overboard ! " 
 
 We anchored four times while going through 
 the Straits of Magellan, in Possession Bay, off 
 Sandy Point, at Port Gallant, and in York Roads. 
 Sandy Point, with less than one hundred in- 
 habitants, was the only settlement south of the 
 Argentine frontier, one thousand miles away. 
 During our stay there, the Commodore heard 
 that coal had been found only a few miles inland. 
 He instantly conceived the idea that with this 
 supply to draw on, heavy tugs might be stationed 
 in Possession Bay to tow sailing ships through 
 the Straits and to a good offing in the Pacific, 
 thus affording them an escape from the dangers, 
 losses, and hardships of beating to the westward 
 around Cape Horn, the severest task imposed 
 upon a seaman. 
 
138 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Of course before a report could be made on the 
 subject, samples of the coal must be secured and 
 tested, and the Commodore determined on a visit 
 to the reputed mine. A few horses were obtained, 
 and a small party, of which I was a member, 
 started on the expedition. Our route, for part 
 of the way, lay up the dry bed of a stream, strewn 
 with boulders and overhung with low stunted 
 trees. It must have been one of these trees 
 that knocked the Commodore from his saddle. 
 At any rate, the first thing we knew, he was on 
 the ground, being dragged over the loose rocks 
 and boulders, his foot having caught in the 
 stirrup. It seemed an age before some one, 
 seizing his horse's bridle, pulled him out of the 
 way of trampling hoofs, and we were all much 
 excited save the Commodore himself, who was 
 heard to calmly express the wish, as he was 
 jerked and bumped along, that some one would 
 be kind enough to *' extricate" his foot. 
 
 We returned to the ship with several bags of 
 specimens, and various experiments were made 
 in the cabin, as in the case of the luminous fish, 
 and equally to the captain's exasperation. The 
 Commodore came to the conclusion that the 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 139 
 
 coal was too poor for steaming purposes, and so 
 dropped the matter, but many of us thought it 
 was a plan that should have been perfected, even 
 had it entailed the shipping of coal to the Straits. 
 Had the Commodore's idea been carried out, it 
 might have delayed the construction of the 
 Panama Canal a number of years. 
 
 I am afraid Captain Sanford had little sym- 
 pathy from the rest of us when he showed im- 
 patience with the Commodore's pursuit of hobbies, 
 and absent-minded ways. To us, his eccentricities 
 were a part of his character, and therefore all 
 lovable. If we had lived right up against them 
 as the captain did, we might have been a little 
 better able to share his viewpoint, but I am in- 
 clined to doubt it. I did see the skipper on one 
 occasion, however, when I really felt sorry for 
 him. He and the Commodore were standing 
 together on deck, the captain anxiously watching 
 the weather signs — for there was a stiff gale 
 blowing — and the Commodore going through 
 the contents of his pockets. From one of these 
 he suddenly released a quantity of fine tobacco 
 dust, and sent it up into the wind's eye, whence 
 it promptly blew back into the captain's. His 
 
140 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 cry of pain roused the Commodore's attention 
 and sympathy, but as his first move was to 
 blunder on to the captain's feet and almost 
 crush one of them, his next attempt to approach 
 was violently deprecated by Sanford, who hopping 
 wildly about, his foot in one hand, and holding 
 his eyes with the other, implored the Commodore 
 for Heaven's sake to keep away from him. 
 
 At York Roads, one of our officers, while hunt- 
 ing on shore, accidentally shot a Fuegean through 
 the leg. It is to be feared his family would will- 
 ingly have sacrificed him again, for after the 
 wound had been dressed by the surgeon, they 
 departed laden with what they regarded as a 
 fortune in cloth, flannel, and tobacco. 
 
 Our ship and the Powhatan made their way 
 out of the Straits into the Pacific at the western 
 entrance, and proceeded up the coast to San 
 Estevan Bay in the Gulf of Penas. There the 
 Monadnock and the Tuscarora — to which the 
 Commodore had temporarily transferred his flag 
 — joined us, having come up through the inside 
 channel. The Monadnock and the other ships 
 had coaled, while at Sandy Point, from a sailing 
 ship which had been sent there to meet us, and 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 141 
 
 at San Estevan Bay we again coaled the Monad- 
 nock from our own bunkers. We then sailed in 
 company for Valparaiso. When we left Hampton 
 Roads, the strength of the French fleet was the 
 question that engrossed us. On our way down the 
 east coast of South America, we had found Brazil 
 and Argentine — or Buenos Ayres, as it was then 
 called — at war with Paraguay, and we knew that 
 Chili, Peru, and Bolivia, on the west coast, were 
 at war with Spain, but we had not dreamed that 
 this latter conflict could affect us vitally until we 
 reached Valparaiso, and found ourselves part of a 
 situation which threatened to become more tensely 
 exciting than any prospect of an encounter with 
 the French fleet. 
 
 The Spanish fleet, under Admiral Mendez 
 Nunez, was lying in the harbor of Valparaiso 
 when we arrived, waiting for orders concerning 
 the bombardment of the city. The fleet under 
 Nunez consisted of his flagship, the Numantia, 
 a broadside ironclad mounting thirty-four guns, 
 four fine wooden frigates — the Villa de Madrid, 
 Resolucion, Blanca, and Beranguela — and the 
 gunboat Vincidora, all these together carrying 
 about two hundred guns. 
 
142 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The English fleet lying at Valparaiso, to which 
 with ours, the residents anxiously looked to pre- 
 vent the bombardment of an unfortified and 
 defenseless town, had three ships, the Sutlej 
 and Leander frigates, and the gunboat Shear- 
 water, mounting in all about one hundred and 
 ten guns. To these we could add sixty, having 
 found the Mohongo, one of our double-enders, 
 in port on our arrival. 
 
 The Sutlej was flying the flag of Rear Admiral 
 Denman, and on board the Leander was Com- 
 modore DeCourcey. Two greater contrasts in 
 type could not have been imagined. Denman 
 was tall and spare, having what his officers — 
 to use a favorite British adjective — called a 
 "cruel" nose, while DeCourcey, so short and 
 stout that he looked like the jack of clubs, was 
 said to have a "cruel" paunch. 
 
 Lord Charles Beresford,^ who was a midship- 
 man on the Sutlej at this time, seems to hint 
 that court influence had played its part in Den- 
 
 ^ In after years Lord Bercsford, then a noted admiral, referred to 
 the Oregon in a way that a sailor particularly values when coming 
 from one of his own profession. He spoke as a seaman of the feeling 
 of pride he had in the ship, and in regard to her achievement remarked 
 with emphasis, " When any of our oflScers say, ' We have ships that 
 could do it,' I answer, ' Yes, but we have not done it.' " 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 143 
 
 man's selection for flag rank, for he speaks in 
 his memoirs of Admiral, the Honorable Joseph 
 Denman, succeeding to his position, "after the 
 enjoyment of twenty -five years of profound 
 peace in command of the Queen's yacht." 
 
 The bluff DeCourcey was not adapted for the 
 command of royal yachts, if one can judge by a 
 story that was told us by his officers. Some 
 ancient sovereign, whose treasury was not perhaps 
 in a state that would permit of more substantial 
 rewards, had conferred on the DeCourcey family 
 the rather curious privilege of standing with 
 covered heads in the presence of royalty. Queen 
 Victoria, who was well posted in all family tradi- 
 tions, one day noticed a broad-beamed craft in 
 naval uniform, including the cocked hat, drifting 
 about at one of her levees, and placed him im- 
 mediately. "I see, Commodore," she remarked, 
 as he was presented, "that you are availing 
 yourself — and justly — of the privilege of your 
 distinguished family." 
 
 "Yes, Your Majesty," acknowledged De- 
 Courcey, with a low bow, but no sign of removing 
 his headgear. 
 
 "Having done so," added the queen, "should 
 
144 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 you not remove your hat in the presence of 
 ladies?" 
 
 "Assuredly, except when Your Majesty is 
 present. As the subject, I must remain covered 
 in the presence of my sovereign." 
 
 The Spanish admiral, Mendez Nunez — or 
 Mondays Tuesdays, as we used to call him — 
 had a most attractive personality. He had 
 reached the rank of admiral at a comparatively 
 early age. His reputation, not only as an officer 
 but as a man, was of the highest, nor was it 
 clouded because Queen Isabella, of whose char- 
 acter the same could not be said, was devoted 
 to his interests. No one felt more deeply than 
 he the alternative of either yielding to the threats 
 of the American and English commanders, or 
 bombarding a defenseless city, as his orders from 
 Madrid demanded. 
 
 The interval of waiting for these orders was 
 filled with the wildest speculations. Would they 
 or would they not come, and if they did, would 
 the English and American squadrons interfere? 
 I venture to say that there were few in our squad- 
 ron who were particularly pleased with the 
 prospect of interference and the resulting conflict 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 145 
 
 with the Spanish fleet. Fresh from one war, 
 and with the expectation of going into another, 
 we were not hungering for additional fighting. 
 Still it was all in the day's work for us, and it 
 amused us to affect much sympathy for Chief 
 Engineer Germain and our acting chaplain, Mr. 
 Bush, for being involved in such a position. 
 Germain, who had served through our Civil 
 War, would have resigned at the end of it had 
 not Commodore Vanderbilt urged him to stay 
 by his ship until our fleet reached San Francisco. 
 When we condoled with him on being caught, 
 as it were, between the two commodores, he 
 would answer rather grimly, "Never mind about 
 that ! If there's a battle, just you get this ship 
 pointed right, and I'll drive her through the 
 Numantia herself." 
 
 Mr. Bush was the pastor of the church Com- 
 modore Rodgers attended in Orange, New Jersey. 
 As he was out of health, his parishioners had 
 given him leave for a year, and flag officers being 
 then allowed to appoint civilian secretaries. 
 Commodore Rodgers had been able to obtain 
 one of these positions for him. Greatly benefited 
 by the voyage, he had up to this time often con- 
 
146 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 gratulated himself on his good fortune, but now 
 he could only smile sadly when asked about the 
 advantages of Valparaiso as a health resort. 
 
 When it became known that Valparaiso was 
 actually to be bombarded, the excitement, not 
 only on shore, but afloat, was intense. Millions 
 of dollars' worth of property belonging to for- 
 eigners would undoubtedly be destroyed, and 
 while the English stood to lose the largest amount, 
 yet the Vanderbilt was besieged by ministers 
 and consuls from many other nations, all appeal- 
 ing to the Commodore to interpose. There 
 were meetings and councils both in Santiago and 
 Valparaiso. Our minister. General Kilpatrick, 
 was noisily demonstrative, urging the Commodore 
 to interfere, and treating the whole affair as if it 
 were some light undertaking. He declared if it 
 came to a battle, he wanted to be on board the 
 Vanderbilt and have a hand in it. He bore the 
 reputation — no doubt deservedly — of being a 
 dashing cavalry officer, but I can remember, 
 when he made this speech, seeing the Commodore 
 turn and look at him in a half amused, half con- 
 temptuous way. 
 
 There was, I think, a general feeling among 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 147 
 
 our officers and crews that the affair was really 
 none of our business. Chili was at war with a 
 nation possessing a navy, and could scarcely 
 look to others to save her sea-ports from con- 
 tribution ,or destruction. So far as property 
 was concerned, there was little or nothing belong- 
 ing to Americans to protect. Of course, the 
 worst feature of the bombardment was the misery 
 it would occasion in a city of one hundred thousand 
 people, among whom there would certainly be 
 numbers too sick or helpless to be moved, and 
 the many homes that would be destroyed. 
 
 Commodore Rodgers was undoubtedly in- 
 fluenced by these last considerations, for it 
 was evident from the outset that he meant to 
 interfere, if he could induce the Enghsh admiral 
 to take part with him. There were a few of our 
 officers — Captain Sanford was one of them — 
 who attributed this readiness on the Commodore's 
 part to his desire to see a fight between the Amer- 
 ican monitor and the Spanish ironclad. I think 
 the Commodore must have had some knowledge 
 of this talk, but if so, he gave no indications, 
 but kept steadily on his course, with his eyes 
 on the main issue. I discovered, however, during 
 
148 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 this period of waiting, that he was not indifferent 
 to the opinions of his officers, even of my rank, 
 though in this ease there may have been some 
 personal regard involved. He had always shown 
 a very kindly feeling for me, and often during 
 the cruise had passed an hour or two of the mid- 
 watch talking with me, much to the irritation 
 of the captain, who evidently felt I could not 
 attend to my duties properly when absorbed by 
 what the Commodore was saying. One after- 
 noon during my watch, a square-rigged ship was 
 sighted to the northward of Valparaiso, and after 
 looking at her some time through a glass, I said, 
 *' That's a man-of-war. Let's hope it's the Lan- 
 caster!" 
 
 The Commodore, who had overheard me, 
 asked at once, "Why do you hope it is the Lan- 
 caster?" 
 
 I knew immediately what was in his mind, for 
 the Lancaster was the flagship of Admiral Pearson, 
 and his arrival would mean that he would take 
 command of our fleet. This change would have 
 been pleasing to those who did not approve of 
 the Commodore's policy and who hoped that 
 Pearson's might be different. 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 149 
 
 I hastened to disabuse him of this idea and 
 explain my own thought, by saying, "Because 
 she carries twenty-six nine-inch guns, sir." 
 
 His face brightened, and he said, "Yes, that 
 would be a help," and after a pause, he added, 
 "of course, the Monadnock would be triumphant 
 in the end." 
 
 "Yes, Commodore," I answered, "I suppose 
 so; but don't you think a little assistance would 
 give us a better chance of seeing the triumph .f^" 
 
 It was said by some that he meant to transfer 
 his flag to the Monadnock, if a battle took place, 
 but this rumor was disposed of by his statement 
 that Bunce, her captain, could fight her all right, 
 and he would look on from the paddle box of the 
 Vanderbilt. 
 
 The Commodore became strongly attached to 
 Nunez. I remember hearing him say one night, 
 when he returned from a conference on the Nu- 
 mantia, "Nunez is brave and true. He will do 
 his duty. My heart warmed towards him while 
 he spoke." 
 
 I learned that Nunez had thoroughly won the 
 Commodore's approval by the frank way in 
 which he stated his intentions. "Commodore," 
 
150 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 said he, "yc>u have a reputation in your country, 
 and you too, General Kilpatrick, but I also have 
 one in mine, and I shall try to keep it. I shall 
 bombard Valparaiso. Of course, you know," 
 he added, "that this matter could be adjusted. 
 I have plenipotentiary powers, and if the Chileans 
 would just stop blowing their bugles in my face 
 and salute our flag, at the very first gun I would 
 hoist their flag and return the salute, then go on 
 shore and settle all troubles. As they are not 
 willing to do this, I must carry out my orders. 
 If you feel it your duty to interfere. Commodore, 
 your Monadnock may be too strong for my Nu- 
 mantia, but I think I can dispose of everything 
 else, and then if I find I can't whip the Monadnock, 
 I will leave." 
 
 It was this calm certainty of being able to 
 "dispose of everything else" that troubled all 
 of us except the Commodore, and even he may 
 have had his misgivings. Meantime the prepara- 
 tions for battle went forward. Twelve hundred 
 bags of coal were stored in the gangways of the 
 Vanderbilt to shelter the most exposed parts of 
 her boilers and machinery. The Tuscarora plated 
 her sides with chain cables, and on board the 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 151 
 
 Powhatan the light spar-deck cabin used when 
 she was a flagship was removed, and a pivot 
 gun mounted in its place. 
 
 Beresford, in his memoirs, alludes to the Amer- 
 ican fleet and especially to the Monadnock, whose 
 identity however he confuses with the Mianto- 
 nomoh, her sister ship. 
 
 He says, on page sixty -six : 
 
 "The European residents in Valparaiso, who 
 owned an immense amount of valuable property, 
 stored in the custom houses, were terrified at 
 the prospect of a bombardment, and petitioned 
 Admiral Denman to prevent it. An American 
 fleet of war-ships was also lying in the bay. 
 Among them was the 'Miantonomoh', the 
 second screw iron-clad that ever came through 
 the Straits of Magellan, the first being the Spanish 
 iron-clad *Numantia.' 
 
 ** When the * Miantonomoh ' crossed the 
 Atlantic in 1866, the Times kindly remarked that 
 the existing British Navy was henceforth useless, 
 and that most of its vessels were only fit to be 
 laid up and painted that dirty yellow, which is 
 universally adopted to mark treachery, failure 
 and crime. 
 
 " The British and American Admirals consulted 
 together as to the advisability of preventing a 
 bombardment. The prospect of a fight cheered 
 
152 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 us all, and we entered into elaborate calculations 
 of the relative strength of the Spanish fleet and 
 the British-American force. As a matter of 
 fact, they were about equal." 
 
 In the midst of these preparations, the English 
 admiral, Denman, suddenly announced that he 
 had orders from home which positively forbade 
 him to interfere. Then all was confusion and 
 dismay. The English residents, realizing that 
 their property was likely to be lost, or injured, 
 were furious because their admiral would not, in 
 violation of his instructions, give an order that 
 meant a battle of the most sanguinary descrip- 
 tion. They sent him a wooden sword, and talked 
 of "our fancy squadron, Lady Denman command- 
 ing." The squat and truculent DeCourcey went 
 on the warpath. He declared — so we heard — 
 that if we decided to fight, he would be with us. 
 If any shot came his way, he was going to fire 
 back. Of course this stand made him generally 
 popular, and the contrast with Denman the more 
 telling. Nevertheless, if Admiral Denman, aware 
 from the first that he was powerless to interfere, 
 felt that by threatening to unite with us he might 
 force the Spaniard to spare the city, he took a 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 153 
 
 chance that involved his reputation, and braved 
 what many would regard as worse than death. 
 Cables and wireless telegraphy practically ensure 
 against such a situation in the present day. 
 
 The Valparaisans still cherished a faint hope 
 that the Spaniards might relent, or that we might 
 be induced to interpose. In fact, we were re- 
 garded for a time with enthusiasm, in the light 
 of their sole defenders, and I remember seeing 
 illuminations in the plaza of Valparaiso in honor 
 of the squadron "de los Estados Unidos." Com- 
 modore Rodgers now felt that the time had come 
 to dispel these false hopes, and spoke out de- 
 cisively. A large delegation of foreign residents 
 had come on board the Vanderbilt, stating that 
 as far as lay in their power they made the Com- 
 modore official protector of the rights of their 
 respective countries. The insistent urging of 
 General Kilpatrick was supported by an English- 
 man, one who had been an ardent Southern 
 sympathizer just a few months before. He drew 
 an animated picture of the gratitude his country- 
 men would feel towards Americans, winding up 
 with the phrase, ** blood is thicker than water." 
 
 "Yes," retorted the Commodore, losing his 
 
154 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 hitherto unruffled serenity, "but I notice that 
 you would have America contribute all the 
 blood!" 
 
 Then turning to the minister and delegation, 
 "We are not afraid to fight, even against great 
 odds ; but England must be involved. All I 
 ask is a cutter with the English flag flying, to 
 tow astern of the Vanderbilt I The gratitude 
 you speak of would not prevent certain English- 
 men from fitting out new Alabamas and Floridas 
 to destroy what little commerce we have left, 
 should we get into a war with Spain." 
 
 It must be said of the Chileans that when 
 they saw there was no longer any hope of protec- 
 tion, they showed no intention of submitting. 
 When Nunez announced the bombardment for 
 four days later, he declared his intention of firing 
 only upon the public buildings, but as they ex- 
 tended all the way from the bonded warehouses 
 at Reeftopsail Point to the Naval Academy and 
 railroad station at the northern end of the city, 
 it was evident that no quarter would be really 
 out of reach of shot and shell. So, on the day 
 before the bombardment, the sad exodus began. 
 I was on shore that day, and saw men and women, 
 
THE BOMBARDIVrENT OF VALPARAISO 155 
 
 carrying their sick and aged, and hurrying crying 
 children before them, abandoning their homes to 
 take refuge in the country, or on the high hills 
 that overlooked the town. On the fateful morn- 
 ing, these hills were black with people. Many 
 of them had come from Santiago as spectators, 
 and that city had also sent all her fire companies 
 to assist in checking the flames, after the bom- 
 bardment was over. 
 
 A little after eight o'clock, the Spanish frigates 
 and the Vincidora stood in, and took their stations 
 near the shore. About nine o'clock, a signal was 
 hoisted on the Numantia, lying just to the north- 
 ward of our ships, and her consorts opened fire. 
 At first, except when a slanting roof was struck, 
 we could not see that much damage was being 
 done, for nearly all the buildings were of stone, 
 but soon smoke began to rise above the bonded 
 warehouses, and it was evident fires had started. 
 Very shortly these began to spread, especially in 
 the southern portion of the city. The firing from 
 the ships was erratic. Sometimes a frigate would 
 let go a whole broadside, and again the shots 
 would be intermittent. A little after eleven, the 
 Numantia hoisted another signal, upon which the 
 
156 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 ships ceased firing, and stood out past us to their 
 former anchorage. We immediately ran in, and 
 sent large fire parties from all our ships. As 
 we pulled in to the mole — as the landing place 
 in front of the custom house was called — we 
 could see that it was torn up in every direc- 
 tion. The building from the front showed only 
 holes where the projectiles had entered, but the 
 moment we passed through the arched gateway 
 we found a complete wreck, and the square be- 
 tween it and the Intendencia was filled with 
 debris. The building itself was ruined. The 
 fires were soon under control, and late in the 
 afternoon our fire parties were withdrawn. We 
 did not hear of any loss of life, which was not 
 extraordinary, as the city was deserted. It was 
 said that property amounting to many millions 
 of dollars was destroyed, but there was never, 
 to my knowledge, any careful estimate made. 
 
 Beresford says, after writing of the bombard- 
 ment : 
 
 " I accompanied a landing party to help ex- 
 tinguish the conflagration. We put the fires 
 out, but the inhabitants were so angry with us 
 because we had not prevented the bombardment, 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 157 
 
 that they requested that the landing party should 
 be sent back to their ships. Then the flames 
 broke out afresh. For years the resentment of 
 the Valparaisans remained so hot that it was 
 inadvisable to land in the town, men from the 
 British ships." 
 
 A correspondent from the Herald, Mr. Car- 
 penter, who later became the secretary of our 
 legation in Chile, had been living aboard the 
 Vanderhilt until the day before the bombardment. 
 He went ashore then, and took up his quarters 
 in the Hotel de Chile, whose proprietor, Landais, 
 was a Frenchman. Early the next morning 
 Carpenter started for a post of observation and 
 safety on the hills, urging his host to accompany 
 him. The Frenchman emphatically refused, de- 
 claring that if the Spaniards dared fire a single 
 shot at the Hotel de Chile, he would let loose the 
 Emperor Napoleon and all "la belle France" 
 upon them. Carpenter said about ten minutes 
 after the firing began he saw a shot strike the 
 tiled roof of Landais' imperially protected hotel, 
 and go glancing up it, spreading destruction as 
 it went. In a flash, out rode Landais on a big 
 donkey, a mattress lashed to his back to ward 
 
158 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 off projectiles. He headed for the hills, and as 
 he rushed past Carpenter, his eyes bulging to 
 such an extent they could have been brushed 
 off with a hat, the latter called to him to stop, 
 as the danger line was passed, but he paid no 
 attention. He knew if he could only get the 
 Andes between him and the guns, his safety would 
 be assured, and he kept on. 
 
 In fact, there was only one citizen who weathered 
 the storm in Valparaiso that day, and as he was 
 dumb, he could never tell of his experience. When 
 we first anchored at Valparaiso, the officers of the 
 Mohongo told us of a dog who had taken up 
 his quarters on the mole, and levied a tariff 
 on American officers in uniform. He required 
 silver coin, disdaining copper. When he had 
 secured the proper coin, he trotted off to a certain 
 butcher's and exchanged his money for meat. 
 It was even said — though I will not vouch for 
 the truth of this — that when contributions had 
 been unusually generous, he used to bury his 
 bank roll, drawing upon it when necessary. 
 
 Collector, or Revenue Jack, as he was sometimes 
 called, fearless of Her Catholic Majesty's squad- 
 ron, was at his usual post on the mole when the 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 159 
 
 storm broke. Our boats had been in early to 
 bring off any Americans who preferred viewing 
 the bombardment from the water instead of the 
 hills, and after they had returned to the ships, 
 Collector was remembered, and keen were the 
 regrets that he had not been taken aboard. Mr. 
 Carpenter, who was armed with a powerful glass, 
 said afterwards that before the whole scene was 
 obscured by smoke, he could make out the old 
 dog, jumping about on the mole as it was raked 
 and torn by shot and bursting shells. When 
 our boats with fire parties pulled swiftly for the 
 landing, some one shouted, "There he is!'* and 
 in a few minutes we were greeting and rejoicing 
 over the excited and lone defender of Valparaiso. 
 Not long after this, the Vanderbilt and Monad- 
 nock sailed for Callao, leaving the Powhatan and 
 Tuscarora behind to await orders from Admiral 
 Pearson. For hours after leaving port, we kept 
 Aconcagua, the loftiest of the Andes, in sight over 
 our starboard quarter, though it was already 
 distant one hundred and ten land miles from our 
 starting point. We had left the Spanish fleet 
 at Valparaiso, but owing to the Monadnoclcs 
 slow rate of speed, it must have caught up with 
 
160 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 us on the way north, for just after we made 
 San Lorenzo, the high island outside of Callao, 
 it was seen in the offing. It was then the custom 
 in our service, dating perhaps from the attack 
 upon the unprepared Chesapeake^ to carry guns 
 loaded while at sea, removing the charges when 
 in port, and so, as we neared Callao, the first 
 lieutenant came up to ask the captain's permis- 
 sion to send the crew to quarters. Captain 
 Sanford turned upon him sharply, "What! un- 
 load the guns now, with the Spanish fleet close 
 aboard ? " 
 
 The Commodore, who was standing near, half 
 jokingly, half reproachfully asked, "Did you 
 have them loaded, Captain, at Valparaiso?" 
 
 This was the only time I ever heard him show 
 any feeling about the captain's protests and 
 opposition. 
 
 In coming to Callao, we had known that we 
 should probably witness another bombardment, 
 but in this case the object of attack was very 
 far from being defenseless. In fact, so well 
 prepared were the Peruvians that it was said 
 that Nuflez had received an intimation from home 
 not to jeopardize his fleet in an action with shore 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 161 
 
 batteries, but he felt that his country had lost 
 honor in the eyes of other nations by the bom- 
 bardment of Valparaiso, and Castilian pride 
 demanded that he should fight at Callao. 
 
 The Spanish fleet anchored under San Lorenzo, 
 while ours took up a position nearer the town. 
 Callao, which was really the port of the capital 
 city, Lima, a few miles inland, was much less 
 populous than Valparaiso, and was defended by 
 a citadel and heavy batteries. We found the 
 Peruvians had about sixty guns of the average 
 caliber already mounted, and were working 
 desperately upon six heavy Armstrong rifle 
 guns, but I think only two of these — three- 
 hundred pounders — were in readiness when the 
 battle began. They also had a small monitor, 
 but she was neither heavily armed nor armored. 
 We heard that they had among their forces 
 several officers who had served in our Union 
 and Confederate armies. There were also two 
 or three ex-Confederate naval officers in Callao 
 at this time, but whether the Peruvians made 
 use of their services I do not know. 
 
 The battle of Callao commenced a little after 
 noon, on the second of May, 1866. The iron- 
 
162 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 clad Numantia led the right wing, her companions 
 being the frigates Blanca and Resolucion. The 
 frigates Villa de Madrid, Beranguela, and the 
 newly arrived Almanza formed the left wing. 
 All the merchant shipping had been shifted to 
 the northward of its usual anchorage, and the 
 Monadnoch and the Vanderbilt lay off the town, 
 a position that gave us an excellent view of the 
 battle, and was — the Commodore considered — 
 out of gunshot of the smooth-bores, while as the 
 only two rifled guns were mounted at the northern 
 end of the line of batteries, we were well to the 
 right of their line of fire. 
 
 The Numantia, or one of the Peruvian batteries 
 just beyond her — we could not tell which — 
 opened the engagement, and immediately sixty 
 guns on shore and half of the two hundred and 
 seventy -five afloat came into action. A thick 
 pall of smoke hung over the bay, pierced by 
 flashes from the guns, whose steady roar was 
 almost appalling. Presently the cloud began to 
 drift away in spots, and our attention centered 
 on the Beranguela, which seemed to be entirely 
 enveloped in smoke or dust. As it gradually 
 cleared, we could see a large opening in her side. 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 163 
 
 amidships. She headed out at once, and as she 
 passed us, steaming at full speed for San Lorenzo, 
 she was listed well over to keep afloat. A boat 
 from our ship, carrying both surgeons, pulled 
 under her bows to offer medical assistance, but 
 the captain, shouting that he must save his ship, 
 would not stop. Ten minutes later, the Villa de 
 Madrid made signals, and the gunboat Vincidora 
 steamed in, and gave her a line, so it was evident 
 that her boilers or machinery were disabled. 
 With such a heavy battery as she had, it might 
 have been expected that she would take the 
 gunboat alongside and remain in action, and we 
 were somewhat surprised when we saw her being 
 towed over to San Lorenzo. 
 
 The Resolucion hauled out after two o'clock, 
 but later returned and fought for nearly an hour, 
 when she again retired. The Blanca held out 
 until almost four o'clock. Her captain, Topete, 
 who was badly wounded in this action, later 
 became Minister of Marine, and when in com- 
 mand at Cadiz, started the revolution that 
 overthrew Queen Isabella. The Numantia and 
 her brave consort, the Almanza, fought until 
 sunset, when the battle ended. The Numantia 
 
164 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 was practically uninjured, but the intrepid Nunez, 
 who had refused to go behind her armor, because 
 he wished to share the dangers to which his 
 companions on the wooden ships were exposed, 
 was severely wounded. We were told that Prado, 
 the President of Peru, had been helping to serve 
 the guns on shore, and his Secretary of War 
 had been killed in one of the batteries. 
 
 About four o'clock, we had seen a boat pull 
 over from the Almanza to the flagship, and were 
 informed that she was taking the Almanza' s 
 captain, Sanchez, over to confer with the Admiral. 
 The conference ended, Sanchez returned to his 
 ship and continued the fight. 
 
 It was my outspoken admiration for this 
 bravely fought ship and her captain that was 
 the occasion for a talk with Commodore Rodgers 
 that made an indelible impression on me. Mr. 
 Bush had told us once that the positions the 
 Commodore took in an argument, which so often 
 surprised us, came in many instances from a 
 desire to get the viewpoints of others. But 
 sometimes there was more beneath the surface, 
 as I learned on this occasion, to my sorrow. 
 I had just given vent to an outburst of enthu- 
 
THE BOMBARDMENT OF VALPARAISO 165 
 
 siasm for the gallant Sanchez, when the Com- 
 modore, overhearing me, made some remark 
 about "the pride and obstinacy of a Spaniard." 
 Although I felt this opinion might have been 
 advanced for argument's sake, I was still con- 
 siderably nettled because the enthusiasm I had 
 shown had been quenched in such an unlooked- 
 for manner, and seeing what I thought a vul- 
 nerable point that I could seize on, I said, "Well, 
 to my mind, the Almanza is a nobly fought ship, 
 and I know of none in our war, except one, that 
 was more determinedly kept in action." 
 
 "Indeed!" said the Commodore, much in- 
 terested in such a positive statement. "What 
 ship was it?" 
 
 "The Galena in the James River," I answered 
 promptly. 
 
 In an instant the Commodore's face, which 
 had been all eager inquiry, clouded over. He 
 turned away, motioning for me to follow. It 
 was not till we were quite alone that he began, 
 so slowly and seriously that his words have never 
 been forgotten, "The Galena was a mistake. 
 The monitor was the right principle. We could 
 not afford mistakes, fighting in such a war, and 
 
166 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 / 
 with the danger of foreign interference. I had 
 
 to prove the Galena a mistake. The poor fellows 
 who died on board her that day did not die in 
 vain." 
 
 My satisfaction in what I had thought a smart 
 rejoinder had totally crumbled by this time, and 
 I could only brokenly express my regret, but the 
 regret was even then tempered by the feeling that 
 I had gained a still clearer idea of the character 
 of the man before me, and a new knowledge of 
 life's values. The deep sadness of the Com- 
 modore's face, as he uttered those few words, 
 taught me that what the world regards as glory 
 may weigh but slightly against the heavy ro- 
 sponsibility such a man must face, when he 
 communes with himself. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Wreck of the Suwanee 
 
 Many of us, knowing how well and devotedly 
 Commodore Rodgers had served his coun- 
 try and how great were his natural abilities, felt 
 that he had been insufficiently rewarded, and 
 that he should at least have been advanced 
 a grade. But once, when this subject was touched 
 upon, he said that he considered the country 
 had treated him generously. Contact with such 
 an officer and his ideals could not but have 
 its effect upon the young men serving under 
 him, making them feel that good and even 
 heroic services should be rendered, not for the 
 sake of rewards, but in return for the education 
 given them and for their honorable life positions. 
 
 Commodore Rodgers has not been the only 
 officer to express these views. Admiral John C. 
 Watson, the personal aide and favorite of Farragut, 
 when claims were being made for his advance- 
 
 167 
 
168 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 ment, requested that they be not urged ; the 
 intrepid Cassel entered his protest against the 
 promotion given him over his brother officers ; 
 and even the wonderful Gushing, whose exploits 
 were said "to have spoiled romance", never com- 
 plained of their meager recognition by an advance 
 of one grade. 
 
 These truly chivalric men felt that a promotion 
 nobly earned, nobly inspired, but that an advance 
 undeserved brought dishonor to the recipient, 
 depressed the worthy who were passed over, and 
 encouraged the selfish and unscrupulous who pos- 
 sessed regrettable influence. 
 
 It has been this spirit permeating our naval 
 service that has made it what it is — able to keep 
 its efficiency through long periods of peace, and 
 to give a fine account of itself when the hour for 
 action has arrived. 
 
 From Callao we sailed for San Francisco, stop- 
 ping at Panama, Acapulco, Magdalena Bay, and 
 San Diego on our way. This was my first ac- 
 quaintance with the magnificent mountain scenery 
 of the west coasts of Central America and Mexico. 
 Later in life, many of the mountain peaks seemed 
 as familiar as the faces of old friends, I used their 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 169 
 
 summits so often in triangulation work. Colima, 
 Isalco, and Ometepe wore feathery plumes of 
 smoke on their superb heads, for they were active 
 volcanoes. We passed close enough to the spot 
 where the Golden Gate lay beached to have a good 
 look at the remains of that ill-fated steamer. She 
 was wrecked when on her way from San Francisco 
 to Panama, her treasure room full, and many of 
 her passengers going home with fortunes from the 
 gold fields. We had been told that when the 
 catastrophe occurred, and some of these people 
 in their rage and despair were flinging on deck the 
 bags of dust and nuggets so useless to them then, 
 one man who was known to be a powerful swimmer 
 went about picking up the golden harvest and 
 loading his pockets with it. W^hen the steamer 
 had nearly reached the beach, the flames swept 
 aft, driving all before them into the sea. This 
 man leaped with the rest, but was so heavily 
 weighted with his precious freight that he went 
 down like a stone, a victim to his greed. 
 
 A San Francisco wrecker who looted the treasure 
 room of this steamer met with better fortune. He 
 sailed with his gains to his home city, where he 
 immediately became involved in a dispute with 
 
170 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the courts over the question of ownership. But 
 while the pubHc attention was thus centered on 
 him in San Francisco, another of his schooners 
 was busily working away at the wreck, and 
 before the lawyers had finished wrangling, she 
 had secured over a million in gold, which was sent 
 abroad. 
 
 When we reached San Francisco, Commodore 
 Rodgers left us. Danger of a war with France 
 was practically over by that time, Louis Napoleon 
 having agreed that his troops should be withdrawn 
 from Mexico, a third at a time. The Commodore 
 went home overland, but as the Union Pacific 
 Railroad was not then completed, I believe he 
 had to make a part of the journey on horseback, 
 under the escort of a United States troop of 
 cavalry. Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher took 
 his place. 
 
 San Francisco, though by no means the metrop- 
 olis of the present day, was the first American 
 city of any size that we had seen since leaving 
 Philadelphia. It was stirring with picturesque 
 life and movement, and most of this was con- 
 centrated on the water front. Montgomery 
 Street was then the principal thoroughfare, and 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 171 
 
 there were very few business buildings beyond 
 Kearney Street. The only large hotels I can 
 remember were the Occidental, the Cosmopolitan, 
 and the What Cheer House, the last catering 
 almost entirely to miners. It was always 
 crowded to the doors, and one could pass an 
 entertaining half hour at any time, standing in 
 its lobby and watching its patrons as they came 
 in to register, often with their fortunes and all 
 their personal effects in their belts and upon 
 their backs. 
 
 I recollect two theaters, the Metropolitan and 
 Maguire's Opera House, though there may have 
 been others. I had a very slight acquaintance 
 with their interiors, for theater tickets, like many 
 other things, were very high priced in San Fran- 
 cisco in those days, and our pay proportionately 
 low, when we came to exchange our greenbacks 
 for gold on shore. My month's salary as an en- 
 sign — one hundred dollars in greenbacks — 
 shrank to about half when exchanged for specie. 
 However, as we were in three watches, our shore- 
 going was naturally limited, and our forced 
 economies did not trouble us much. I remember 
 one of the things that impressed me most, in a 
 
172 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 city so full of a rough and adventurous element, 
 was the scarcity of policemen. I was told that 
 there were only about two hundred in all, but 
 my informant added meaningly that the Vigilance 
 Committee was still a name to conjure with, and 
 that lamp-posts and rope made an effective com- 
 bination in the hands of peace-loving citizens. 
 
 The greater part of the time that I remained 
 on the Vanderhilt was spent in San Francisco 
 harbor, with the exception of one trip which we 
 made to Honolulu. Queen Emma, the wife of 
 Kamehameha V, had just returned to this country 
 from a visit to England, and we were detailed to 
 give her a passage home. Admiral Thatcher 
 turned over his cabin to her and an Englishwoman 
 in her suite, a Miss Spurgeon. The queen was 
 an agreeable and cultivated woman, but the 
 English companion was a good deal of a trial to 
 the Admiral. She generally contrived to lead 
 the conversation at meals to "odious" com- 
 parisons between the North and South, always 
 assuming that every one must concede the latter 
 to be immensely superior, though of course if she 
 were wrong in these views she was amiably anxious 
 that the "dear Admiral" should set her right. 
 
THE WTIECK OF THE SUWANEE 173 
 
 The restraint which the Admiral's chivalry put 
 upon him, while in the cabin, was usually followed 
 by a terrific outburst as soon as he reached the deck. 
 During the month we were anchored in the 
 harbor of Honolulu, Queen Emma kept the 
 ship's company generously supplied with fresh 
 provisions, ranging from vegetables to cattle. 
 One day, a young bull managed to break loose, 
 after being hoisted on board, and as he was an 
 active animal, he soon cleared the forecastle. 
 The crew came rushing down the port gangway. 
 I was officer of the deck at the time, and hearing 
 the tumult, I came hurrying over to check it. 
 The men, more concerned about the bull than 
 my orders, paid no attention, but swept on, and 
 luckily I got a clue to their behavior by a sight 
 of horns and tail flourishing in the rear. In a 
 second I had joined the rout. I made a jump 
 for the rail, which was low and had a molding 
 outboard, and there I clung, watching the 
 triumph of his Bullship, who for a brief space 
 had the entire deck to himself. He was finally 
 entangled with ropes dropped from the rigging, 
 and being thrown down, was dragged off, still 
 snorting defiance. 
 
174 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Among the quantities of fowls sent off by 
 Queen Emma were a number of gamecocks, or so 
 the men chose to consider them. Each mess in 
 the ship's company had its champion, of which it 
 proudly boasted, while the cocks themselves 
 crowed a challenge to all comers. One after- 
 noon, a sailor who had been amusing himself 
 fishing for gulls with the usual outfit of cord 
 and salt pork, happened to catch one. He put 
 his captive in a vacant chicken coop, and some 
 one suggested introducing a gamecock to see if 
 a fight could be brought off. The rooster was 
 ready. As soon as he landed in the coop and 
 discovered the other bird, he uttered a shrill crow, 
 and ruffling his neck feathers for war, flew at the 
 gull and spurred him severely. The gull was 
 visibly surprised. He was lonely and strange in 
 his new surroundings, and had rather welcomed 
 the advent of the cock as a companion in misery. 
 He drew back into his corner to meditate on this 
 turn of affairs, but the little feathered bomb flew 
 up again and hit him another smart clip. When 
 this happened a third time, it seemed to occur to 
 him that this other bird actually meant to be 
 unpleasant. He suddenly darted forward, and 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 175 
 
 seizing the rooster by the head, made a vaKant 
 and determined attempt to swallow him entire. 
 When he finally gave up, and that gamecock 
 got his head out of chancery, he was absolutely 
 quelled, and his only idea was to find a space 
 between the slats of the coop wide enough to 
 squeeze through. 
 
 A second and a third champion entered the 
 lists and were disposed of in the same way. The 
 gull did not wait for them to declare war. He had 
 found that "watchful waiting" did not pay. I 
 then insisted that the victor should be freed. 
 
 Prince — afterwards King — Kalakaua was a 
 frequent visitor to the Vanderbilt. He came off 
 one day for lunch, bringing with him, as a con- 
 tribution to that meal, a roast dog, a highly rated 
 native delicacy. He explained that it was poy 
 fed, and I think was a little disappointed that we 
 did not take to it with more enthusiasm. 
 
 The heir to the throne, Prince Billy, as he was 
 called, spent nearly all his time at Waikiki, swim- 
 ming among the breakers like a fish, or drinking 
 like one, on shore. I never remember seeing him. 
 
 About seven months after we left Honolulu, I 
 and several other officers were transferred from 
 
176 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 the Vanderbilt to the Suwanee, a double-ender, 
 whose captain was Commander Young. He died 
 soon after we joined the ship and was succeeded 
 by Commander Richard L. Law. We were lying 
 at Panama at this time, where we had just relieved 
 the Dacotah. A massacre, which had taken 
 place at Panama, and in which a number of 
 Americans returning from California had been 
 killed, caused our Government to keep a vessel 
 of the Pacific squadron at that port, except at 
 those times when an English man-of-war could 
 undertake the duty^. On several occasions it 
 had been necessary to land an armed force, but 
 as a rule the presence of the ship was enough to 
 protect foreigners and their property. Yellow 
 fever was much dreaded in those days, and with 
 reason. One of our ships, the Resaca, during her 
 stay at Panama, had lost twenty-five men out of 
 a crew numbering less than two hundred, and 
 when she passed us near Acapulco on her way up 
 the coast, she still had many sick on board. 
 Under these conditions, of course, very little shore 
 leave was granted. One day, however, two of 
 our officers. Lieutenant Commander Wood and 
 Ensign Wilson, with their boat's crew, were 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 177 
 
 given permission to go ashore. They wanted to 
 visit the ruins of the old tower, the only vestige 
 left to mark the site of Old Panama, the city 
 destroyed two centuries before by Morgan and 
 his buccaneers. It came near being a fatal visit 
 for them. 
 
 The party, having made a landing, left one man 
 to look out for the boat, which was drawn up on 
 the beach. Unfortunately, this man, or rather 
 boy, was an inexperienced landsman, and took a 
 crazy notion to experiment with his charge in 
 the absence of the others. They had not gone 
 far when they heard wild cries for help, and 
 rushing back to the beach, saw their boat, her 
 bow pointed to sea and her jib set, already some 
 distance from the shore. Her panic-stricken 
 occupant, in answer to repeated shouts to "haul 
 down the jib", threw himself down in the stern 
 sheets and stretched his arms despairingly to the 
 little group on the beach. Seeing it was useless 
 to expect anything from him. Wood and Wilson 
 began to look about for some means of pursuit, 
 and finally found an old native canoe, hollowed 
 out from a single log. In this frail and treacherous 
 craft they courageously put off, and as they be- 
 
178 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 came more accustomed to the use of the paddle, 
 were gradually gaining on the boat, when the 
 breeze freshened, and she began to draw away 
 from them. It was then that the desperate nature 
 of their venture came upon them, for with the 
 breeze, the sea was getting up, and it was doubt- 
 ful if they could have returned to the shore, even 
 had they been willing to give up all hope of 
 rescuing the author of their troubles. They 
 continued to shout to him to lower the sail, but 
 with absolutely no effect. 
 
 The sailors left upon the beach watched 
 pursuers and pursued out of sight, and then 
 began the six-mile walk into Panama. It was 
 nearly evening before they reached their ship, 
 and as all knew it would be a matter of several 
 hours before she could get up steam, and the 
 breeze was carrying the two boats to the east- 
 ward all the time, off the track of the few steamers 
 coming to Panama, it was felt that there was 
 practically no hope of a rescue. 
 
 The improbable occurred however, as it some- 
 times does. An English man-of-war, the Malacca, 
 commanded by Captain Oldfields, was coming up 
 the coast under sail and stood well over to the 
 
THE WTIECK OF THE SUWANEE 179 
 
 eastward. She was just putting about when 
 cries for assistance were heard in the darkness. 
 She rounded to, and in a few minutes a canoe 
 manned by two almost exhausted but very thank- 
 ful young men came alongside. A little later 
 the boat with its prostrate occupant was sighted 
 and hoisted on board, and before the night was 
 over, the Suwanee had her full complement again. 
 
 I had had two promotions while on the Vander- 
 hilt. I was promoted to the grade of master, in 
 'QQ, and to that of lieutenant in '67. When we 
 went north to San Francisco in the Suwanee, 
 I passed my examination for lieutenant com- 
 mander, reaching this grade at the age of twenty- 
 four. We did not remain long in San Francisco, 
 having received orders to proceed to Alaska, which 
 had only recently come into our possession. We 
 went first to Victoria, Vancouver, and after a 
 short stay, started on our way to Sitka. 
 
 We got no farther than the northern end of 
 Vancouver Island. We were running out of 
 Johnson's Straits the morning of July 7. It was 
 about six o'clock, and I had the deck. We were 
 traveling at full speed, with the current adding 
 two or three knots, when the ship struck an un- 
 
180 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 known rock, and almost instantly became a 
 complete wreck. The impact was so great that 
 men were thrown from their feet, and those of 
 the crew who were sleeping were pitched from 
 their hammocks. A few who were temporarily 
 demoralized ran to the boats, but the watch on 
 deck behaved admirably. The marines went 
 promptly to their stations at the boat-falls, and 
 by the time the captain and officers reached the 
 deck, and Sanders, the executive, relieved me, 
 comparative quiet was restored. The engine 
 was stopped at once, so there was a full head of 
 steam to blow off. The captain — whom the 
 shock had thrown from the transom where he was 
 sleeping — called to me as he came up the com- 
 panion way to know if I had sounded the pumps. 
 I answered, "Why, Captain, the whole bottom 
 is torn out of her, from bow to amidships." In- 
 deed she had already started to break in two. The 
 bow was settling, and the deck planking beginning 
 to separate. All at once, with a splintering crash, 
 she parted through the gun ports, just forward 
 of the hurricane deck. About thirty men were 
 left on the forecastle, and the captain asked if I 
 could get across and join them. I managed it 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 181 
 
 easily enough, and though the bow of the ship 
 had completely gone under, the rest of her was 
 so high upon the rock that we were able to get 
 at the storerooms and broke out a number of 
 barrels of beef and pork. The executive shouted 
 across to us to cut away the rigging, so that the 
 foremast would fall over the side, but as the mast 
 and rigging would have been our only refuge if 
 the ship slipped from her position into deep water, 
 I protested against this. Even then the deck 
 was so steeply inclined that we had to use the 
 cleats and ropes to keep our footing. 
 
 A grating that chanced to drop overboard 
 was instantly seized by the force of the current, 
 and sucked under the ship, and this was too 
 much for the nerves of our chief boatswain's 
 mate. I had already suspected this man of 
 cowardice, and now I saw him making a stealthy 
 attempt to reach the after part of the ship. I 
 was about to call attention to him, when Chap- 
 man, one of our petty officers, intervened. "Let 
 him go, Mr. Clark ! The cur is demoralizing the 
 men!'' 
 
 A little later, when the provisions we had broken 
 out had been hauled over by lines to the hurri- 
 
182 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 cane deck, all hands assembled there, and the 
 boats were manned and loaded. The after end 
 of the ship was by this time well under water also, 
 and as I had had no opportunity to go to my 
 stateroom, I should have lost all my effects, had 
 it not been for the thoughtfulness of Ensign 
 Perry, and a sergeant of marines named Burke. 
 They had snatched the blankets from my bunk, 
 and emptying the contents of drawers and stowage 
 places into them, had tied them into a bundle 
 by the four corners. So nearly all my things were 
 saved. 
 
 We were near Hope Island, and the boats were 
 able to land behind a point, but in spite of its 
 protection, the sea was running heavily enough 
 to capsize the first three or four. When it came 
 my turn to shove off, the captain asked me to 
 take charge of his kit, saying he was going to 
 trust it to my management, or luck. When we 
 pulled in, it looked at first as if we were really to 
 make a successful landing, but a few moments 
 after our bow touched the beach, a heavy roller 
 caught us under the quarter, and turned the boat 
 over, only two or three of us managing to jump 
 clear. Luckily, the water was deep enough to keep 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 183 
 
 us from being crushed among the rocks when the 
 boat rolled over us. The captain's faith was 
 justified, for his effects had been pitched ashore 
 at once and landed high and dry, but mine were 
 submerged with me. As they floated to the sur- 
 face, an Indian — there were a number of them 
 hovering about in canoes — seized the bundle and 
 started to make off with it, but one of our people 
 who saw what was happening pulled a rifle on 
 him, and compelled him to restore my property. 
 
 Everybody having landed safely, the captain 
 that same day sent Lieutenant Commander 
 Frank Wildes, in charge of one of the ship's boats, 
 with orders to proceed through the Gulf of Georgia 
 to get help from Victoria, or one of the Puget 
 Sound ports. He had not gone far when he 
 fortunately fell in with H. M. S. Sparrowhawk, 
 Her captain. Commander Porcher, took him and 
 his crew on board, and started for Hope Island 
 at full speed, arriving the second day after the 
 wreck. The Sparrowhawk^s prompt arrival was 
 most welcome, for although we had built the best 
 tents we could of awnings and sails, they were 
 very inadequate protection from the heavy rains. 
 
 As the SparrowhawFs capacity was limited, we 
 
184 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 soon realized that a number of us would have to 
 be left behind. Wlien the captain informed me 
 that he meant to leave me in charge of this party, 
 my feelings were somewhat mixed. The prospect 
 of being stranded on Hope Island for an uncertain 
 length of time was not particularly pleasing, and 
 yet I was rather flattered that the captain had 
 chosen me for a position of trust which he might 
 have offered to any one of the three officers who 
 were my seniors. He allowed me to select my 
 men, those who volunteered to be preferred. 
 Ensign Thomas Wilson, assistant engineers Green- 
 leaf and Chasmar, and thirty-three men — all 
 volunteers — were detailed. The captain's only 
 instructions were that everything possible was to 
 be saved from the wreck, and that a constant 
 watch must be kept upon the Indians, who were 
 gathering in great numbers. They were well 
 armed, many of them having breech-loading 
 rifles, like our own. The principal chief in the 
 vicinity was called Cheap, and he looked upon 
 the English as his natural enemies. 
 
 The officers and men of the Sparrowhawk did 
 everything possible for our people who were 
 embarking with them, and also for those remain- 
 
THE \\TIECK OF THE SUWANEE 185 
 
 ing behind. Lieutenant Reginald Townsend came 
 ashore repeatedly, bringing everything he could 
 think of for my comfort, both from his personal 
 effects, and what could be drawn from the ship's 
 stores. We soon had our tents quite comfortable 
 and rainproof, except for the heaviest downpours. 
 
 When Chasmar volunteered to be one of the 
 party left with me, I was quite concerned, for he 
 was seemingly wasted with consumption, and 
 during the year I had been with him had had 
 eight or ten hemorrhages. I felt that the con- 
 stant dampness and exposure would be almost 
 fatal to one with his complaint. To my great 
 surprise he seemed to benefit rather than otherwise 
 by the camp life. There were five staff oflacers 
 on the Suwanee, and as Chasmar outlived them 
 all, I think he may be regarded as one of the earliest 
 examples of what the open-air treatment can 
 accomplish. 
 
 The instant the departing Sparrowhawk had 
 turned a point. Cheap, the "bad Indian", came out 
 from behind another where he had been lurking. 
 By good fortune, one of the marines in my party 
 knew the Siwash dialect, so we had a powwow. 
 Cheap proclaimed sovereignty over all the islands 
 
186 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 and waters in the neighborhood, and complained 
 that the presence of the British gunboat had 
 kept him from exacting his rightful tribute from 
 the wreck. This must now be made good to 
 him. I replied, through our interpreter, that 
 there could be no question of tribute, for while 
 I was on the island I was the one and only chief. 
 The water in front was also under my jurisdiction. 
 I would graciously permit the Indians to come 
 into the bay however, provided they kept away 
 from the beach in front of the camp, and did not 
 approach it from the woods in the rear. That 
 since we were not "King George men" with whom 
 he was engaged in war, I would be glad to trade 
 with him, and if he brought, or sent to the camp, 
 every day, a deer, or a large salmon, tobacco, 
 flannel, and blankets would be generously returned. 
 Cheap seemed satisfied with these terms, and 
 as he was a wily individual, and quite alive to 
 his own interests, I really believe he used all his 
 influence while we were there to keep the peace, 
 but as the Indians continued to gather, and we 
 knew that the fresh arrivals were avaricious, we 
 still felt that there was some danger of an out- 
 break. One day, when several hundred of them 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 187 
 
 had congregated in front of our camp, and were 
 showing a constant disposition to edge closer, we 
 ran out a twelve-pound howitzer from its hiding- 
 place in the woods. Having neither shrapnel nor 
 canister, we had — this was the suggestion of 
 Ingraham, a boatswain's mate — filled it nearly 
 full of small cans packed with pebbles. We 
 motioned the Indians to stand aside, giving them 
 to understand in sign language that every living 
 thing in our line of fire would cease to exist. When 
 we had finally secured a clear field and let go, it 
 seemed as if a perfect storm of hail had burst 
 upon the waters of the bay. After the gun had 
 been run back to its lair, we beckoned the aborig- 
 ines to return, but very few accepted the invita- 
 tion. Even our friend Cheap at his next visit 
 seemed very ill at ease. In spite of the respect 
 this manoeuver had inspired, we kept up all 
 precautions. One commissioned ofiicer, with a 
 petty ofiicer and four men, were on guard, day 
 and night. I still had in reserve the threat of 
 uncorking a bottle of smallpox, so effective, as 
 Washington Irving tells us, in "Astoria." 
 
 One morning, we found that a small steamer, 
 the Otter, belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, 
 
188 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 had come to anchor off our camp. I had an 
 interview with her captain and contracted with 
 him to take us and such stores as were saved to 
 Victoria. He was rather inchned to take advan- 
 tage of our situation, we thought, and I conse- 
 quently enjoyed his confusion and rueful protests, 
 when I made him include among his receipts a 
 quantity of brass tubes, which he had stowed 
 away as part of his own cargo. We had intended 
 to take them out of the wreck at low tide, but 
 discovered the morning before we sailed that the 
 captain had forestalled us at this work. 
 
 On our way south in the Otter we met the 
 Sparrowhawk coming north, just at the upper 
 end of Seymour's Narrows. Her captain brought 
 word from Admiral Thatcher that he was sending 
 a small steamer, the Forward, to the scene of 
 the wreck to bring us away, and that the Suwanee's 
 guns must be saved if possible. I concluded that 
 I might as well continue in the Otter until we should 
 meet the Forward, and it was not long after this 
 that we sighted a large bay steamer, the New 
 World, which it seemed had been sent in her 
 place. On board was our navigator, Lieutenant 
 Commander George Wood, Ensign Thomas Perry, 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 189 
 
 and twenty of our men. The admiral had sent 
 me permission to travel south at the first oppor- 
 tunity, but Greenleaf, Chasmar, Wilson, and I 
 decided to transfer to the New World and return 
 with Wood to Hope Island. Perry took Wilson's 
 place in the Otter. 
 
 The New World had brought diving apparatus, 
 and a professional diver, rejoicing in the eupho- 
 nious title of "Billy the Bug", but when this 
 gentleman saw the position of the wreck, he 
 decided the risks were too great and declined the 
 job. Hearing of this, Mirch, our gunner's mate, 
 immediately volunteered his services. The day 
 he began operations everything was favorable, 
 and though the current was strong, the water 
 was so clear that the hatches of the storeroom on 
 the second deck below could be plainly seen. 
 While Mirch's armor and helmet were being ad- 
 justed on the hurricane deck, the Indians, who 
 had flocked to the scene in their canoes, were in 
 a fever of excitement, which even their stoicism 
 failed to conceal. A number of them, shepherded 
 by Cheap, were roosting along that part of the 
 ship's rail which had not been submerged. They 
 kept a tight clutch on their canoes, and it was 
 
190 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 perfectly evident they would have jumped into 
 them and viewed what was going on at a safer 
 distance, if Cheap had not commanded them by 
 motions to remain. He was a public character 
 with a reputation to maintain, and could not 
 afford to show any signs of fear. There were a 
 few moments of terrible tension, when Mirch, 
 who had been lowered to the spar deck, walked 
 slowly along it, remaining an unnatural length 
 of time beneath the water, as it seemed to them. 
 But when he approached the steerage hatch, and 
 began his descent into the deeper darkness below, 
 flesh and blood could bear it no longer. It was 
 too much even for Cheap. With a cry of terror, 
 he leaped for his canoe and led the flight. We 
 could see him and his followers still spattering 
 water, as they rounded the point, and it was several 
 days before they again honored us with a visit. 
 Usually we would have been glad enough to 
 have them keep away, but at this time it happened 
 that Wood wanted to get some information from 
 Cheap, and after waiting in vain for him to put 
 in an appearance, finally decided to make a visit 
 to his village. Wood and I were the only officers 
 in the party, and we had our revolvers in our 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 191 
 
 belts, but none of the men in our boat's crew were 
 armed, as we considered that we were making 
 a friendly call. We discovered soon after land- 
 ing that the friendliness was all on one side. 
 Cheap was not at home, and in his absence we 
 found we were distinctly unwelcome. An ugly- 
 looking half-breed, who was manifestly trying to 
 foment the ill feeling against us, came up to me, 
 gesturing and muttering excitedly, and before I 
 knew what he was about, snatched the revolver 
 from my belt. Quick as the action was. Wood 
 was quicker. Before the half-breed could free 
 my revolver of its leather guard. Wood's was at 
 his head, and the cool contact of its muzzle caused 
 him to hand back my weapon with almost comical 
 rapidity. The other Indians, who had surged 
 forward on this movement of their leader's, re- 
 treated, and Wood, lowering his revolver slowly, 
 motioned the half-breed to go, and he slunk off 
 completely cowed. It occurred to me that it 
 would have been prudent to have held him as a 
 hostage until we were safely in our boat, but 
 Wood's contemptuous treatment of him so im- 
 pressed the other Indians that they gave us no 
 further trouble. 
 
192 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 We saved all the ammunition in the after part 
 of the Suwanee and her guns, with the exception 
 of the forward one-hundred pounder. That the 
 Indians did a little salvage work on their own 
 account was proved in a curious way, some 
 twenty years later. Commander Hitchcock of 
 our service was at that time recovering from an 
 illness in a hospital at Victoria. One day, when 
 his dinner was brought to him, he noticed that 
 the silver spoon and fork lying on the tray were 
 marked "Thomas Perry, U. S. N." He ques- 
 tioned the nurse and found that the two articles 
 had been left at the hospital by a poor Indian 
 who had been treated there, and who had insisted 
 on bestowing the only valuables he had, in grati- 
 tude for kindnesses received. Commander Hitch- 
 cock was able to purchase the fork and spoon and 
 sent them to their original owner, now a rear 
 admiral on the retired list. 
 
 On our way to Victoria, we had occasion to 
 prove the power of the current in Seymour's 
 Narrows, where a few years later the U.S.S. 
 Saranac was lost. We were caught in the narrows 
 by the full force of the ebb, and despite our 
 utmost efforts, we were not able to win through. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 193 
 
 The chart states that the current there runs from 
 six to nine knots, but although the New World 
 could make eleven knots, she was unable to over- 
 come it. Two or three times, by bottling up our 
 steam until we came to the worst place, we 
 managed to bring her bow almost to the end of 
 the gorge, where she hung quivering for an in- 
 stant, only to be swept back by the relentless 
 force of the water. Finally we gave it up and 
 ran into Plumper Bay, some distance above the 
 entrance, where we waited for the flood tide. 
 
 On our arrival at Victoria, we were somewhat 
 disturbed to learn that this New World, in which 
 by wording of the contract we were to continue 
 our way to San Francisco, had been condemned 
 as unsafe for even the enclosed waters of Puget 
 Sound. There was no telegraphic communica- 
 tion then with either Washington or San Fran- 
 cisco, which left Lieutenant Commander Wood 
 in an embarrassing position. He had to choose 
 between entailing on the Government the extra 
 expense of our passage on another steamer, an 
 expenditure it might refuse to recognize, or the 
 distressing alternative of risking more than fifty 
 lives under his charge. The English admiral, 
 
194 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Hastings, whose flagship the Zealous was lying 
 at Esquimalt, showed much concern over our 
 situation. He expressed the opinion that our 
 admiral, Thatcher, could certainly not have known 
 when he made the contract what a rotten hulk 
 the New World was, and when he heard that Wood 
 had decided he must try to get through in her to 
 San Francisco, he strongly advised the engaging 
 of another steamer. If our Navy Department 
 censured such a course, which appeared unlikely, 
 he would be glad to state that he had been respon- 
 sible for the action as far as a superior officer in 
 another service could be. Finally, during a visit 
 he made to the New World, he declared that rather 
 than see nearly sixty American officers and men 
 put to sea in such a death trap, he would trans- 
 port them in his own ship. It was a pity Wood 
 did not feel himself in a position to accept this 
 generous and considerate offer, for coming to 
 public notice at a time when the Alabama claims 
 were being adjusted, it might have helped to 
 bring about a kindlier feeling between the two 
 countries. 
 
 After all, our old "death trap" took us safely 
 to San Francisco, but that was merely good luck. 
 
THE WRECK OF THE SUWANEE 195 
 
 because for seven hundred miles, and during 
 seventy hours, we ran over an absolutely glassy 
 sea. Only once, in a long swell off Cape Mendo- 
 cino, did she roll to her guards, and that roll 
 brought everybody up on deck, ready to take to 
 the boats at an instant's notice. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 An Asiatic Cruise 
 
 Detached from the Pacific fleet and ordered 
 home, I took passage on the steamer Golden City 
 for Panama. At Aspinwall, now called Colon, 
 I transferred to the Alaska. She was just casting 
 off her lines to leave the dock, when a messenger 
 came running down it with orders for the captain 
 to make fast again, and wait for passengers just 
 arrived at Panama by a South Pacific steamer. 
 They proved to be officers and men from the 
 Dacotah, and the survivors of the Wateree and 
 Fredonia, vessels destroyed by the earthquake 
 wave at Arica; nearly three hundred in all. 
 Among them was my classmate, George T. Davis. 
 He asked me to visit his home, in Greenfield, 
 Massachusetts, on the way to my own in Mont- 
 pelier. I was very easily persuaded to do so, as 
 I had a strong desire to see what changes five 
 
 196 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 197 
 
 years had made in the features or the expression of 
 his youngest sister Louisa, who when I had last 
 seen her was a young girl. The visit resulted in 
 our engagement, and we were married on April 8, 
 1869. The Greenfield paper, in announcing the 
 event, gave me a higher rank than I have ever 
 attained since, referring to me as Charles E. 
 Clark, Lieutenant Commanding the United States 
 Navy. The usual announcement about presents 
 " numerous and valuable " was not quoted. I 
 should add that our marriage followed orders 
 suddenly received by me to a ship, and that 
 Mary, the next older daughter, wife of Senator 
 Conness and mother of Lady Rich, had married 
 one week earlier. Louisa Russell Davis, mother 
 of Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Conness, was born at 
 34 Beacon St., now the ofBce of the publishers of 
 this book. 
 
 We have two daughters, Mary Louise, married 
 to Captain S. S. Robison, U.S.N. , and Caroline 
 Russell, married to Captain C. F. Hughes, U.S.N. , 
 and one granddaughter, Louisa Russell Hughes.^ 
 
 1 Captain S. S. Robison took part in the battle of Manila Bay 
 and now commands the battleship South Carolina. 
 
 Captain C. F. Hughes now commands the battleship New York. 
 He was Chief of Staff of the battleship fleet with Rear Admiral 
 
198 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 In September, 1870, I became navigator of the 
 monitor Dictator — the Richard Murphy as the 
 sailors used to call her. She was then the largest 
 of our ironclads, and also the most heavily ar- 
 mored, but through some mistake in her con- 
 struction she had only one turret, and her battery 
 consequently was only half that of the Monadnock, 
 Her overhang was nowhere less than four feet 
 wide, and because of her great length, she woujd, 
 when pitching in a heavy sea, strike this pro- 
 jecting part with such force that it seemed as 
 if the next shock must inevitably tear her open, 
 and founder her. Many of her crew never went 
 below in rough weather, saying they did not 
 propose to be caught like rats in a trap, without 
 even the chance for a swim. I remember a 
 pilot who joined us at Tybee Roads, just below 
 Savannah, who spent the greater part of two 
 days and nights on the sloping awning above the 
 turret, and vowed if he were ever fortunate 
 enough to get on shore again, he meant to stay 
 there. 
 
 Charles J. Badger, when that oflScer, under orders to Tampico; pro- 
 ceeded to Vera Cruz instead, arriving a few hours after the fighting 
 began, landing reenforcements, and being in responsible command 
 from that time on and when our heaviest losses were incurred. 
 
Roar Admiral Clark and Granddaiigliter^ Louisa Russell 
 Huglies 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 199 
 
 On our way south from Hampton Roads, 
 during what was generally known in the service 
 as the first Cubic War, we encountered a gale 
 while in the Gulf Stream and our wheel ropes 
 parted. The space between deck and boilers 
 was less than two feet, and as it was therefore 
 impossible for men to repair the damage to the 
 ropes with steam up, we were obliged to haul 
 fires. So for hours we lay in the trough of a 
 heavy sea, which swept our decks, submerging 
 everything but the turret and the light deck 
 extending from it to the smoke-stack. The tugs 
 which were with us as consorts, the Standish and 
 Triana, were absolutely useless. The first lost 
 her rudder, and the engines of the second broke 
 down. We saw nothing of the Standish during 
 all that troubled night, and the one glimpse we 
 had of the Triana we would have been very glad 
 to forego. She came drifting down upon us out 
 of the darkness, and for a moment it looked as if 
 she were going to get caught under our overhang, 
 which would have been fatal to us both, but 
 luckily we had enough steam at the time to go 
 ahead, and she just cleared us astern. When 
 morning dawned, neither tug was visible, so we 
 
200 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 made for the Savannah River. We heard after- 
 wards that they fortunately met, and effecting a 
 combination like the blinti man and the cripple, 
 one towing and the other steering, they got into 
 Charleston Harbor. 
 
 Our captain, Edmund R. Calhoun, had had 
 much experience with ironclads. He had served 
 in monitors off Charleston during all the engage- 
 ments there, and was in command of the Wehaw- 
 ken, when having grounded at night, she was 
 exposed the next day to a cross fire from Sumter 
 and Moultrie. One of our young officers, who 
 was conspicuous for his coolness and courage in 
 all the emergencies of this trying cruise, was 
 Wilson McGunnigle, a brother of the Lieutenant 
 McGunnigle I reported to on board the Constitution 
 when I entered the service. It was a loss to the 
 navy when he resigned later to go into the banking 
 business.^ 
 
 Before ending this cruise, we went to Port 
 au Prince, Hayti, in company with the flagship 
 Severn and the Saugus. Santo Domingo was 
 
 ^ He was one of the guests invited by the Navy Department to take 
 passage on the Oregon, when it was proposed to have her lead the in- 
 ternational fleets at the opening of the Panama Canal. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 201 
 
 then considering annexation to the United States, 
 and as there was some idea that Hayti might 
 wish to interfere, we were sent there to bully 
 her into keeping her hands off. 
 
 From Port au Prince, we went to Samana 
 Bay, Santo Domingo, where the sentiment of 
 the party in power seemed strongly in favor of 
 annexation. I remember that the mulatto pilot 
 who tried to induce our captain to let him take 
 the ship into port was an enthusiastic partisan. 
 He had voted several times already, he told us, 
 and meant to vote again when he got ashore, 
 and when we inquired about the proportion of 
 those who were against the measure, he assured 
 us that they were not allowed to vote at all. 
 If there were truth in his account of affairs, it 
 must be concluded that the eventual decision 
 against annexing Santo Domingo must have 
 come from the United States. 
 
 All during our stay the authorities showed a 
 great desire to ingratiate themselves with us. 
 Captain Bunce of the Nantasket had a rather 
 startling proof of this. He had sent a complaint 
 to Governor Baez, whose' brother was then 
 president of Santo Domingo, about the insolence 
 
202 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 of one of the native boatmen. The governor 
 promptly replied that he had identified the man, 
 and had despatched him under guard to his 
 brother, the president, with the request that he 
 be shot at once. Bunce was obliged to send a 
 horseman posthaste to prevent this too obliging 
 evidence of national good will. 
 
 My first shore duty was at the Naval Academy, 
 Annapolis. I was there from 1870 to 1873 as 
 an instructor and assistant to the commandant 
 of midshipmen. I made one practice cruise on 
 the Saratoga in company with the Constellation. 
 On board the Saratoga was a boatswain's mate 
 by the name of Brady, who will doubtless be 
 remembered by others beside myself because of 
 his absolute devotion to one of the officers. For 
 this young man he desired all things good in the 
 official line and was jealous of any distinction 
 conferred on others. One Sunday, while the ship 
 was in port, a letter from the Secretary of the 
 Navy was read at general quarters, highly com- 
 mending the gallantry of an officer who had 
 saved the life of a man who had fallen overboard. 
 That evening Brady rolled aft, and sidling up to 
 his idol, who was pacing the deck, began a long 
 
AN ASL\TIC CRUISE 203 
 
 dissertation on what a fine thing it was for a 
 young officer to have "one of them 'condemna- 
 tory' letters from the Secretary of the Navy, 
 sir." 
 
 "Of course it's a fine thing," agreed the officer, 
 rather puzzled to know what the old man could 
 be driving at, "but if you have any reference 
 to me, Brady, I can't quite see how one is coming 
 my way." 
 
 "Why, I'll tell you, sir," said Brady, sinking 
 his voice to a hoarse confidential whisper. 
 "To-morrow I gets leave and comes back along- 
 side, just after pipe-down, when you has the 
 deck. As I steps for the gangway, I misses my 
 footing and overboard I goes. And you in after 
 me," he ended triumphantly. 
 
 "That's a wonderful plan, Brady," said the 
 young officer, smiling, "but you see it has one 
 fatal drawback. I don't know how to swim." 
 
 "Lord, sir ! that don't make no difference. 
 Don't you be afeard to jump. I"ll hold you 
 up till the boat comes." 
 
 After my three years at the Academy I was 
 ordered as executive to another monitor, the 
 Mahopac, lying at Norfolk. They were rush 
 
204 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 orders, for war was again threatened with Spain 
 on account of the Virginius affair, and all was 
 hurry and hustle. I reached New York City in 
 a driving snowstorm, too late to catch any night 
 train south, and crossed over to Jersey City to 
 be sure of the first train in the morning. It was 
 a case of "much haste, less speed." The hotel 
 clerk with whom I left word to be called chose 
 that occasion to indulge in a fit, and I slumbered 
 peacefully on through part of the next day. The 
 hotel clerk's fit reminds me of a telegram that 
 was sent by an officer to his wife, when his ship 
 arrived at Hampton Roads after a European 
 cruise. He had picked up many English expres- 
 sions while abroad, and his telegram, when it 
 reached the Httle resort in the Adirondacks 
 where she was spending the summer, was worded 
 "Arrived Hampton Roads ten a.m. Friday. 
 Am fit." Of course the country operator knew 
 that the last sentence must be incorrect, and 
 when it came to the lady's hands it read, "Ar- 
 rived Hampton Roads ten a.m. Had a fit." 
 She very nearly had one herself, and her hus- 
 band's unfortunate phrase cost him something 
 in explanatory telegrams. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 205 
 
 The Mahopac got off the day after her oflficers 
 reported, some workmen from the navy yard 
 going in her as far as Hampton Roads and work- 
 ing to the last minute to stop the leaks which 
 would have been fatal to a vessel of her class. 
 Of course, in the general rush it had not been 
 possible to make arrangements for anything like 
 ordinary comfort in our living conditions. All 
 stores had been tumbled aboard in the greatest 
 haste and without any regard to order, and the 
 four negroes shipped as wardroom boys must 
 have been taken right out of the corn fields. 
 They were quite hopeless as far as proper service 
 was concerned, but we did contrive to get a little 
 amusement out of them. Lieutenant Joseph 
 Jones, a volunteer officer, much older than the 
 rest of us, stage-managed the entertainment. 
 A pitcher, with features painted on its smooth 
 surface and a sheet dangling limply from its 
 neck, hanging by its handle in a darkened state- 
 room, made a *' ghost" weird enough to inspire 
 terror in the breasts of Salt, Mustard, Vinegar, 
 and Pepper, as Jones had named our outfit in 
 the order of their complexions. The knowledge 
 that the "ghost" was the creation of Jones never 
 
206 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 seemed to help them at all. A boy told to go 
 and get something from a certain room, would 
 approach its curtain with eyes bulging, and the 
 muttered protest, "I'se powerful skeered, sah, 
 Missah Jones done been in dah," while his mates 
 waited in a sort of fearful ecstacy for the moment 
 when he would burst through the door, with his 
 wool standing on end. 
 
 One day Salt, the pantry boy, was so absorbed 
 in watching the mental struggles of Pepper, who 
 had been told to fetch something from the doc- 
 tor's room, that he ventured too far from his 
 own base, and Jones, slipping by him, set up a 
 ghost to face him on his return. The wild yell 
 and crash that meant the loss of a good part of 
 our crockery told us that the flank movement 
 had been only too successful. 
 
 On our arrival at Key West, we found nearly 
 everything we possessed in the way of a navy 
 assembled there, the European and South Atlantic 
 fleets having been recalled. Our all was not much 
 at that date, but the Spaniards were no better 
 off than we, so I imagine a fight would have seen 
 us on the winning side. Nearly all our ships 
 were fitted with spar torpedoes, and these were 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 207 
 
 expected to inflict great damage on the enemy, 
 always providing he would stay quiet until we 
 got alongside, and that we were not "hoist first" 
 through the spar breaking, or the guys carrying 
 away. 
 
 But of course our chief concern was target 
 practice, and a board of three ofiicers was created 
 to superintend it. They decided that six hundred 
 yards was the proper distance to begin with, but 
 our captain, O'Kane, agreed with me that this 
 would bring the target absurdly close. He told 
 me to set ours at two thousand yards, and he 
 would go aboard the flagship and take up the 
 matter with the authorities. He had scarcely 
 pulled away when the three officers composing 
 the board arrived. They made themselves quite 
 disagreeable over our failure to adopt the dis- 
 tance they had suggested, and I had to send out a 
 boat to bring the target in to the six-hundred- 
 yard line. Executives of monitors in those days 
 often fired the guns themselves, and I was gener- 
 ally regarded as a good shot. Allowing for the 
 vessel to sheer a little, I pointed ahead, waited 
 for the contact, and fired, hoping my luck would 
 stand by me. I knew it had when I saw the men 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 crowding their heads into the port as the gun 
 recoiled. "There ain't any target, sir!" cried 
 one, as I stepped outside and was greeted by 
 the long faces of the board. 
 
 I put on an injured look and said regretfully, 
 "Well, you see how it is. We can only get one 
 shot a day, and our material for targets will 
 have to be increased." 
 
 Indeed, the little tent-shaped target was abso- 
 lutely obliterated, its center stick having been 
 struck at the base, and the Board, which had 
 been eloquent about getting the admiral's ear 
 and O'Kane's scalp, made a silent and solemn 
 departure. 
 
 The war flurry over, and the fleet dispersed, 
 I went home for a short leave, at the end of which 
 I received orders to the Asiatic station. As I 
 was to go out by steamer from San Francisco, 
 my wife and our two little girls, then nearly five 
 and three years of age, were able to accompany 
 me. 
 
 An overland trip took longer then than it 
 does now, but we were prepared for that and did 
 not find it tedious. I remember there was a 
 little ripple of excitement at one of the stations 
 
AN ASL\TIC CRUISE 209 
 
 on the plains where the east and west bound trains 
 met, when some one pointed out Rochefort, the 
 titled French Radical, among the passengers on 
 the platform. He had just made his escape 
 from the penal colony of New Caledonia, and 
 having landed in San Francisco, was on his way 
 east. 
 
 We became much interested in two of our 
 fellow passengers, a Mr. Power and his cousin, 
 Mr. Codd. They were Irishmen and were mak- 
 ing a world tour for the sake of Mr. Power's 
 health. He had recently lost his seat in the 
 House of Commons and was nervously used up 
 and depressed. His cousin was supposed to 
 supply the good spirits for the party, and as he 
 had a lively fancy, I am sure that at times he 
 managed to make Mr. Power forget his other 
 troubles. Whenever the train stopped long at 
 a station, it was Mr. Codd's habit to march up 
 and down its platform with my children, having 
 first effected a change of hats with one of them. 
 His solemn air as he paraded along, the blue 
 ribbons of his absurd headgear hanging over one 
 eye, and a radiant youngster clinging to each 
 hand, delighted the crowd and horrified Mr. 
 
210 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Power, but his protests were only answered by, 
 ** We're from Dublin, after all, my dear fellow. 
 Not quite English, you know." 
 
 When we reached San Francisco and were 
 confronted at the ferry by the long line of hack- 
 men with their dangling whips, Mr. Codd ex- 
 claimed, "They all know my name, by Jove! 
 See how they're fishing for me ! " 
 
 He and Mr. Power engaged one of these dis- 
 cerning fellows for the next afternoon and took 
 us all for a drive out to the Cliff House and Seal 
 Rocks. Besides being pleasant in itself, this 
 excursion was actually the means of putting money 
 in my pocket, or perhaps I should say keeping it 
 there. We chanced to meet the agent for the 
 Pacific Mail Company that afternoon, and after 
 watching my little girls who, dressed in sailor 
 suits, were playing on the beach, he remarked 
 that it would be a shame to charge those young 
 mariners for their trip to China, and the Com- 
 pany would consider it sufficient if I bought 
 tickets for Mrs. Clark and myself. 
 
 The good ship Colorado took us through to 
 Yokohama in twenty- three days. She was a 
 side-wheeler with a single engine, and had opened 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 211 
 
 the line to China and Japan when I was in San 
 Francisco eight years before. During the whole 
 trip of five thousand miles we encountered neither 
 gale nor sail. 
 
 I reported to Admiral Pennock in Yokohama, 
 where he was flying his flag on the Hartford, 
 whose cabin I entered for the first time since my 
 memorable interview with Farragut. Pennock 
 was a connection of Farragut 's, by the way. 
 He assigned me to the Yantic as executive. She 
 was then lying at Shanghai, so I continued my 
 trip on the Colorado, my wife and children dis- 
 embarking at Nagasaki, to remain for the rest 
 of the summer. 
 
 Soon after I had joined the Yantic, we were 
 sent to Amoy, where we arrested General Legendre, 
 who without authority from the United States 
 had accepted the position of military adviser to 
 the Japanese in their first expedition to Formosa. 
 He had been a general in our army, and had come 
 out of the Civil War with little remaining of his 
 natural self, for in addition to a glass eye and 
 wooden leg, he had a wig and false teeth. It was 
 said that he once tried to make an impression 
 on the natives of Formosa by reducing himself 
 
212 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 to his lowest terms in their presence, but no inter- 
 est was shown until he removed his glass eye, 
 when the assembly suddenly waked up, and 
 expressed — through an interpreter — a desire 
 to see him take out the other one. 
 
 It was while we were at Amoy that our captain 
 received some cabled instructions from" Admiral 
 Pennock, ending with the words, "Clark's family 
 all right." Of course I knew that there must be 
 some reason for this statement of what seemed 
 to me an obvious fact, and a few hours later, 
 when we heard that Nagasaki had been swept by 
 the most terrific typhoon that had been remem- 
 bered in years, I was grateful indeed for the ad- 
 miral's though tfulness. The destruction had been 
 almost unprecedented, and among the houses 
 blown down was the one standing next the hotel 
 where my family was staying. 
 
 After seven months in the Y antic I was ordered 
 to the Hartford as executive, and when she sailed 
 for home, to the Kearsarge. The Kearsarge was 
 then the largest ship left on the station, so when 
 I offered to exchange with Craven, who was my 
 senior, and who was attached to the Monocacy, 
 I suppose I got credit for magnanimity to which 
 
bt) 
 
 5 
 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 213 
 
 I was not entitled. I did not feel bound to confess 
 that the change appealed to me, because I felt 
 sure the Monocacy would soon go to Shanghai 
 for extensive repairs. The rest of my cruise 
 was spent on this ship, which was so long identi- 
 fied with the Asiatic Station that when she was 
 sold, only a few years ago, it must have seemed 
 to the old seamen who had shipped on her, over 
 and over again, as if it were their home that was 
 being broken up. She had the light draft neces- 
 sary for river work, and the Chinese, with refer- 
 ence to her paddle wheels, used to call her "two 
 side walkee." When I joined her. Captain Joseph 
 Fyffe was in command. This officer claimed 
 descent from "the first families of America", 
 or in other words, the noble red man. He was 
 inordinately proud of his ancestry, and any sug- 
 gestion on the part of an Englishman or Scotch- 
 man that he might be connected with the ducal 
 family of Fife was always warmly resented. 
 "Belong to that Flute family !" he would exclaim. 
 "No, sir! I spell my name F-y-f-f-e, and come 
 of a race whose ancestors were out for scalps, 
 when those Scotchmen were stealing sheep from 
 over the border !" 
 
'2U MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Though indined to take himself and his family 
 affairs rather seriously as a rule, he would often 
 amuse us with accounts of his father-in-law, who 
 was no other than Moody, the fighting parson of 
 the Ohio Valley. Fyffe used to speak with 
 enthusiasm of the fashion in which Mr. Moody 
 conducted his meetings, jumping sometimes from 
 his improvised pulpit — a plank resting on two 
 barrels — to beat the heads of a couple of rowdies 
 into a pulp, then hopping back like a rooster to 
 his perch to lead the singing. When these energies 
 were turned on the little country place his son- 
 in-law was trying to beautify, however, they did 
 not seem so admirable. There was quite a degree 
 of pathos mixed with the humor with which the 
 captain told how a lawn on which he had expended 
 both time and love had been ploughed and turned 
 into a hayfield by the forcible old gentleman, and 
 the young shade trees he had grouped with such 
 care, uprooted and planted in straight rows. 
 
 "The old cuss would walk up to one of them," 
 said he, "put his arm around it as an elephant 
 would his trunk, yank it out, and march off with 
 it. Things got to such a pass that one day I just 
 sailed out of my gate and shouted, 'Brown County, 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 215 
 
 ahoy! What will you give me for the whole 
 blamed outfit ! Farm, fertilizers, father-in-law, 
 and all!'" 
 
 I never had occasion to regret my move to 
 the Monocacy, for the duty in connection with 
 her was thoroughly agreeable. We were in 
 Shanghai for lengthy periods, did quite a bit of 
 cruising about Japan, including some delightful 
 weeks in the wonderful Inland Sea, and made 
 one trip north to Tientsin, where luckily we did 
 not tarry long. 
 
 The hospitality in the Orient at that time was 
 princely. Had Mrs. Clark and I been willing, 
 we could have made our three years on the station 
 one long visit from house to house. In fact we 
 did once spend three months in Shanghai at the 
 home of our Consul General, Mr. George F. 
 Seward, a nephew of the great statesman of the 
 same name. At this time he had just received 
 his appointment as Minister to China, and as he 
 was consequently obliged to pass a part of the 
 winter in Peking, he urged us to stay on with 
 Mrs. Seward, knowing that she and Mrs. Clark 
 were devoted friends. Another Shanghai home 
 that became familiar to us was that of Mr. and 
 
216 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Mrs. Harrison. He was the manager of the 
 Oriental Bank, then the largest banking concern 
 in the Far East. If it had not been for the 
 hospitable spirit that pervaded this home, it 
 would have seemed a little too much like living 
 in a palace, marble halls and all. The rooms 
 were so stately that furniture had to be made 
 especially with reference to them, and I remember 
 the beds in the suite of rooms we occupied were 
 so colossal that a family of giants could have 
 slept in them very comfortably. Those were the 
 days of long-drawn-out dinners, a regiment of 
 wine glasses standing by each plate, and your 
 own Chinese "boy" behind your chair, to see 
 that you were served exactly as you would have 
 been at home. I believe these customs are things 
 of the past. In China, as elsewhere, it has ceased 
 to be good form to play with food and wine through 
 an entire evening, and though many in the Orient 
 still put everything except their souls in the keep- 
 ing of their "boys", they no longer consider it 
 necessary to be served by them in a friend's house. 
 There is a general impression that the China- 
 man is a soulless machine in his relations with 
 other races, dependable and even honorable in 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 217 
 
 business matters, but with no sentiment towards 
 his employer, however well he may have been 
 treated.^ And yet you will come across an excep- 
 tion occasionally, as in the case of the comprador, 
 Ah Tee, in Hong Kong. During our stay in that 
 port, I made a point of having my little girls meet 
 this old Chinaman, with the hope that they 
 would remember him as one who had been a 
 friend to their country at a time when she needed 
 friends. It was touching to see the old man's 
 pleasure in the recollection of his services, which 
 can perhaps be best described by the insertion 
 here of a few verses, purporting to be written by 
 a poor relation of Truthful James. 
 
 AH TEE 
 
 By "Truthful Jack" 
 
 My story begins in the year sixty -four. 
 Which was durin' the time of our late Civil War. 
 (And just by the way, which ter me its a mys'try 
 That ain't never been cleared by my knowledge 
 of hist'ry, 
 
 1 It should be recalled that during the Boxer war there were 
 Chinese converts who braved injuries and even death in defense of 
 their foreign friends. 
 
218 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 When people are fightin' themselves like the devil, 
 Why in 'nation should sech goin's-on be tarmed 
 
 civil ?) 
 Well, this ain't my tale, but its reely surprisin' 
 How durned easy it is to start in moralizin'. 
 
 'Twas our ship Saginaw, ter meander along. 
 In her v'ygin' around had brung up at Hong Kong, 
 A city in which if the heathen gits skittish 
 They're put down mighty quick by the red-coated 
 
 British, 
 Who, if given to land-grabbin', yet I've hearn tell 
 When they once git a country, kin govern it well. 
 And to whatever part of this wide earth they go. 
 They will make that same portion, "quite Eng- 
 lish, you know." 
 
 Now the Saginaw's crew, Cap'n McD. commandin', 
 
 Was powerful glad in a port to be landin'. 
 
 For pervisions were low, and their grog it was 
 
 slacker. 
 And they hadn't no coal, and still less of terbacker. 
 But when Cap'n McD. hurried quick to the shore. 
 For to buy out the town, and a leetle bit more, 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 219 
 
 He found — and to him 'twas a long ways from 
 
 funny, — 
 He couldn't git no one to look at his money. 
 
 The slim little bank clerks remarked with a grin. 
 It was yet on the cards that the Rebels might win. 
 When the captain to this swore blank, blank, and 
 
 dash, dash, 
 They replied, "That may be, but we can't risk our 
 
 cash." 
 At the chandler's and grocer's he couldn't git 
 
 trusted. 
 For they "feared", which meant "hoped", that 
 
 the North might go busted. 
 And poor Cap'n McD. was reduced to despair. 
 For his crew warn't the kind as could hold out on 
 
 air; 
 He was tired of being rebuffed an' rejected, 
 When he run across help, in a way unexpected. 
 
 'Twas a little old shop, in a dirty side street, 
 And the odors about, — well, the same wasn't 
 
 sweet. 
 But within, grouped about in keg, bottle and can. 
 Was all that could comfort the in'nards of man. 
 
220 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 In letters promiskus, swung over the door. 
 The name of Ah Tee, U. S. Ship's Comprador, 
 An' Cap'n McD., with a very deep sigh, 
 Thought before givin' up, he would make one last 
 try. 
 
 At the first look around at walls, counter and shelf, 
 You'd have said that the shop was a-keepin' itself. 
 But there presently came from the dark at the rear, 
 A voice, which remarked in a gibberish queer, 
 "Ah! you, Melican man, my long time no have 
 
 see ! 
 All Melican off'cer he savy Ah Tee !" 
 And a little old heathen, his hair in a queue, 
 And a welcomin' smile on his lips, stepped in view. 
 
 Thinks McD. to himself, — "When I come to 
 
 show down 
 My paper, that smile will be changed to a frown." 
 But Ah Tee looked at things in a different way, 
 "Long time Melican sailor, he plenty good pay, 
 "He my velly good fliend, all time speakee me tlue ; 
 "S'pose this time losee money, maskee,^ my 
 
 can do." 
 
 1 Maskee = Never mind, no matter. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 221 
 
 This trust from a heathen, the captain unmanned. 
 Somethin' swelled in his throat, and he put out 
 his hand. 
 
 And that warn't all neither, for when he'd supplied 
 The wants of the ship, and her crew satisfied, 
 The day they weighed anchor to sail for Shanghai, 
 Ah Tee paddled off for to tell 'em good-bye. 
 Six big strappin' coolies in line followed him, 
 And each carried a bag filled with "plunks" to 
 
 the brim, 
 Which they dropped on the deck at Ah Tee's 
 
 invitation. 
 While the old man proceeded to make an oration. 
 
 Which the substance was this, — In all ports they 
 
 would find 
 As to money the "Blitish" of much the same mind. 
 Banks and stores in Shanghai, "allee same" as 
 
 Hong Kong ; 
 So he'd brought "littee cumsha" ^ to help'em 
 
 along. 
 The speech rather sudden-like came to an end 
 With this explanation, "You b'long my good 
 
 fliend." 
 
 ^ Cumsha = a present. 
 
222 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 And the very last sound, as the ship put to sea, 
 Was the sailor-men shoutin', "Three cheers for 
 Ah Tee!" 
 
 Which is why I remark that our virtues and sins 
 Don't always match up with the shade of our skins. 
 And the somethin' that preachers tarm speeritchul 
 
 grace 
 Ain't confined to the people that own a white 
 
 face. 
 And if ever it happens that you, sir, and I 
 Should enter them mansions they talks of, on high. 
 Where the crooked comes straight, and the wrong 
 
 is made right. 
 We'll find that old Chinaman's record is white.^ 
 
 M. L. R. 
 
 1 This was not the only occasion on which Ah Tee lent a helping hand 
 to the Saginaw and her commanding officer. Oddly enough, this 
 vessel happened to be in Hong Kong some time later, when it was felt 
 that war might break out between the United States and England on 
 account of the Trent difficulty. The Saginaw, which had been laid 
 up at that time, and her crew — reduced to two or three men — would 
 have been an easy prize for the English, and McDougal, who had been 
 left in charge, determined to remove her to the Portuguese port of 
 Macao, if he could manage it. His first step was to send for Ah 
 Tee and explain the situation to him. Ah Tee came oflF at nightfall 
 with fifty coolies, and great was the astonishment of the English 
 officers who had been joking McDougal about the amount of prize 
 money that might come to them from the capture of his vessel, to 
 see this ship, without a crew as they supposed, get under way and 
 steam out of the harbor. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 223 
 
 When we made our trip through the Inland Sea, 
 Captain Fyffe, who was well acquainted with our 
 Minister to Japan, Mr. Bingham — they both 
 came from the state of Ohio — invited him to go 
 with us. The presidential contest was on at 
 home, and Mr. Bingham was exceedingly anxious 
 to learn whom the Republicans had nominated for 
 President and Vice President. He began to get 
 positively feverish about this at the time we were 
 visiting the island of Miajima, one of the most 
 beautiful spots in the Inland Sea. Its picturesque 
 temples, its torii running out into the clear water, 
 and the graceful, spotted deer wandering about 
 its village streets were all indifferent to Mr. 
 Bingham. Nothing would do but we must run 
 across to some small settlement, where it was 
 reported that a telegraph station had been estab- 
 lished. After a long struggle with the native 
 operator, a telegram was despatched, and the 
 answer awaited with suspense. Finally the instru- 
 ment commenced to tick, and the operator handed 
 over a slip with the names "Crawford and Mul- 
 cahy" inscribed on it. Mr. Bingham was reduced 
 to despair. "That ends it ! " he said despondently. 
 "If the party is that scared it doesn't dare tun 
 
224 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 anybody that was ever heard of before, even in a 
 state legislature, we're defeated at the start." 
 
 He had no heart for scenery after that, and we 
 made for the port of Kobe, where we learned that 
 the Republican nominees were Hayes and Wheeler, 
 and that Crawford and Mulcahy were the foremen 
 of a railway construction gang, working on the 
 line between Kobe and Osaka. 
 
 It was during our cruise among these islands that 
 I overheard the captain administering comfort in 
 his own peculiar fashion to a party of Japanese 
 who were visiting the ship. They were worried 
 because some American missionaries had settled 
 in their little community, and Christianity was 
 on the increase. "Don't worry about the Chris- 
 tians," said Fyffe consolingly. "We've always 
 had them at home, and we don't trouble." 
 
 "But do you have so many.^^" was the anxious 
 inquiry. 
 
 "Do we?" exclaimed Fyffe, "Why, we're 
 simply overrun with them ! " and the delegation 
 departed, seemingly reassured. 
 
 At the end of our pleasant summer in Japan, 
 we received orders to proceed to Tientsin on the 
 Pei Ho River. It was then, as it is now, the near- 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 225 
 
 est port to Peking that could be reached by men- 
 of-war, and the English, French, Russians, and 
 Americans were each supposed to keep a vessel 
 there. We expected to remain for the winter, for 
 the Pei Ho freezes over when cold weather begins. 
 We had been lying at our anchorage off Tien- 
 tsin only a short time, when the captain concluded 
 to change his position and drop a little further 
 down river. I suggested that instead of getting 
 up steam, he let me try to "club" her down. 
 In "clubbing", one allows the anchor to drift 
 along, just touching bottom, veering chain when 
 it is necessary to bring the ship up. Our journey 
 down-stream was brief, but full of incident. Our 
 first move fouled the anchor of the English gun- 
 boat Growler ; and we had scarcely got clear of her, 
 when we became entangled with the cable of the 
 French ship, the Surprise, and succeeded in pulling 
 out her bitts and part of her rail. Of course there 
 was a lively commotion on board, but our captain 
 immediately became so vociferous about "club- 
 bing" in general, and what he meant to do to me 
 in particular, that the French commander's indig- 
 nation for his ship almost disappeared in his con- 
 cern for "ce pauvre M. Clark." 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Ice had just begun to form in the river when we 
 got word that Mr. Avery, our Minister, had died 
 in Peking, and Captain Fyffe at once decided that 
 it was his duty to take the body on board the 
 Monocacy and leave for Shanghai. He offered his 
 cabin to Mrs. Avery, and as he felt she would 
 need companionship, he proposed that my wife 
 and children should share his quarters with her, 
 while I turned over my stateroom to him. I will 
 merely remark here that Mrs. Clark certainly 
 earned her passage. Mrs. Avery was in a terrible 
 state, and one of her worst obsessions was the 
 idea that her husband's body might be washed 
 overboard at any time. Captain Fyffe thought 
 it might soothe her if she imagined that a guard 
 was always kept beside the remains, so whenever 
 she was heard coming up the ladder for a walk on 
 deck, the nearest sailor had orders to seize a 
 cutlass and march up and down beside the flag- 
 covered coJSSn. One morning, Mrs. Clark, who 
 had appeared a little in advance of Mrs. Avery, 
 noticing the sailor on guard had a frank pleasant 
 face, asked me who he was. I looked, and seeing 
 that he was the paymaster's assistant answered 
 that he was the "Jack of the Dust." 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 227 
 
 "WTiat!" she exclaimed, and I instantly saw 
 what she must have thought. 
 
 "Why, yes," said I, "don't you see? He's a 
 sailor; that's Jack, and he's watching over the 
 remains — the dust. I think it's a very appro- 
 priate title." 
 
 "What nonsense!" and she marched off with 
 her head in the air to the officer-of-the-deck. 
 
 "Mr. Nabor," I heard her inquire, "tell me, 
 who is that sailor by Mr. Avery's coffin?" 
 
 "That fellow?" said Nabor, turning to look, 
 "why, his name is Jones, I believe." 
 
 " No, no ! I mean what's his billet on the ship ? " 
 
 "Oh ! he's Jack of the Dust." 
 
 This was confounding. She questioned an- 
 other officer, who had just come up from below, 
 and having received the same answer, could only 
 conclude there was a conspiracy against her. In 
 fact, I do not know of any good explanation of the 
 name of this rating for the paymaster's assistant. 
 
 Whether or not Captain Fyffe's move to Shang- 
 hai was approved by the authorities, there was at 
 any rate no chance of getting up the Pei Ho again 
 that winter, so the long anticipated repairs at the 
 Tunkadoo Docks began. During this stay in 
 
228 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Shanghai, the first railroad laid in China was com- 
 pleted, and through the courtesy of Mr. Seward, 
 Mrs. Clark and I were among the favored few to 
 ride in the train that inaugurated its opening. 
 It was built to connect Shanghai with Woosung, 
 at the junction of the Shanghai River and the 
 Yangtse, but the Chinese, with their usual dislike 
 for innovations, soon pulled up its rails, and some 
 years passed before another was constructed. 
 
 One objection to a long stay in port is that it is 
 apt to be demoralizing to the crew of a man-of-war. 
 It is hard to find enough employment to keep 
 them busy and contented, and an executive officer 
 is constantly on the watch for any disturbing 
 element on board. We had this in the shape of 
 an Irish coal passer named Gannon. While not 
 actually bad, he was idle and worthless, much 
 fonder of haranguing the other men than of doing 
 his own work. I imagine that some of his dis- 
 courses were meant to be incendiary, but he used 
 to get so tangled up in long words that not only 
 were his hearers thoroughly puzzled at times, but 
 I think he was often quite at sea himself as to his 
 real meaning. 
 
 So, one day when Gannon overstayed his liberty. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 229 
 
 I was not displeased, but feeling I must comply 
 with the government regulation that a reward 
 of not more than ten dollars must be offered for the 
 return of a deserter, I sent a notice to the Shanghai 
 police force that I would pay all of two cents for 
 the apprehension of Gannon. This brought about 
 his instant return, unattended. I refused to 
 recognize him as Gannon, however, unless he came 
 under police escort, and being obliged to concede 
 this point, he stood on the dock and tried to make 
 me admit that this man Gannon of whom we were 
 talking was really worth more than two cents. 
 When he found I was quite steadfast in my idea 
 of values, he asked permission to come aboard and 
 get Gannon's pay and belongings, and with these 
 under his arm, turned to make his final farewell. 
 "Good-by, me old shipmates!" said he, with a 
 wave of his hand to such of the crew as were visible. 
 "God bless you all ! God bless you, Captain, and 
 you, sir," to the officer-of-the-deck. Then his eye 
 falling on me, where I was standing a little to one 
 side, he added reproachfully. *'And God bless 
 you too, Mr. Clark, to a sartin extint." ^ 
 
 1 This incident was written up for Harper's Magazine shortly after 
 my return from China, but as since then it has been told me by two 
 
230 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 When our repairs were completed, we made a 
 trip up the Yangtse River. Our first stop was 
 where the Grand Canal and the river unite, and 
 our second at the city of Nanking, which we left 
 the next afternoon, steaming about twenty -five 
 miles above it before we anchored for the night. 
 The captain was anxious to make a very early 
 start in the morning, as he wished to reach Poyang 
 Lake before dark. He had not been feeling very 
 well that day, and told me that he should expect 
 me to get the ship under way. I had heard it 
 said that vessels had swung to the flood as far up 
 as Nanking, but we were two hundred miles from 
 the sea, and the thought that the tide could 
 affect us occurred neither to me nor to our pilot, 
 Mr. Jousberry. 
 
 At the first faint sign of daylight we hove short, 
 and as soon as Jousberry thought he could dis- 
 tinguish the banks of the river and keep the 
 channel, we got under way. As the sun rose, I 
 went up on the paddle box to have a look around, 
 and one of the first things I noticed were the walls 
 of quite a sizable city some distance ahead. 
 
 other officers as having happened to them, I think the time has come 
 to prove ownership once more, and I repeat it here. 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 231 
 
 "Jousberry!" I called, *Svhat city is this we're 
 coming to on the north bank ? " 
 
 "You must be mistaken," he answered. 
 "There's no city along here." 
 
 "Well, there certainly is one," I insisted, "and 
 to me it looks very much like Nanking." 
 
 "Impossible," said he, and then following the 
 direction of my finger, gasped, "Great Scott! 
 It is Nanking, and we're going down river ! We 
 must have swung !" 
 
 I asked, "Is there any place near here, wide 
 enough for us to turn, without stopping and back- 
 ing .^^ The captain would be sure to notice if we 
 had to back. He'd think we'd struck a snag and 
 would be up on deck in a minute." 
 
 Jousberry knew of a good place just below, and 
 by taking the chief engineer Absalom Kirby into 
 our confidence, we got her swung about and pointed 
 up-stream. I then seated myself on the cabin 
 hatchway, ready to head off the captain, should he 
 decide to turn out. Pretty soon I heard him stir- 
 ring, and unfortunately, Nanking was still in sight. 
 I used every art I could muster to keep his atten- 
 tion on me and away from the scenery. I even 
 urged him to tell his favorite yarn, which I had 
 
232 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 heard so often I could have repeated it word for 
 word, and when all else failed, I brought up the 
 subject of the farm and his father-in-law. At last 
 the obnoxious city had sunk out of sight astern, 
 and when the captain made another start for the 
 hurricane deck, I did not try to detain him. He 
 soon began to notice remarkable resemblances to 
 places we had passed the day before, and then he 
 got out the chart, and made Jousberry's life 
 wretched by demanding explanations. Jousberry 
 only told the truth once that day, and that was a 
 fatal mistake, for it led him into a perfect bog of 
 conflicting statements. Of course we did not 
 reach Poyang Lake, for we had nearly sixty lost 
 miles to make up. As we were passing its entrance 
 the next day, I approached the captain with the 
 chart under my arm, but he declined to look at it. 
 "Take it away!" he grumbled. "It's a delusion 
 and a snare. I won't believe a thing about this 
 river hereafter except what Jousberry tells me ! " 
 We had expected when we left Shanghai that 
 the limit of our trip would be reached when we 
 anchored off the triple cities of Hankow, Woochang, 
 and Hanyan, so it was an agreeable surprise when 
 we got orders to proceed to Ichang, nearly four 
 
AN ASIATIC CRUISE 233 
 
 hundred miles farther on, and to estabHsh a con- 
 sulate there. China had just been forced by 
 England to open Ichang as a port, and as we under 
 the *' favored nation clause" had equal privileges, 
 our instructions were to get there as rapidly as 
 possible. The English gunboat Kestrel also lying 
 off the three cities had similar orders. 
 
 Our race up the Yangtse lasted several days, for 
 as the navigation was largely guesswork, the lead- 
 ing ship was likely at any time to mark the posi- 
 tion of a shoal or mud flat by piling up on it, where- 
 upon her rival instead of assistance would give 
 her three cheers, and steam on until she in her 
 turn became a warning to mariners. A delay 
 of many hours, just as we were nearing our goal, 
 when we had to carry out our heaviest anchors 
 before the ship could be floated, made us feel that 
 the Kestrel had the race in her own hands, but a 
 little later we passed her hard and fast on a partic- 
 ularly vicious sand bar, and so we reached Ichang 
 well in the lead. 
 
 While there, we visited the remarkable caves 
 and natural bridges in the vicinity. The former 
 were easily accessible from the towing path that 
 borders the rapids of the Yangtse, which them- 
 
234 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 selves were something to remember. Of course in 
 these days the tourist penetrates everywhere, but 
 at that time these foaming rapids sweeping through 
 their rocky gorges had revealed themselves to 
 few foreign eyes. They made the city of Ichang 
 practically the head of navigation on the Yangtse 
 River. 
 
 The summers we passed in Japan were the 
 greatest possible contrast to our life in China. 
 There were practically no social demands, and 
 we had ample leisure to enjoy the natural beauties 
 of the country, and to observe the customs of its 
 attractive people. I think the quality that made 
 the greatest impression on us was their absolute 
 courtesy under every condition. The kindly, 
 gentle manners we saw everywhere must have 
 been more than skin deep, for they were universal 
 and never failing. 
 
 We sailed from Yokohama for home on the 
 City of Peking, then a new steamer. Her speed 
 would not compare well with that of the ocean 
 greyhounds of the present day, but she reduced 
 the Colorado's time of twenty -three days in cross- 
 ing to seventeen. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Off Many Coasts 
 
 A NAVAL officer's periods of shore duty are 
 like the country without a history, the happier 
 for having Httle to record. My next orders for 
 sea, after my Asiatic cruise, came in August, 
 1881. They instructed me to proceed to Nor- 
 folk, and report on board the old ship of the line, 
 New Hampshire, as executive. She was then 
 fitting out for the training service, as a home 
 ship for naval apprentices, and was to join the 
 rest of the training squadron at Newport, Rhode 
 Island. Her captain, Philip Johnson, had not 
 reported, so I was in command when we sailed. 
 The Powhatan had been assigned to tow us, and 
 this was the beginning of a very fortunate ac- 
 quaintance for me with her captain, John G. 
 Walker. Although I had never met him before, 
 his record was well known to me. He had been 
 with Farragut until the taking of Vicksburg, 
 
 235 
 
236 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 then with Grant in the batteries, and he had 
 completed his war service under Porter on the 
 Arkansas River and in the North Atlantic. His 
 administrative ability was so conspicuous that 
 railroad managers had tried to induce him to 
 resign from the navy and enter the business world. 
 He had my admiration at once, and the constant 
 friendship he showed me from this time forth 
 inspired me with an attachment that lasted 
 throughout his life. 
 
 From our start at Hampton Roads, all went 
 smoothly until the evening of the second day, 
 when, in a dense fog, the Powhatan struck on what 
 proved to be the south shore of Block Island. 
 Our momentum carried us past her, our hawser 
 parting as we went, but we managed to let go our 
 anchor quickly enough, so that when we swung 
 round and brought up, we were sufficiently far 
 from the beach to strike it only occasionally, 
 as the sea lifted and then dropped the ship. 
 
 The Powhatan had grounded so slightly that 
 it was but a matter of minutes before she got 
 off, ran a line to us, and having sent off men to 
 assist our small crew in weighing the anchor we 
 had let go so hastily, had us in tow and was steam- 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 237 
 
 ing out to sea in seventeen minutes from the 
 time we struck. I was surprised to find that 
 Captain Walker was inclined to make much of 
 the way I had conducted myself during our mutual 
 experience. As even the order to anchor had 
 come from him, I was unable to see that I had 
 done anything except to follow his directions 
 promptly and coolly, but if he chose to think 
 differently, I was pleased enough to have it so, 
 especially when other officers who knew that he 
 was soon to be made Chief of Bureau of Navi- 
 gation told me how lucky I was to have won his 
 good opinion. He took an early opportunity 
 of showing his friendship, for it was because of 
 his expressed desire that I became captain of the 
 New Hampshire in the spring following my pro- 
 motion to commander, although this ship had 
 always been rated as a captain's command. 
 
 When she joined the other ships at Newport, 
 our training squadron had just been reorganized, 
 and was starting with a great flourish of trumpets. 
 It had been formerly maintained under the Bureau 
 of Equipment and Recruiting, but just before 
 this, David B. Porter, the Admiral of the Navy, 
 had been placed at its head, with Commodore 
 
238 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Luce in actual command, flying his flag from the 
 New Hampshire, the other ships in the squadron 
 being the steam frigate Minnesota, the frigate 
 Constitution, the sloops Portsmouth and Saratoga, 
 and the Jamestown, then on her way from the 
 Pacific. All officers in the squadron were to re- 
 ceive sea pay, and their service to count as sea 
 duty. Everything was in magnificent readiness, 
 and "Now," said Lieutenant Sumner Paine, com- 
 monly known as "Toby" to his many friends in 
 the service, "the first thing to be done is to catch 
 a boy." 
 
 We discovered, however, that one other element 
 was also rather necessary, for while Porter was 
 in control of the system, as far as giving orders 
 was concerned, the Bureau of Equipment w^as 
 still responsible for the expenditures, and as it 
 looked with an unfavorable eye on the changes 
 that had been made, we soon found we were work- 
 ing on a vacuum. 
 
 The situation was such that, Commodore Luce 
 having gone on a cruise across the North Atlantic 
 with the Portsmouth and Saratoga, I felt it was 
 up to me to have an interview with the Admiral, 
 who was spending the summer at Narragansett 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 239 
 
 Pier. At first he was inclined to simply take it 
 out in cursing the adversaries, but as this, though 
 soothing to us both, did not seem to bring us 
 anywhere, he calmed down and finally suggested 
 that I put down all the facts in a letter to him, 
 and he would go to work on them. 
 
 Meantime the opposition in Washington seemed 
 to be spreading. The steam launch with which 
 we made our regular trips to and from Newport 
 needed repairs, and when I put in a request for 
 them, I was informed, by the Bureau of Con- 
 struction, that we did not need a launch — 
 pulling boats ought to suffice for us — and the 
 Tallapoosa would be sent to take the launch away. 
 In a few days she appeared, but as she was a 
 side-wheeler and had no appliances for hoisting 
 so heavy a boat on board, she was compelled to 
 ask our help. Richard Derby, the New Hamp- 
 shire's executive, got spars and tackles to support 
 the main yard, and soon had the launch suspended 
 from it, ready to lower on the Tallapoosa^ s deck, 
 when she should come alongside. We signalled 
 that all was in order, and she started towards 
 us. She came with such headway that it was 
 evident that they did not mean to back the en^ 
 
240 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 gines till the last moment, and I felt certain pride 
 in my classmate Kellogg, who was in command, 
 for his nerve in making such a dashing approach. 
 Just as I was about to commend him to some of 
 the young officers standing near, as an example 
 of fine seamanship, he and his executive officer 
 rushed to the end of the bridge and yelled "We 
 can't stop! We're on the center! " 
 
 "I'm sorry," I called back, "but I can't lassoo 
 you!" 
 
 Meanwhile Derby was shouting orders to let 
 go everything in the way of a brace that could 
 be let go, and to the men to hurry out of the 
 rigging. The Tallapoosa surged alongside, rip- 
 ping out spars, carrying away gear, and swinging 
 our yards about. The suspended launch struck 
 the rounding surface of her paddle box, slid over 
 it, and crashing through her guard, vanished in 
 five fathoms of water. The Tallapoosa went on, 
 headed for the beach, but fortunately her engine 
 decided to function in time to prevent her from 
 going ashore. We swept for the unlucky launch, 
 and by night had secured it. The next morning 
 we towed it out into the bay, and anchored it 
 for the Tallapoosa to pick up. This time she ran 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 241 
 
 over it, and having sunk it in eleven fathoms, 
 felt that she had done her work thoroughly and 
 departed. The last I saw of our launch, its 
 battered wreck was reposing on the shores of 
 Coaster's Island. 
 
 A few days after this. Captain James Gillis of 
 the Minnesota returned from a visit to Washing- 
 ton, and announced that "my letter" had started 
 a row in the Navy Department, and that I was 
 going to "catch it." I could not think at first 
 what he meant, for I was not aware of having 
 written anything to Washington likely to create 
 trouble, but then a suspicion came to me and I 
 started posthaste for Narragansett Pier. 
 
 "Admiral," said I, "where is that letter I wrote 
 you?" Looking a little guilty, he admitted he 
 had sent it on to the Navy Department. It was 
 good, he said, full of ginger, and just what they 
 needed for their complaint. His endorsement 
 and approbation would make it all right. "All 
 right for you, perhaps, Admiral," I conceded, 
 "you, who are at the head of the Navy; but for 
 me, the bottom commander, trouble is due, and 
 lots of it." He would not allow of this, and said 
 he would stand by me in any case. 
 
242 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 In spite of these assurances, I did not look 
 forward with pleasure to the impending visit 
 of the new Secretary of the Navy, William E. 
 Chandler, who being broad-minded enough to 
 realize that a question is apt to have two sides, 
 had resolved to come to Newport to look over 
 our end of the proposition. He came in the 
 Tallapoosa, accompanied by several bureau chiefs, 
 and when I went off to pay my respects, it was 
 with a good deal of the feeling of the small boy 
 who has been detected in some "sassiness" 
 towards his elders. I became a little easier 
 when I found I was greeted with neither threat- 
 ening nor reproachful looks, but was scarcely 
 prepared to have the Secretary come up to me, 
 where I was standing by Kellogg's side, and after 
 saying that he meant to visit my ship, ask me 
 to call with him the next day on the President, 
 who was then staying with Governor Morgan 
 in Newport. 
 
 Two days later he made an inspection of the 
 New Hampshire, and must have been pleased 
 with what he saw, for he told me he wished I 
 would call again on the President and invite 
 him aboard the ship. When I gave President 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 243 
 
 Arthur the invitation, he seemed a little doubtful 
 whether his many engagements would permit, 
 but after consulting his secretary, said he could 
 come for a limited time. 
 
 He appeared punctually with a number of 
 friends, among them the Secretary of State, 
 Frelinghuysen, and Governor Morgan, and long 
 after the hour that had been set for his departure. 
 Governor Morgan whispered to me that the Pres- 
 ident was enjoying himself more than at any 
 time since he came to Newport. When he finally 
 left, after a visit of three hours which had been 
 thoroughly delightful to us all, those who had 
 had the privilege of meeting him could understand 
 why so much had been said of President Arthur's 
 social qualities. 
 
 After this, things went very smoothly for the 
 training station, but I think Admiral Porter had 
 in the meantime rather lost interest. There 
 had been too many irritating restrictions that 
 must have seemed petty to a man who had com- 
 manded, in wartime, the largest fleet we had ever 
 assembled. Whatever may have been his reasons, 
 he soon after gave up the position. Commodore 
 Luce had begun to be absorbed, by then, in his 
 
244 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 pet project, the Naval War College, of which he 
 is sometimes called the "Father ", and the officers 
 who had been put on shore pay, and found it 
 difficult to support their families in Newport and 
 meet expenses on board ship at the same time, 
 were generally anxious to be ordered to other 
 stations. So the training squadron, which had 
 started in a blaze of glory, was slowly ffickering 
 out. Hearing that Captain Matthews, my in- 
 structor of Academy days, was looking for duty 
 in Newport, I asked to be detached, and he was 
 ordered to the ship in my place. 
 
 A short interval of shore duty and leave, and 
 I was ordered to Washington for instructions 
 connected with the survey of the North Pacific, 
 which was then being carried on by the Ranger, 
 This work was directly under the supervision 
 of the Bureau of Navigation, of which, as it will 
 be remembered. Commodore Walker had been 
 made Chief. John W. Philip, afterwards captain 
 of the Texas at Santiago, was then in command 
 of the Ranger, and I was sent out to San Fran- 
 cisco to relieve him. 
 
 The Ranger was a beautiful bark-rigged steamer, 
 with square yards to royals, and was pierced for 
 
OFF MANY COASTS U5 
 
 ten guns, but only one of these had been retained 
 for signalHng purposes, the decks being kept as 
 clear as possible for sounding machines and other 
 appliances for surveying. I found on her a most 
 efficient staff of assistants, lieutenants, junior 
 lieutenants, and ensigns. These, as their terms 
 of sea duty expired, were replaced by Commodore 
 Walker, who often consulted me in making his 
 selections. I generally recommended that young 
 officers should be sent, telling the Commodore 
 I did not want to spend my time pulling kinks 
 out of old lieutenants who thought they knew, 
 and possibly often did know, better methods 
 than those I proposed. Besides, youth was 
 needed for the work we were engaged in, which, 
 although most interesting, was as hard as it could 
 well be. Older men could not have stood the 
 strain, or felt the enthusiasm required to 
 carry one through a surveying season in the 
 tropics. 
 
 Among the officers who served with me on board 
 the Ranger, whose ability and energy accomplished 
 so much in astronomical, triangulation, and 
 hydrographic work, or who acquired a high 
 professional reputation in after years, were : 
 
246 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 C. T. Force, Robert G. Peck, James M. Helm, 
 Arthur W. Dodd, James P. Parker, James H. 
 Glennon, William R. Rush, George H. Strafford, 
 Albert A. Ackerman, Harry Phelps, Albert S. 
 Key, William B. Whittlesey, Ward P. Winchell, 
 Manning K. Eyre and Emil Theiss.^ 
 
 The hardships to which these young men were 
 exposed never lessened their zeal. They were 
 landed in detached parties in unhealthy localities ; 
 often left in open boats in some bay or river, 
 while the ship to save time went off for coal; 
 obliged to climb difficult mountain slopes under 
 the burning rays of a tropical sun ; whatever the 
 task demanded of them, they fulfilled it and were 
 eager to attack the next. It was rather remarkable 
 under these circumstances that the health record 
 on board the Ranger was a fine one. The only 
 
 1 Lieutenant Peck, who, like Force, was a remarkable observer as 
 well as navigator, changed our methods of sounding to others so effec- 
 tive, that better and much more work was accomplished. Ensign 
 Phelps prepared a table by which the angles between high and low 
 points were at once reduced to the horizontal, and thus entered in the 
 records. Ensign Ackerman was the only one of the Ranger s officers 
 who happened to serve with me on the Oregon. He had command of 
 one of her turrets at the Battle of Santiago. Ensign Rush, as a 
 captain, gained distinction in the command of our forces during the 
 first day's fighting at Vera Cruz. Ensign Glennon, now rear admi- 
 ral, and member of the commission sent to Russia, was strikingly in- 
 strumental in restoring order and efficiency in the Russian navy. 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 247 
 
 officer to break down was Ensign Glennon, and 
 that was after some particularly arduous triangu- 
 lation work compelling him to do much severe 
 mountain climbing, ending with the ascent of 
 Mount Turubales. He had typhoid fever, and we 
 were obliged to send him north by steamer. 
 
 Occasionally, something ridiculous would occur 
 to relieve the monotony of hard work, as when 
 two of our officers were cutting in some angles 
 along a curving line of beach. One of them was 
 using a red flag to signal, and the other, noticing 
 that this banner had suddenly stopped waving, 
 found on investigation that its color had roused 
 the anger of a sensitive and active bull, who had 
 chased his companion out into the surf, where he 
 was having difficulty in determining the safety 
 line between the sharks, which were swarming 
 in the bay, and the irate animal, pawing sand 
 and bellowing on the beach. It was truly a case 
 of being caught between the devil and the deep 
 sea, but one of the ship's launches solved the 
 vexed question by making an opportune appear- 
 ance around the point, and rescuing the besieged. 
 
 Our working ground was on the west coasts 
 of Mexico and Central America. It had been 
 
248 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 surveyed before by French and English vessels 
 under De Laplin and Sir Edward Belcher, but as 
 that was in the days when only sailing ships were 
 available, and the portions of coast not deemed 
 important to traders and navigators had been but 
 hurriedly examined, their work, while creditable, 
 left much to be accomplished, and in some cases 
 to be corrected. 
 
 For instance, the Gulf of Dulce, which is sep- 
 arated from the Gulf of Nicoya by a stretch of 
 coast backed by lofty mountains and impenetrable 
 forests, figures in De Laplin's sailing directions as 
 an indentation thirty-eight miles long and nearly 
 twenty wide, while on another chart it was 
 represented as a slight curve in the coast. We 
 found its upper portion land-locked and well 
 sheltered, but any navigator expecting to find 
 an anchorage there would be sadly disappointed, 
 for its waters, even close to the shore, showed a 
 uniform depth of six hundred feet. 
 
 Cape Elena, which marked one of the most 
 exhausting and hazardous efforts of the triangu- 
 lation party, under Glennon and Winchell, was 
 so far misplaced that a vessel leaving San Juan 
 del Sur would have had to steer nearly forty-five 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 249 
 
 degrees to the westward of the indicated course 
 to avoid running upon it. Indeed, when the 
 Ranger left San Juan del Sur at night, we found 
 before going far that our course was blocked by 
 mountains ahead and on both bows. 
 
 Cape Elena was at the extremity of a moun- 
 tainous range projecting into the Pacific, whose 
 northern face, according to the De Laplin and 
 Belcher charts, shows an unbroken and precipitous 
 coast. We found there a magnificent harbor, easy 
 of access and perfectly protected. There were no 
 signs of life upon its beautiful shores, and as the 
 mountains were densely wooded, with tangled 
 undergrowth, and as coasting vessels or fishing 
 boats rarely venture outside the heads in Central 
 America, this harbor was probably first visited 
 by man when Ensign Parker steamed between its 
 high cliffs in one of our launches. The next day 
 he piloted the Ranger in, and the survey was 
 begun. At first I called it Port Elena, but later, 
 at my request, and because of this officer's merits, 
 the Department changed the name to Port Parker. 
 
 While running lines of surroundings off Cape 
 Colnett, Lower California, we had a chance to 
 observe the curious way in which air currents 
 
250 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 will sometimes act. We had two parties stationed 
 for triangulation work on the high plateau that 
 terminates the cape. They noted only a moderate 
 northwest breeze blowing across it, and we on 
 the ship experienced the same, when some dis- 
 tance from the shore and to windward, but the 
 instant we got under what should have been the 
 shelter of the precipitous cliffs, the wind became 
 so violent that it was hard to keep one's footing 
 on deck. It evidently accumulated nearly all 
 its force while sweeping down from a height of 
 less than six hundred feet, and expended the most 
 of it on the spot where it landed, so to speak. 
 
 It was just a little north of Cape Colnett that 
 the Ranger came near ending her career. She 
 barely escaped being wrecked on a lee shore during 
 a terrific gale, in which, despite the fact that we 
 had both anchors down and the engines working 
 at high pressure, she still continued to drag towards 
 the beach. We could not understand at the time 
 why we were not able to obtain greater power 
 from the engines, but discovered afterwards that 
 there was an opening in the steam chest which 
 was allowing the high-pressure cylinder to ex- 
 haust upon both sides of the low-pressure piston 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 251 
 
 at once. Just as her stern was almost in the 
 breakers, there came a fortunate lull in the fury 
 of the wind, and by raising our anchors, one by 
 the capstan, and the other by a deck tackle, we 
 managed to steam off shore far enough, so that 
 when the next gust threw us broadside to the 
 beach we were not driven on to it. 
 
 This reminds me of another time when luck 
 was with us. We were steaming in towards the 
 Central American shore one night, in a dense 
 fog, and Ensign Rush offered to station himself 
 as lookout on the flying jib boom, a suggestion 
 which I gladly adopted. He had just worked 
 his way past the fore-royal stay, when I saw 
 him wave his arms wildly, and heard a shout of 
 "Stop her. Captain! Stop her! I can hear a baby 
 crying!" When the engine was stopped, we all 
 could hear it. We found, when the fog lifted, 
 that we had been heading for the only village 
 in many a mile of beach, and we were grateful 
 to that baby for being wakeful. The case was 
 so exceptional, however, that I did not feel it 
 necessary to put in the sailing directions for the Gulf 
 of Nicoya, " Stand in, until the baby can be heard." 
 
 The Ranger was an iron ship, and I found I 
 
252 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 could reduce the temperature on board consider- 
 ably, during hours of sunlight, by giving her a 
 coat of white paint. This was done with Com- 
 modore Walker's approval, and some time later, 
 when he took command of our first squadron 
 of modern ships, they were painted white, a cus- 
 tom that was followed for years. The story 
 goes that when he was relieved as Chief of Bureau, 
 the Secretary said to him: "Admiral, as you 
 have been running the Navy Department for 
 years, suppose you take the Navy for a while 
 and let me have the Department." 
 
 Another story of Walker has been frequently 
 told and yet is so characteristic of him that I 
 repeat it here. A young officer, intent upon 
 securing a coveted billet, hurried into the office 
 of the Chief of Bureau and finding it apparently 
 vacant, called to the occupants of the next room, 
 " Where's Walker ? I want to see Walker ! " 
 "Here I am," came the unexpected answer, as 
 the Commodore's head rose from behind a desk. 
 "What can I do for you ? " 
 
 "Oh, Commodore!" stammered the abashed 
 youngster, "I wanted — that is — I didn't mean 
 — excuse me — I'll call again — " 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 253 
 
 "No, no! don't go away!" said the Com- 
 modore urbanely. "Come back, and sit down. 
 Call me John!" 
 
 When my cruise on the Ranger was completed, 
 I had some years of shore duty, part of it as 
 Lighthouse Inspector on the Great Lakes. This 
 duty brought me into contact with Colonel — 
 afterwards General — William Ludlow, one of 
 the finest examples of a soldier it has ever been 
 my fortune to meet. His heroic conduct in the 
 fierce struggle at Alatoona was equalled — one 
 might say, even bettered — by his splendid 
 work as an engineer at Havana, which still enjoys 
 the benefits of his wise regulations and the sani- 
 tary reforms he instituted. It was his brother, 
 NicoU Ludlow, who as a midshipman had been 
 my companion in London and Paris, and whom 
 I relieved as commander of the Mohican, when 
 I was sent to sea again. During the month of 
 May, 1894, while still on the commanders' list, 
 I was placed at the head of the Behring Sea patrol 
 fleet, with orders to enforce the terms governing 
 pelagic sealing, just agreed upon by the arbitrators 
 at Paris. 
 
 This squadron, one of the largest assembled 
 
254 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 since the Civil War, consisted of the Mohican, 
 Concord, Yorhtown, Adams, Ranger, Alert, and 
 Petrel, men-of-war, the Fish Commission steamer 
 Albatross and the revenue cutters Corwin and 
 Bear. Admiral Ramsey had relieved Admiral 
 Walker in the department, but my former room- 
 mate at the Academy, Francis A. Cook, had been 
 made Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Naviga- 
 tion, so my interests were not allowed to suffer. 
 In fact, I was told that a captain who applied to 
 Admiral Ramsey for duty on the Pacific coast 
 was informed that being above me on the list 
 might prove an obstacle to giving him such a 
 billet. 
 
 During the greater part of my service in Beh- 
 ring Sea, we enjoyed comparatively good weather' 
 as far as storms were concerned, but the fogs 
 were often so dense as to make navigation danger- 
 ous. The water ran deep, right up to the edge 
 of the rocky cliffs, so we were seldom able to 
 ascertain our position by soundings, and the 
 currents which swept past the steep shores of the 
 islands and through the narrow passes between 
 them made the laying of any course uncertain 
 business. The year before, the Petrel, which 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 255 
 
 had been lost in the fog to the south of the island 
 chain for days, found when it cleared away that 
 she was close to Boguslav volcano, fifty miles 
 to the north of the pass, through which all uncon- 
 sciously she had been driven by these currents. 
 Often the echo of the steam whistle from some 
 precipice, or the roar of the surf upon a rocky 
 shore, would be the first danger signal that came 
 to us. The anxieties attending such service 
 were so great that two captains in the fleet broke 
 down under them, obliging me to detach them 
 and order other oflacers to their commands, but 
 Goodrich, Folger, Longnecker, Emory, and Drake 
 of the navy, and Healy and Munger of the revenue 
 service met every requirement and performed 
 every duty courageously and cheerfully. The 
 whole-hearted way in which they carried out the 
 orders of one so slightly their senior in rank 
 was of course highly gratifying to me, and I have 
 always retained for them the strongest feeling of 
 attachment. 
 
 Although by the terms agreed on by the Arbi- 
 tration Commission, pelagic sealing was supposed 
 tp be limited in time, and never permitted within 
 sixty miles of the Pribylof Islands, where the 
 
256 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 enormous seal rookeries were situated, thousands 
 of female seals were killed and in consequence 
 nearly twenty -five thousand of their pups died of 
 starvation on the rookeries. As the rich quality of 
 the seal's milk enables the young to survive nine 
 days, according to experts, after abandonment by 
 the mother, one can realize what prolonged suffer- 
 ing was entailed by this practice. It seemed to me 
 such an abominable state of affairs that I recom- 
 mended that the seal herd, which had already 
 been reduced from millions to about six hundred 
 thousand, should be practically destroyed, or at 
 least so reduced as to make pelagic sealing un- 
 profitable. As I looked at it, our Government 
 could not afford to countenance a business which, 
 as I remarked in my protest, would never be 
 tolerated in a stock-raising community. When 
 a bill based on this suggestion was introduced 
 by Congressman Dingley, I was considerably 
 astonished at hearing it proclaimed by some as 
 shocking and wantonly cruel. Whether the out- 
 siders raising this outcry were touched in their 
 sensibilities or their pockets, it would be hard to 
 say, but as far as cruelty was concerned, one 
 would think there could be scarcely a question 
 
OFF MANY COASTS 257 
 
 as to which was preferable, quick death or slow 
 starvation. However, I was on the whole more 
 flattered than hurt to think that an original idea 
 of mine had made such a stir. 
 
 Speaking of prolonged sufferings, there was a 
 rooster on board the Mohican who really had the 
 sympathy of all who watched his struggles to 
 keep up regular habits during his first summer in 
 Behring Sea. As we got farther north and the 
 nights became shorter, it must have seemed to 
 him as if he had hardly tucked his head under 
 his wing before jduty called him to salute the day 
 again. He kept valiantly on, but by the time 
 we started south, he was badly out of condition, 
 and the sailors, who by this time had adopted him 
 as a pet, said that the next season he gave up the 
 contest, and went to roost and turned out by the 
 ship's bells. 
 
 I continued on the Pacific coast until March, 
 1898, the year of the Spanish War. I was com- 
 manding the Monterey at San Diego, when orders 
 came for me to proceed to San Francisco and 
 take command of the battleship Oregon. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Oregon's Race 
 
 " Six thousand miles ^ 
 To the Indian Isles 
 And the Oregon rushed home, 
 Her wake a swirl 
 Of jade and pearl, 
 Her bow a bend of foam." 
 
 Arthur Guiterman, New York Times. 
 
 The Oregon, at the time I received orders to 
 command her, was one of the most up-to-date 
 and powerful battleships our navy possessed. Her 
 presence on the east coast was considered so 
 essential that the government felt the risks of 
 the long voyage, till then untested by a vessel of 
 her class, must be undertaken, even though they 
 included a possibility of meeting with the enemy's 
 fleet. 
 
 In starting on this long race around two con- 
 tinents, I could feel I was fortunate in the quali- 
 
 ^ From the Straits of Magellan. 
 258 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 259 
 
 ties of both ship and crew. The Union Iron 
 Works of San Francisco, which constructed the 
 Oregon, had already built several other vessels 
 for our service, among them the cruiser Olympia, 
 but the Oregon was their first battleship, and it 
 had been their pride to make her as mechanically 
 perfect as possible. For instance, when the in- 
 stallation of her condenser tubes had been almost 
 completed, it was learned that those on the 
 Olympia, which were of the same type, were not 
 giving the best results. The managers of the 
 Union Iron Works at once requested permission 
 of the Navy Department to grant them the 
 time to change the tubes at their own expense, 
 which was done at an extra cost of over six thou- 
 sand dollars to the firm. So it may well be said 
 that this ship was "built on honor." In addition 
 to the usual proportion of trained and intelligent 
 men-of-war's men and a fine marine guard com- 
 posing her crew, I found an exceptionally large 
 number of young men drawn from all classes in 
 the States of Oregon, Washington, and Cali- 
 fornia by the prospect of war service. The 
 fashion in which these young fellows, with so 
 little experience to guide them, took up their new 
 
260 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 duties was remarkable. They met every hard- 
 ship of the voyage cheerfully, and were always 
 alert and ready for any sort of demand. 
 
 As to the Oregon's officers, I found them such 
 as I would have expected upon any ship in our 
 navy. Through experience and tradition alike 
 the qualities of the average American naval 
 officer can safely be taken for granted. One can 
 feel as Macaulay did, in speaking of one of the 
 heroes of an older serivce, that he will perform 
 all that duty demands of him "with the skill 
 and spirit worthy of his noble profession." 
 
 The forty-eight hours that I was in command 
 before we sailed from San Francisco were con- 
 fused and hurried. Stores were being rushed 
 aboard, coaling going on, and officers reporting 
 for duty. Whatever I might feel about the 
 general character of my officers and crew, I was 
 personally acquainted with very few among them, 
 and I can well remember in the crowd of strange 
 faces surrounding me what a satisfaction it was 
 to come across an old orderly who had been with 
 me on the receiving ship Independence. He en- 
 tered the cabin to report at eight o'clock the first 
 night I was on board. I was feeling tired and a 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 261 
 
 little oppressed with the thought of the long and 
 uncertain voyage before me, and when I looked 
 up into this familiar face instead of the strange 
 one I had expected to see, it meant more to me 
 than could easily be imagined. 
 
 We sailed from San Francisco ^ on March nine- 
 teenth, and our run from there to Callao was un- 
 eventful except in the opportunities it gave me 
 to become acquainted with the ship and her 
 personnel. As we approached the tropics, life 
 
 1 List of the officers of the Oregon : 
 
 Captain C. E. Clark 
 
 Lieutenant Commander J. K. Cogswell 
 
 Lieutenants . . . R. F. Nicholson, W. H. Allen, A. A. Ackerman 
 
 Lieutenants junior grade E. W. Eberle 
 
 Ensigns C. L. Hussey, R. Z. Johnston 
 
 Captain of Marines R. Dickins 
 
 Second Lieutenant of Marines A. R. Davis 
 
 Naval Cadets H. E. Yarnell, L. M. Overstreet, 
 
 C. R. Miller, A. G. MagiU, C. S. Kempff 
 
 Chief Engineer R. W. Milligan 
 
 P. A. Engineer C. N. Offley 
 
 Asst. Engineers J. M. Reeves, F. Lyon 
 
 Engineer Cadets H. N. Jenson, W. D. Leahy 
 
 Surgeon P. A. Lovering 
 
 Assistant Surgeon W. B. Grove 
 
 Paymaster S. R. Colhoun 
 
 Chaplain P. J. Mclntyre 
 
 Paymaster's Clerk J. A. Murphy 
 
 Boatswain John Costello 
 
 Gunner A. S. Williams 
 
 Carpenter M. F. Roberts 
 
262 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 between decks became almost intolerable, for 
 to their heat was added that generated by the 
 ship's boilers, kept at a full head of steam. When 
 Chief Engineer Milligan informed me that he 
 thought we should never allow salt water to enter 
 the boilers, I felt it was asking almost too much 
 of the endurance of the crew. It meant not only 
 reducing their drinking supply, but that the 
 quantity served out would often be so warm as 
 to be quite unpalatable. When I explained to 
 the men, however, that salt water in the boilers 
 meant scale, and that scale would reduce our 
 speed, delay us in getting to the seat of war, and 
 might impair our efficiency in battle, the dep- 
 rivation was borne without a murmur. The 
 very small quantity of ice that was made on board 
 went to the firemen and coal passers, and how- 
 ever much the rest of us may have longed for a 
 little to cool the lukewarm drinking water, I know 
 that it was not only willingly, but cheerfully 
 given up. 
 
 Another of the chief engineer's suggestions was 
 the reservation for emergencies of a part of the 
 Cardiff coal taken on at San Francisco. This 
 arrangement entailed extra work for the men, 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 26S 
 
 and that of a most exhausting kind, but their 
 desire to preserve these "dusky diamonds" was 
 as keen as if they had been real jewels. The fact 
 that the Oregon never stayed or slackened in her 
 race, and was able to lead in the hour of battle, 
 was undoubtedly due to this oneness of feeling 
 in her officers and crew. Everything must be 
 done and everything borne to get the best out of 
 the ship. 
 
 With the change of climate as we neared the 
 Straits of Magellan, came also change of weather, 
 and the Oregon, which up to this time had sailed 
 comparatively smooth seas, dipped her bows deep 
 in foaming surges. Just after we entered the 
 Straits, a violent gale struck us. The thick, 
 hurrying scud obscured the precipitous rockbound 
 shores, and with night coming on, it seemed in- 
 advisable to proceed; yet with the ship driven 
 before the gale as she was it was impossible 
 to obtain correct soundings, and making a safe 
 anchorage must therefore be largely a matter of 
 chance. I decided to anchor, however, as the 
 lesser risk. We let go one anchor, and the chain 
 ran out furiously for about one hundred and 
 twenty-five fathoms before it could be checked. 
 
264 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 At last it caught, and then the other anchor was 
 let go. They held us through the night, though 
 the gale continued to rage. At early daylight we 
 prepared to get under way, and then discovered 
 that our first anchor had been dropped in fifty 
 fathoms, or three hundred feet of water. That 
 forenoon a heavy snowstorm chased us through 
 the narrowest reaches of the Straits, which in 
 some places are scarcely more than a mile in width. 
 With sheer cliffs on either hand and fathomless 
 depths below, there could be no pause or hesita- 
 tion in this exciting race, and I think there was 
 no man on board that did not feel the thrill of it. 
 Later in the day it cleared, and the sun's rays, 
 striking brilliance and rainbow lights from the 
 masses of ice and snow, turned the grim landscape 
 into a scene beautiful to remember. In the after- 
 noon we passed the wrecks of two steamers that 
 had left their bones to mark the perils of the 
 passage, and towards evening we sighted Cape 
 Froward, the extreme southern point of the con- 
 tinent. In the night we came to anchor off Sandy 
 Point. 
 
 The last time I had seen Sandy Point was 
 thirty-two years before, when I had passed 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 265 
 
 through the Straits in the consort of the Monad- 
 nock, our first ironclad to round the American 
 continent. Now, on board the second of our 
 armored ships to attempt the passage, I was 
 hurrying in the opposite direction, this time to 
 strengthen our arms on the Atlantic coast. 
 
 I went ashore the next morning in order to make 
 arrangements about coal and was surprised to 
 find Sandy Point, which I remembered as a mere 
 handful of scattered houses, so changed. Its 
 population had grown to about four thousand 
 souls, and I walked along streets where formerly 
 there had been only footpaths. There were paths 
 now, but one had to go to the edge of the town to 
 find them. I followed one out into the open 
 country, where in the old days it was dangerous 
 to venture. Now, instead of the w^ild Patagonians 
 armed with their bolas and attended by their 
 savage wolfish dogs, who used to infest it, I saw 
 flocks of peacefully grazing sheep, guarded by 
 Scotch shepherds and their collies. The agent 
 from whom we purchased our coal was one of 
 these canny Scots, very suspicious that in some 
 way we intended to get the better of him. The 
 coal had to be taken from a hulk in which wool 
 
266 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 was also stored, and as the wool lay on top, our 
 men had by no means easy work. The agent 
 added to delays in handling by insisting that 
 the hoisting buckets should be frequently weighed. 
 Murphy, one of our boatswain's mates, finally 
 raised a laugh at his expense by calling out, as 
 a loaded bucket reached the deck, "Here! lower 
 again for another weigh ! There's a fly on the 
 edge of that bucket!" 
 
 We had been warned while at Callao that the 
 Spaniards had a torpedo boat in the Rio de la 
 Plata, and as she had had ample time to get down 
 to the Straits, we took every precaution against 
 a surprise while lying at Sandy Point. Before 
 we left there, the gunboat Marietta joined us. 
 She carried six guns, and her captain was Com- 
 mander Symonds. On the way to Rio she led, 
 making what speed she could, and throwing over 
 barrels, which we used for targets. We showed 
 no lights during this run. As we neared Rio, we 
 left the Marietta and ran ahead, reaching there 
 April 30 and promptly cabling our arrival, for we 
 knew that news of the ship was anxiously awaited. 
 
 It was at Rio that we first received word that 
 war had been declared. The newspapers were full 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 267 
 
 of rumors of the battle that had been fought at 
 Manila, but I could not rejoice wholeheartedly 
 in our reported victory, for the casualties an- 
 nounced were two hundred, and I knew that 
 my son-in-law was in the fleet. 
 
 A cablegram from the Navy Department in- 
 formed us that the Spanish torpedo boat Temerario 
 was reported to have left Montevideo, probably 
 for Rio. This was disturbing information. If 
 the torpedo boat should arrive and had an ordi- 
 narily enterprising commander, I felt he would 
 not hesitate to violate the rights of a neutral port, 
 if by so doing he could put one of our four first- 
 class battleships out of action. To justify his 
 attack, he would only have to point to our own 
 conduct at Bahia, another Brazilian port, when 
 one of our ships, the Wachusett, captured the 
 Confederate steamer Florida. This was a clear 
 violation of international law, but the captain 
 of the Wachusett was neither surrendered to the 
 Brazilian authorities, nor punished in any way 
 by us. 
 
 Of course, my first move was an attempt to 
 communicate with the American Minister and 
 the Consul General, but knowing this might in- 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 volve some time, I did not wait before taking the 
 initiative. I got under way at once, with coal 
 lighters alongside, and steamed up the bay, 
 nearly two miles above the man-of-war anchorage. 
 By leaving this anchorage, ordinarily used by 
 men-of-war, to the Temerario, I could assume 
 that any move she made up the bay in our direc- 
 tion might be certainly interpreted as hostile, 
 and would give me the right to turn our guns upon 
 her. If we were lying at the anchorage together, 
 any mischief she contemplated might be done 
 before we had a chance to discover her inten- 
 tion. The Marietta, too small a pawn in the 
 game of war to form any inducement for an 
 infringement of neutral rights, was to remain 
 at the anchorage. Her commander had instruc- 
 tions to explain matters at once to the Spanish 
 captain, should he arrive, and to state that a 
 constant watch would be kept upon him, the 
 Marietta's searchlight being used at night for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Before starting up the bay, I had sent an officer 
 ashore to see the Brazilian Minister of Marine 
 and explain our situation. I was a little afraid 
 I might be advised to settle my perplexities by 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 269 
 
 leaving port ; but this would not have suited my 
 plans at all, and fortunately I found the authori- 
 ties most obligingly disposed. They not only 
 concurred in my arrangements, but even sug- 
 gested ordering one of their own cruisers to 
 watch for the Spaniard, escort him to the re- 
 motest part of the bay and see that if he moved 
 at all, it would be merely to leave the harbor. 
 Indeed, before the hurried return of our Minister, 
 Mr. Bryan, from the summer capital at Petro- 
 polis, everything was satisfactorily adjusted. Our 
 Government was reaping the reward of having 
 taken measures to secure the friendship and good 
 will of the Brazilians. They were sorely in need 
 of money at the time, and we had offered them 
 one million dollars for the almost worthless 
 Nictheroy. She was still undergoing repairs when 
 she was turned over to me and placed under my 
 orders. 
 
 Having settled this first difficulty, I found 
 myself confronted by an even more vital question 
 in the next few hours. I think I can give no 
 better idea of the situation than by quoting the 
 dispatches received from the Navy Department 
 from April 30, the time of our arrival, up to 
 
270 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 May 4, when we sailed. These, of course, were in 
 code and were deciphered by Ensign Johnston, my 
 clerk. There was so much anxiety evidenced in 
 them that I felt they were not calculated to put 
 confidence into the ship's company, so I kept all 
 but portions of them to myself. 
 
 That of April 30 instructed me to "await 
 orders." 
 
 The one of May 1 said : " Four Spanish cruisers 
 heavy and fast, three torpedo boats, deep-sea 
 class, sailed April 29th from Cape. Verde Islands 
 to the west. Destination unknown. Must be 
 left to your discretion entirely to avoid this 
 fleet and to reach the United States or the West 
 Indies. You can go where you desire, or if it be 
 considered as last resort and can rely upon Bra- 
 zilian protection may remain there under plea 
 of repairs. Nictheroy and Marietta subject to 
 orders of yourself." 
 
 Cablegram of May 2. " Do not sail from Rio 
 Janeiro, Brazil, until further orders." 
 
 Same date. " My telegram May 2nd counter- 
 manded. Carry out instructions in my telegram 
 May 1st to proceed with Oregon, Marietta and 
 Nictheroy. 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 271 
 
 May 3rd. "Inform Department of your plans. 
 Spanish fleet in Philippines annihilated by our 
 naval force on the Asiatic station." 
 
 The general trend of these telegrams made it 
 plain that the Department felt our position was 
 critical, and that it did not wish at such a dis- 
 tance from the scene of action to take the re- 
 sponsibility of forcing one ship, however great 
 the need for her, to face the chances of so unequal 
 a contest. Therefore it left the decision to me. 
 I appreciated the consideration, but at the same 
 time it was a case where one would have much 
 preferred to be backed by positive orders. In 
 entering upon a course which involved the pos- 
 sible loss of a ship so valuable to the nation, the 
 feeling that you were simply carrying out the 
 wishes of that nation would have been a strong 
 moral support. As I was denied this, I thought 
 the situation over with the utmost care, and 
 came to these conclusions. First and foremost : 
 if this Spanish squadron were headed for the 
 West Indies, as I was inclined to believe, the 
 necessity for the Oregon s presence there with 
 our fleet was all the more urgent. If, on the 
 contrary, it was making for Rio with the idea of 
 
272 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 intercepting the Oregon^ it could undoubtedly, by 
 maintaining a certain speed, arrive in that vicinity 
 before we could get away, but it did not seem 
 likely to me that the Spaniards would make this 
 attempt to cut off a single ship, especially as 
 there was a possibility of missing her altogether. 
 And if they did come upon us, we would give 
 them a good fight. I made up my mind to take 
 the chance. 
 
 I then called all the commissioned officers to- 
 gether and told them of the contents of the cable- 
 grams, except of the permission to remain in Rio 
 for repairs. Their loyal support and enthusiasm 
 was most encouraging. I then laid before them the 
 plan for the conduct of a fight in case we met the 
 Spaniards. It was my intention to make it a 
 running fight, if possible, as we could use six tur- 
 ret guns, and two six-inch guns right astern, and 
 I hoped that by running at our full speed, we might 
 be able to string out the pursuers and cope with 
 them singly, as did the survivor of the Horatii 
 when flying from his three weakened enemies. 
 This allusion to the Horatian tactics was re- 
 ferred to by Captain Mahan when he wrote : 
 "Captain Clark drew for support from the foun- 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 273 
 
 tain heads of history; from the remote and even 
 legendary past." 
 
 We sailed from Rio on May 4, and finding a few 
 hours afterwards that we were greatly hampered 
 by the Marietta and Nictheroy, and knowing 
 that they would be rather a source of anxiety 
 than help in battle, left them off Cape Frio and 
 pushed on. 
 
 The morning after our departure, at the sug- 
 gestion of R. F. Nicholson, the navigator, I called 
 the crew aft and read them the dispatches con- 
 cerning the strength of the Spanish squadron and 
 the uncertainty of its movements. I added that 
 I was sure, should we meet, that we would at least 
 lower Spain's fighting efficiency upon the seas, 
 and that her fleet would not be worth much after 
 the encounter. 
 
 The men cheered and rejoiced as though the 
 fleet had been already sighted and a victory assured. 
 
 Four days later we ran into the port of Bahia, 
 and I dispatched the following cablegram, which 
 would of course allow the Department control of 
 the situation again. 
 
 "Much delayed by the Marietta and Nictheroy. 
 Left them near Cape Frio, with orders to come 
 
274 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 here, or to beach if necessity compels it to avoid 
 capture. The Oregon could steam fourteen knots 
 for hours and in a running fight could beat off 
 and even cripple Spanish fleet. With present 
 amount of coal on board will be in good fighting 
 trim and could reach West Indies. If more 
 should be taken here I could reach Key West, 
 but in that case belt armor, cellulose belt, and 
 protective deck would be below water line. 
 Whereabouts of Spanish fleet requested." 
 
 The Department answered.- "Proceed at once 
 to West Indies without further stop Brazil. No 
 authentic news Spanish fleet. Avoid if possible. 
 We believe you will defeat it if met." 
 
 On receipt of this dispatch, we left Bahia at 
 once, and two days later, having turned Cape 
 San Roque, the Oregon could at last lay a course 
 for home waters. 
 
 While off the mouth of the Amazon, the great- 
 est of rivers, we passed the smallest vessel that 
 ever circumnavigated the globe. This was the 
 yawl Spray, sailed by one man. Captain Slocum 
 of New Bedford. Before we were out of sight, 
 she hoisted a signal which we did not make out, 
 but he states in the history he afterwards wrote 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 275 
 
 of the voyage that it read, "Let us keep together 
 for mutual protection." 
 
 On May 18, about two a.m. we entered CarHsle 
 Roads, Barbadoes, and anchored. The Governor 
 immediately sent word that we must leave within 
 twenty-four hours, but added that we could reckon 
 the twenty-four from daylight the next morning, 
 which would give us a little additional time. 
 Later he informed us that as the American consul 
 had sent off a cablegram to the United States 
 announcing our arrival before the order had been 
 given that no dispatches were to be sent, he must 
 in fairness allow the Spanish consul to cable the 
 same news to the Governor of Porto Rico. Our 
 short stay in Barbadoes was not of a cheering 
 nature. The first news that greeted us was that 
 our fleet had attacked San Juan and been repelled. 
 From the boats that pulled off within hail — none 
 were allowed to board us because we had come 
 from fever-infected ports — we gathered the pleas- 
 ing intelligence that the Spanish fleet was waiting 
 for us outside, report having by this time swelled 
 its numbers to eighteen vessels. Three torpedo or 
 scout boats were said to have been positively 
 sighted from elevated points on the island. 
 
276 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 We hoped and believed that these rumors were 
 exaggerated, but could not afford to ignore them 
 altogether, for it was possible that Cervera's squad- 
 ron had been reinforced by gunboats from Cuba ; 
 so with the object of making our actions as mis- 
 leading as possible to those who might be supplying 
 information to the enemy, we announced that we 
 would take on coal as late as two a.m., while 
 actually planning to leave much earlier. Indeed, 
 before ten that evening, the lighters were cast 
 off, and the Oregon steaming out of the roadstead. 
 With lights showing, we ran for a few miles to- 
 wards the passage between Martinique and Santa 
 Lucia, then, extinguishing them, we turned south- 
 ward and ran back towards Barbadoes. After 
 getting well outside, we shaped our course clear 
 of the Virgin Islands, then off the Bahamas, and 
 made for the coast of Florida, the last stage of our 
 long journey. 
 
 The latest news that had reached us of our own 
 fleet was that a part of it was concentrated near 
 the Dry Tortugas, and a part at Hampton Roads. 
 By touching at Jupiter Inlet and telegraphing 
 the Department from there, it could send us 
 orders to reinforce either of these squadrons. So 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 277 
 
 it was that on the night of May 24, the rays of 
 Jupiter Light streamed out to the Oregon like the 
 fingers of some friendly hand extended to welcome 
 her home. One of our boats, in charge of Ensign 
 Johnston, was hurried ashore with the following 
 telegram to the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 " Oregon arrived. Have coal enough to reach 
 Dry Tortugas in 33 hours. Hampton Roads 
 in 52 hours. Boat landed through surf awaits 
 answer." 
 
 The reply came: **If ship is in good condi- 
 tion go to Key West. Otherwise to Hampton 
 Roads. The Department congratulates you on 
 your safe arrival, which has been reported to 
 the President." 
 
 The Oregon, on receipt of this telegram, started 
 for Key West, arriving there May 26.^ We 
 began coaling at once from lighters we found 
 waiting for us outside the reef. Admiral Samp- 
 
 1 While at Key West, or later off Santiago, Lieutenant C. M. 
 Stone, Ensign L. A. Bostwick, Naval Cadets P. B. Dungan, E. J. 
 Sadler, C. C. Kalbfus, H. J. Brinser, C. G. Hatch, C. Shackford and 
 T. C. Dunlap joined the ship and served through the war. One of 
 our naval cadets, Mr. Gill, had become seriously ill on the run from 
 the Pacific and was sent home. Lieutenant H. W. Harrison, who had 
 well performed the duties of both watch and division officer during 
 the voyage, was injured during one of the bombardments at Santiago^ 
 and was transferred to the hospital and then home. 
 
278 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THIi NAVY 
 
 son's flagship, Neio York, came in for coal the 
 next morning, and it was while making my 
 official call on the Admiral that he told me of the 
 plan for blocking the harbor entrance at Santiago, 
 where Cervera's squadron had just been located, 
 by sinking a steamer in the channel. This idea 
 seemed to me an excellent one, as I think it would 
 have to any one at that time, for the Spanish cruis- 
 ers were then regarded as much speedier than our 
 battleships, and the only two of our vessels we 
 imagined could bring them to action, the New 
 York and Brooklyn, would, with their compara- 
 tively light armor, have suffered heavily in such 
 an event, if they had not been altogether de- 
 stroyed. The later annihilation of the Spanish 
 fleet no more disproves the wisdom of this plan 
 as we saw matters then, than the failure of Hobson 
 and his brave companions to effect what they in- 
 tended disproves their heroism. 
 
 On the afternoon of May 27, our crew was 
 increased by the arrival of sixty young men of 
 the Chicago Naval Reserves. They remained 
 with the Oregon until she went to New York 
 after the war, taking part in the bombardments 
 at Santiago and later in the decisive battle of 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 279 
 
 July 3, and winning from all our oflScers and men 
 the highest esteem and friendly regard.^ 
 
 The night following this addition to our crew, 
 we sailed about eleven o'clock, and the next 
 morning fell in with Admiral Watson's fleet. It 
 was Sunday morning, and all hands in the fleet 
 were dressed for inspection. Our decks were still 
 piled with coal, and everybody black with its 
 dust. I was not permitted to report on board 
 the flagship, however, before we had passed the 
 length of the entire line, the crews cheering them- 
 selves hoarse as we went by, and the Indiana's 
 band playing "The New Bully." Truly, we felt 
 as some one aptly described the Highlanders, 
 "Proud and dirty." 
 
 Watson's fleet was practically marking time 
 north of Cuba and near the western entrance of 
 the Bahama Channel, in order to intercept Cer- 
 vera's squadron, should it leave Santiago and 
 attempt to reach Havana that way. There were 
 two or three monitors in this fleet, and our 
 arrival enabled the battleship Indiana to leave 
 for coal. The next morning Admiral Sampson 
 
 1 These young men later formed a society, called by my name, 
 and by which I was twice handsomely entertained in Chicago. 
 
280 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 arrived. He was much disturbed by the report 
 that our fleet under Commodore Schley, which 
 was blockading Santiago, had retired to the 
 westward.^ He at once telegraphed the De- 
 partment that having the support of the Oregon 
 he would start for Santiago at once and blockade 
 for an indefinite time if necessary. So the Ore- 
 gon's worn-out engine-room force must prepare 
 for a dash of seven hundred miles at speed again. 
 All felt that we had come at a supreme moment, 
 however, and gladly made ready to do their utmost. 
 We were asked what was the best speed we 
 could make without undue strain on our ma- 
 chinery, and answered "fourteen knots." Twice, 
 in the early part of the run, the Oregon came rac- 
 ing up almost abeam of the New York, and was 
 checked by the signal, "Keep your station bet- 
 ter." These checks in full career meant an un- 
 necessary waste of steam and effort on the part 
 of the men, so when another signal came, "Gan 
 you maintain speed without too much strain on 
 machinery," I answered, "Yes, if we are not re- 
 quired to keep our station." 
 
 1 Fortunately Commodore Schley returned a few hours later and 
 renewed the blockade. 
 
THE OREGON'S RACE 281 
 
 This must have occasioned some explanations 
 on the flagship, for it was some minutes before the 
 reply came back. "The Admiral does not wish 
 you to keep in your station." 
 
 After that the Oregon tore along like a thor- 
 oughbred, passing the New York or dropping 
 astern, as her firemen and coal heavers flagged, or 
 roused themselves anew. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Santiago 
 
 " Through smoke and flame the battle raged, 
 And every missile sent 
 Was planted where it counted most 
 
 And where the gunners meant. 
 While leading all, the Oregon 
 Dashed swiftly to the van, 
 And raked and riddled with her guns 
 Each deck where dared a man." 
 
 — John Flagg, Lyrics of New England. 
 
 Two more days, and doubt and excitement 
 were ended, for in the haze off Santiago our ships 
 were sighted. Their appearance, and later their 
 signals, proved them to be the Brooklyn, Massa- 
 chusetts, Iowa, Texas, Marblehead, and New 
 Orleans, with several smaller consorts.^ We took 
 
 1 Names of ships and commanders taking part in battle or bom- 
 bardments at Santiago : 
 
 New York, Captain Chadwick, flagship of Admiral Sampson. 
 Brooklyn, Captain Cook, flagship of Commodore Schley. 
 
 282 
 
SANTIAGO 283 
 
 up our station some distance east of the entrance 
 to the harbor and began our part in the blockade 
 which was to last until July third. The night 
 of our arrival, Hobson made the attempt to carry 
 out the plan of blocking the narrow channel. 
 The nature of the enterprise — which seemed 
 full as desperate as that in which Somers, Israel, 
 Dorsey, and Wadsworth lost their lives in 
 Tripoli — ■ was no check upon the eagerness of 
 our officers and men to share in it. Of the many 
 that volunteered for the expedition, only a few 
 could be taken, however. When morning dawned, 
 it was thought at first that Hobson's object had 
 been achieved, for the sunken Merrimac, with 
 her smokestack, spars, and upper works showing, 
 seemed to us to be lying directly in the channel. 
 
 First-class battleships : 
 
 Massachusetts, Captain Higginson. 
 
 Iowa, Captain Evans. 
 
 Indiana, Captain Taylor. 
 
 Oregon, Captain Clark. 
 Second-class battleship : 
 
 Texas, Captain Philip. 
 Cruisers : 
 
 New Orleans, Captain Folger. 
 
 Marblehead, Captain McCalla. 
 
 Yankee, Commander Brownson. 
 Gunboats : 
 
 Gloucester, Lieutenant Commander Wainwright. 
 
 Vixen, Lieutenant Commander Sharp. 
 
284 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 In fact, the Oregon and Texas were ordered to 
 take positions close enough in shore to prevent 
 the enemy from boarding or moving her. It 
 soon developed, however, that she had drifted 
 too far over to the eastern side of the channel to 
 block it ejffectively. Speculation as to the fate of 
 Hobson and his heroic crew was relieved by an 
 announcement of their safety from the magnani- 
 mous Cervera, who strangely enough had been 
 the one to rescue them. 
 
 On June 4, Commodore Schley and the captains 
 were called on board the flagship for a conference. 
 An attack upon the Spanish batteries had been 
 planned for the next day, and the Admiral wished 
 to assign us our stations. Captain Philip sug- 
 gested that as the date set was Sunday, there be a 
 delay of twenty-four hours, and to this Sampson 
 agreed. As suggestions seemed to be in order, 
 I brought forward one that appeared to me most 
 essential. It was in relation to our defense against 
 attacks by torpedo boats, at least a couple of 
 which we knew had entered the harbor with the 
 Spanish cruisers. Up to this time, the only watch 
 that had been maintained against what should 
 have been a most effective weapon of the enemy 
 
SANTIAGO 285 
 
 was that kept by our gunboats, which naturally 
 could not get very close to the harbor entrance 
 without being observed and fired upon. My 
 proposal that launches or pulling boats should also 
 be used for this picket duty roused some debate, 
 for our ships, stripped for war service, had only 
 two or three boats apiece, and in addition to this 
 scarcity of numbers, there was the anxiety about 
 their crews to be considered. Should rough 
 weather occur, with a rising sea, there would 
 certainly be great difficulty in picking them up. 
 It was finally decided that the Massachusetts, 
 New York, and Oregon should furnish these 
 picket boats. When Admiral Sampson, as a 
 further precaution, determined to illuminate the 
 entrance with searchlights and the Massachusetts 
 and Oregon, with the addition of the Iowa, were 
 again selected for duty, I felt that honors were 
 coming our way a little too thickly. Every night, 
 within close range of the Spanish batteries, our 
 searchlight making us veritably a shining mark, I 
 used to look at the dark forms of my crew sleep- 
 ing on deck, for the heat made anything else im- 
 possible, and think what havoc in their ranks a 
 well-directed fire would make. With this cause 
 
286 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 for uneasiness added to the trying picket-boat 
 duty, I thought that the burden might have been 
 shared to advantage with the Indiana, Texas, 
 and Brooklyn. 
 
 It may not be out of place here to try to give 
 some idea of the pecuharities of Santiago harbor 
 and the position of its fortifications. There are 
 hills on either side of its narrow entrance, on the 
 one side precipitous, and on the other sloping. 
 The picturesque mass of the Morro crowns the 
 abrupt eastern shore, while on the western slope 
 lay the Socapa batteries. Directly at the en- 
 trance the channel makes a sharp turn to the 
 right, seeming to hide itself behind the craggy 
 headland of the Morro. It becomes visible 
 again as it curves to the left to round Socapa 
 Point, then with another bend to the right vanishes 
 behind the high land of Punta Gorda, which to 
 the eye of the observer from outside would almost 
 appear to close the passage. The city of Santiago 
 lies four miles above this tortuous entrance, so 
 it will be seen if we had been obliged to force our 
 way in to fight the Spanish fleet, we would have 
 been exposed to the fire from the Morro and Socapa 
 batteries, then to the mines in the channel, and 
 
SANTIAGO 287 
 
 to the batteries on Punta Gorda, before we were 
 able to reach the squadron which was anchored 
 near the city. The batteries would have given 
 us little concern, since experience had taught us 
 how inefficiently they were served, but the mines 
 were a real menace, for if our leading ship were 
 sunk by one, it would block the way for all the 
 others. I learned afterwards from Admiral Samp- 
 son that if circumstances had compelled him to 
 force an entrance, he had intended to have the 
 Oregon lead in, so I might have been vitally 
 interested in the position of these mines. 
 
 On June 6 our fleet moved forward in two 
 columns to begin the first bombardment. The 
 New York and Brooklyn led, followed by the 
 battleships and the New Orleans, Marhlehead, and 
 Yankee. The columns opened to right and left 
 as they drew within range and brought their 
 broadsides to bear. This bombardment — as 
 well as the others following it — was a very one- 
 sided affair. The- Spaniards never fired a shot 
 while we were taking position, and if they replied 
 at all during the attack, it was so seldom as to be 
 scarcely noticeable. As we drew out, they manned 
 their batteries and fired a few scattering shots 
 
288 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 after us. Even the most conspicuous target did 
 not seem to rouse them to activity, for in a later 
 bombardment the Oregon was ordered to steam 
 in, in advance of the Hue, and silence or destroy a 
 rifle-gun battery on the Punta Gorda, which, as 
 will be remembered, was some distance inside the 
 entrance. After the Oregon had taken her posi- 
 tion and begun firing, the Massachusetts and 
 Indiana joined her, and the battery was very 
 quickly disposed of, without damage resulting 
 on any of the three ships. 
 
 On June 10, the Oregon's marine guard, under 
 Captain Randolph Dickens and Lieutenant Davis, 
 in company with marines from the Marblehead had 
 landed on the eastern head of Guantanamo Bay, 
 the first armed force ^ to set foot on Cuban soil. 
 Later in the afternoon, the Panther arrived with 
 the marine battalion, and despite several annoy- 
 ing attacks, the position was held during the rest 
 of the war. This guard from the Oregon seemed 
 destined to see stormy service, for at least half of 
 them, with the Newark's marines, were sent after- 
 
 1 The Marblehead covered this landing, and her commander. Cap- 
 tain Bowman H. McCalla, was afterwards in the expedition to re- 
 lieve Peking, and in spite of at least three wounds received was 
 always the first in advance and the last in retreat. 
 
SANTIAGO 289 
 
 wards to form part of the Legation guard at Pe- 
 king, and in the siege that followed many were 
 killed and hardly one escaped un wounded. 
 Lieutenant Davis fell at Tientsin. 
 
 The latter part of June, the entrance of our 
 army into Cuba brought complications in its 
 train. If it had landed beyond the Morro to the 
 eastward and, moving along the crest of the high 
 plateau on which it stands, had made it and the 
 Socapa batteries objects of attack, we could have 
 protected one flank during this proceeding, and 
 if it were successful, could then have gone into the 
 channel with our small boats and picked up the 
 mines. This would have left the way open for 
 us to enter the harbor and tackle the Spanish 
 fleet. But the army, instead of adopting this 
 cooperative course, had marched inland towards 
 the city of Santiago, where it had fought bravely, 
 but had met with such heavy losses that General 
 Shafter wanted Admiral Sampson to force the 
 harbor entrance and come to his aid. This did 
 not seem good strategy to those who knew that the 
 capture or destruction of Cervera's squadron was 
 the real object of the Cuban campaign, but it 
 
290 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 was obvious that something would have to be 
 done and done quickly, for the yellow fever 
 season was approaching, and that scourge would 
 have mowed down our forces more relentlessly 
 than any human enemy. So early in the morning 
 of July 3, Admiral Sampson in the New York 
 steamed eastward to Siboney for a conference with 
 General Shafter. The Massachusetts was away 
 at Guantanamo, coaling. Owing to the absence 
 of these two vessels, the other ships had slightly 
 changed their usual positions in the semicircle 
 fronting the harbor. The Brooklyn was at the 
 end of the line to the westward, then came the 
 battleships Texas, Iowa, Oregon and Indiana, in 
 the order named. Also there were the two small 
 gunboats Gloucester and Vixen, stationed at the 
 eastern and western ends of the circle.^ 
 
 It was Sunday morning, and a beautiful, clear 
 day. I was in my cabin and had just buckled 
 on my sword and taken up my cap to go on deck, 
 for the first call for inspection had sounded, when 
 suddenly the brassy clang of the alarm gongs 
 
 1 The Gloucester s position at the eastern end of the line enabled 
 her to follow and make a brilliant attack upon the enemy's torpedo 
 boats, while the Vixen, being just in the track of the Spanish cruisers, 
 could only retreat, but this was done in the most creditable way. 
 
SANTIAGO 291 
 
 echoed through the ship, and the orderly burst 
 through the cabin door, exclaiming, "The Spanish 
 fleet, sir ! It's coming out ! " 
 
 I hurried on deck, thinking it must be a false 
 alarm, but as I hastened forward, man after man 
 greeted me with, "You'll see her in a minute, 
 Captain! She's behind the Morro now!" 
 
 Just then I saw clearly enough the military top, 
 and then the bow and smokestack of a man-of- 
 war sliding rapidly past the second point in the 
 harbor, and as she disappeared behind the Morro, 
 the leading ship rushed out from the entrance 
 with a speed that seemed inspired by the assur- 
 ance of victory, firing her guns as she came. 
 
 One rapid glance around showed me that under 
 the energetic supervision of Lieutenant Com- 
 mander Cogswell, everything was being done in 
 preparation for battle. The Oregon was thrilling 
 with life. Men were hurrying to their stations at 
 the guns, engines were throbbing, screws beginning 
 to revolve. For the moment I interested myself 
 in the firing of a six-pounder near the bridge, 
 with the idea of spreading the alarm to our other 
 ships. There has been much said about who fired 
 the first shot at Santiago. It is but reasonable 
 
292 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 to suppose it was either the Iowa, or the Oregon^ 
 for they were the only vessels, which, from their 
 stations, had a clear view of the Santiago channel 
 and consequently of the ship passing Socapa 
 point. 
 
 We had a general order from the Admiral, if the 
 enemy should come out to close in on him at once, 
 but I am sure every commander was obeying his 
 natural impulse rather than any order, when 
 the forward movement began. Before the lead- 
 ing Spanish ship, the Maria Teresa, was obscured 
 by the smoke of the cannonading which started 
 immediately, I had seen that she was heading to 
 the westward, and as it was almost certain the 
 others would follow her, and it was equally plain 
 they would all be out of the harbor before I 
 could reach its entrance, I too turned west. 
 Suddenly, from behind the curtain of dense 
 smoke, the Iowa emerged, close on our starboard 
 side. I gave the order, "hard a-starboard ! " for 
 it was evident that we were drawing ahead of her 
 slowly and ought to go clear. Just then, some one 
 near me shouted, "Look out for the Texas T' and 
 I turned to see her looming through the smoke 
 clouds on our port bow. For one intense moment 
 
SANTIAGO 293 
 
 it seemed as if three of our ships might be put out 
 of action then and there, leaving only the Indiana 
 and the lightly armored Brooklyji to cope with the 
 foe. The only thing to be done was to put our 
 helm hard a-port, with the hope that we might 
 clear the Texas and that the Iowa, seeing that we 
 must either cross her bows or run her down, 
 would sheer sharply to starboard. Captains 
 Philip and Evans, both fine seamen, must have 
 instantly grasped the situation and acted on it, 
 for we did pass between them, but by so narrow 
 a margin that I felt that coming to close quarters 
 with the Spaniards would be infinitely preferable 
 to repeating that experience. 
 
 A little afterwards the smoke lifted, and some- 
 what ahead of us, and on our starboard bow, we 
 saw all four Spanish ships, and realized that at 
 last our meeting with the long-looked-for fleet 
 was actually to take place. They showed no 
 signs of the severe punishment they had received 
 at the entrance, and as we did not know then how 
 much their machinery had deteriorated, I noticed 
 with surprise that the Oregon was not only keeping 
 pace with them, but was even gaining a little. 
 Indeed, seeing nothing between them and us, for 
 
294 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 our less speedy companions were considerably in 
 the rear, I said to the navigator, "Well, Nichol- 
 son, it seems we have them on our hands after 
 all." 
 
 At that moment, some distance outside, and 
 therefore on our port bow, I saw the Brooklyn, 
 Commodore Schley's flagship, and commanded by 
 my old friend, F. A. Cook. She was a little 
 ahead of us, and her guns were doing good work. 
 Although we knew that with her light armor and 
 less powerful battery she could not give us the 
 aid one of the battleships would have afforded, 
 yet the feeling of having a comrade in arms near 
 us was much, and I remember saying with some 
 emotion to one of those standing beside me, 
 "My old roommate is in command of that ship." 
 
 At almost the same moment, as we afterwards 
 learned, when w^e tore out of the smoke clouds 
 and were sighted by the little group upon the 
 Brooklyn's bridge, the relief at our approach broke 
 out in exclamations of, "Here comes the Oregon! 
 It's the Oregon, God bless her ! " Ensign Johnston, 
 who was close at my side all that day, reported 
 that the Brooklyn had a signal flying, which read 
 "Follow the flag", and I immediately ordered it 
 
SANTIAGO 295 
 
 to be repeated on the Oregon, so that the vessels 
 further astern might see it. 
 
 About this time we noticed signs of distress 
 on the sternmost Spaniard. This was the Maria 
 Teresa, Cervera's flagship. As she had come out 
 of the harbor first and then fallen back to the rear, 
 I have always thought it must have been Cer- 
 vera's chivalrous idea — he came of one of the old 
 Castilian families to whom such ideas are natural 
 — to cover the retreat of his flying ships and to 
 bear the brunt of the combat. Smoke was seen 
 presently rolling up from the doomed vessel, and 
 making a sharp turn, she headed for the beach. 
 As her colors were still flying, we raked her as we 
 went past — I remember it went to my heart to 
 do it — and pushed on for the next ahead, the 
 Oquendo. We closed in on her to a distance of 
 about eight hundred yards, the nearest that 
 vessels approached that day. She could not 
 stand the punishment long. Fires broke out all 
 over her, and she too ran for the shore. Nichol- 
 son said, "Captain, that vessel could be destroyed 
 now," but I answered, "No, that's a dead cock 
 in the pit. The others can attend to her. We'll 
 push on for the two ahead." 
 
296 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 It took us a little time to come abreast of the 
 Vizcaya, We kept up a continuous fire upon her, 
 but it was nearly eleven o'clock before she turned 
 for the beach, in flames. As this last battle- 
 torn wreck of w^hat had once been a proud and 
 splendid ship fled to the shore like some sick and 
 wounded thing, seeking a place to die, I could 
 feel none of that exultation that is supposed to 
 come with victory. If I had seen my own decks 
 covered with blood, and my officers and men dying 
 around me, perhaps resentment would have sup- 
 plied the necessary ingredient, but as it was, the 
 faces of the women and children in far-away Spain, 
 the widows and orphans of this July third, rose 
 before me so vividly that I had to draw comfort 
 from the thought that a decisive victory is after 
 all more merciful than a prolonged struggle, 
 and that every life lost to-day in breaking down 
 the bridge to Spain might mean a hundred saved 
 hereafter. 
 
 The Colon, the only remaining ship, had drawn 
 several miles ahead, and as she kept on with un- 
 diminished speeed, I thought a shell or two falling 
 near her might give her a hint that it would be 
 well to surrender. So a little after twelve o'clock, 
 
SANTIAGO 297 
 
 when she was still at a distance from us, I con- 
 sulted Nicholson and Ackerman — both of them 
 ordnance experts — and Eberle, who had been 
 doing fine work in our forw^ard turret, as to whether 
 the great elevation required at so long a range 
 would be too much of a strain upon guns and 
 mounts. We decided to fire once with range set 
 for nine thousand, ^ve hundred yards. The shot 
 fell short and we were preparing to increase the 
 range, when the chief engineer, who had just come 
 up on deck, said, "Captain, I was thankful when 
 I heard that gun. I was meaning to ask you if 
 one could be fired. Our men down below are 
 nearly played out, but if they can only hear the 
 guns, they will brace up again." 
 
 At 1.10 P.M. one of our shots fell close alongside 
 the Colon, and she headed for the beach, her colors 
 coming down, and with them the last vestige of 
 Spain's power in that New World which had once 
 known her as its ruler. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 A Sailor's Log 
 
 After a victory so absolute, it is usual to begin 
 to count the cost, but to our amazement, our 
 ships, one after another, hoisted the signal "no 
 casualties.'' The Brooklyn was the only excep- 
 tion, and she suffered the loss of but one man. 
 We had a glorious Fourth of July present to offer 
 the nation, for seldom, if ever, in naval history, 
 has there been an instance of such complete 
 destruction of an attacking fleet. 
 
 The Cristobal Colon was the only enemy vessel 
 that had not been severely injured. Captain Cook 
 of the Brooklyn received her surrender. We looked 
 forward to seeing her become an effective addition 
 to our navy, in which the name she bore would have 
 seemed singularly appropriate, but either through 
 accident or treachery, her sea valves had been 
 opened, and in spite of the efforts of her prize 
 crew to save her, she sank where she lay. Her 
 
 298 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 299 
 
 last resting place is one of the most beautiful 
 spots on the Cuban coast. She lies where Mount 
 Tarquino rises abruptly from the shore, to a height 
 of eight thousand feet, green to its summit, and 
 its base bathed in that bright, blue water so 
 wonderfully rendered in W. F. Halsall's spirited 
 canvas,^ where the Oregon is seen firing the last 
 shot in the battle of Santiago. 
 
 One of our officers who had boarded the Colon 
 brought me a large silver platter and cover be- 
 longing to her wardroom outfit, for as he pointed 
 out, they were both marked with my initials, " C. C." 
 
 The Oregon's officers and crew could indeed 
 feel, as the signal "Congratulations over the great 
 victory and thanks for your splendid assistance" 
 went up from the Brooklyn, that they had de- 
 served well of the navy and the nation. With 
 noble endurance and unwearying devotion they 
 had brought their ship in splendid condition to the 
 scene of the conflict where they had played a fore- 
 most part. 2 As I was rowed over in my gig to 
 
 1 Now in the National Museum at Washington. Taken to San 
 Francisco by the Navy Department for the Exposition, where it was 
 constantly guarded by sailors from the Oregon. 
 
 ^ It was disappointing that these brave and devoted men could 
 not have had the satisfaction that the tribute planned for their ship 
 
300 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 report on board the New York, her crew cheered 
 for the Oregon and her captain so heartily and 
 repeatedly, that after rising myself to acknowledge 
 their tribute, I asked my boat's crew to rise, 
 which they did amidst a storm of cheers. 
 
 There are a few occasions in a man's life which 
 will remain with him always. That was one, 
 and another, which I can never forget, was the 
 day when, broken in health, I left the Oregon. It 
 was a pleasure to find that the boat in which I 
 was to be rowed to the northbound steamer was 
 manned by my officers. That is an honor deeply 
 appreciated by any captain. But I was surprised 
 and hurt, as we left the ship's side, that none of 
 the men were visible. Suddenly, as if moved by 
 one spring, they rose from the decks where they 
 had been lying concealed, and led by old Murphy, 
 the chief boatswain's mate, joined in a ringing 
 shout of "God bless our captain." So the last 
 impression I had of the Oregon, as we rowed away, 
 was a forest of waving arms and tossing caps, 
 
 at the formal opening of the Panama Canal would have afforded 
 them. It was intended that the Oregon with as many of her 
 original complement as could be gathered and with the President and 
 Secretary of the Navy on the bridge beside her commanding oflScer 
 would lead the International fleets through the Canal. 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 301 
 
 seen through a mist, although the day was clear 
 and bright. 
 
 During my recovery from illness, it was a great 
 happiness to me to read of the enthusiasm with 
 which the Oregon was received when she came 
 north with the other ships. The fact that I was 
 not bearing a prominent part in these festivities 
 rather added to than detracted from this feeling, 
 for I have never learned to be happy or easy in the 
 spot-light. 
 
 And so it was that when my name was joined 
 to those of Sampson and Schley, in the Senate 
 bill which proposed to make the three of us vice 
 admirals, and owing to the jealousies and strife 
 of the famous contest after Santiago, it failed to 
 pass, I can truthfully say that it was no matter 
 of regret to me. The prominence and exacting 
 duties of such a position would have been too 
 much of a strain on me at that time, and I feel 
 that better health and longer life have been 
 mine, in remaining a rear admiral and retiring 
 at the age of sixty-two. But what did give me 
 the keenest satisfaction was the knowledge that 
 nearly all the officers senior to me on the navy 
 list, men who had long been my superiors in 
 
MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 rank, such as Watson, Higginson, Wadleigh, and 
 Chester, who are still living, and Casey, Barker, 
 Cotton, Sands, and Cook, generously ignoring 
 the fact that I would be placed above them, all 
 expressed the hope that I would be made a vice 
 admiral. 
 
 With this same feeling in mind, when President 
 Roosevelt wished to send me as Naval Represent- 
 ative to the coronation of King Edward, I was 
 rather glad to be able to excuse myself on the 
 ground that my income as a captain would hardly 
 be adequate to the demands of such a position. 
 The President very kindly suggested that he might 
 be able to secure an extra grade for me. I told 
 him of the objections I had always felt to that 
 sort of promotion and added that as my small 
 experience of royalty had been limited to a Siwash 
 Indian chief and a king of the Cannibal Islands, I 
 should have little to guide me in court functions. 
 He told me to take a month to think it over, and 
 as at the end of that time I was still of the same 
 opinion, he very generously allowed me to nomi- 
 nate the officer to go in my place. This gave me 
 the pleasure of naming my friend Rear Admiral 
 Watson, whose splendid Civil War record, I had 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 303 
 
 always felt, should have brought him more rec- 
 ognition both during and after the Spanish War. 
 I was with Admiral Watson when he went to 
 thank the President for his appointment. Roose- 
 velt spoke of his strong desire to have had me go, 
 but added that as it appeared a scalping knife or 
 tomahawk might have been brandished at the 
 Court of St. James if I had reverted to my only 
 associations with royalty, it was perhaps better 
 on the whole that another should take my place. 
 
 During the years 1899 to 1901 I was second in 
 command at League Island, a navy yard then of 
 minor importance. For a part of this time, how- 
 ever, I was also a member of the General Board, 
 which had just then been formed. This was, 
 and continues to be, the most interesting duty 
 open to a naval officer, since it provides for con- 
 stant and prompt interchange of ideas between 
 officers serving the navy afloat and those whose 
 experience has best fitted them to watch its in- 
 terests on shore and to present these ideas in 
 concrete form for the consideration of the Navy 
 Department. 
 
 From 1901 to 1904 I was Governor of the Naval 
 Home in Philadelphia, and afterwards had duty 
 
304 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 in Washington as President of the Examining and 
 Retiring Boards. These last two positions I 
 retained until my own retirement August 10, 
 1905. I was offered the command of the European 
 Squadron and later that of the Atlantic Fleet. 
 
 Our stay in Philadelphia was rendered delightful 
 to us by the many agreeable social relations we 
 formed while there. For Philadelphians, while 
 notoriously reluctant to let down barriers to the 
 stranger, once they have admitted him within 
 their gates, are the most hospitable of people. 
 It was at this time that I became intimate with 
 Doctor S. Weir Mitchell, a friendship only broken 
 by his death. His lively interest in all things 
 historical pertaining to our country included the 
 voyage of the Oregon and her part at Santiago, 
 and he often urged me to put down in black and 
 white what I could remember of it. He was 
 delighted with the diary kept by a marine, one of 
 my cabin orderlies, in the Oregon, regarding it as 
 a unique piece of literature. This record came 
 into my hands during a winter I was spending in 
 Greenfield, my wife's old home. Written solely 
 for the perusal of the author's sisters, it had come 
 into the hands of one of their friends, who sent 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 305 
 
 it to me. I showed it to Chief Justice John Adams 
 Aiken of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, 
 who enjoyed it so greatly that he had a private 
 edition printed for circulation among his friends. 
 I can think of no better way to end this narra- 
 tive than with Judge Aiken's preface and these 
 "short and simple annals" of "The Voyage of 
 the Oregon.'' 
 
 "Almost ten years have passed since the country 
 followed, in scanty telegram from port to port, the 
 Oregon speeding down one side of a continent and 
 up the other to Bahia; then came two anxious, 
 silent weeks when apprehension and fear pictured 
 four Spanish cruisers with a pack of torpedo boats 
 sailing out into the west athwart the lone ship's 
 course, the suspense ending only when tidings 
 came of her arrival at Jupiter Inlet; then off 
 Santiago, after a month of waiting, there is the 
 outcoming of Cervera's squadron, when this 
 splendid ship, with steam all the time up, leaps to 
 the front of her sisters of the fleet, like an un- 
 leashed hound, and joins the historic company of 
 the Bon Homme Richard^ the Constitution, the 
 
306 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 Hartford, in our naval annals. From the start 
 at the Golden Gate to the beaching of the Colon 
 is a succession of events full of thrilling merit and 
 vitality which official bickerings and envyings 
 cannot change or obscure. 
 
 "The story has been told from the standpoint 
 of the quarterdeck, the courtroom and the depart- 
 ment bureau. Here we have the artless journal 
 of an unlettered sailor, written between decks, 
 without the least notion that it would ever be 
 read apart from his own family circle. The pages 
 of his record give an insight into the mutual 
 regard and confidence existing between the cap- 
 tain and his crew which made the voyage the 
 memorable achievement that it was." 
 
 THE VOYAGE OF THE OREGON 
 
 So we started on the 19th of March and I will 
 try and give you some idea of our trip on this 
 side of the U. S. Capt McCommick got sick and 
 had to be relieved to go on sick leif. Capt Clark 
 was in command of the Monteray at the time and 
 he was a young Capt too. there was no other 
 one around there at that time, so he was detailed 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 307 
 
 to take comand of the Oregon and a prowed 
 man he was too, and we wer a prowed crew along 
 with him. He was glad he got the ship and we 
 wer glad we got him. we knew he was a good 
 Seaman. Any way he called us all aft on the 
 quarter deck and read out his orders and told us 
 that we wer going towards south America. I 
 will now try and give you the trip. 
 
 March 19. 1898 Up anchor at 8 A.M. in San 
 Francisco Bay. I had the 8 to 12 watch and 
 we past through the Golden Gate at 9.15 A.M. 
 and left the Fairwell Bouy at 10.5 A.M. and 
 shaped our course for Callao, Peru, it being 
 S. E. ^ E, and at the same time we drop over 
 the Patent Log in the Briny, the Capt gave 
 orders to give 75 turns and that brought her 
 out about 11.5 knots. Every thing is runing 
 smooth and all Hunk. 
 
 March 20. Sliding along at 11.8 knots gate. 
 Everything working beautyfull. nothing of in- 
 terest going on, except the fine Wether. 
 
 March 21. Changed course at 10 A.M. to S. E. 
 Will not put down any thing for some time to 
 come as there is nothing unusual going on. But 
 
308 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 I wonder if we will get there to catch up with 
 the Band Wagon. 
 
 April 4. Arived at Calao, Peru, 5.00 A.M., very 
 pleasant trip all the way down the coast, we 
 are doing quick work so far. started to coal 
 ship at 8 A.M. and as soon as we get enough 
 on board we will pull right out for the straights 
 of Magellan and there join the Marietta, our 
 little Gun Boat, which will scout the straights 
 for us in case there is a Spanish Torpedo Boat 
 in one of the Many Coves. She can go in 
 shallow water as she is a light draft boat and 
 at the same time order coal for us. 
 
 We have allready made one of the grandest 
 runs on record. Just think of it, a First Class 
 Battle Ship making 4800 miles in just 16 days 
 and used 900 Tons of Coal, That being the 
 longest trip on record for a First Class Battle Ship. 
 
 April 5. We are now laying over an old city 
 in Peru, they say when some of the ships 
 hoist there anchor they sometimes rais some of 
 the old houses or part of them with the anchor. 
 This old place is some 109 years old, the Old 
 Callao, I mean. 109 years ago they had an 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 309 
 
 Earthquake and Tidle Wave hear together and 
 did up the city. The public hear speak noth- 
 ing put Spanish and the Capt thinks there 
 might be som sympathizers amongst Them, so 
 we are keeping the strickest Kind of watch on 
 the ship. We have two steam cutters pattrol- 
 ing the ship all night and men station in the 
 fighting tops as sharp shooters, the steam cut- 
 ters are armed with two automatic 22 m.m. 
 Rifles, so that would more than be a match for 
 a ordinary Torpedo Boat, and while all the 
 Post on Deck were Double we consider our- 
 selves pretty safe. They are puting coal on 
 board as fast as they can, working night and 
 day to get it all on. we are going to take a big 
 lot this time. 
 
 April 6. Pay day today, put on Sea stors to- 
 day along with the coal, it all gos togather. 
 But what is the diferance, this is War times 
 and we are trying to get in it and I think we 
 will if we get a show. I bought a nice pair of 
 shoes today for 3.50 in U. S. Gold, there is 
 no liberty to any one hear so we have to buy 
 something that is some good to us. Expect to 
 
310 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 coal ship all night so as to pull out to 
 morrow. 
 
 April 7. Got the coal on this morning at 4 A. 
 M. there is about 1750 tons on now, never had 
 so much on before, got 100 tons on deck in 
 sacks, we are knocking some of the coal dust 
 off the sides. She is a very dirty ship now and 
 expect to remain so for a long time to come. 
 There is some talk of a Spanish Gun Boat or 
 a Torpedo Boat in the Straights waiting for 
 us. But I think that will be all right when the 
 Marietta gets there to patrole the place for us. 
 We expect to go out to night some time. 7 
 p. m. left Port. The Capt dont know wether 
 to go round the Horn or not. But if we go, 
 as the Dutchman says By the Horn around, 
 we will get a shaking up. But every body 
 seems to think we can take care of our selves 
 where ever we go. Capt Clark is all right, we 
 dont think he is afraid of the whole Spanish 
 Navy, the wether is very fogy. Expect it to 
 lift when we get a little ways. 
 
 April 9. Alls Well, every thing doing fine. 
 
 April 10. Just came on watch; have all four 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 311 
 
 boilers on now and we are peging along at a 
 13.7 and a 14 knot gate, you dont know you 
 are at sea in this ship if you would stop be- 
 tween Decks, guess there is not much doing 
 to day, so I will steal forward for a while the 
 old gent sleeps a little. I forgot to speak of 
 having a little practis with the 6 pounders. 
 They threw over Boxes and barrels and as we 
 would get away from them we would fire on 
 them for Torpedo Boats, we did some good 
 shooting. All the Marines Man the seccondary 
 Battry. The Capt got the chief engineer to 
 fix the 8 inch turets to turn in Board 9 more 
 degrees so as to shoot over the stern of the 
 ship. So that would bring to bear on one point 
 2, 13 inch Guns 4, 8 inch Guns 2, 6 inch Guns 
 and six 6 Pounders aft, and the same forward. 
 We could shoot for a Broad side 4, 13 inch 4, 
 8 inch 2, 6inch and about 12, 6 Pounders on 
 either side. 
 
 Of corse this is Sunday and we all ought to 
 be good. But we will be as good as we can By 
 having a Gen feild day and clean up a little, 
 as this is the first chance we have had to do 
 any scrubing since we left San Francisco, Cal. 
 
312 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 I think we will meet the Marietta in the 
 Straights of Magellan, we have found some 
 grate Bars for her under the coal dust. We 
 all think Capt Clark is going to be a ring tail 
 snorter for fighting. I dont think it will be 
 easy to whip him, he seems to be so quick to 
 catch on to every little thing, he is all over 
 the ship at once and he talks to every body, 
 stops any one to ask them any thing he wants 
 to know about the ship, he is very quick to 
 take the advantage of every little thing. 
 
 April 11. Very heavy wether. Wind Blowing 
 Great Guns and a head sea. But we are Buck- 
 ing it and making 11.6 knots, the Capt dont 
 think we will run up against any thing in the 
 shape of a Torpedo Boat in the Straights. We 
 had some more practis today with the 6 Pound- 
 ers and did some good work. I think we 
 could make it very interesting for a Torpedo 
 Boat. I dont see how they could get at us, 
 unless it was in the night and then there would 
 have to be something the matter with our 
 search lights and all hands on Board would 
 have to have the "Buck Feaver." 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 313 
 
 April 12. We lost a little today on account 
 of the forward 13 inch Turet, somthing got 
 Jamed. all going well once more, and still 
 bucking a head sea and making 11.7 knots right 
 along. 4 P. M. Heavy wind has turned into 
 a gale, but she is like a duck on a Mill Pond 
 and still making 10 knots, Gale or no Gale, 
 she has not roled over 10 degrees since we left 
 Port Orchard, Wash. 
 
 April 15. Whooping her up for all she is worth, 
 want to make all she can. Wether is fine but 
 quite Cold. Making all the way from 14 to 15 
 knots. 
 
 April 16. Everything is still doing well, and 
 still going a mill tail. Passed Smiths Straights 
 the first part of this morning, early, and in the 
 fog that has Just come on we are still going it. 
 the fog raised for a while and showed us the 
 Destination Island, and then we wer shure we 
 had only 30 miles to go to get in the Straights. 
 Just at Dark we droped our mud hook in just 
 45 fathoms of water in the entrence of the 
 Straights of Magellan. 9.45 P. M. had the 8 
 to 12 watch and She more than blew. I 
 
314 MY FIFPY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 though the ship would drift. But she held on 
 like grim Deth to a dead nigger. The wind 
 Bio wed so hard I expected to be lifted off my 
 feet. 
 
 April 17. Making all posable speed to Sandy 
 Point, making about 15 knots ever since we 
 started this morning. 12 O clock Midday, 
 there is some of the most beautyfull and 
 grandest sights I have ever had the pleasure 
 to look upon. I am shure if I could only 
 write on the subject I could make it very in- 
 teresting. I never seen such beautifull wild 
 nature in all my travels; there is mountain 
 after mountain of Glacier and they seem to 
 have all the colors of the rainbow, it was a little 
 cold too and the whole Mountain sparkled like 
 diamonds. 6. P. M. drop anchor in the Harber 
 of Sandy Point, Chili. Had the public bin able 
 to see us. They would not stop runing for the 
 next week to come, for we cleared ship for action 
 and had the guns all loaded up and ready for 
 business and to Blaze away at any thing that 
 looked as thoe it wanted to fight. Capt Clark 
 belives in for warned for armed, and takes no 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG S15 
 
 chances, had the two Steam Cutters patroling 
 the ship as usual. 
 
 She made one of the grandest runs on record 
 for 11 hours making an average of 15i knots ; 
 it knocks the Worlds record sky high. Just 
 think of a first Class Battle Ship making 15i 
 knots for 11 straight hours on a straight away 
 run, and we all think she could beat that time. 
 But we had over the bow 2 anchors with the 
 flukes of both in the water 3 feet. I am sure 
 that held her Back 2 tenths of a knot. And 
 the Marietta is not hear, the Capt dont know 
 what has become of her. 
 
 April 18. Well the Marietta is hear this morn- 
 ing, she came in at 12.15 this morning. She 
 was in the straights when we past her, she was 
 laying off in one of the coves waiting for us, 
 the man on look-out sighted us as we pased her, 
 and told his capt and he said let her go, we 
 will up anchor and overhall her in a short 
 time, it hapened that the lookout was on 
 board of the Oregon and he told his Capt that 
 the Marietta could never catch the Oregon. 
 Well any way she came in a little after midnight. 
 
316 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The first thing this morning we started to 
 coal up. I ha vent found out how many tons 
 we are going to take hear. But the price is 
 $25 a ton. I think we will take about 800 tons, 
 all the men on the Marietta say they had a very 
 rough trip. We are in a great rush to get out 
 of hear. Capt Clark asked Capt Simons if he 
 had any towing Bits. Looks as thoe we were 
 going to snake him along with us. I am de- 
 tailed to go into the fighting top to night as 
 capt of one Pounder and look out, we have a 
 double watch on now all the time and it makes 
 the Duty very hard thies war times. 
 
 April 19. Still coaling up, was working all 
 night to night, expect to be through to night 
 sometime. Puting on sea stors along with the 
 coal. Meat, Can goods, coal dust, all mixed up 
 togather. What is the defirance, it all goes 
 thies times. The Marietta had some trouble in 
 geting coal to day. She only got 40 tons since 
 1 A. M. this morning, so Capt Clark ordered 
 him to go along side of the Coal Hulk and 
 take all he wanted, for Capt sais we must have 
 the coal and therefor must take it as we are 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 317 
 
 going out of hear to morrow. 3.30 P. M. there 
 was an Argentine Gun Boat came in Port and 
 I would not be surprised to see a scrap hear 
 before we left. Chili and Argentine are in 
 hot disput over this place, it seems they both 
 clame it to there Boundry line. Chili sent 
 a company of Soldiers hear the 18th and they 
 expect a Transport with som Soldiers from Ar- 
 gentine to night som time, so I for one would 
 like to see a good scrap of som kind for an ap- 
 petizer for us, Just to take the rough edge off 
 you know, we are standing by our Guns all 
 the time and sleep by them by night. While 
 the Jackies coal ship all hands are doing there 
 part and there is no fudging going on. of 
 corse there is all kinds of War talk in the air. 
 
 April 20. At 12.30 A. M. still coaling up. 
 Every thing working smooth and nothing to 
 stop, it is a beautyfull night and the Southern 
 Cross looms up with more beauty than I ever 
 seen befor. But the ships bum Boat is all 
 right too, she loomed up with a big ketle of 
 hot Steaming cocoa. Just the thing a man 
 wants when he has the mid watch, the wether 
 
318 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 is very cold down hear, a few of the men is 
 going ashore to morrow. I dont think I will be 
 able to go as I will have the afternoon watch, 
 any way I dont care much as I am use to the 
 ship now. I could stay hear for a year. I 
 wish we wer around to Key West so as to be 
 with the Band wagon when she starts. Mr. 
 Giles, Midshipman, is a very sick man, he was 
 taken ill in the Cabin this morning. I went 
 for the Doctor for him at 1.45 A. M. Doc said 
 he had a hemorrhage of the lungs caused by 
 concussion. 3 A. M. he is asleep and doing 
 fine now. I woulden like to see him die, he is 
 a fine fellow. 3. 45 A. M. coal all on board. 4.30 
 P. M. the Capt is on the warpath, he is mader 
 than a wet hen for he tryed to get out of hear 
 by 2 P. M. to day, But could not on the account 
 of the Marietta having some trouble with her 
 coal, so we both go tomorrow morning at daybreak. 
 
 April 21. Called all hands at 5.30 A. M. and up 
 anchor at 6 A. M. I called the old man at 5.40 
 A. M. Signaled over to pullout and we are 
 tailing on behind untill we get out of the 
 Straights, going about 10 knots; at 6 Bells met 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 319 
 
 a steamer Bound for Klondyke, we drop a 
 whale boat and sent our Boarding officer to find 
 out the news if there was any But was dis- 
 apointed. She had no news, she was 15 days 
 from Rio Janeiro. 7.30 P. M. all is going well. 
 The Marietta is astern now and likely to re- 
 main so untill we get in the next Port, we 
 past another steamer about 3 P. M. and when 
 I go on watch to night at 8 I will try and find 
 out something about her. Came off at 12 mid- 
 night and she signaled to us no news of War. 
 We have to go slow on account of the Marietta, 
 had some targate practis today with all the 
 Guns. We travel at night with all lights out 
 now adays so as not to let any thing slip up on 
 us, and at the same time slip up on them. 
 
 April 22. Wind is very high, lost a life Boat 
 this morning at 5.20 A. M. from the after 
 Davits, good thing the wind is head on, the Sea 
 is runing high. 8 P. M. Sea and wind has gon 
 down considerable. Making about lOi knots. 
 Ellis is sick poor man, I am standing his watch 
 to night. 11.45 P. M. going about the same 
 and all is well. 
 
320 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 April 23. I think we will have a dash of Gen 
 Quarters, Just to shake the Boys up. the old 
 man is anxious to have targate Praetis, he be- 
 lieves this ship whips the shoes off any thing 
 that floats in the line of Battle ships, of corse 
 Baring a Torpedo if one should hapen to hit, 
 and I think the old man is right too, for this 
 crew feels scrapy now. I think we would fight 
 fer Keeps. Had Gen Quarters in the morning 
 and Church in the afternoon. 
 
 April 24. All is well, at 12 Oclock noon to day 
 we wer in Lat. 44° 23m and Lon 57° 48m. 
 had some fire drill to day mixed with a little 
 collision drill. 
 
 April 25. 4 A. M. Just came on watch and I 
 am going on deck to get a cup of cocoa to wake 
 me up abit. the old man is in the Chart house 
 snoozing, so I guess it is safe to go. Every 
 thing has settled down to the same old thing 
 except when we have some Targate Praetis By 
 throwing boxes over board. 
 
 April 26. 8 A. M. All is well, same thing. Mak- 
 ing lOi sometimes 11 knots. Had clear ship 
 for action today. 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 321 
 
 April 27. Every body begins to feal the trip 
 now, geting tiresome now. since they have 
 taken all of our ditty Boxes and benches and 
 all extra mess chests and stored them away, we 
 have no place to sit down except on deck and 
 let our feet hang over, then the men forward 
 cant get enough water to keep themselves clean. 
 I am more lucky than most of them for I have 
 a chance to steal a Bucketful one every night, 
 our cook is no good, he makes sour Bread and 
 would make good schrapnel for clearing the 
 decks, and of corse your humble servant has 
 to chew Hard Tack, had more Targate practis 
 to day. 
 
 April 28. good stiff Breeze to day. Expect to 
 have more targate practis to day with ful charges 
 of amanition ; no practis, wind too high. 
 
 April 29. good day to day, guess we will have 
 it to day, no we dont have it. the old man 
 has changed his mind and we will try and make 
 Port to morrow. 
 
 April 30. Started to pul out this morning at 
 5.30 A. M., useing forsed draught, making 14.5 
 knots, going to try and make it by 4 P. M., have 
 
Sn MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 a head wind and light head sea. Droped anchor 
 at 3 P. M. in the beautyfull harber of Rio de 
 Janeiro, and befor the Mud hook struck the 
 botom we had the news that war was declared 
 on the 21st of April 1898, the very day we 
 puled out of Sandy Point, as soon as every 
 thing was put to order we Broke out the Band 
 to give us the Star Spangled Baner, and the 
 Crew diden do a thing But yell and whoop 
 her up, so they had to play it over 4 times. 
 The Marietta got in at 7 P. M. The Forts at 
 this place were not going to let her in. But 
 when they see her Signal they let her pass O. K. 
 started to coal up at 8.25 P. M. and we get out 
 of hear as soon as we can. I hear the Spanish 
 has got one of our Merchant ships, the Shanan- 
 dore, loaded with English goods. I wonder 
 how that is going to com out. Every one on 
 this ship is crasie to get at the Spanish. 
 
 May 1. Just com on watch. Beautyfull morn- 
 ing and still coaling ship. Hear is where you 
 can get lots of sour frute and Bananas by the 
 ship load for a little mony. But we are not 
 aloud to Buy any thing that isent sour on ac- 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 323 
 
 count of Yellow Feaver at this place. The Bra- 
 zilian soldiers stop up all night to be up eriy 
 in the morning; they started to give us Revelee 
 about 3 Oclock this morning, dident get through 
 until 4 A. M. it sounds very pretty early in the 
 morning when you are all ready awake, and such 
 a beautifuU morning as this is you can hear the 
 echo of the drums up in the hils far away. You 
 would all most wish you could stop hear all the 
 time and be a Brazilian for good. But I coulden 
 leave my Dear land for all the pretty sights Ive 
 seen togather. 
 
 May 2. American Minerster Just com on board 
 and told us the news of the Battle of Manila, 
 the Yanks did up every thing there, coal is 
 coming on very slow and the old man is geting 
 ancious to get out. 
 
 May 3. going out to-morrow morning at 6 A. M. 
 The crew is very enthusiastic over the war. got 
 out this morning all right But going slow. I 
 think we are fooling around hear. Have Nic- 
 theroy as a transport boat. She has 2000 tons of 
 coal on Board for us and they say she is an 18 
 knoter. 
 
324 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 May 4. I guess the war is on for keeps now. 
 We have com back to Rio or near it to wate 
 for a Spanish Torpedo Boat that has bin laying 
 around hear for the last 3 days and at the same 
 time to take the Nichteroy. 
 
 May 5. lost some time waiting for the Nictheroy 
 But she came along at dark, the Marietta will 
 look out for her and we will pull out for Key 
 West I think. 
 
 May 6. Every thing doing well and making 10 
 and 11 knots right off the reel now. at 8 P. M. 
 the old man called all the Ward Room officers 
 in the Cabin and read the tellegrams to them 
 from Washington Which wer his sealed Orders 
 and one of them reads like this : four armered 
 Cruisers left Cape de Verde at some date and 
 2 Torpedo Boats, Destination unknown, and 
 the old man is told to beware. The old man 
 had a consul of War to night, so if we have to 
 scrap, we will have to cut a lively gate for 
 them, they say the Spanish is some Kind of 
 a fighter him self. But we all think we can 
 show him a trick with a hole in it. that was a 
 great fight of the Manilla bay. 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 325 
 
 May 7. Every thing doing well, except this 
 morning at 4.50 A. M. Gen Quarters sounded 
 and there was a lively old time for a while. 
 Every body thought we wer in for it then and 
 there. I cannot describe the fealing of en- 
 thusiasm about the Decks, you see we had our 
 orders to send in a Gen alarm when ever any 
 thing looked like a Manowar got in sight, 
 there was a little rain squall and some old sail- 
 ing ship was in it, and just as she cleared away 
 our lookout sighted the ship and sent in the 
 alarm; it was the Capts orders to send in the 
 alarm even if he was not there as he would get 
 there all right, at 9 A. M. the old man called 
 all hands to muster on the Quarter deck and 
 told us the news he had received at Rio : there 
 was 4 first class cruisers and three Torpedo 
 Boats going to meet around hear some where 
 and do us up. we all expect they will if they 
 can. But the pruf of the Puding is the eat- 
 ing of it and we will have something to say 
 about that. And after telling us about the 
 fleet that was going to whip the socks off us he 
 made a little speach to us; he said of corse it 
 was his duty to the Goverment to get the ship 
 
326 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 around on the other side and stear clear of the 
 fleet if posable. But in case he did meet the 
 fleet he was sure Spain's fighting efficiency on 
 the sea would be demineshed. So we all gave 
 him three rousen Cheers and the old man 
 Blushed, but he is a dandy Just the same. 
 
 May 8. got to Bahia, Bra. at 8.30 P. M. after 
 making a good run and having Targate practis 
 with full charges of Powder, don some fine 
 shooting with the Big Guns. I dont think it 
 will be a bit too healthy for the Spanish to 
 bump up against us, for we have a good eye. 
 We put in hear as an excuse to put on War 
 paint saying our engines wer Brok down and 
 at the same time to get more coal if we can. 
 
 May 9. Put on War paint to day and we are 
 out for it now. we have the ship cleared for 
 action now for keeps, got some coal and fresh 
 water, filed up with every thing we wanted, 
 at 8 P. M. the old man got a telagram and at 
 10 P. M. we wer on our corse for the West 
 Indias. 
 
 May 10. going along smooth and nothing doing. 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 327 
 
 May 11. still expect to meet that fleet and if we 
 do meet them there is going to be a "Hot time 
 in the old town to night." 
 
 May 12. Every thing the same, some of us think 
 we past through the fleet last night, there wer 
 several lights all around and acted Mighty quer. 
 
 May 13. Nothing doing and will wate untill we 
 get in Port. 
 
 May 18. got into Barbadoes at 4 A. M. this 
 morning and found lots of war talk going on ; 
 we are puting on coal Just now, expect to go 
 out of hear to morrow morning erly. 8 P. M. 
 up anchor once more after geting 250 tons of 
 coal on and ready for buisness. Guess the 
 Spanish dont want any of this craft, it seems 
 we will get there without firering a shot. 
 
 May 24. arived at Jupiter light house after 
 making a flank movement to the northard and 
 not a ship to be be seen. 
 
 May 25. up anchor once more for Key West, 
 got there on the 26th; of corse the Capt dident 
 know how things stud so he had to go slow. 
 About 4.30 A. M. the man on the life Bouy 
 
S28 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 gave the alarm, saying there was a small dark 
 objict coming this way ; the Officer of the Deck 
 roused up the Capt and the next thing we knew 
 Gen Quarters sounded. What should it be 
 But the tug with our Pilot on board for us, the 
 "Hudson" was the name of the tug. 
 
 May 27. still puting on coal, expect to go down 
 to Cuba with the New York. 
 
 June 1. I herd the first shot in this war to day, 
 Santiago de Cuba and with the flying squadron. 
 
 June 2. we had a wild goose chase. 
 
 June 3. nothing doing but laying off hear and 
 watching what looks like to me a big hole in the 
 grond. same thing the 4th and 5th. 
 
 June 6. Stand from under, we Bombard the 
 forts and water Baterys to day for 4 hours but 
 dont know how much damage we don. 
 
 June 7. staying out hear and doing nothing. 
 
 June 8. same thing. 
 
 June 9. " 
 
 June 10. we went down to Guantanamo Bay to 
 put some coal on and landed 40 Marines in the 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 329 
 
 Morning, we wer the first to put foot on Cuban 
 soil in this war. The 9th the Marblehead and 
 Dolphin Bombarded the place and made them 
 look like Munkys ; they ran away and left every 
 thing behind them. 
 
 June 11. came back to Santiago on the 10th. 
 and laying off hear as befor. 
 
 June 12. Same old thing. Expecting Troops 
 every day. 
 
 June 13. Dito. 
 
 June 14. the New Orleans was ordered to run 
 in close to the shore and do som Bombarding 
 By her self Just to break the Monotony and to 
 let us believe we wer at war. we don a good 
 Job all right, she silenced the east Battry and 
 the west one too, and made them show up a 
 water Battry which we did not know any thing 
 about, havent herd how many got kild or 
 wounded on the other side. But I know they 
 never hert any one on this side. Got some 
 news from Guantanamo to day. Co. Hunting- 
 ton and his Marines of 800 Had a Brush with 
 the Spanish, it is reported that 6 marines wer 
 
330 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 kild and Doctor Gibbs was shot through the 
 head by accident, there is at Guantanamo 
 Bay the Texas, Marblehead and Porter and 
 800 Marines; they expect to have the cable 
 work soon and the Harbor well under Hand. 
 I forgot to say the Vesuvius landed 3 shots of 
 dinomite in the Harbor on the night of the 13th 
 at Santiago and did great damage to the Shore 
 Batterys; the latest report is that the Cubans 
 are flocking in to Huntingtons camp. 
 
 June 15. coaling ship and still retain our posi- 
 sion on the Blockade. 
 
 June 16. At 3.30 A. M. this morning all hands 
 was called and the coffie was passed around 
 with som hardtack and cand Beef at 4 A. M. 
 Turn to, some 15 to 20 Minutes later Qen Quar- 
 ters sounded. Then we went at it to try and 
 see if we could not knock thoes Batterys off 
 the earth. Bombarded untill 7.15 A. M. No- 
 body knows how much damage was don, except 
 we silinced all the Batterys they had and made 
 them show up a nother one inside of the har- 
 bor of which there seems to be lots of them. 
 I will say right hear that if we take this place 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 3S1 
 
 its going to be a hot old Job, and som of us 
 will think we run up against a Hornets nest 
 when we get in side, they have been talking 
 of forsing the Chanell and Capt Clark signaled 
 over to the flag ship and asked permishion to 
 take the leed, and I am sure we will stay with 
 him as long as the ship floats for we love him. 
 The Vesuvius fired three more shots last night 
 at about 12. dont knov/ what damage was don 
 But I know we are all tired of this fooling, if 
 they would only send some soldiers down here 
 from the regular army, say 6 Regiments of In- 
 fantry and 3 of Cavalry, I think, with what 
 we could put up, that forse would more than 
 be a match for them and take the place with 
 all ease. The latest Bulitin of the day is that 
 the Forses at Guantanamo have bin Joined by 
 some Cubans and had a Brush with the Span- 
 ish, and the report is that 40 wer kild on the 
 Spanish side and 17 taken prisoners of war, 
 one Spanish Lut. 2 Corp and 14 Privates. On 
 our side 3 Cubans Kild and 2 wounded, 3 Ma- 
 rines wounded and 17 overcome by the heat. 
 But all recovered. Routed the Spanish and 
 distroyed the water suply and Block House. 
 
332 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 The Dolphin held there posision from the water 
 frount and the Texas sunk 2 small Gun boats. 
 
 June 17. come down to Guantanamo Bay this 
 morning, put some 300 tons of coal on and throde 
 some shells over in an old Fort and then puled 
 out right away for Santiago. 
 
 June 20. Bully for the Soldiers, they are hear 
 at last, **I thought they would com tomorrow," 
 some of the papers say there is 20.000 of them, 
 that is enough to eat the plase up for lunch. 
 Well I hope we will soon crack this nut that is 
 so hard to crack. I hear there is 15000 Spanish 
 soldiers over hear. 
 
 June 22. the soldiers are landing all O. K. and 
 doing well, and only a few horses and 2 men 
 lost so far, so the Flag Ship says. 
 
 June 26. Started in this morning to see if we 
 coulden knock down that Spanish old Morro or 
 else knock something cruckit around it. Well 
 we pelted away for an hour or more and the 
 flag ship signaled over to the Iowa to close in 
 and pump at the Smith Key Battry. The Iowa 
 signaled Back that her forward Turet was out 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 333 
 
 of order, so it fel to us, we went in to 700 yards 
 of the shore Battry and did knock down the 
 Spanish flag with an 8 inch shell and knocked 
 over one of there Big Guns. I believe if the 
 flag ship had not called us off Capt Clark would 
 have went in along side of old Morro and give 
 him a tutching up. 
 
 June 28. I am geting tired of trying to keep 
 cases on this thing, there is nothing doing but 
 laying around hear like a lot of sharks watch- 
 ing for a fish. 
 
 July 4. The fish has come out to see us. On 
 the 3rd the Spanish fleet came out of the Har- 
 bor to fight and get a way if posable. (I would 
 have put this down on the 3rd But I dident 
 have time and was too tired that night so put 
 it off for today.) Well the Fleet came out and 
 went to Davy Joneses locker. It was Just 9.25 
 A. M., first call had sounded on our ship for 
 Quarters and we all have our best dudds on; 
 we wer going to listen to the Articles of War 
 this morning and to have chirch right affter, 
 But we never did. all of a suden the Ordly on 
 watch made a dive for the Cabin head first. 
 
334 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 and told the old man the Fleet was coming out 
 of the Harbor, the old man jumpt up a stand- 
 ing, as soon as some of the men seen the ships 
 there, they went to there Quarters with out any 
 further dealy. I was standing on the Quarter 
 Deck waiting for the last call to go. I heard 
 the news and looking around the affter Terets 
 seen the first one. I thought she looked Biger 
 than a Mountain. But then I thought affter- 
 wards we could cut her down to her natchral 
 size, of corse it takes longer to tell about it 
 than it taken us to get ready, for we wer allways 
 ready, and all we had to do was to sound the 
 Bells and stand By our Guns, they wer allways 
 loaded so all we had to do was to turn on the 
 fors draught and pull the triger. 
 
 By 9.27 the Oregon fired the first shot of 
 the Battle of July 3rd, 1898 at the first ship 
 that came out of the Harbor. I dont remember 
 the ships as they come out, But we went in to 
 meet them and passed them som good shots as 
 they cep coming, about 7 or 9 minuts after 
 they got started good, one of our 6 inch guns 
 blew up one of the Torpedo Boats, struck her 
 squar amidships, she sunk like a rock with all 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 335 
 
 on board, and right hear is where I had to 
 stop for a moment to admire one of there Gun- 
 ers. I do think he was one of the bravest men 
 I ever had the pleasure to look upon. That 
 man must have known he was going to a shure 
 Deth, he stud on Deck and cep firing at us all 
 the time, and the last time I seen him he was 
 Just going up in the air. As the ships came 
 out of the harbor they sircled to the right, or 
 Westward, and Capt Clark knew they were try- 
 ing to escape, they did not think the old Ore- 
 gon wa$ such a runer as she was a fighter, so 
 we Just tailed on with them and giving them 
 shot for shot. In about 20 minuts the first 
 ship went on the Beach, plumb knocked out, 
 and 15 minutes later the secon one went on the 
 Beach, a short ways from the first. Then csiu\,e 
 the tug of war for we had to run to catch the 
 Vizcaya and the Colon, but we catched them 
 both, the Vizcaya was about 4000 yards ahead 
 and the Colon was about 3 miles ahead, and 
 the poor men in the fireroom was working like 
 horses, and to cheer them up we passed the 
 word down the ventlators how things was go- 
 ing on, and they passed the word back if we 
 
336 MY FIFTY YEARS IN THE NAVY 
 
 would cut them down they would get us to 
 where we could do it. So we got in rainge of 
 the Vizcaya and we sent her ashore with the 
 secondary Battry and 6 inch guns, and then 
 we settled down for a good chase for the Colon. 
 I thought she was going to run a way from us. 
 But she had to make a curv and we headed for 
 a point that she had to come out at. We all 
 think there is no man in the Navy like Capt 
 Clark, he is a Brave man, he stud on the For- 
 ward 13 inch turet though the thickest of this 
 fight and directed his ship to the final results. 
 
 Coming back to Santiago we waited untill 
 we got to where the first ship went on the 
 Beach and there fired the national salut. We 
 have 3 Spanish prisoners on board and they 
 thought we wer at it a gain, and it was all the 
 sick Bay man could do as to quiet them. I 
 hear there is over 1800 Prisoners and 650 kild 
 and 800 wounded on the third, the three men 
 oil board tells the sickbayman that we run 
 through there fleet coming around hear, for 
 the next day they found a Pork Barrel ful of 
 holes and had marked on the head U. S. S. 
 Oregon. We all seem to think we could take 
 
A SAILOR'S LOG 337 
 
 care of our selves Just the same, it is Just 
 6.50 P. M. now and the men all say there is no 
 flag flying in the Morro. But I can see Just 
 as good as any and I can not see any either, 
 But then I think we are out too far. 
 July 5. At about 11.45 the danger Signal was 
 flashed by the lookout from the Massachusetts, 
 she being the one to show her serchlight at the 
 entrance of the Harbor for the night, the Span- 
 ish was trying to sink one of there old ships 
 in the Chanel so as not to let us in. But Just 
 3 or 4 shots from the Massachusetts Big 13 
 inch Guns help them to do the Job, for she 
 sunk befor they got to the Chanal. there is 
 Spanish menowar and Torpedo boats strung 
 all along the Beach for 60 miles. 
 
 July 10. We are laying off now in Guantanamo 
 Bay filing out to go to Porto Rico or on the 
 Coast of Spain. 
 
 This is all in regards to the trip of the 
 
 Oregon. 
 
 R. Cross. 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 " If there's a fight 
 By day or night 
 We're ready for it now." 
 
 From Nesbit's Oregon poem in the Baltimore " American." 
 
 The speed so unexpectedly shown by the Oregon at 
 the crisis of the battle, due primarily to the efforts of 
 her officers and men, already referred to, was because 
 she was never without full steam on all boilers while off 
 Santiago. There was a statement, accepted for a time 
 at the Navy Department, that she was about to shift 
 from forward to after boilers and so only happened to 
 have full steam when the Spanish fleet rushed out. 
 But this was answered effectually at the Schley Court 
 of Inquiry when the commander of the Brooklyn was 
 recalled. 
 
 Knowing how deeply officers, seamen, firemen and 
 marines on board the Oregon regretted that the Depart- 
 ment failed to recommend that a medal be struck to 
 commemorate the service of their ship, I addressed 
 the Secretary of the Navy, March 29, 1900. 
 
 " Therefore in justice to officers and men who exerted 
 themselves so much and endured such hardships dur- 
 ing the long and arduous voyage from the Pacific, 
 that their ship might be present and efficient in the 
 hour of need, whose willingness to encounter single- 
 
 338 
 
ADDENDA 339 
 
 handed the enemy's fleet if it should cross her track 
 was so evident, and whose enthusiasm in battle was 
 so inspiring, I feel that I should emphasize the fol- 
 lowing facts : That the Oregon speedily gained a posi- 
 tion nearest the enemy, that she held that position 
 during the crisis of the battle, that she attacked in suc- 
 cession all four of the enemy's ships, and that she 
 passed none until they turned for the beach, three 
 on fire and the fourth with her colors coming down." 
 
 The following is from my letter to the Department 
 after the battle. 
 
 '* I cannot speak in too high terms of the bearing 
 and conduct on board this ship. When they found 
 the Oregon had pushed to the front and was hurrying 
 to a succession of conflicts with the enemy's vessels if 
 they could be overtaken and would engage, the enthu- 
 siasm was intense. 
 
 *' As these vessels were so much more heavily armored 
 than the Brooklyn they might have concentrated upofi 
 and overpowered her and consequently I am persuaded 
 that but for the way the officers and men of the Oregon 
 steamed and steered the ship and fought and supplied 
 her batteries, the Colon and perhaps the Vizcaya, would 
 have escaped. Therefore I feel that they rendered 
 meritorious service to the country." 
 
Positions of American and Spanish ships at the 
 Battle of Santiago, as shown by the Board 
 OF Navigators, one officer from each ship 
 
 ENGAGED I 
 
 towa« •Oreffon 
 
 TheAmecican ships on station 
 
 July 3, 1898. Flagship the New Yodt 
 
 to the eastward 
 
 Hacbor entcanc« 
 
 TecesaO O Colon 
 Vizcaya 
 
 8rooklyn# jo^yg^ Indiana SECOND POSITION 
 
 Oregon ^j^g Spanish fleet cominf out. American 
 
 Texas • ships closing in. Otregon passing to front 
 
 between the Iowa and Texas 
 
 340 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 341 
 
 ^ 
 
 Indiana 
 
 • 
 
 Hacboc entrance 
 
 THIRD POSITION 
 
 The Spanish flagship Teresa 
 
 has been driven out of action as 
 
 the Oregon closed Oregon now 
 
 bringing Oquendo to close action 
 
 which vessel soon heads foe 
 
 the shore 
 
 Teresa O 
 Colon© 
 OquendoO 
 
 O •Iowa 
 Vizcaya ^ocegon #Texas 
 
 • Brooklyn 
 
 Colon 
 O 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Vizcaya O 
 
 
 
 • Iowa 
 
 SIXtH POSITION 
 
 • oeeron ^^^^^^ 
 
 The Vizcaya driven out of action 
 
 • Brooklyn 
 
 o 
 
 Colon 
 
 SEVEWTH POSITION 
 
 The Colon surrenders as the last 
 shot from the Oregon falls alongside 
 
 New York 
 
 • ocegon 
 • Brooklyn 
 
 • Texas 
 
INDEX 
 
 Ah Tee, Chinese comprador, friendship for America, 
 
 217, 222. 
 Aiken, John A., Chief Justice of the Superior Court of 
 
 Massachusetts. PubUshes "The Voyage of the 
 
 Oregon", 305. 
 AnnapoUs, arrival of troops at, 31 ; removal of Academy 
 
 from, 33. 
 Arthur, Chester A., President, visit to U.S.S. New 
 
 Hampshire, 242. 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, remarkable sermon of, heard by 
 
 midshipmen, 38. 
 Bem, Acting Lieutenant Commander, 81. 
 Beresford, Lord Charles, English Admiral, comments 
 
 about Oregon, 142; Monadnock, 151. 
 Blake, Commodore, Superintendent of Naval Academy, 
 
 14. 
 Buchanan, Franklin, Confederate Admiral, attack 
 
 upon our fleet by, 102. 
 Cervera, Spanish Admiral. Brave and magnanimous. 
 
 Rescues Hobson and companions, 284 ; conduct 
 
 in battle, 295. 
 Constitutioriy last preparations made for defense of, 27 ; 
 
 compared by Secretary of the Navy with Oregon, 36. 
 Cook, Rear Admiral, 49 ; receives surrender of the 
 
 Colon, 50. 
 Cumberland, De Joinville's tribute to her defense, 52; 
 
 escape from, by Selfridge and Stuyvesant, 52. 
 Cushing, hero of the Albemarle, reference to promotion 
 
 of, 168. 
 
 343 
 
344 INDEX 
 
 Davis, George Thornton, Captain, bravery of, at Fort 
 
 Fisher, 49. 
 De Courcey, English Commodore, adherence to form 
 
 at presentation to Queen Victoria. 
 De Joinville, Prince, tribute to defense of Cumberland, 
 
 52 ; anecdote of, 54. 
 D'Orleans, Due de Penthievre, Midshipman, loss of 
 
 personal effects, 43 ; startles royalty, 44. 
 Emma, Queen of the Sandwich Islands, passenger on 
 
 board Vanderhilt, 172. 
 Farragut, David Glasgow, Admiral, anecdote of, 89 ; 
 
 at Mobile Bay, 95, famous signal of, 102. 
 Fort Morgan, passage of, by Farragut's fleet, 98; 
 
 capture of, 109. 
 Galveston, Texas, scene of reverses, 84 ; breaking the 
 
 blockade at, 85. 
 Gorgey, Arthur, Hungarian General, 81. 
 Gull versus game-cocks, 174. 
 Hartford, Farragut's flagship, rams the Tennessee, 103 ; 
 
 executive officer of, 212. 
 Hastings, English Admiral, efforts to serve shipwrecked 
 
 Americans, 194. 
 Hotel des Invalides, visit to, 65. 
 House of Lords, visit to, 5Q. 
 
 Howell, J. A., Rear Admiral, services at Mobile unre- 
 warded, 106. 
 John Adams, sloop-of-war, practice-ship, 51. 
 Jouett, James, Rear Admiral, captures the Selma, 102. 
 Le Roy, William E., Rear Admiral, commander of the 
 
 Ossipee at Mobile Bay, 99, receives the surrender 
 
 of the iron-clad flagship, Tennessee, 105. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, President, acceptance of steamer 
 
 Vanderhilt by, 129. 
 
INDEX 345 
 
 Luce, Stephen B., Rear Admiral, commands practice- 
 ship Macedonian^ 34 ; founder of Naval War 
 College, 243. 
 
 Ludlow, Nicoll, Midshipman, 55. 
 
 Ludlow, William, reference to services of, 253. 
 
 Macedonian, corvette, practice-ship, 54. 
 
 Mahan, Alfred T., Captain and author, 49 ; reference 
 to Oregon by, 272. 
 
 Mahopac, ordered to, 203. 
 
 Mitchell, Doctor S. Vs., 304. 
 
 Monadnoch, double-turreted monitor sent to the 
 Pacific, 124. 
 
 Monocacy, swings abbut-in-A'-aBgtze^230 ; race with 
 Kestrel, 233. 
 
 Napoleon, Louis, Emperor, dread of Orsini and asso- 
 ciates, 134. 
 
 New Hampshire, my first command at sea, 235. 
 
 Newport, R. I., transfer of Naval Academy to, 40. 
 
 Nunez, Mendez, Spanish Admiral, attractive person- 
 ality of, 144 ; bombards Valparaiso, 155 ; wounded 
 at Callao, 164. 
 
 Orsini, Felice, mysterious account of, at Isles de Salut, 
 134. 
 
 Oregon, battleship, ordered to command of, 257 ; from 
 the Pacific to Key West, 258-277; at Santiago, 
 282-297. 
 
 Ossipee, steam-sloop, narrow escape from iron-clad 
 Tennessee, 100; last to strike the Tennessee, 104. 
 
 Ranger, take command of, 244. 
 
 Reed, "Savez ", Confederate naval hero, 120. 
 
 Rodgers, John, Commodore, record of meritorious 
 services of, 124 ; intention to prevent bombard- 
 ment of Valparaiso, 147. 
 
346 INDEX 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, President, 302. 
 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, London, visit to, 60. 
 
 Sampson, William T., Rear Admiral, influence when a 
 midshipman, 24; signal from, 281. 
 
 Schley, W. S., Commodore, complimentary signal to 
 the Oregon, 299. 
 
 Suwanee, wreck of, July 7, 1868, 179. 
 
 Vanderhilt, steamer transferred to Government, 129. 
 
 Walker, J. G., Rear Admirat, association with, 235. 
 
 Watson, John Crittenden, Rear Admiral, lashes Farra- 
 gut to rigging, 94 ; naval representative to corona- 
 tion, London, 302. 
 
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