UC-NRLF 
 
 SMD 532 
 
 WITH DEWEY 
 AT ; ; MANILA 
 
 By THOS. J. VIVIAN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE FALL OF SANTIAGO." 
 
COMMODORE GTvORC.E DRWKY 
 
WITH DEWEY 
 : : AT MANILA 
 
 T>EING the Plain Story of the glo 
 rious Victory of the United States 
 Squadron Over the Spanish Fleet 
 Sunday Morning, May First, 
 1898, as related in the Notes 
 and Correspondence of an 
 Officer on Board 
 the Fl agship 
 Olympia 
 
 EDITED BY THOMAS J. iVIVIAN 
 
 R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 
 9 AND 11 EAST 1 6TH STREET - NEW YORK 
 
Copyright, 1898 
 
 BY 
 
 JU F. FBNNO & COMPANY 
 
E7/7 
 7 
 
 WITH DEWEY AT MANILA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 WAITING FOB THE ORDER. 
 
 WE had been simmering and stewing in 
 steamy Hong Kong ever since March 28, wait 
 ing and waiting for instructions to swing across 
 the China Sea to Manila. Rear-Admiral Dewey 
 he was Commodore Dewey then was as anxious 
 and impatient as the rest of us, and I could see by 
 the way in which he fumbled over the charts 
 and paced up and down the bridge with his 
 weather eye turned to the shore that he expected 
 such an order from Washington at any moment. 
 
 We knew that the relations between the United 
 States and Spain were at snapping-point ten 
 sion, and we knew too, that as soon as that 
 break occurred the two opposing Asiatic squad 
 rons would be in the thick of the trouble. Our 
 waiting work was not, however, confined to sim 
 mering and fretting, for during the days between 
 April 18 and April 21 there was much done in 
 the work of stirring preparation. 
 
8 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 19th, for instance, 
 the carpenter of the Olympia received orders to 
 mix up his "war paint, and in a short time after, 
 the painters planks were swung out and a crowd 
 of our Jackies was covering the white sides of the 
 flagship with a dull dark drab ; ugly enough to 
 look at, but admirably adapted for concealing a 
 fleet from observation. A "White Squadron" is 
 well enough for spectacular purposes in times of 
 peace, but it is far too showy for war times, and 
 especially for service in these sun-lit seas where 
 the glistening sides of white war craft can be 
 seen against the furthest horizon. The least vis 
 ibility is what we wanted and we took a leaf out of 
 Russia s book in using the drab, the commanders 
 of the Czar s ships having found it to be the best 
 concealing color in the paint lockers. While the 
 Olympia was being painted the same work was 
 going on along the sides of the other ships, and 
 by nightfall of the 20th our six vessels were all 
 of the same uniform dull gray. The Baltimore 
 had not arrived then, but when she came in on 
 the 21st she had scarcely anchored before she 
 too put on her war paint. 
 
 Another sign of what was to come was fur 
 nished by the Commodore some days ago. The 
 English steamer Nanshan had just arrived with 
 three thousand three hundred tons of Cardiff 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 9 
 
 coal on board and, knowing that as soon as war 
 broke out England would declare her neutrality 
 and we should not be able to coal from the Hong 
 Kong wharves, the Commodore quietly sent over 
 the fleet paymaster to the consignees and he as 
 quietly purchased from them the entire outfit, 
 ship, coal and all. So, too, when the steamer 
 Zafiro of the Manila-Hong Kong line came into 
 this port she was bought out as she floated, with 
 all her fuel and provisions. On board the Zafiro 
 we shipped all our spare ammunition so that she 
 really became our floating magazine. 
 
 It was feared at first that we might have some 
 trouble in manning these two steamers, but the 
 original crews seemed only too glad to re-ship 
 under the Stars and Stripes. Lieutenant 
 Hutchins was sent over to the Nanshan, and En 
 sign Pierson was placed in charge of the Zafiro, 
 both fellows grumbling at the assignments, be 
 cause, they said, it meant that they would be 
 huddled off into some safe corner without any 
 chance of being in the midst of the scrim 
 mage. 
 
 On the 18th the lookouts reported the Hugh 
 McCulloch, and when the little revenue cutter 
 came in with her whistle tooting, and the spray 
 dancing up and down her yacht-like bow, the 
 men of the squadron sent up a yell that brought 
 
10 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 every sampan man out of cover to see what had 
 happened. 
 
 "Now the squadron is safe/ said Captain 
 Gridley, with his queer smile. 
 
 All the same, the little revenue cutter did 
 good service, and if she had been allowed her 
 way would have done something during the next 
 week that would have made her the most-talked- 
 about boat in the world. 
 
 The McCulloch was on her way to San Fran 
 cisco, having been making the tour of the world 
 across the Atlantic, down the Mediterranean, 
 through the Suez Canal, and so across the Indian 
 Seas to Singapore. She belongs, it is true, to 
 the Treasury Department, but in times of na 
 tional exigency the president has the right, and 
 the power, to muster all revenue cutters into the 
 navy. It was at Singapore that Captain Daniel 
 B. Hodgson received his orders to join the Com 
 modore, an order that sent up the enthusiasm of 
 the cutter s officers to fever heat and the caps of 
 her crew into the air as high as they could pitch 
 them. 
 
 It was thought for a time that we might use 
 the old Monocacy which lies at Shanghai, but 
 after looking her over it was decided that she 
 would be a drawback to the expedition, and so 
 she was left in the river and lies there still. Her 
 
With Devvey at Manila. 11 
 
 crew was broken up and three officers and fifty 
 men were brought here and distributed around 
 the fleet. 
 
 As all the world knows diplomatic relations 
 between the United States and Spain were 
 broken off on the 21st of April, war being de 
 clared on the 25th, and within the next forty- 
 eight hours our squadron, in obedience to a polite 
 intimation from the Governor-General of Hong 
 Kong, steamed away from that British possession 
 up to Mirs Bay, a little Chinese roadstead a few 
 miles to the north of the island. 
 
 On the 26th of April the McCulloch, which we 
 had left at Hong Kong, came racing up to Mirs 
 Bay, bringing McKinley s famous order: 
 
 "WASHINGTON, April 26. 
 
 "DEWEY, Asiatic Squadron : Commence opera 
 tions at once, particularly against the Spanish 
 fleet. You must capture or destroy them. 
 
 "McKlNLEY." 
 
 When the Commodore read the dispatch he 
 closed up his lips with his characteristic snap : 
 "Thank the Lord, "he said " at last I ve got the 
 chance and I ll wipe them off the Pacific 
 Ocean. " 
 
 Everybody knew what the "them" referred to. 
 Ever since we had heard of the blowing up of 
 
12 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the Maine every man in the squadron had been 
 fighting mad, and wanted only one thing to get 
 at the Spaniards. I believe, too, that there was 
 not a soul in the fleet but would have most 
 piously and earnestly said "Amen" had he heard 
 the Commodore s exclamation of thankfulness. I 
 know I did. 
 
 Consul Williams came up on the McCulloch 
 also with dispatches. He had hurried out of 
 Manila when things grew too hot, and on the 
 quiet intimation from Governor-General Au- 
 gusti that his life was in danger. He brought 
 us much interesting information, but nothing 
 that was not overshadowed by the president s 
 order. 
 
 The news spread like lightning throughout the 
 fleet, and when the Commodore s signal went up 
 calling the commanders over to the Olympia for 
 counsel and orders, a cheer went up such as old 
 Mirs Bay never heard before the cheer of full- 
 throated American tars who knew that fighting 
 was at hand and that at last they would have a 
 chance to show how well they remembered the 
 Maine. At exactly two o clock in the afternoon 
 of April 27, 1898 it is just as well to be exact 
 when the making of history is concerned we 
 ran up the Commodore s sailing pennant and 
 steamed out of Mirs Bay, with every ship s nose 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 13 
 
 pointed straight across for the six hundred 
 and twenty-eight-mile run to the Philippines. 
 
 We were nine vessels in all, made up as follows : 
 The Olympia (flagship), a second-class protected 
 cruiser; the Baltimore, also a second-class pro 
 tected cruiser; the Boston, also a second-class 
 protected cruiser; the Raleigh, of the same size 
 and class as the Boston ; the Concord, a partially 
 protected gunboat ; the Hugh McCulloch, a steel- 
 clad revenue cutter, turned into a gunboat ; the 
 Petrel, a small gunboat ; and the two transport 
 ships, the Zafiro and the Nanshan. The proper 
 place in which to speak of the squadron s arma 
 ment, tonnage, weight of metal and other fight 
 ing qualities will come later, when a comparison 
 between the American and Spanish fleets is more 
 immediately necessary to a description of the 
 battle, and this condensed list is given here in 
 order to fix the individuality of our ships in the 
 mind of the reader. 
 
 We appreciated the fact that the Spanish fleet 
 was far more numerous than ours, and though 
 we were not definitely sure as to its exact num 
 bers we did know that it embraced the five 
 cruisers the Eeina Christina, the Castilla, the 
 Velasco, the Don Juan de Austria, and the Don 
 Antonio de Ulloa. It is true that many of the 
 Spanish cruisers were old-fashioned, and it is also 
 
14 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 true that the Commodore did not have a single 
 armored vessel in his squadron, not even an 
 armored cruiser. There is no better place, too, 
 in which to mention another fact, this: that we 
 were moving down on the enemy s base ; that our 
 defeat meant being six thousand miles away from 
 supplies or succor; while to the Spaniards defeat 
 meant an easy falling back on a port of relief. I 
 say this here because since the victory at Manila 
 I have seen a number of criticisms whose tenor 
 has been to minify the victory on the ground of 
 the disparity between the fighting machines. It is 
 true again that the president s order to the Com 
 modore was to "capture or destroy the Spanish 
 fleet, but I venture to say that not even the most 
 sanguine Jacky of ours ever anticipated a 
 complete annihiliation of the enemy, or that we 
 should come out of it scatheless. What I wish 
 to make clear is that while we were going into 
 battle with what may be called a jaunty swift 
 ness, it was not for one moment imagined that 
 we would come out of it as jauntily. We thought 
 we were in for a hard fight, and as the factors in 
 the fight piled up in numbers and gravity that 
 impression became all the stronger. 
 
 As soon as we sighted the Philippine coast the 
 Boston, Baltimore, and Concord went ahead on 
 scout duty. First of all they looked in at 
 
CAPT. D. B. HODGSDON 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 15 
 
 Bolinao Bay, but no trace of the Spanish fleet 
 was to be found there. Subig Bay, some thirty 
 miles from Manila, was next approached. This 
 was cautiously done, for the latest reports 
 brought by Williams were that Admiral Monto jo, 
 commanding Spain s Asiatic fleet, had planned i 
 to do us battle there. 
 
 The only craft found at Subig Bay, however, 
 were two small schooners, coasters, with two of 
 the most ludicrously ignorant crews it has ever 
 been my fortune to meet. They did not know 
 of the existence of any Spanish fleet; they did 
 not even know where Manila was, and I believe 
 that had the cross-questioning been put further 
 they would have declared they did not know 
 where the Philippines were. With the Spanish 
 fleet at neither Bolinao nor Subig it became 
 evident that Montojo had changed his mind and 
 had determined to make Manila Bay the fighting 
 ground. When the result of the scouting was 
 reported to the Commodore he said: "Very well 
 then, Manila it must be." 
 
 It was six o clock on the evening of Saturday, 
 April 30, when we left Subig Bay a hot, moist 
 evening and as we steamed slowly down the 
 coast the sun dropped into the sea like a copper 
 ball. But instead of the quick-coming tropical 
 night there was a great yellow moon hung in the 
 
16 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 sky. Orders were signaled along the fleet to 
 slow down until the moon set, and when she did 
 so all lights in the fleet were guarded, the men 
 were called to quarters, and everything was 
 ready for slipping into Manila Bay. 
 
 A description of the fight that was about to 
 come so thoroughly involves a description of the 
 setting in which the great sea tragedy was to be 
 acted out, that it will be necessary here to set 
 down as plainly as possible just what Manila Bay 
 is like, together with some necessary and perti 
 nent facts concerning the Philippines. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 17 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE SCENE OF THE TRAGEDY. 
 
 IF you were in the basket of a war balloon and 
 were to look down on the Bay of Manila you would 
 see that it is a land-locked or pear-shaped body 
 of water, with the stem end pointing toward the 
 sea. It lies about square with the compass, being 
 thirty miles from north to south and twenty-five 
 miles from east to west. At each side of the en 
 trance to the bay rise steep volcanic mountains 
 covered with dense foliage, and which constitute 
 the two ends of the coast range of mountains. 
 On the in-shore side, these mountains slope down 
 to a plain which sweeps all round the upper part 
 of the bay. On the flattest part of this plain and 
 directly opposite the entrance to the bay, from 
 which it is situated about twenty-six miles, lies 
 the city of Manila. 
 
 Manila has been called the Venice of the East 
 ern Seas, its Venetian title being due to the fact 
 that it is traversed by a number of waterways, 
 the largest of which is the Pasig River, which may 
 be called a sort of Grand Canal. The waterways 
 
18 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 cut up the whole extent of the city into a number 
 of islands, while the Pasig is the dividing line 
 between Old and New Manila, the latter city 
 being locally known as Binondo. When I was 
 first there, which was soon after the great earth 
 quake of 1880, the old town was strewn with 
 ruins, but these have been leisurely cleared away, 
 and the place, except for the war preparations, 
 has resumed its normal aspect. 
 
 Old Manila is one of the most nearly perfect 
 examples of an Hispano -Oriental walled city that 
 I have ever seen. It is surrounded by mediaeval, 
 moss-covered fortifications which are as pictur 
 esque as they are useless from the standpoint of 
 modern warfare. On the parapets of these forti 
 fications still stand, I am told, the glistening 
 array of harmless old smooth-bores that have 
 been there for hundreds of years. 
 
 In the walls are a number of gates, each with 
 its drawbridge and porticullis; all amply able to 
 withstand the advance of an army of bowmen, 
 but all absolutely worthless against a single 
 rifled cannon. The principal gate to the old 
 fortifications is the Entrada, and before it and 
 along the city walls stretches the Luneta, a well 
 laid out fashionable promenade, where military 
 bands play, or used to play, two or three times 
 a week. Across the city stretches a broad ave- 
 
MANILA, THE CAPITAL, OF THE PHILIPPINES, ITS STREETS AND SUBURI 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 19 
 
 nue named Legazbi, after the lieutenant of the 
 great navigator Magellan, who founded Manila 
 in 1571. 
 
 It is always hot in Manila. There are varying 
 degrees of heat, it is true, but at the lowest de 
 gree of temperature it is hot hot and moist. 
 The sheet-iron roofs and the bare backs of the 
 natives glistening in the sun make it look hotter. 
 When the city was built its founders bore in lov 
 ing minds the narrow streets of the old Iberian 
 towns, and so Manila s streets are narrow and 
 stuffy; and as the sidewalks are still narrower 
 and built for one, and as it is a constant jostle to 
 get along them, they are stuffier even than the 
 streets. 
 
 The houses are low and generally plasterless, 
 due to the fact that the interior lining of the 
 rooms is cloth, the rending of this by the con 
 stantly occurring earthquakes being unpleasant to 
 the ear, it is true, but not so uncomfortable or 
 dangerous to the occupants as the falling of slabs 
 of plaster. Most of the windows in the old town 
 are not windows at all, but simply holes in the 
 walls filled with a sliding shutter in which are 
 set thin, translucent sea-shells, so that through 
 them a dim and slightly opalescent light filters 
 in. 
 
 So deadly flat are the sandy isles on which Ma- 
 
20 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 nila is built that it is scarcely more than a foot 
 above high water. The water in the moats is so 
 sluggish that it is little better than a mass of 
 weeds, and as to drainage, there is strong evi 
 dence to the senses that there is none. All the 
 houses are damp, so damp indeed that no one 
 thinks of sleeping on the ground floor. Most of 
 the living is done in the second story, while in 
 the first or ground floor the Philippine keeps his 
 store or his stable. Upstairs live the house 
 snakes which are to Manila what the dogs are to 
 Constantinople, the unlicensed scavengers of the 
 city. They are quite harmless to mankind, al 
 though it takes some time for the stranger to 
 become accustomed to the eight or nine feet of 
 reptile, wriggling after the rats, which are the 
 snakes legitimate supply and one of the many 
 pests of Manila. So many and so fierce are these 
 rats that if it were not for the snakes Manila 
 would be overrun by them and would be as un 
 inhabitable as Hamelin. 
 
 There are three things that every Philippine 
 does play some instrument, smoke, and keep 
 game roosters. Of all these three characteristics 
 that which struck me most was his ability as a 
 musician. I have rarely heard better music than 
 that of the native bands, and I never saw a Ma 
 nila man who could not play some sort of instru- 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 21 
 
 ment and play it well. In the piping times of 
 peace, when I was last there, the orchestra to the 
 grand opera was a native one, while the audiences 
 were far more appreciative, or at least more at 
 tentive than those of New York. The opera 
 began at nine o clock and was carried on in an 
 easy, unhurried fashion until about two or three 
 in the morning, with good long intervals be 
 tween the acts, long enough for a nice little 
 light supper. 
 
 There is no opera in Manila now though, and 
 for two years the Philippines have been the 
 theater of some of the most horrifying tragedies 
 that have ever marked Spain s bloody rule of her 
 colonies. To Spain the natives of the Phil 
 ippines have been but one thing tax-producers. 
 It has been the land of promise and profit for 
 every greedy, scoundrelly official, and what little 
 has been left to the natives after the squeezing 
 process of the state official has been ground and 
 pulverized out of them by the greedy churchman. 
 It is against the churchman, in fact, that the 
 anger of the Philippine has most blazed out, and 
 the poverty stricken village of thatched huts 
 squatting around the ponderous convent or 
 church, and the ragged, hunger-famished peas 
 ant elbowed out of the way by the sleek, paunchy 
 padres have been object lessons which served 
 to keep that anger hot. 
 
22 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 It was in August, 1896, that the anger and de 
 spair of the peasant bore its worst fruit. There 
 were insurrections all over the islands and while 
 the troops were in the south of Luzon the insur 
 gents gathered around Manila with the purpose 
 of sacking it. A leader was wanted, however, 
 the troops were hurriedly called back, and 
 Spain s heavy hand closed on the rebels. A 
 hundred of them were thrown into a small dun 
 geon in an old fort near the river, and when the 
 door was opened next morning sixty of them 
 were dead. Instead of stopping the revolt this 
 Black Hole incident only seemed to give it new 
 fury. 
 
 The revolution spread, and while groups of in 
 surgents have been shot down almost every week 
 to the music of the bands the insurgents have 
 retaliated by cutting the priests to pieces. A 
 dragging war has been carried on in the Philip 
 pines on very nearly the same lines as that car 
 ried on in Cuba. White troops have been pitted 
 against the natives, and while there have been 
 few engagements, the white troops have been 
 decimated by disease and sudden onslaught, 
 while the natives are as strong as ever behind the 
 impregnable intrenchments of climate and moun 
 tain jungle. 
 
 Along the northern shore of the Pasig and im- 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 23 
 
 mediately opposite the old city are the hotels and 
 large commercial warehouses and the bazaar oc 
 cupied by the Chinese and called the Escolta, 
 from which central point the natives dwellings 
 stretch up and down the river between its two 
 bridges. Next comes Binondo proper, which is 
 the great business quarter, and next up the river 
 lies San Miguel, which is the fashionable quarter 
 where the rich Spaniards and foreigners have 
 their residences. Here, too, are the new abodes 
 of the Governor-General and admiral of the fleet 
 who used to reside in the old walled city. Here, 
 too, are the great modern churches, the fine hos 
 pital of St. Lazarus, the military storehouse and 
 the famous cigar factory where some ten thou 
 sand women were daily employed making "Ma 
 nilas." 
 
 Back of these towns or quarters, which lie 
 along the river front, are the suburbs. There 
 are many pleasant gardens and towering build 
 ings, but the whole is flat and unhealthy. The 
 population, which is estimated at anything from 
 one hundred and sixty thousand to three hun 
 dred thousand, contains only about five thousand 
 Spaniards, the rest being made up of every shade 
 and variety of natives and some twenty -five thou 
 sand Chinese. The natural drawbacks of Manila 
 have not been combated any more than its natural 
 
24 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 advantages have been improved, and Manila in 
 strong Anglo-Saxon hands would not only con 
 tinue to be the most important port in this part 
 of the globe, but would be decently healthy and 
 positively clean. 
 
 As a trade center Manila ranks with Calcutta 
 and Batavia, and as the chief port of the Philip 
 pine Islands all their productions flow to it, and 
 its harbor is visited all the year round by vessels 
 from every nation under the sun. What Manila 
 exports reads like a catalogue of tropical produc 
 tions, and as the foreign craft sail from it they 
 are laden down with sugar, tobacco, indigo, 
 hemp, gold-dust, bird s-nests, coffee, mats, hides, 
 hats, tortoise shells, cigars, cotton and rice. 
 Outside of its natural products Manila furnishes 
 little other manufactures than cheroots and cord 
 age, except that in small quantities it produces 
 beautiful fabrics known as pinas, woven from the 
 fibers of the pineapple leaf and exquisitely em 
 broidered, lovely mats and rich cloths of the 
 abaca filament. 
 
 The Philippine Islands are indeed the treasure 
 house of the Malay Archipelago. While many 
 of the twelve hundred islands are little more 
 than volcanic points in the sea, Luzon, Min 
 danao, Samar, Panay, Negros and Palawan are so 
 large that most of their interior regions are still 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 25 
 
 unknown lands. Up and down the islands runs 
 a great chain of mountains, with a general trend 
 of north and south and an extreme height of six 
 thousand feet. In those mountains lie unex 
 plored riches of gold, copper, iron, lead, mercury, 
 sulphur and coal. The coasts of most of the 
 islands are deeply indented by the sea, rivers are 
 abundant and there are excellent harbors galore. 
 
 From their position the Philippines lie within 
 the range of the Monsoons, and violent hurri 
 canes are of frequent occurrence. From May to 
 September the west coasts of the archipelago are 
 deluged with rain, while the October Monsoon 
 brings rain to the east coast. 
 
 It cannot be denied that malaria and fever are 
 common, but there are plenty of low, river bot 
 tom lands in the Southern States that are quite as 
 unhealthy as the Philippines, while in the inte 
 rior of the islands the climate is as balmy and 
 pure as in Kentucky. Even under Spanish 
 mismanagement the exports of the Philippines 
 amount roundly to sixteen million dollars an 
 nually, while the outside world sends to them 
 cottons, machinery, linens, coal, iron, earthen 
 ware, hardware and woolens to about as much. 
 The area of the Philippines is something like 
 seventy-seven thousand square miles, or a trifle 
 over that of the New England States, while the 
 
26 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 population has been estimated at eight millions. 
 All this, however, is estimated because the Span 
 iards, notwithstanding their centuries of occupa 
 tion, have been as limited in their explorations 
 of the group as they have been in their schemes 
 of drainage in Manila. In a word, the Philip 
 pines stand as an unexplored potentiality whose 
 products, commerce, and strategic value are 
 almost limitless. 
 
 Ten miles nearer the entrance to the Bay of 
 Manila lies the town of Cavite, with a popula 
 tion of five thousand and a garrison of six hun 
 dred. It is, or was, the military post and 
 marine arsenal of Manila and of the Spanish 
 Orient. Vessels were built and repaired there. 
 It has a dock for gunboats and many private 
 slips. It possesses a harbor formed by a spit 
 which projects from the shore like a finger point 
 ing toward Manila. It is strongly fortified, its 
 fortresses mounting many guns, and although 
 most of them were of an ancient type, many 
 others of them were modern, and we were in 
 formed that at least two ten-inch guns had been 
 taken from the war ships and placed in one of 
 the shore batteries. Opposite the fort on the 
 spit there was a large mortar battery on the main 
 land, with a good range across the harbor and 
 toward the entrance of the bay. 
 
"With Dewey at Manila. 27 
 
 Manila itself is more strongly protected on 
 the land side than on the water front. The 
 cordon of land batteries, put up to prevent at 
 tacks by the insurgent forces which had been 
 hovering about the city ready to pounce upon it 
 when the opportunity offered, is, I should think, 
 quite an effective one, but, with the exception 
 of a Krupp battery on the mole known as the 
 Luneta fort, there was nothing to fear from 
 Manila. 
 
 Blocking the entrance to the bay, or rather 
 dividing it into three channels, are two islands, 
 Corregidor and Caballo or Kulocabilla. Corregidor 
 is six hundred and forty feet high, while Caballo 
 is four hundred and twenty. There is a lighthouse 
 on each island, and we had heard that both were 
 strongly fortified with modern guns. Across 
 from Corregidor lies San Jose point with, it was 
 understood, a shore battery which commanded 
 that channel; while across from Caballo Island is 
 Libonis Point, also, we understood, heavily 
 guarded with shore batteries. In fact, while we 
 were at Hong Kong we had seen sundry dis 
 patches from Madrid in the Hong Kong Times 
 which stated that Manila was impregnable. It 
 was asserted that there were forts, terrible forts, 
 on every point along the entrance, that the bay 
 shore fairly bristled with Krupp guns, and that 
 
28 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the bombardment of the defenses would be an 
 impossibility, owing to the range and power of 
 the ordnance which had been emplaced at every 
 commanding point. More than this, we learned 
 through the same medium that the entrance to 
 Manila Bay was completely mined, and that the 
 passage of any channel would result in every 
 ship of the fleet being blown into eternity. It 
 was stated, moreover, that all the forts were 
 heavily garrisoned, and that the troops in Manila 
 numbered from seven to ten thousand. 
 
 Corregidor, which is the principal island, lies 
 two miles only from the east shore of the main 
 land, the channel being known as the Boca 
 Grande. The channel between Caballo Island 
 and the mainland is about three miles across, 
 about twenty fathoms deep, and is called the 
 Boca Chica. The middle channel, that between 
 the two islands, is about three thousand four 
 hundred feet wide, and perhaps seven fathoms 
 deep. The winds of the entrance are always 
 fresh and the tide always strong. 
 
 Lastly, we knew, with a measurable degree of 
 certainty, that if the Spanish fleet were within, 
 it would be found lying under the forts of 
 Cavite. 
 
 This, therefore, was the problem which the 
 Commodore had to face: The selection of his 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 29 
 
 channel, the avoidance of mines, the encounter 
 with the Spanish fleet and its protecting forts, 
 and running the gauntlet of the shore batteries. 
 It was with the perfect cognizance of all these 
 matters that the battle line was formed and the 
 signal given to steam through the Boca Grande. 
 
30 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. 
 
 WHEN we arrived off Subig Bay on the after 
 noon of Saturday, April 30, the Commodore 
 called the commanding officers of the ships over 
 to his cabin and outlined to them his plan of 
 attack as far as he then knew it. The men in the 
 Commodore s council of war were these: From 
 the Olympia, Captain Charles V. Gridley; from 
 the Raleigh, Captain Joseph B. Coghlan ; from the 
 Boston, Captain Frank Wildes; from the Balti 
 more, Captain Nehemiah M. Dyer; from the 
 Concord, Commander Asa Walker; from the 
 Petrel, Captain E. P. Wood; from the McCul- 
 loch, Captain D. B. Hodgson. 
 
 These men were the men to whom the glory of 
 the fight is due as leaders; and these are the 
 leaders who say that the glory of the fight is due 
 the men. 
 
 He told them he had every reason to 
 believe that the Spaniards were in Manila Bay 
 and that his purpose was to carry out the Presi 
 dent s instructions and destroy their fleet. We 
 
With Dewey at Manilla. 31 
 
 were told that the first thing was to slip into the 
 bay past the guarding forts under cover of night 
 and as soon as daylight came and the exact loca 
 tion of the fleet was discovered to "go for it." 
 It was decided to use the Boca Grande or south 
 ern passage for entrance and if possible to pass 
 the shore forts without drawing their fire. 
 
 Sunday morning came on still and hot, and as 
 each captain was carried back to his ship we 
 could hear the chuck, chuck of the different 
 launches or the dip of the gigs crews, each one 
 it seemed to us making noise enough to rouse 
 the whole coast of Luzon. At last the moon set 
 and the fleet steamed slowly into line for 
 entering the harbor. First went the flagship 
 Olympia, then the Baltimore, then the Raleigh, 
 next the Petrel, following her the Concord, and 
 last the Boston. After the fighting fleet came 
 the supply ships, Nanshan and Zafiro, convoyed 
 by the McCulloch. 
 
 As we rounded out beyond the last point be 
 fore reaching the entrance we saw the lights of 
 the great cone of Corregidor burning bright and 
 still, but saw nothing in the shape of a flash 
 light. Every man was called up and ordered to 
 wash and take a cup of coffee. While this light 
 and early refreshment was being served all the 
 ships lights were extinguished, except those on 
 
32 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the taffrail and these were hooded. So we crept 
 along, until we caine into the channel moving in 
 single file and without a sound on board, except 
 a few quiet orders and the throb of the engines 
 and kick of the screws. 
 
 In that still air it seemed absolutely impossible 
 for us to escape the attention of the entrance 
 forts, yet it is the fact that the Olympia, Balti 
 more, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord and Boston 
 passed without even the challenge of a hail. The 
 batteries of Corregidor and Caballo, were 
 mute, although the flagship passed well in range 
 with the Baltimore following still closer inshore. 
 I can scarcely believe it possible that the garri 
 sons were at their posts and awake, for again it 
 seemed to us that surely a fleet stealing into 
 an enemy s bay never made so much noise as we 
 did. Again, too, the fact remains that not a 
 yell or shot greeted us, and we would all have 
 been inside squadron, supply ships and con 
 voy without the Spanish fleet receiving the 
 faintest intimation of our approach if it had not 
 been for some enthusiastic fireman on board the 
 McCulloch. Possibly her commander had some 
 idea that he was running behind and told the 
 engineer to put on a little more steam. At any 
 rate the men at the boilers got the idea that this 
 was needed and, throwing open the furnace doors, 
 
CAPT. CHARLKS V. G RIDLEY 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 33 
 
 some fellow ladled in a few shovelfulls of nice 
 soft coal. Up from the smokestack of the cutter 
 went a great shower of sparks. 
 
 "Well," said a lieutenant who stood beside 
 me, "if some one don t see that, the whole island 
 must be asleep." 
 
 Some one evidently did, but even then the an 
 swer did not come instantly, for some minutes 
 elapsed before out of the west there came a bugle 
 call, then a flash and then the rolling boom of a 
 great gun. Between the flash and the report 
 there should have been the drop somewhere of 
 the shot that went with them, but nobody in the 
 fleet, so far as I have been able to learn, ever 
 saw or heard anything to prove that Spain s first 
 gun in the battle of Manila Bay fired anything 
 more than a blank cartridge. 
 
 Twice more the battery spoke and somewhere 
 astern of the McCulloch there was a great flash 
 ing of water, but whether a wave broke, a fish 
 jumped, or a shot struck, I cannot say. Up to 
 the third shot with its answering splash no reply 
 had come from our fleet, but with the third shot, 
 and sounding almost like its echo, there came a 
 crack from the Concord, and we knew that our 
 first shot had gone out in the shape of a four- 
 inch shell. In what particular part of the fort 
 that shot hit I am not able to say, but that it did 
 
34: With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 hit T have no doubt for from the shore anie the 
 sound of a plunk and smash, followed by a cry. 
 Then still further back of us the Boston barked 
 yet louder and sent in an eight-inch shell, and 
 still further to the rear the McCulloch, having 
 started the fuss, went snapping into it with a few 
 of her four-pounders,, 
 
 The batteries kept on flashing and booming a 
 few minutes longer and then became as silent as 
 they were before we had steamed up. Whether 
 the gunners went back to bed or no will have to 
 be set down as an historical doubt, but so far as 
 being an opposing force the shore garrisons 
 these terrible fortresses, bristling with Krupps 
 of which we had heard so much, might have 
 been so many children s sand forts at Coney 
 Island set up to keep out the Atlantic. 
 
 There remained of course the torpedoes and 
 mines with which the entrance was strewn, and 
 Admiral Montojo s fleet rushing out to meet us. 
 What the sensations of the other fellows were 
 about the mines I did not know then, but I found 
 afterward, when making a poll of sensations, 
 that the unanimous feeling was that if mines 
 were there they were, and that was all there was 
 about it. The dreadful and unexpected did not 
 happen. There was no shaking up of the foun 
 tains of the vasty deep, no great ship rose bodily 
 
"With Dewey at Manila. 35 
 
 in the air and came down a shattered mass of 
 timbers, steel and men. The mines proved as 
 innocuous as the shore batteries. 
 
 There remained then the Spanish fleet "rush 
 ing out to meet us." But out of the darkness 
 came the throb of no enemy s engine, no flash 
 ing signal to halt, not even a scurrying scout. 
 
 Very quietly, that is, as quietly as nine 
 steamers can move, we went ahead and as soon as 
 we had passed the batteries at the harbor mouth 
 we slowed down until it seemed as though we 
 were almost at a standstill. The Commodore was 
 talking in an undertone to the rebel Philippine 
 who was acting as pilot; I could see the figures of 
 the men standing silently at their posts up and 
 down the ship ; and looking over her sides I could 
 distinguish no line of demarkation between the 
 dull gray of the vessels and the dark waters of the 
 bay through which we were so slowly slipping. 
 
 We all came to the conclusion afterward that 
 this leisurely advance through the quarter light 
 of the dawn was the most trying period in the 
 whole affair. The snapping interchange of com 
 pliments between the forts and the Concord, 
 Boston and McCulloch had served as a little 
 fillip, although we on the first four ships had 
 had no part in that, but this creeping, creeping, 
 creeping with invisible mines below us and an 
 
36 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 invisible fleet ahead was a test out of which no 
 man came without a sigh of relief. It is a hard 
 thing to whisper an order, I know, so perhaps it 
 is not to be wondered at that there should have 
 been a break, or vibration in the men s voices as 
 they passed the necessary word from mouth to 
 mouth. We were all keyed up, but it was not 
 long before the fighting string in every man s 
 heart was twanging and singing like that of a 
 taut bow. 
 
 As is the fashion of nature in these parts the 
 dawn turned as suddenly into day as though a 
 curtain had been torn down from the sunlight, 
 and there right ahead of us lay the Spanish fleet 
 tucked up under the forts of Cavite ; the scene 
 jumping as suddenly into vision as though it had 
 been a quick stage-setting in a theater done in 
 the dark and shown in the flashing up of every 
 light in the house. The fleets at last had met, 
 and here it is that the fighting forces must be 
 plainly marshaled for the reader s clear under 
 standing of what is to follow. 
 
 Commodore Dewey s fleet consisted of seven 
 vessels exclusive of the transports. 
 
 His flagship, the cruiser Olympia, was launched 
 in San Francisco in 1892. She is a twin screw 
 steamer of steel with two covered barbettes and 
 two military masts. She is three hundred and 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 37 
 
 forty feet long, has a beam of fifty -three feet and 
 a mean draft of twenty-one feet six inches. Her 
 tonnage is five thousand eight hundred and 
 seventy tons, her coal-carrying capacity is one 
 thousand three hundred tons and her speed is 
 twenty-one and a half knots. Her armor consists 
 of steel deck plates, steel-covered barbettes, 
 hoods and gun shields, and two conning towers. 
 She is also protected with a cellulose belt thirty- 
 three inches thick and eight feet broad. Her 
 armament includes four eight-inch breech load 
 ers, ten five-inch quick-firing guns, fourteen six- 
 pounder quick-fire guns, six one-pound quick- 
 fire guns, four gatlings and six torpedo tubes. 
 She carries four hundred and sixty-six men and 
 belongs to the second class of protected cruisers. 
 The Baltimore was launched in Philadelphia 
 in 1888. She also is a protected cruiser of the 
 second class, is built of steel, has twin screws 
 and two military tops. She is three hundred 
 and twenty-seven feet six inches long, forty-eight 
 feet six inches in beam, has a mean draft of nine 
 teen feet six inches, a tonnage of four thousand 
 six hundred tons and a speed of twenty knots. 
 Her protection consists of steel deck plates, 
 shields for all the guns and conning tower. Her 
 armament consists of four eight-inch breech 
 loaders, six six-inch breech loaders, two six- 
 
38 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 pound rapid firers, two three-pound rapid firers, 
 two one-pound rapid firers, four one-pound re 
 volving cannon, two gatling guns, and five tor 
 pedo tubes. She carries a crew of three hundred 
 and ninety-five men. 
 
 The Boston, also a second class protected 
 cruiser, was launched in 1884. She is a steel 
 vessel of three thousand one hundred and eighty- 
 nine tons, with a single screw. Her length is 
 two hundred and seventy feet three inches, beam 
 forty-two feet and mean draft seventeen feet. 
 Her speed is fifteen and a half knots. Her deck 
 is partially protected and she carries two eight- 
 inch breech loaders, six six-inch breech loaders, 
 two six-pound, two three-pound, and two one- 
 pound rapid-fire guns, two three-pound revolving 
 cannon and two gatlings. Her crew consists of 
 two hundred and seventy-two men. 
 
 The Raleigh was launched at Norfolk in 1892. 
 She is a steel cruiser of the second class with 
 twin screws and military tops. She is three 
 hundred feet long, forty-two feet in beam, eight 
 een feet draft, three thousand one hundred and 
 eighty -three tons of tonnage and a speed of nine 
 teen knots. Her deck is protected with armor, 
 she carries a cellulose belt, an armored conning 
 tower and steel sponsons. She carries one six- 
 inch rapid-fire gun, on her forecastle, ten five- 
 
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 I|e5"l 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 39 
 
 inch rapid-firing guns, two on the poop and four 
 on each side of the gun-deck in sponsons; eight 
 six-pound and four one-pound rapid-fire guns, 
 two gatlings and six torpedo tubes. Her crew 
 numbers two hundred and ninety-five. 
 
 The Concord is a third-class cruiser, really a 
 gunboat, of one thousand seven hundred tons, 
 with twin screws, length of two hundred and 
 thirty feet, beam of thirty-six feet, draft of four 
 teen feet and can make seventeen knots. Her 
 deck and conning tower are protected with light 
 armor. She carries six six-inch guns, two six- 
 pound, two three-pound, and one one-pound 
 rapid-fire guns, two two-pound revolving cannon, 
 two gatlings and two torpedo tubes. She has a 
 crew of one hundred and fifty men. 
 
 The Petrel is a gunboat of eight hundred tons. 
 She was launched in Baltimore in 1888, is one 
 hundred and seventy-six feet long, thirty-one 
 feet beam, eleven feet seven inches in draft and 
 makes 13.7 knots an hour. Her deck and six- 
 inch guns are protected with armor. She carries 
 four six-inch guns, two three-pound and one 
 one-pound rapid-fire guns, two one-pound revolv 
 ing cannon and two gatlings. Her crew is one 
 hundred men. 
 
 The McCulloch is a revenue cutter of one thou 
 sand five hundred tons, built of steel and armed 
 
40 With Dewey at Manila, 
 
 with four four-inch guns. She has a speed of 
 fourteen knots an hour and carries a force of one 
 hundred and thirty men. 
 
 Admiral Montojo s fleet consisted of twelve 
 vessels. The Reina Cristina, the flagship, "was 
 an armored cruiser of three thousand and ninety 
 tons; she was launched at Ferrol in 1887. 
 She had a single screw, was two hundred 
 and eighty feet long, forty-three feet in beam, 
 had a mean draft of 15.5 feet and a speed of 
 seventeen and a half knots. She carried an arma 
 ment of six 6.2-inch Hontorio breech loaders, 
 two 2.7-inch Hontorios, three six-pound, two 
 four-pound, and six three-pound rapid fire 
 guns, two machine guns and five torpedo tubes. 
 She had a crew of three hundred and seventy 
 men. 
 
 The Castilla was a wooden second-class cruiser, 
 launched at Cadiz in 1881, and was bark rigged, 
 with a single screw. Her length was two hun 
 dred and forty-six feet, her beam forty-six feet, 
 her draft twenty-one feet, her displacement three 
 thousand three hundred and forty-two tons and 
 her speed fourteen knots. Her armament con 
 sisted of four 5.9-inch Krupp guns, two 4.7-inch 
 Krupp guns, two 3.4-inch guns, two 2.9-inch 
 Krupp guns, eight rapid-fire guns, four one-pound 
 revolving cannon and two torpedo tubes. She 
 carried three hundred men. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 41 
 
 The Don Juan De Austria was an iron cruiser 
 of the third class. She was launched at Trieste 
 in 1875, had a displacement of one thousand one 
 hundred and thirty tons, a length of two hun 
 dred and ten feet, beam of thirty -two feet, draft 
 of twelve feet six inches and a speed of fourteen 
 knots. She carried an armored belt of from four 
 to eight inches thick and nine and a half feet 
 broad. Her armament consisted of four 4.7- 
 inch Hontorio breech loaders, two 2.7-inch breech 
 loaders twelve three-pound quick firers, four 
 one-pound revolving cannon, five machine guns 
 and four torpedo tubes. Her central batteries 
 and bulkheads were shielded and her deck was 
 protected. She carried a crew of one hundred 
 and seventy-three men. 
 
 The Don Antonio de Ulloa was a third-class 
 unprotected cruiser. She was launched at Car- 
 raca in 1887. She was an iron single-screw ves 
 sel, two hundred and ten feet long, thirty-two 
 feet beam, with a draft of twelve and a half feet, 
 a displacement of one thousand one hundred and 
 fifty-two tons and a speed of fourteen knots an 
 hour. Her armament consisted of four 4.7-inch 
 Hontorio breech loaders, and five six-pound 
 Krupp rapid firers. She carried a crew of one 
 hundred and seventy-three men. 
 
 The Velasco was a small cruiser of the old type, 
 
42 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 launched at Blackwall in 1881. She was of iron, 
 with one screw, a length of two hundred and ten 
 feet, a beam of thirty-two, a draft of thirteen 
 feet, a tonnage of one thousand one hundred and 
 thirty-nine and a speed of fourteen knots. She 
 carried three six-inch Armstrong breech loaders, 
 two two-inch Hontorio guns and two machine 
 guns. Her crew was one hundred and seventy- 
 three men. 
 
 The Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon were, sister 
 ships. They were both laid down at Elswick in 
 1886 and launched in 1887. They were third- 
 class protected cruisers with two screws and car 
 ried military tops. Their length was one hun 
 dred and eighty-five feet, their beam thirty feet, 
 their mean draft eleven feet six inches, their 
 displacement one thousand and forty tons 
 and their speed fifteen knots. They were 
 protected by steel deck plates and carried steel- 
 clad conning towers. The armament of each 
 consisted of six 4.7-inch Hontorio guns, four six- 
 pound rapid-firing guns four one-inch Nordenfeldt 
 machine guns and three torpedo tubes. They 
 carried one hundred and sixty-four men each. 
 
 The Quiros and Villalobos were also sister 
 ships, both launched at Hong Kong ; the former in 
 1895 and the latter in 1896. They were gun 
 boats of composite construction, single screw, 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 43 
 
 one hundred and forty-five feet long, and twenty- 
 three feet beam. Their tonnage was three hun 
 dred and forty-seven and their speed twelve 
 knots. They were each armed with two six-pound 
 rapid firing guns, and two five-barrelled Norden- 
 feldt machine guns. Each had a crew of sixty. 
 
 The gunboats El Correo and General Lezo were 
 likewise sister ships. They were twin-screw 
 iron vessels of five hundred and twenty-four tons 
 displacement, with engines of six hundred horse 
 power. They were built respectively at Carraca 
 and Cartagena in 1885. The El Correo was 
 armed with three 4.7-inch Hontorio guns, two 
 quick-fire guns, two machine guns and one tor 
 pedo tube. Her speed was ten knots. The Gen 
 eral Lezo carried one 3.5-inch gun, had one 
 machine gun and two torpedo tubes. The com 
 plement of each gunboat was ninety-eight men. 
 
 The Marques del Duero was a dispatch boat 
 used as a gunboat. She was an iron twin-screw 
 vessel of five hundred tons, was built at La 
 Seyne in 1875, was one hundred and fifty-seven 
 feet long and twenty-six feet in beam. Her 
 speed was ten knots an hour. She carried one 
 6.2-inch muzzle loading Palliser rifle, two 4.7- 
 inch smoothbores and a machine gun. Her 
 complement was ninety-eight men. 
 
 Besides these the Spaniards had two transports 
 
44 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 or troopships, the Mindanao and the Manila, but 
 these cannot be considered as active belligerents. 
 The Mindanao, however, had two torpedo boats, 
 which were heard from during the engagement 
 and carried about one hundred and fifty men, 
 although these troops took no part in the fight. 
 Taking the three items of class, armament 
 and complement the two fleets stood as follows: 
 
 AMERICAN FLEET. 
 
 Name. Class. Armament. 
 
 Olympia ........ Protected Cruiser.. Four 8-in., ten 5-in., 24 R.F... 466 
 
 Baltimore ...... Protected Cruiser. .Four 8-in., six 6-in., 10R.F..395 
 
 Boston ......... Par. Ptd. Cruiser... Two 8-in, six 6-in., 10R.F ..... 273 
 
 Raleigh ......... Protected Cruiser. .One 6-in., ten 5-in., 14 R.F.. . .295 
 
 Concord ........ Gunboat ............ Six 6-in., 9 R.F ............... 150 
 
 Petrel .......... Gunboat ............ Four 6-in., 7 R.F ............. 100 
 
 McCulloch ...... Revenue Cutter ____ Four 4-in ..................... 130 
 
 SPANISH FLEET. 
 *Reina Cristina. Steel Cruiser ........ Six 6.2-in., two 2.7., 13 R.F... 870 
 
 Castilla ........ Wood Cruiser ...... Four 5.9, two 4.7. two 3.4, 
 
 Don Antonio de [two 2.9, 12 R.F. .300 
 
 Ulloa ......... Iron Cruiser ........ Four 4.7, 5 R.F ................ 173 
 
 Don Juan de 
 
 Austria ....... Iron Cruiser ........ Four 4.7, two 2.7, 21 R.F ..... 173 
 
 Islade Luzon... Steel Ptd. Cruiser... Six 4.7, 8 R.F ................. 164 
 
 IsladeCuba.... Steel Ptd. Cruiser... Six 4.7, 8 R.F ................. 164 
 
 Velasco ......... Iron Cruiser ........ Three 6-in., two 2.7, 2R.F 173 
 
 Marques del Du- 
 
 ero ........... Gunboat ............ One 6.2, two 4.7, 1 R.F ......... 98 
 
 General Lezo... Gunboat ............ One 3.5, 1 R.F .................. 97 
 
 El Correo ....... Gunboat ............ Three 4.7, 4 R.F .............. 116 
 
 Quiros .......... Gunboat ............ 4 R.F .......................... 60 
 
 Villalobos ...... Gunboat ............ 4 R.F .......................... 60 
 
 Two torpedo boats and two transports. 
 
 In resume the matter stood therefore as fol 
 lows: 
 
 We had four cruisers, two gunboats, one cut- 
 
 * Flagship. 
 
CAPT. FRANK \VII,DES 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 45 
 
 ter, fifty -seven classified big guns ; seventy-four 
 rapid firers and machine guns and one thousand 
 eight hundred and eight men. 
 
 Against us were pitted seven cruisers, five gun 
 boats, two torpedo boats ; fifty-two classified big 
 guns; eighty -three rapid firers and machine 
 guns, and one thousand nine hundred and forty- 
 eight men. 
 
 It cannot be denied that we had a greater 
 number of heavy guns and that our ships were of 
 modern construction, nor must it be overlooked 
 that the Spanish fleet was much more numerous 
 and that it had the immense assistance of pro 
 tecting ports manned with strong garrisons and 
 mounting an unknown number of guns, of whose 
 caliber and force we had been told most terrify 
 ing things. 
 
46 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIRST BOUND. 
 
 IT was with barely steerage way that, with the 
 United States flag flying at all our mastheads, 
 with drums beating to quarters, and having sailed 
 some seventeen miles up the bay, our fleet, as 
 soon as it had sighted the Spaniards, passed in 
 a broad curve to the east side of the bay. Then, 
 with the Olympia leading, we curved around the 
 Manila water front ; again turned and headed for 
 a sailing line exactly parallel to the line of Mon- 
 tojo s fleet. 
 
 It might have been that Montojo for one wild 
 moment imagined that it was the Commodore s 
 intention to put out of the bay again, on the 
 conclusion that he had run into a stronger foe 
 than he had anticipated. If so, the Don was 
 soon to be most dreadfully disillusioned. 
 
 The Commodore s plan and from first to last 
 he followed it out with a grim and steadfast pre 
 cision that made every man in the fleet as grim 
 and deliberate the Commodore s plan of action 
 was simply this : The detour to the east was in 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 47 
 
 order to drop tlie supply sliips at a careful dis 
 tance and then to sweep around with sufficient 
 way to have good sailing past the enemy. Each 
 of the ships was to hold her fire until within cer 
 tain effective distance; to pour in every available 
 shot as she passed the enemy s fleet and forts; to 
 wheel as soon as she had passed out of effective 
 distance ; to steam past the forts and fleet on a 
 return line, but closer inshore than on the 
 first line of attack ; to wheel again as soon as she 
 had passed out of effective range and to keep 
 thus wheeling and passing and firing until the 
 forts were silenced and the fleet was smashed, or 
 until a signal of recall was floated. As we passed 
 on the eastward curve before actually beginning 
 the engagement, our lookouts reported that Ad 
 miral Montojo s flag was flying on the cruiser 
 Eeina Cristina. They reported also that the 
 Spaniards appeared to be protected by a sort of 
 roughly constructed boom of logs. I could dis 
 tinguish no steam up and it occurred to me that 
 the Spanish admiral s idea was that our ships 
 would be drawn up opposite his and that the 
 fight would be carried on as a sort of brigade 
 engagement, each man to stand his ground until 
 shot down. If so, he was once more woefully 
 disillusioned. The Commodore s idea was an 
 engagement of evolution. I understand that in 
 
48 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the official reports sent to Madrid it was stated, 
 with the true Spanish process of extracting self- 
 adulation out of a bad job, that Montojo had 
 "forced the American fleet to manoeuvre fre 
 quently. " It is the one joke of the tragedy. 
 
 As we steamed slowly along then, after drop 
 ping the supply ships there came a spit of flame 
 and a boom from the bastions of Cavite, followed 
 immediately by another flame spit and a sharper 
 report from one of the Spanish flagship s modern 
 guns. Both shots dropped somewhere in the 
 bay and our only answer was in sending up a 
 string of flags bearing the code watchword 
 " Remember the Maine." Not exactly our only 
 answer either; for as the flags fluttered out the 
 whole fleet roared, but it was not the roar of 
 guns, it was the concerted yelp of the sea dogs 
 that knew their time for vengeance was at hand. 
 
 On steamed the fleet, with every gun loaded 
 and every man at his post; but not a lanyard was 
 pulled. Even the Spaniards at Cavite ceased 
 firing as we moved down toward Manila. As we 
 rounded past the city s water-front, with about 
 four miles of blue water between us and it, we could 
 with our glasses make out the city walls, church 
 towers, and other high places, crowded with sight 
 seers. I heard afterward that a number of these 
 sightseers drove down to Cavite to see the 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 49 
 
 Yankees blown out of the water. I never heard 
 how they got back. The battery on the Luneta 
 mole paid us a little more attention and sent 
 three shells at us. They must have been from 
 large guns, for the projectiles screamed far over 
 head and fell miles beyond us. Here again it 
 was the impatient Concord that replied and she 
 sent two of her shells hurtling toward the fort. 
 
 The Commodore, however, sent up a signal to 
 hold fire as he had no idea of battering down the 
 city yet. As we turned from Manila the Com 
 modore said something about the picturesque- 
 ness of the city, adding that the blue hills to the 
 back of the town reminded him of those of Ver 
 mont. It was most unaffectedly said and was no 
 more tinged with bravado than was Captain 
 Wildes use of a palm-leaf fan during the en 
 gagement. Captain Wildes used the fan because 
 he felt hot, and heaven knows it was one of the 
 hottest Sunday mornings that I ever remember; 
 and the Commodore spoke of the Luzon hills as 
 he did because they impressed him as they did. 
 From the first to the last the Commodore never 
 for one instant changed his demeanor, which was 
 always that of a man who had a duty to do and 
 who went about it with the plain, everyday de 
 termination to do that duty. As we headed 
 toward the Spanish fleet their gunners and those 
 
50 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 of the forts began a right merry fusillade. There 
 was a good deal of the booming roar that showed 
 the presence of old guns, but there was also a 
 good deal of the sharper declamation that told 
 us of modern rifles and of heavy work laid out 
 for us. 
 
 So far as guns were concerned that would have 
 been the fact had it not been that in this battle 
 of Manila the value of the man behind the gun as 
 a fighting factor was pre-eminent. With all this 
 thundering and snapping of the Spaniards, how 
 ever, there was no answer from us ; the turrets 
 were silent and each sponson was unsmoked. 
 Up went the signal, "Hold your fire until close 
 in, "and on went the squadron. Suddenly some 
 thing happened. Close off the bow of the Balti 
 more there came a shaking of the bay and a 
 geyser of mud and water. Then right ahead of 
 the Raleigh came another ugly fountain of harbor 
 soil and water. 
 
 We were among the mines at last. 
 
 No notice whatever was taken of the fact. No 
 change of course was ordered; no special word 
 of command was given and though each man of 
 us, I suppose, took a tooth grip of the lower 
 lip and had no idea of how many seconds lay 
 between him and kingdom come, I can state it as 
 a fact that the only remarks I heard made were 
 
y 
 
 CT>: 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 51 
 
 such natural ones as "Torpedoes at last," or 
 "Now we ll get it." 
 
 But we did not get it, for these two upheavals 
 marked the extent of our experience with the 
 "terrible mines" of Manila bay. Still the roar 
 and snap of the Spanish ships and forts kept on 
 as they had ever since ten minutes past five, with 
 the short cessation while we were opposite Ma 
 nila, and still, with the exception of the Con 
 cord s evidence of impatience, we had not begun 
 to fight. The Commodore, his chief of staff 
 Commander Lamberton, the executive officer 
 Lieutenant Reese and the navigator, were on the 
 forward bridge. Captain Gridley was in the 
 conning tower. With a glance at the shore the 
 Commodore turned to the officer next to him and 
 said "About five thousand yards I should say, 
 eh, Reese?" 
 
 "Between that and six thousand, I should 
 think, sir," Reese answered. 
 
 The Commodore then leaned over the railing 
 and called out : 
 
 "When you are ready you may fire, Gridley." 
 
 Captain Gridley evidently was ready, for it 
 was at eighteen minutes and thirty-five seconds 
 of six o clock when the Commodore gave the 
 order to fire, and it was at eighteen minutes and 
 thirty -four seconds of six o clock when the floor 
 
52 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 of the bridge sprang up beneath our feet as the 
 port eight-inch gun of our forward turret gave 
 its introductory roar. Our first aim was at the 
 center of the Spanish fleet, the Olympiads shot 
 being particularly directed, as a sort of inter 
 national inark of courtesy, to the Eeina Cristina. 
 About coincidental with the Commodore s 
 polite intimation to Captain Gridley, he ordered 
 the signal run up for the ships astern, "Fire as 
 convenient." 
 
 As our turret gun rang out, the Baltimore and 
 Boston took up the chorus, their .forward guns 
 pitching in two-hundred-and-fifty-poun: 1 shells. 
 The reply of the Spaniards was simply terrific. 
 Their ship and shore guns seemed to unite in 
 one unending snap and roar, while the scream of 
 their shot, the bursting of shells, made up a din 
 that was as savage as it was uncef^liig. It was, 
 however, but as the scraping r . fiddle strings to 
 the blare and crash of a full orchestra when com 
 pared with that which was to follow. 
 
 One wailing, shrieking shell was making 
 straight for the Olympia s forward bridge when 
 it exploded about a hundred feet in front of us, 
 one fragment sawing the rigging just over our 
 heads. Another fragment chiselled a long splin 
 ter from the deck just under where the Commo 
 dore stood, a third smashed the bridge gratings, 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 53 
 
 and all around and about and above us there was 
 the sputter and shriek and roar of projectiles. 
 
 But the miracle was that none of us was hit. 
 Through this hail of miraculously impotent steel 
 we steered until within a distance of four thou 
 sand yards of the Spanish column. 
 
 "Open with all the guns," sftict the Commo 
 dore, and they were opened. That is, all on the 
 port broadside. The eight-inchers roared and 
 the five-inch rapid filers spluttered and cracked, 
 and soon the Baltimore was booming away, then 
 the Raleigh, then the Boston and Concord and 
 finally one Petrel, as busy and earnest in the 
 management of her long popguns as though the 
 very issue of the fight depended on her. 
 
 D; the time the Petrel had passed the Span 
 iards, the Olympia had swung around on her 
 return line of attack and once more we were 
 steaming past Mcntojo with our starboard guns 
 flaming, roaring, spitting and smoking as we 
 went. As we passed, the batteries on shore and 
 the Spanish batteries afloat banged away at us, 
 fighting gallantly and furiously. One shot went 
 clean through the Baltimore, but hit no one. 
 Another struck just outside the wardroom but 
 did not even dent the ship s side. Another cut 
 the signal halyards from Lieutenant Brumbuy s 
 hands on the after bridge; Ensign Dodridge s 
 
54 "With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 stateroom on board the Boston was wrecked by a 
 shell which entered the fore quarter and started 
 a fire, while another fire was started by a shell 
 which burst in the port hammock netting. 
 Another shell passed through the Boston s fore 
 mast not far from where Captain "Wildes was on 
 the bridge. 
 
 On the third turn the Raleigh was caught in a 
 strong insetting current and was carried plump 
 into the bows of two Spanish cruisers. Instead 
 of sending her to the bottom, the enemy s ships 
 seemed to be positively useless, so taking advan 
 tage of her nearness, the Ealeigh sent in a couple 
 of raking fires before she steamed back into place. 
 Captain Coghlan and Lieutenant Singer spoke of 
 it afterward as the picnic of the engagement. 
 
 It was on the third turn, too, that the great 
 naval duel between the two flagships took place. 
 
 "When we sighted the Spanish fleet, I remarked, 
 it will be remembered, that the enemy seemed to 
 have no steam up and that the fleet seemed to lie 
 behind a breakwater. As we came closer to 
 them, however, we saw more clearly the scheme 
 of their order. Put out your right hand with 
 the thumb extended ; call the thumb the Cavite 
 spit and the space between the thumb and the 
 forefinger Cavite Bay. Manila lies about where 
 the nail of the forefinger is. The town of 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 55 
 
 Cavite lies in the pocket of the thumb and fore 
 finger, and the thumb s nail stands for the main 
 Cavite batteries, four in number. Put a pencil 
 halfway across from the thumb s nail to the root 
 joint of the forefinger and it will stand for the 
 Cavite arsenal with its boom extension. Behind 
 this boom lay the gunboats of the Spanish fleet, 
 while in front of it, facing Manila Bay, were the 
 Spanish cruisers. 
 
 They lay anchored while we made our first and 
 second parallels of attack, but by the time we 
 were sweeping up on the third course their 
 stokers had made such hurry work that the smoke 
 poured out of the Reina Cristina s smokestacks; 
 there was a fleece of white gathered about the 
 steam pipe, and the flagship moved out to the 
 attack. She gallantly stood for the Olympia and 
 it looked as though it was her intention to ram 
 us. The Commodore passed the word to con 
 centrate all possible fire on the Eeina Christina, 
 and she actually shivered under the battering of 
 our storm of shot and shell. Rents appeared near 
 her waterline where the eight-inch shells had 
 torn their way. One shot struck the port bridge 
 on which Admiral Montojo stood, upon which, 
 like the brave man he was, the admiral coolly 
 stepped to the other end. 
 
 But no bravery could stand the driving, crush- 
 
56 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 ing, rending of the tons of steel which we poured 
 into the Cristina, and there was quite a little 
 cheer from our forward men as the Spanish flag 
 ship slowly turned and made for the shore. But 
 appreciation of courage on the part of the enemy 
 did not prevent our gunners from also appreciat 
 ing the excellent opportunity which the retreat 
 ing flagship gave us for a raking shot. As she 
 got into her swing with the stern dead toward 
 us, one of Captain Gridley s guns thundered, and 
 an eight-inch shell struck the enemy as squarely in 
 the center as though she had been painted off in 
 target squares. It was ft bull s-eye, so marvelous 
 in its exactness and so terrible in its effects that 
 I cannot help speaking of it a little more at 
 length. 
 
 We saw from where we stood that it shattered 
 the Cristina s steering gear, and, unless our eyes 
 very much deceived us, we saw, too, that the 
 Spaniard was actually driven forward with a 
 shivering motion like one prize fighter sent in 
 catapult fashion staggering into the ropes from 
 the fist blow of another prize fighter. From 
 what we learned then, and from W 7 hat we learned 
 afterward, I am convinced that no man in the 
 squadron had up to that time any idea of the 
 awfully destructive possibilities of the eight- 
 incher. The projectile weighed two hundred 
 
From Harper s Weekly. Copyright, 1898, by Harper & Brother*. 
 
 Capt. Joseph B. Coghlan. 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 57 
 
 and fifty pounds, and one hundred and fifty 
 pounds of powder were used to expel it. The gun 
 itself was about twenty-eight feet long. When 
 it left Gridley s gun the shell traveled at the rate 
 of two thousand feet a second. The distance be 
 tween the Olympia and the Reina Cristina was 
 about two thousand five hundred yards, and the 
 time between the shot s leaving the muzzle of our 
 gun and its impact on the stern of the Spanish 
 ship was the scarcely appreciable one of five sec 
 onds. 
 
 When it left our gun it had what is techni 
 cally known as an energy of eight thousand and 
 eleven hundred foot-tons; that is, it would have 
 gone through twenty-one and a half inches of 
 Harveyized steel. But the Reina Cristina was an 
 unarmored vessel and all that enormous penetra 
 tive energy was expended on the Spanish cruiser s 
 protected sides and such internal resistance as 
 partitions, bulkheads, engines, etc. It was 
 through all these obstructions that the great 
 shell tore its way until it reached the aft boiler. 
 There it exploded and as it did so ripped up the 
 deck of the cruiser and scattered its hail of steel 
 in all directions. We could see the smoke pour 
 ing out of the vessel, the gush of escaping steam 
 and the shower of splinters and mangled bodies. 
 
 That one shot practically disabled the Spanish 
 
58 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 flagship, while in the whole duel between the 
 Cristina and the Olympia sixty of the Spanish 
 crew were killed including the chaplain and first 
 lieutenant. It was small wonder she retreated. 
 
 Every time we swung round the ellipse line of 
 attack and brought our broadside to bear on the 
 Spanish fleet our eight-inch guns perforated the 
 enemy s protected decks and sides with all the 
 ease and accuracy imaginable. For such a range 
 and for such an engagement the eight-inch gun 
 was exactly what was needed. 
 
 It was during the frightful hubbub of the duel 
 between the admiral and the Commodore that 
 two gunboats belonging to the Mindanao and 
 acting as torpedo boats crept out from behind 
 the Cavite pier and started in to do desperate 
 deeds. One stole out along the shore, then 
 turned and made for the supply ships, while 
 the other headed for the Olympia. The Petrel 
 was sent after the first and after a sharp bark or 
 two from her four-pounders, the Spaniard evi 
 dently gave up the job and made for the shore. 
 The Petrel made after her and while the Spanish 
 crew clambered over their boat s sides and on to 
 the beach and up into the underbrush, the 
 Petrel turned her rapid-fire guns on their craft 
 and literally blew her to pieces. 
 
 The other torpedo boat, which was bound to 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 59 
 
 destroy our flagship, made a better fight. Our 
 secondary battery was concentrated on her, but 
 still she kept on until within five hundred yards, 
 and matters were beginning to look serious for 
 us. Then the machine guns in the tops began 
 to treat her to a hailstorm and this proved too 
 much for this representative of Spanish naval 
 daring. She turned tail, and as she did so the 
 same fate that befell the Reina Cristina on her 
 retreat overtook this gunboat. A shell struck 
 her just inside the stern railing, exploded, and 
 the gunboat dipped suddenly in the middle, her 
 stern and bow rose as suddenly in the air, and 
 she disappeared. 
 
 While the Olympia was attending to the Keina 
 Cristina the Baltimore directed her particular 
 attention to the Castilla, and before our vessel 
 had sent in her last gun from the aft turret the 
 Spaniard was in flames from stem to stern. It 
 was this sudden blaze of the Castilla that led to 
 the Spanish report of our use of petroleum 
 bombs. It is scarcely necessary to say that it 
 was solely due to the explosion of modern shells 
 in an antiquated wooden boat. 
 
 Backward and forward we went twice more, 
 each time drawing nearer to the devoted Spanish 
 fleet, and as each of our vessels came into action 
 the same manoeuvre was repeated. First the for- 
 
60 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 ward guns, then the broadside, port or starboard, 
 as it might be, and lastly, the stern chasers as 
 each vessel passed and gave place to the follow 
 ing ship. The firing of our broadsides was dis 
 tinguished by a well-defined crash that came as 
 regularly as clockwork, while the fire of the 
 Spanish ships and forts produced a continuous 
 roll and rattle. But with all this unbroken roar 
 from the enemy afloat and ashore, none of our 
 ships was seen to stagger or draw off, and when 
 we were near enough to be well in range of the 
 Spanish small guns and fighting tops, still the 
 American line of ships went on with its deadly 
 work as uninterruptedly as though it had been a 
 railroad train running on a strict schedule time 
 through a grove of yokels armed with putty 
 blowers. 
 
 After passing five times in front of the enemy 
 and the men having been at their blazing work 
 for two uninterrupted hours the Commodore con 
 cluded that it would be well to call a halt. By 
 this time the smoke of the engagement was hang 
 ing so thick along the shore and over the water 
 that not only was it almost impossible to distin 
 guish ship or fort except by a gray mass and the 
 sputter of flame, but we were so smoke-encom 
 passed that it was next to an impossibility to see 
 any signals. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 61 
 
 "What time is it, Reese?" asked the Commo 
 dore. 
 
 "Seven forty-five, sir." 
 
 "Breakfast time," said the Commodore with 
 an odd smile ; "run up the signals for cease firing 
 and to follow me." 
 
 With that the Olympia s bows were set for a 
 run to the eastern side of the bay where the 
 storeships lay. As we swung out the Spaniards 
 gave a cheer. Badly used up as they were there 
 was lots of fight in them yet and they possibly 
 imagined as they saw our line forming to with 
 draw that the fight was over. So, too, might the 
 Manila gunners on the Luneta fort have done for 
 as we passed them they let fly with their Krupp 
 guns. 
 
 "No reply, I suppose, sir?" said Lamberton, 
 looking meaningly over to the forward turret, 
 while the men at the five-inch guns were cocking 
 their eyes inquisitively up at the bridge. 
 
 "Oh, no," said the Commodore, "let them 
 amuse themselves if they will. We will have 
 plenty of opportunity to burn powder. We 
 haven t begun fighting yet." 
 
 And so it proved, for dreadful as these two 
 hours had been for the Spaniards they were mild 
 in their results compared to that which was to 
 come. We had but concluded the first round. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALL HANDS PIPED TO BREAKFAST. 
 
 No sooner had we reached the anchorage 
 ground beside the transport ships than the Com 
 modore called all the commanders on board to 
 report. Then it was that the wonder of it came 
 to pass. 
 
 Not a ship disabled. 
 
 Not a gun out of order. 
 
 Not a man killed. 
 
 Not a man injured. 
 
 It seemed absolutely impossible, but it was 
 the fact. There were, it is true, some rents in 
 the rigging, some gashes in the upper works, and 
 some scratches along the decks of the ships ; a few 
 of the men were scratched and bruised by 
 tumbling over lines and buckets, but that was 
 all. I say again, it seemed incredible that this 
 should have been the result to us in that awful 
 two hours fight, while to the Spaniards it had 
 meant such destruction and desolation. Captain 
 after captain reported to the Commodore in the 
 game strain. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 63 
 
 "All in good shape, sir," reported Captain 
 Wildes of the Boston, " except that it was very 
 hot." 
 
 "Men tired and ship a little scratched," said 
 Captain Dyer of the Baltimore. 
 
 "Everything all right and ready to resume 
 business at a moment s notice," said Commander 
 Walker of the Concord. 
 
 " Out of the jaws of death, out of the gates 
 of Hell, and only a little smoky from the trip," 
 said Captain Coghlan of the Ealeigh, who has his 
 poets. 
 
 "Poor Kandall died from heart-disease as we 
 were passing Corregidor," reported Captain 
 Hodgson, "but that is the extent of our casual 
 ties." Frank B. Kandall was the engineer of the 
 McCulloch and had long been subject to heart- 
 disease. The suppressed excitement of running 
 the gauntlet of the entrance forts in the dark, and 
 the heat of the McCulloch s engine-room, proved 
 too much for him, and he died quite suddenly. 
 His death, however, can in no way be listed as a 
 fatality of the engagement. 
 
 There were many stories told of miraculous 
 escapes. A shell entered the Boston s wardroom 
 in which Paymaster Martin sat. He swears that 
 the missile was making straight for him and that 
 it exploded within five feet of him. It partially 
 
64: With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 wrecked the wardroom, but not a fragment 
 struck Martin. 
 
 Down in the wardroom of the Olympia the 
 surgeon s operating table had been set out, wait 
 ing for the subjects that never came. Chaplain 
 Frazier was down there waiting to comfort or 
 administer the last rites to the wounded or dying 
 heroes who never materialized. Growing tired 
 of waiting for these the chaplain stuck his head 
 out of one of the six-pounder gun ports, when a 
 shell struck the ship s side some three feet away. 
 Mr. Frazier drew his head back with the rapid 
 ity of a galvanized turtle and so preserved us our 
 representative of the Church Militant. And so 
 on. 
 
 Funny little finger-points of character were 
 thrown out here and there. We heard, for in 
 stance, that one lieutenant of the Baltimore, who 
 was rather a good young man, too, was heard 
 softly swearing to himself the most extravagant 
 and outlandish oaths possible, all the time we 
 were stealing up the bay; another sang the first 
 four bars of " Sweet Marie" over and over again 
 with a persistency that was maddening; while 
 brave old Howard of the Concord put a shade 
 over his electric light and read his Bible by it 
 while entering the Boca Grande. 
 
 We learned also in this exchange of facts and 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 65 
 
 ideas that among the men the general impression 
 prevailed that we were going to have a battle in 
 the dark, with all its shadowy dangers of firing 
 at friend or foe. When the real spectacular pro 
 gramme broke on them, the deck officers said the 
 relief of the men was positively touching. It 
 should be remembered that most of the fellows 
 had never been under fire, but when once the 
 battle did begin, they, despite the fever of fight 
 that was burning in their veins, acted with the 
 precision of veterans. Once in it they did not 
 want to stop. Down on our decks we could hear 
 subdued groans, the broad sense of which was, 
 "Oh, let s finish it up, " but when the news spread 
 that the Commodore was only taking wind be 
 tween the rounds, it was no longer possible to 
 restrain them, nor for a moment or two was 
 there any attempt to exact the strict enforcement 
 of discipline. All over the decks the Jackies 
 could be seen slapping each other on the back, 
 shaking hands and doing a few steps of horn 
 pipe, and this I verily believe not because there 
 was not a man missing from any mess, but be 
 cause they were going to fight again. 
 
 There was need, however, for the interlude. 
 As I have said the smoke of battle had grown so 
 thick that signals could not be seen, and the 
 Commodore had no idea of letting anything in- 
 
66 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 terferewith his programme. He had started out 
 to destroy the Spanish fleet and he was going to 
 do it. It was turning out to be an easier task 
 than he had anticipated, and having rattled his 
 antagonist in the first round, he quietly con 
 cluded that there was no occasion to rush matters, 
 and that as the men had been fighting on a single 
 cup of coffee all round and it was a hot morning, 
 it was just as well to haul off a little while for 
 needed refreshment. To be sure it gave the enemy 
 also a breathing spell, but the Commodore was 
 too generous a fighter to begrudge them that. 
 Besides it was a positive mercy to the men in the 
 turrets. 
 
 It had been bad enough for us; breathing the 
 powder smoke; clinging to the railings as the 
 ship shivered and shook after each discharge; 
 exposed, of course, to the enemy s fire and 
 scampering back and forward as occasion re 
 quired, but we were in the open and could, in a 
 degree, see what was going on. So, too, could 
 the men behind the shield guns; because, not 
 withstanding precautionary orders, as the fight 
 proceeded the Jackies persisted in running out 
 to watch the effect of their shots and to see gen 
 erally how things were getting along. But think 
 what it must have been for the men in the tur 
 rets. Take for instance the forward turret of the 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 67 
 
 Olympia on that broiling hot Sunday morning in 
 the tropics. 
 
 In the turret were the two eight-inch guns and 
 twelve Yankee gunners, guns and men occupy 
 ing about every available inch of space. Above 
 them and between the guns rose the platform of 
 the conning tower where Captain Gridley and his 
 assistant perched. The roar of the guns with 
 their ear-splitting concussions, and the occa 
 sional crash of a Spanish shell on the turret, and 
 the hard, hard work of manning the guns in that 
 confined and vibrating air, make up a combination 
 of trials of which the man who has not experi 
 enced it can form no possible idea. 
 
 Would you like to know what it is that the 
 man behind a turret gun has to do ? The turret 
 crew is mustered six for each gun, captain, plug- 
 man, loader, sponger, liftman, and shellman. 
 Each man knows exactly what his duties are and 
 has been drilled and drilled into them until he 
 has become an automaton but an automaton 
 only so far as his actions are concerned, for back 
 of and urging on these lies the great, brave, 
 fighting heart of the man. The crew is kept on 
 deck up to the very last instant before entering 
 the turret and when once there, not a word ex 
 cept that of the division officer is heard. The 
 twelve half-naked men stand like statues beside 
 the great machines of death. 
 
68 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 The order "Cast loose and provide" is heard 
 and the twelve machines spring into action. The 
 breech is opened, elevating gear inspected, lash 
 ings cast off, loading trays inspected, firing 
 locks prepared, slides placed, priming wires cor 
 rectly disposed, and all of the delicate parapher 
 nalia that make up a modern gun, inspected. 
 
 Again the men become twelve machines and 
 the order "Load" is given. Up from the maga 
 zine is hauled the projectile and placed on the 
 loading tray. The great shell is pushed home 
 and by the time this is done the powder load has 
 been placed behind it. Gas checks and screw 
 locks are adjusted, the breech is locked home, 
 the primer inserted, the lanyard hooked and the 
 lock cocked. 
 
 Then comes the sighting, the man for this duty 
 being one of selection. Sometimes there is a 
 man on ship who can point one of these monster 
 guns with the accuracy of a Texas ranger, and 
 can do nothing else well. Sometimes it is an 
 officer who has a good eye, but in every case the 
 man at the sight thinks himself, and is the pivot 
 man of the engagement. The order to "Fire" 
 rings out, the lanyard is pulled and the thunder 
 bolt is on its way. 
 
 Six shots a minute blazed out of the Olympia s 
 turret; the powder smoke poured through the 
 
COM. N. MAYO DYER 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 69 
 
 portholes in a choking sineach; with each dis 
 charge the turret shook and rocked as though in 
 an earthquake ; the air was shaken with a con 
 tinuous crash and thunder; but through it all 
 the orders "Sponge," "Load," "Point," "Fire," 
 went on and the twelve reeking, choking, quiver 
 ing men went on, with their labors labors that 
 chipped off a year of each man s life every 
 instant. No wonder that when the first round 
 was over the turret-men crept out into the open 
 like so many victims of a colliery explosion 
 blackened, gasping, air-beating things. All 
 honor, then, to "the men behind the guns." 
 
 Preparations for the second round were con 
 ducted in the most business-like fashion. The 
 Commodore had decided on three hours rest, 
 and this being ample time for all the preparatory 
 work needed there was no hurry, nor was there 
 any waste. First of all, all hands were piped to 
 breakfast. It was a hearty, cheery feast, and 
 while I am not historian enough to have the 
 details of every great combat at my pen s point, 
 it strikes me that this deliberate hauling off and 
 sitting down to breakfast in the middle of a sea- 
 fight, with the calm knowledge that the other fel 
 low would not, or could not interrupt it, and l 
 that when we had finished and the dishes were 
 all cleared away we could start in anew and finish 
 
TO With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 up the job, stands as a situation unique in the 
 chronicles of maritime warfare. Here were two 
 fleets in deadly opposition. Between the fleets 
 there was a fight in progress on whose upshot 
 the history of two nations in the Orient de 
 pended. One fleet lay over in the shelter of 
 forts that were still a fighting force, with con 
 fusion aboard and a desperate outlook ahead; 
 while the other fleet lay over here, just out of 
 range, unconcernedly eating breakfast. 
 
 Breakfast being over there was a general clean 
 up of men, decks and guns, the ammunition 
 rooms were refilled, fleet orders issued and the 
 engines inspected. 
 
 "Everything all right, Lamberton?" asked the 
 Commodore. 
 
 " Every thing, I believe, sir," replied Lamber 
 ton. 
 
 "Very well. Call to quarters and get under 
 way. 
 
 The boatswains whistles and the marine drums 
 shrilled and dubbed. And at 10 :45 every man 
 was at his post and we were off for the second 
 round. 
 
With Devvey at Manila. 71 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SECO ND EOUND . 
 
 BEFORE Captain Nehemiah M. Dyer of the Bal 
 timore went over the ship s side to his launch I 
 noticed that he was talking very earnestly to the 
 Commodore. These two had been friends for 
 many years. Both New Englanders, both grad 
 uates in the hard school of experience. Dyer 
 had never been to Annapolis, but he had served 
 on land and sea. He had shown during the Civil 
 War what wonderfully effective things could be 
 done by a fleet of gunboats and though no acade 
 mician was as good a fighter as the president of 
 any Board of Strategy. The talk between the two 
 men ended with a nod of acquiescence on the 
 part of the Commodore followed by a handshake. 
 Captain Dyer had not reached his ship before we 
 knew what the subject of the conversation had 
 been and what its result. For, turning to his 
 flag officer, the Commodore instructed him to run 
 up the signals that the Baltimore would lead in 
 the second round. 
 
 The programme for the second act of the 
 
T2 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 tragedy, and liere again everything was laid 
 down with the exactness of a time table, was that 
 we were to finish up the enemy s fleet, taking 
 one ship after another, and then attend to the 
 forts. Again we sailed around to the Manila 
 channel, and as we drew near the Spaniards we 
 saw that the Cristina, the Castilla, and the trans 
 port Mindanao, which latter had been beached 
 about midway between Cavite and Manila, were 
 all ablaze, and that their crews were busy as so 
 many ants trying to put out the flames. 
 
 The condition of the Spanish flagship was 
 most pitiable. Her duel with the Olympia, and 
 the raking which she had received when turning 
 to seek cover, I have described. Every attempt 
 had been made during the breathing spell to put 
 her into some sort of shape, but evidently without 
 success; for before we had commenced firing the 
 second time we saw Admiral Montojo transfer 
 ring his flag from the Cristina to the Isla de 
 Cuba. Others saw it also, and from the McCul- 
 loch came her launch shooting and snipping 
 through the bay and making for the Olympia. 
 She had on board Lieutenants Calkins and Nel 
 son, who came with the petition to the Commo 
 dore that he would allow them to make a dash 
 for the admiral s gig and capture the Spaniard 
 in transit, The Commodore, however, had to 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 73 
 
 refuse, as he knew that should such an attempt 
 be made every Spanish gun would be turned 
 upon the launch and she would simply be blown 
 out of the water. 
 
 The Baltimore, following Captain Dyer s 
 straight-to-the-point tactics, headed for the 
 Cristina and Austria. As she came within range 
 she caught all of the Spanish fire that was left 
 on board those two ships. It seemed that in their 
 desperation the Spaniards fired better at this 
 time than they had in the earlier morning, for 
 one of the foreigner s shells exploded on the Balti 
 more s deck wounding five men with the splin 
 ters. No reply came from the Baltimore. A 
 few minutes passed and another shell plunked on 
 the Baltimore s decks, and three other men were 
 hit. Still the Baltimore did not reply. Shells 
 plunged about her until she seemed plowing 
 through a park of fountains. Then, when she 
 reached about a three-thousand-yard range, she 
 swung and poured a broadside into the Eeina 
 Cristina. I really believe that every shot must 
 have told, for the former flagship seemed literally 
 to crumble at the discharge. The smoke clouds 
 hid everything for a minute or two, but when 
 they lifted we saw the Cristina blow up, and the 
 waters about her beaten with a rain of descend 
 ing fragments and men. Under that shrieking, 
 
74 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 roaring discharge of the Baltimore s, Captain 
 Cadarso and many of his men were killed. 
 When the rain of her fragments had ceased the 
 Cristina settled and sank, the remainder of her 
 crew jumping overboard and swimming for the 
 nearest consort. 
 
 The Spanish navy being less the Cristina, the 
 Baltimore then turned her attention to the San 
 Juan de Austria, the Olympia and Ealeigh steam 
 ing up to complete the destruction in as merci 
 fully brief a time as possible. The three cruisers 
 poured a continuous stream of deadly steel into 
 the Spaniard, which rocked under the smashing. 
 The Spaniard replied as best she might, but in 
 the midst of it all there came a roar that drowned 
 all previous noises. A shell from the Raleigh 
 had struck the Spaniard s magazine and exploded 
 it. Up shot the Austria s decks in the flaming 
 volcano, and so terrific was the explosion that the 
 flying fragments of the cruiser actually tore 
 away all the upper works of the gunboat El 
 Correo which lay beside her. The Austria was a 
 sinking wreck and El Correo was so nearly one 
 that as a coup de grace the Petrel steamed up 
 close to the Spanish gunboat and put her out of 
 misery and existence. 
 
 A gunboat, which we learned afterward was 
 the General Lezo, had been quite active during 
 
I 
 
 If 
 
 * sz-si 
 
 c/i 
 
 ^~5e 
 ^ "" ^ 2 
 O u >> ~ ( 3 
 
 I {III 
 
 5.5 5 
 
 CGS a 
 
 I 
 
"With Dewey at Manila. 75 
 
 the cannonade on the Don Juan de Austria, and 
 Commander Walker of the Concord, seeing this, 
 turned his attention to the small Spaniard, and 
 with a few well-directed shells soon silenced 
 her. She made for the shore, but before she 
 had reached it was ablaze, her crew taking to the I 
 water. 
 
 The cruisers Velasco and Castilla were the next 
 of the enemy s ships to be wiped out. The 
 Boston gave the Velasco special attention, Cap 
 tain Wildes, still fanning himself vigorously, 
 swinging his ship around until he could give the 
 Spaniard a broadside. When he had fired the 
 Velasco listed heavily to port, showing the 
 jagged rents in her starboard side as she did so, 
 then careened to the starboard and went down 
 smoking, with barely time enough for her crew 
 to throw over their boats and make for the 
 shore. The Castilla had been set on fire in the 
 first onslaught, and when the Concord and Balti 
 more poured their tremendous weight of shells 
 into her, she was scuttled in order to prevent the 
 magazine from exploding. 
 
 Every ship in the Spanish fleet, with one ex 
 ception fought most valiantly, but to the Don 
 Antonio de Ulloa and her commander Robion 
 should be given the palm for that sort of desper 
 ate courage and spirit which leads a man to die 
 
76 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 fighting. The flagship and Boston were the exe 
 cutioners. Under their shells the Ulloa was 
 soon burning in half a dozen places; but her 
 fighting crew gave no signs of surrender. Shot 
 after shot struck the Spaniard s hull, until it 
 was riddled like a sieve. Shell after shell swept 
 her upper decks, until under the awful fire all of 
 her upper guns were useless ; but there was no 
 sign of surrender. The main deck crew escaped, 
 but the captain and his officers clung to their 
 wreck. On the lower deck her gun crews stuck 
 to their posts like the heroes they were. As shot 
 after shot struck the shivering hulk, and still her 
 lower guns answered back as best they might, it 
 seemed as though it was impossible to kill her. 
 At last we noticed her in the throes, that sicken 
 ing unmistakable lurch of a sinking ship. Her 
 commander noticed it, too ; still there was no 
 surrender. Instead, he nailed the Spanish 
 ensign to what was left of the mast and the Don 
 Antonio de Ulloa went down, not only with her 
 colors flying, but also with her lower guns still 
 roaring defiance. It was a brave death and I am 
 sure ever man in the squadron would have liked 
 to have shaken Commander Robion by the hand, 
 Don though he be of the same nation that bred 
 Weyler. 
 
 Just as the picture of the Ulloa s end is luridly 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 77 
 
 bright, so that of another ship is gloomily 
 dark. For the sake of her gallant mates, this 
 ship shall be nameless. She had hauled down 
 her colors about the same time that the Ulloa had 
 refused to do so and had gone down with them all 
 a-flutter. A boat s crew from the McCulloch was 
 signaled to go and take possession of this name 
 less ship, when to our amazement she opened fire 
 on the approaching gig. The ensign stood up in 
 the stern in open-mouthed wonder at such a 
 piece of treachery, but kept his boat along her 
 course. The incident had not passed unob 
 served by the squadron, however, and the Span 
 iard s fate was a swift one. There was no need 
 for the Commodore to fly a signal, for it was as 
 with a common impulse that every one of our 
 vessels stopped firing at the enemy in general 
 and directed every available shot at that Spaniard 
 in particular. The bay leaped up and foamed 
 around the traitorous vessel as though it had 
 been struck by the whip end of a Texas tornado, 
 and when the waters were at rest again the Span 
 iard had vanished as completely as though that 
 tornado had carried her bodily into a neighbor 
 ing State. 
 
 Of course there were other incidents in this 
 resumption of the fight, which I have referred to 
 as the second round, but as the firing grew faster 
 
78 With De\vey at Manila. 
 
 and more furious and as the smoke settled down 
 again it was again almost impossible to distinguish 
 exact and particular acts. Ship after ship was 
 sunk or burned, until poor old Don Patricio 
 Montojo y Parason, looking around him and see 
 ing but the shattered and blackened remnants of 
 his fleet, while on the Isla de Cuba the guns stood 
 useless and the decks deserted, hauled down 
 his colors and, together with the surviving Span 
 iards, hastily escaped from the sinking and burn 
 ing hulk, admiral and officers alike leaving 
 behind them all their personal property and val 
 uables. Once on shore Montojo, with his staff, 
 made the best of his way to Manila ; in the com 
 pany, I presume, of those who had driven out to 
 see the sudden end of the Yankee. 
 
 The fleet having been disposed of, our vessels 
 next turned their attention to the batteries, 
 which still kept firing, notwithstanding Monto- 
 jo s surrender. The most pertinacious of the 
 forts was one low down on Sangley Point, which 
 lies about opposite to the Cavite spit, and 
 which was armed with two Hontorio guns, which 
 I imagine must have been taken from the fleet. 
 There were some pretty good gunners behind 
 the Hontorios, one of the shells striking the 
 Boston and another smashing the whaleboat of 
 the Raleigh. We managed to cripple one of 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 79 
 
 these guns, but it was not until the Raleigh had 
 sailed in to about one thousand yards and had 
 killed six of the gunners that the second was 
 silenced. 
 
 One after the other of the remaining shore 
 batteries was settled, and then at 12 :45 came 
 what may be called the knockout blow. The 
 bastions of the Cavite forts had been crumbling 
 under the shells of the Boston, Baltimore, and 
 Concord, while the Kaleigh, Olympia, and Petrel 
 had been devoting themselves to the reduction of 
 the arsenal. After half an hour s fight of this 
 sort the Cavite gunners evidently became de 
 moralized and began to fire wildly. Those guns 
 left in position continued firing, however, until 
 at their back there was a thunderous roar followed 
 by a heart-shaking concussion. A shell from either 
 the Olympia or the Petrel, and the honor is still 
 a matter of dispute between Gunner Corcoran of 
 the flagship and Gunner Vining of the gunboat, 
 had landed in the arsenal magazine. With the 
 upward rush of flames, fragments and dead, the 
 heart of the Spaniard went out of him, a white 
 flag was run up at the Cavite citadel and the 
 battle of Manila was over. 
 
 Up went the Commodore s signals to " Cease 
 firing," but before they could be read the Petrel 
 had sent in what was the last shot of the battle. 
 
80 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 Again the signal to sail back to the rendezvous 
 was flown, but this time as we passed Manila the 
 great Krupp guns at the Luneta fort were silent. 
 Even those gunners had learned their lesson. 
 When we reached the Nanshan and Zafiro, the 
 Olympia halted and all the ships steamed slowly 
 past her, with the men at quarters cheering and 
 saluting. Then each ship fell in line and was 
 saluted and cheered by the others and took its 
 turn in cheering back, but when all were in line 
 except the Petrel, and that perky little craft 
 steamed by, the rest of the squadron so roared 
 and yelled at her that Captain Wood blushed a 
 fine purple under his tan, and all the Jackies of 
 the gunboat strutted and bowed back like so 
 many conquering heroes. 
 
 They deserved it all, for from first to last the 
 little Petrel had been a David in the fight. The 
 Commodore had noticed that three smaller ves 
 sels of the enemy were making up to the head of 
 Cavite Bay and had signaled her with the Boston 
 and Concord to go after them. The two cruisers 
 had, however, found the waters of the inner 
 harbor too shallow for them and had returned, 
 but the Petrel with her light draft had been 
 enabled to follow quite closely into shore. One 
 of the small ships in there was the gunboat Mar 
 ques del Duero, and getting the one-thousand- 
 
COM. ASA WALKER 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 81 
 
 yard range the Petrel fired at her with the swift 
 ness and accuracy of a first-class target drill. 
 The Duero having been disposed of, the little 
 Petrel then took up the fate of the two gunboats, 
 the Quiros and Villalobos. The Spaniards could 
 not understand how one little gunboat could 
 make things so desperately hot for them, and in 
 order to solve the problem they scuttled and set 
 fire to their boats and then went ashore to think 
 it over. 
 
 It was the Petrel, too, that on returning from 
 this little adventure ran across the store-ship 
 Manila hiding behind a convenient wharf and 
 captured her, the prize being valued at half a 
 million dollars, including six hundred tons of 
 coal. 
 
 Again the commanders were called over to the 
 flagship and again stock was taken. Again came 
 the reports : not a gun overthrown, not a vessel 
 disabled, not a man killed. There was not so 
 much of the ecstatic on the receipt of this second 
 series of reports as there had been on the receipt 
 of the first. We were getting used to it get 
 ting accustomed to this laying out of the other 
 party without receiving a scratch. Scarcely 
 that, however, for the two shots that had struck 
 the Baltimore had wounded two officers and six 
 men. Lieutenant F. W. Kellogg, Ensign U. E. 
 
82 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 Erwin, and the enlisted men Barlow, Budingei*, 
 Covert, O Keefe, Recciardilli and Snelgrove con 
 stituted our list of wounded, but their injuries 
 were so slight that not one of them would stay 
 in the sick-bay. As it was, six out of these eight 
 were literally wounded by our own ammunition, 
 for the first Spanish shell that struck the Balti 
 more exploded a box of three-pound ammunition, 
 and it was the flight of these that knocked our 
 men down. 
 
 And on the Spanish side it had been a defeat 
 that was as crushing and fatal as our victor}" had 
 been decisive and easy. The first round had 
 meant confusion and dismay to the Spaniards; 
 the second round had brought them extinction, 
 annihilation. The Spanish fleet had indeed been 
 destroyed. The fate of the Spanish fleet, to 
 gether with their commanders, in list form, is as 
 follows : 
 
 CRUISERS. 
 
 / Eeina Cristina, Captain Cadarso, sunk. 
 
 Castilla, Captain Martin de Olivia, sunk and 
 ClJ burned. 
 
 Don Antonio de Ulloa, Commander Robion, 
 sunk and burned. 
 
 Don Juan de Austria, Commander Concha, 
 burned. 
 
 Isla de Luzon, Commander Barreto, burned. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 83 
 
 Isla de Cuba, Commander Rigalado, burned. 
 Velasco, Captain Reboul, burned and sunk. 
 
 GUNBOATS. 
 
 Marques del Duero, Captain Morens, burned. 
 General Lezo, Captain Beneveste, burned. 
 El Correo, Captain Eccudero, burned. 
 Quiros and Villalobos, scuttled and set on fire 
 by the Spaniards. 
 
 TRANSPORTS. 
 
 Mindanao, run ashore to save from sinking 
 burned. 
 
 Manila, captured. 
 
 The two gunboats which were destroyed be 
 longed to the transport Mindanao. And in addi 
 tion to this list there were some small steamers 
 which were scuttled by the Spaniards and whose 
 names are yet unknown. The loss of life on the 
 Spanish side will also remain unknown for some 
 time at least, I imagine. At first we heard that 
 one hundred and thirty were killed and ninety 
 wounded on board the flagship, chiefly in her 
 duel with the Olympia; that when the Cavite 
 arsenal exploded it killed forty, and that alto 
 gether there were about one thousand killed and 
 wounded. Montojo s estimate as reported to 
 Governor-General Augusti was : 
 
84 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 On the ships. In the forts. 
 
 Killed, 400 24 
 
 Wounded, 60 150 
 
 460 174 
 
 The monetary loss to Spain must have been 
 many millions, I hear it placed at from $6,000,- 
 000 to $10,000,000 but more than all was the fact 
 that in losing this battle she lost the control of 
 the Philippines and her position as the mistress 
 of an Asiatic colony. 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 85 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 
 
 THOUGH the fight was won much remained to 
 be done, and the Commodore set about doing that 
 in the same quiet, matter-of-fact way that had 
 characterized his conduct of the victory. We 
 knew that the people at Washington would be 
 anxious to know the result of the expedition and 
 that there was a cable landing at Manila over 
 which, we felt confident, Augusti was crowding 
 messages to Madrid giving his version of the 
 affair. After the second rest, therefore, the Com 
 modore sent word to the governor-general by 
 the British consul who had come to visit us, that 
 Manila was in a state of blockade; that he, the 
 Commodore, proposed to occupy Cavite ; that if 
 a single shot were fired against his ships he 
 would destroy every battery around the bay; 
 and that unless he were allowed to use the cable 
 he would cut it. The cable people were willing 
 to transmit our messages, but the governor- 
 general ordered the officials neither to receive 
 nor transmit anything from us. Accordingly 
 
86 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the Commodore cut the cable on Monday after 
 noon, and cut it, too, just as a message was being 
 sent by Augusti that the Spanish fleet had been 
 "disabled," and that "the Americans had with 
 drawn to bury their dead." 
 
 We took a rest on Sunday evening, but 
 Monday was a busy day for us. Early in the 
 morning a tug came steaming up the bay, bear 
 ing a flag of truce from the commandant of Cor- 
 regidor. Accompanying the flag of truce was an 
 offer from the commandant to surrender. The 
 tug was sent over to the Baltimore with instruc 
 tions to steam ahead and the cruiser was 
 dispatched to take possession of the entrance 
 forts or to blow them into the air at the least 
 sign of treachery or resistance. There was no 
 necessity for this precaution, for when Corregi- 
 dor was reached the commandant was found 
 alone, his men having deserted and the guns 
 having been overthrown. 
 
 About the same time Commander Lamberton 
 was ordered to go and take possession of Cavite 
 arsenal. It was decided to use the Petrel for 
 this work, and the gunboat ran in to about 
 five hundred yards and then halted in amaze. 
 The white flag had been hoisted on Sunday after 
 noon following the explosion of the magazine, it 
 will be remembered, and Lamberton naturally 
 
" 2 
 
 >-?. 
 
 h r =5 < 5 
 
 c = *" 
 a == 2* 
 
 S-- S 5 
 
 CSS bo 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 87 
 
 imagined that this had indicated an uncondi 
 tional surrender. Instead of a deserted place, 
 however, he saw that the landing was crowded 
 with armed sailors. In view of this new situa 
 tion the Petrel s guns were trained on the 
 arsenal, and Lamberton, together with Wood of 
 the Petrel, took a launch for the landing place 
 and left instructions that unless they returned in 
 an hour the gunboat was to open on the arsenal. 
 When Lamberton and Wood landed they were 
 met by Captain Sostoa of the Spanish navy, who 
 informed Lamberton that in the absence of the 
 admiral, who had retired to Manila, he was in 
 command. The armed Spanish sailors closed 
 around the party and our men and Sostoa 
 marched to the arsenal headquarters. 
 
 "May I ask, captain," said Lamberton, "why 
 your men are under arms after yesterday s sur 
 render?" 
 
 "There was no surrender," replied Sostoa. 
 
 This answer made Lamberton think pretty 
 quickly and he began to see that there were more 
 ramifications to the Spanish character than he 
 had dreamed of. 
 
 "But," said he, "the white flag was hoisted. " 
 
 "Yes," replied Sostoa, "but not as a surren 
 der, only as a, token of truce during which we 
 
88 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 might remove our women and children to a place 
 of safety." 
 
 "But, captain," said Lamberton, as evenly as 
 he could, "an arsenal is not exactly the place for 
 women and children in times of war. They 
 should have been removed before the bombard 
 ment began." 
 
 "Ah, well, you see," said Captain Sostoa, 
 with a shrug of deprecation, "you Americans 
 came in to visit us at such an extremely early 
 hour that we had no time to remove our women 
 and children. If you had begun the fight at a 
 less unreasonable hour " 
 
 "Excuse me, captain," said Lamberton, who 
 was beginning to feel the heat of the morning, 
 "you fired the first shot. But there is no use 
 talking of past events, nor is it my place to do 
 so. I am sent here as the representative of Com 
 modore Dewey of the United States Asiatic Squad 
 ron to take possession of this arsenal, and my 
 further instructions are that all Spaniards, whom 
 I find here, must surrender their arms and per 
 sons as prisoners of war. If this is not done, 
 and done quickly, the engagement will be 
 renewed." 
 
 To this direct message Sostoa evasively replied 
 that he could do nothing without consulting his 
 superior, and upon Lamberton s telling him that 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 89 
 
 he, Sostoa, would be regarded as sufficiently 
 representative, the elusive captain requested 
 that the terms of surrender might be put down 
 in writing. Lamberton glanced at his watch. 
 Forty of the sixty minutes had elapsed and in 
 twenty more the Petrel s guns would be bang 
 ing away, and while Lamberton and Wood knew 
 very well what the issue of the new fight would 
 be, so far as the fleet and arsenal were con 
 cerned, they had an uneasy misgiving that their 
 share in it would be a decidedly unknown quan 
 tity. It was with no unnecessary search for 
 phrases, therefore, that Lamberton wrote down 
 these terms: 
 
 "Without further delay all Spanish officers 
 and men must be withdrawn, and no buildings or 
 stores must be injured. As Commodore Dewey 
 does not wish further hostility with the Spanish 
 naval forces, the Spanish officers will be paroled 
 and the forces at the arsenal will deliver all their 
 small arms." 
 
 The conversation had been in Spanish but the 
 conditions were written in English, and Sostoa 
 wanted them translated and clearly explained. 
 Again Lamberton looked at his watch. Five 
 minutes of the hour only remained. Things 
 were getting critical. Sostoa was pleading for 
 more time when Lamberton broke in on him. 
 
90 "With Dewej at Manila. 
 
 "Excuse me, captain," he said, "but there is 
 an absolute reason why I should return at once 
 to the vessel. I will give you until noon and if 
 on that hour the white flag is not again hoisted 
 over this arsenal we shall again open fire. Good- 
 inorning. " 
 
 It was not far to the landing, but both Lam- 
 berton and Wood agreed that the effort they 
 made to repress all outward evidence of haste, 
 coupled with their knowledge that if they did 
 not get on board the launch and steam away 
 during the next minute or two they would not 
 get there at all, made up a situation of what the 
 dramatist calls "suppressed emotion," which 
 was very exciting as long as it lasted. They 
 reached the landing and the launch just in time; 
 for as they put off from the steps they could see 
 the men moving into position around the Petrel s 
 guns in a way that meant mischief. 
 
 The situation had its comedy ending. Cap 
 tain Sostoa did not wait for noon, but hoisted 
 the white flag at a quarter to eleven ; and when 
 Lamberton returned to take possession he found 
 that that punctilious Don had marched off to 
 Manila with every man, and that every man had 
 taken his rifle. 
 
 No sooner had the Spaniards evacuated Cavite 
 than the natives, who must have been lurking in 
 
With Dewey at Manila. 91 
 
 crowds among the bushes and in the back 
 streets, swarmed into the place, bent on thieving. 
 Our marines were instantly ordered on shore for 
 guard and police duty, but before they were 
 landed the nimble-fingered Philippine had done 
 a fair day s work in the ransacking line. Even 
 the arsenal and hospitals were threatened, and 
 those in charge of the latter must indeed have 
 thought they hud lit on hard times when the 
 American marines landed. The Philippine they 
 understood, but the American they seemed to 
 regard as a monster of unknown possibilities. 
 As our men landed they were met by a long pro 
 cession of priests and nuns who begged them not 
 to massacre the wounded in the hospitals. 
 
 The petition was incomprehensible until we 
 got a copy of the governor-general s proclama 
 tion which he had issued before the fight. In 
 this extraordinary document he had told the 
 people that we -who were coming were the ex- 
 cresences of the world, that our favorite occupa 
 tion was the pillaging of churches and the sack 
 of nunneries, that our favorite amusement was 
 that of torturing our prisoners, and that when 
 this failed us we turned our attention, as a sort 
 of side entertainment, to the desecration of 
 graveyards. In a word that we were a mixture 
 of Frankenstein and Moloch, compared to which 
 
92 With Dewey at Manila. 
 
 the King of Benin of the City of Blood was a 
 daisy-cropping lamb. When we saw the rows 
 of wounded Spaniards laid out in the hospital 
 and crowding the cathedral, we came to the 
 conclusion that for gunners who had never been 
 in action our men had done wonders. We 
 gathered an estimate, too, of the number of 
 wounded which not even the Spanish official 
 reports convinced us were excessive. 
 
 The wounded were taken to Manila under the 
 Bed Cross, and since then we have been busy 
 rendering Cavite habitable and clean. We have 
 been busy, too, raising what guns we could, 
 cleaning up the harbor and making things gen 
 erally ship-shape. 
 
 We know, of course, that there is much yet to 
 do. Spain s power in the Philippines has been 
 crushed, but it has not been extinguished. The 
 subjugation of Manila and the occupation of 
 these islands, the deportation of the Spanish 
 troops from the different posts at Iloilo and Guam 
 and the establishment of a new form of govern 
 ment, have all to be accomplished. There is much 
 indeed to do and much help from the strong hands 
 at home is needed to do it. And so it is that 
 while we do not sit idly by, but find plenty of 
 needed hard work in this hot and steamy bay, 
 we keep our lights burning at night and our 
 
COM. EDWARD P. 
 
With Dcwey at Manila. 93 
 
 eyes turned each morning up to the Boca Grande, 
 through which we know the big ships and the 
 fighting men will come that shall enable us to 
 finish well that great work which Dewey has so 
 nobly begun. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 CAGE 
 
 DEC 30 1951 
 
 REG" !~D 
 
 LD 21-95m-ll, 50(2877sl6)476 
 
\ 
 
 .1f-